Farnam Street
Mastering the best of what other people have already figured out
One of the most impactful books we’ve ever come across is the wonderful Seeking Wisdom: From Darwin to Munger, written by the Swedish investor Peter Bevelin. In the spirit of multidisciplinary …
This is a great tidbit from Elon Musk on how having job applicants explain their thinking at multiple levels helps him figure out if they really worked on the problem. If you just talk to the people …
David Foster Wallace remains both loved and hated. His wisdom shows itself in argumentative writing, ambition, and perfectionism, and perhaps one of the best, most profound, commencement addresses …
In December 2004, Bryan A. Garner, who had already struck up a friendship with David Foster Wallace, started interviewing state and federal judges as well as a few key writers. With over a hundred …
“If your fidelity to perfectionism is too high, you never do anything.” — David Foster Wallace *** Conversations with David Foster Wallace is an essential look into the thinking of one of the great …
Marshall McLuhan (1911-1980), for those unfamiliar with him, rocketed from an unknown academic to rockstar with the publication of Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man in 1964. The core of the …
Karl Pillemer is the author of 30 Lessons for Living: Tried and True Advice from the Wisest Americans. I posted some of the key lessons from his book last week. As part of my ongoing series of …
Samuel Arbesman is an applied mathematician and network scientist. His recent book, The Half-life of Facts, explores how much of what we think we know has an expiry date. Samuel, who was happy to be …
In this clip from a documentary film shot in Yorkshire in 1973, physicist and philosopher Richard Feynman (1918-1988) talks with Fred Hoyle, an accomplished astronomer from the United Kingdom. Feynman …
Richard Dawkins’s wide-ranging interview with Playboy Magazine. PLAYBOY: So you aren’t taking Pascal up on his wager. He was the 17th century philosopher who argued it’s a smarter bet to believe …