The Knowledge Project closes 2021 with a look back at some of the best conversations of the year. Featuring interviews from 10 of the most downloaded and acclaimed episodes of 2021, this collection of conversations offers a variety of insights into how to make crucial decisions, how to spark creativity, the best ways to avoid distraction, how to deal with loneliness, what traits to look for in a leader, the value of re-thinking your position, the value of personal relationships, and much more.
Now available on: YouTube | Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Transcript
Guests on this episode include business leader Kat Cole, NBA basketball player Chris Bosh, loneliness expert Noreena Hertz, organizational psychologist Adam Grant, NASA astrophysicist Thomas Zurbuchen, video game expert Jane McGonigal, author Nir Eyal, author and entrepreneur Seth Godin, psychologist Angela Duckworth, and business expert Jim Collins.
Timestamps
- 00:00:00 Introduction
- 00:01:26 Kat Cole on pragmatic optimism
- 00:06:49 Chris Bosh on the subjective factors that set championship teams apart
- 00:16:10 Noreena Hertz on the difference between feeling alone and being alone
- 00:26:48 Adam Grant on the work required to have an opinion
- 00:36:52 Dr. Z on how NASA makes decisions and why he wants you to be worried
- 00:48:36 Jane McGonigal on what video games can teach you
- 00:57:58 Nir Eyal on dealing with emotional discomfort and controlling how we respond
- 01:13:43 Seth Godin on choosing to be creative
- 01:23:55 Angela Duckworth on taking back your self-control
- 01:35:40 Jim Collins on relationships not transactions
Some highlights from the conversation:
I’ve certainly learned that when I see people for their potential and their possibilities, that they seem to live up to that … And I have felt that benefit of being looked at as my potential and felt the need and the ability and desire to grow into that. – Kat Cole
How about not quitting? How about you keep doing your job? And matter of fact, let’s do it even better. Let’s turn it up a notch when it gets hard. – Chris Bosh
I do think something, one of the positives that has come out of our shared experience is that we are talking about loneliness much more today than we were in the past. And we should be because the scale at which it’s affecting us collectively is immense, rich, poor, young, old, male, female are lonely people. – Noreena Hertz
Yeah, you’re entitled to your own opinion, if you keep your opinion to yourself. If you decide to say it out loud, then I think you have a responsibility to be open to changing your mind in the face of better logic or stronger data. And so I think if you’re willing to voice an opinion, you should also be willing to change that opinion. – Adam Grant
The only signature that matters there for most of these missions is mine. Because I take accountability, but I will be a fool to not listen to others. – Dr. Z
Games are just a great way to tell each other, what we’re good at and what we want to be appreciated for. And what we value in each other and so we should just have more of those conversations. – Jane McGonigal
The first step to becoming indistractable is not to blame the technology. It’s not to shame yourself. It’s to claim responsibility for these uncomfortable sensations by mastering the internal triggers. – Nir Eyal
The people who say, “I don’t have any questions.” Well, no, it’s impossible you don’t have any questions. What you’re actually saying is, “I don’t care enough to ask a question that might embarrass me.” That’s what you’re actually saying. That’s a euphemism for, “I don’t want to make the choice to be creative.” – Seth Godin
I think that we’re always by benefited by having another human being whose advantages are multiple, but one of them is that they’re just not us. They have a psychological distance from our situation. – Angela Duckworth
People break into two buckets. Some come at life as a series of transactions. And some people come at life as about building relationships. You can have a successful life doing transactions, but the only way to have a great life is on the relationship side. – Jim Collins
