Nick Hornby Reminds us Why We Love Books (Sometimes)
“All the books we own, both read and unread, are the fullest expression of self we have at our disposal…With each passing year, and with each whimsical purchase, our libraries become more …
Learning
E.O. Wilson on Becoming a Great Scientist
The biologist E.O. Wilson, now of Harvard University, made his first and largest splash by releasing his book Sociobiology: The New Synthesis, which made the controversial claim (at the time) that …
Albert Bandura on Acquiring Self-Efficacy and Personal Agency
Psychologist Albert Bandura is famous for his social learning theory which is really more of a model than a theory. He stresses the importance of observational learning. Who you spend time with …
Lifelong Learning
Your education shouldn’t end when your schooling does. If you want to get an edge in life, you must be constantly learning, not coasting along on what you already know. Lifelong learning requires the …
Ray Dalio: Open-Mindedness And The Power of Not Knowing
Ray Dalio, founder of the investment firm Bridgewater Associates (and guest on The Knowledge Project), offers a prime example of what a learning organization looks like in the best book I’ve ever read …
Thinking About Thinking
I wrote a response on quora recently to the question ‘how do I become a better thinker’ that generated a lot of attention and feedback so I thought I’d build on that a little and …
Elon Musk on How To Build Knowledge
Elon Musk recently did an AMA on reddit. Here are three question-and-response pairs that I enjoyed, including how to build knowledge. He knows how to say I don’t know. Previously, you’ve …
Richard Feynman: The Difference Between Knowing the Name of Something and Knowing Something
Richard Feynman (1918-1988) was no ordinary genius. He believed that “the world is much more interesting than any one discipline.” His explanations — on why questions, why trains stay on the tracks as …
Charlie Munger: Adding Mental Tools to Your Toolbox
In The Art of War, Sun Tzu said: “The general who wins a battle makes many calculations in his temple before the battle is fought.” Those ‘calculations’ are the tools we have available to …
Edward Hess, Interview No. 6
This interview with Ed Hess is full of amazing insights but I don’t know if you’ll read it because a) it’s long and we live in a world of increasingly short attention spans and b) it’s an actual …
“Intelligence to accept or reject what is already presented as knowledge”
“There are some things which cannot be learned quickly and time, which is all we have, must be paid heavily for their acquiring.” *** Hemingway has contributed to our wisdom on writing — …
Learning by Thinking: How Reflection Aids Performance
“By three methods we may learn wisdom: First, by reflection, which is noblest; Second, by imitation, which is easiest; and third, by experience, which is the bitterest.” — Confucius *** …
Creating a Decision Journal: Template And Example Included
We all make decisions. And yet few of us think about what we can learn from our past decisions to make smarter decisions in the future. A decision journal helps you learn from past decisions, think …
5 Design-Informed Approaches to Good Learning
John Maeda offers five design-informed approaches for learning. BASICS are the beginning. REPEAT yourself often. AVOID creating desperation. INSPIRE with examples. NEVER forget to repeat yourself. …
“That’s as far as they go. They can’t take it any further. And why not? Because they won’t put in the effort”
A brilliant passage from Haruki Murakami’s Norwegian Wood on talent. There just happen to be people like that. They’re blessed with this marvelous talent, but they can’t make the effort to …
Rethinking the Value of a Business Major
Melissa Korn reporting in the Wall Street Journal: “The biggest complaint,” writes Korn is that “undergraduate degrees focus too much on the nuts and bolts of finance and accounting and don’t …