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Carol Dweck: When a Fixed Mindset is Better than a Growth Mindset

“Inspiration is for amateurs — the rest of us just show up and get to work.” — Chuck Close *** “So far, the best idea I’ve heard about building grit in kids is something called …

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A Visual History of Human Knowledge

Infographics expert Manuel Lima, who brought us the amazing The Book of Trees: Visualizing Branches of Knowledge, has a TED talk on how knowledge grows, which ends up being a fascinating history of …

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Emilie Wapnick: Why Some of us Don’t Have One True Calling

What do you want to be when you grow up? Well, if you’re not sure you want to do just one thing for the rest of your life, you’re not alone. In this illuminating talk, writer and artist …

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Andrew Stanton: The clues to a great story

“Drama is anticipation mingled with uncertainty.” — William Archer Joan Didion famously remarked that “We tell ourselves stories to live.” She was right. The business has become a story …

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What Makes a Genius?

What makes a genius is a story that never gets told, argues Adam Westbrook, the creative mind behind The Man Who Turned Paper Into Pixels. There is a single thread that connects history’s …

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Paying for Outcomes

Iconic typography designer Paula Scher discusses her creative process, including the famous Citi logo. Interestingly, the idea came to her in seconds and that presented a problem for the client. They …

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Claude Shannon: The Man Who Turned Paper Into Pixels

“The fundamental problem of communication is that of reproducing at one point either exactly or approximately a message selected at another point. Frequently the messages have meaning.” — …

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Brené Brown: Your Critics Aren’t Always The Ones Who Count

Brené Brown, author of Daring Greatly: How the Courage to Be Vulnerable Transforms the Way We Live, Love, Parent, and Lead with an excellent talk on how we should think about critics. I love that …

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Richard Feynman on Curiosity

Following, beauty, and honors, the final part of Canadian filmmaker Reid Gower’s trilogy on Richard Feynman, covers curiosity. The world is strange. The whole universe is very strange, but you …

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The Joy of Finding Things Out

Canadian filmmaker Reid Gower created the Feynman Series, a trilogy of physicist Richard Feynman’s penetrating insight into domains outside of physics. Consider the first, Richard Feynman on …

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Stephen Hawking’s Theory of Everything Animated in 2.5 Minutes

Don’t have time to read Stephen Hawking’s A Brief History of Time? Don’t worry. In two and a half minutes, The Guardian’s Made Simple series explains why black holes are doomed …

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Daniel Dennett: Intuition Pumps and Other Tools for Thinking

After reading How to Make Mistakes and How to Criticize with Kindness, a reader sent in a link to this video of Philosopher Daniel Dennett speaking at Google. Dennett is the author of the faboulous …

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Pluralistic Ignorance: You’re Not Alone

Imagine you’re in a meeting with a lot of important people. The boss comes in, takes a seat, and starts talking “strategic market knowledge” this and “leveraging competitive …

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How Differential Gears Work

A simple explanation of how differential gears work and why they are necessary.

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Richard Feynman on Why Questions

In this beautiful video, Richard Feynman on the nature of why questions and how they help us understand the world. Interviewer: If you get hold of two magnets, and you push them, you can feel this …

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Leadership Is a Gift Given by Those Who Follow

“Leadership is a gift. It’s given by those who follow. You have to be worthy of it.” —General Mark Welsh *** The video is 50 minutes long, but it might be the finest piece of public …

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