Hunter S. Thompson's letter to his friend, Hume Logan, on finding your purpose and living a meaningful life. The most profound advice I've ever come across. | Continue reading
Better hiring leads to better work environments, less turnover, and more innovation and productivity. When you understand the limitations and pitfalls of the job interview, you improve your chances of hiring the best possible person for your needs. | Continue reading
When disaster strikes, people come together. During the worst times of our lives, we can end up experiencing the best mental health and relationships with others. Here’s why that happens and how we can bring the lessons we learn with us once things get better. | Continue reading
When something goes wrong, we often strive to be better prepared if the same thing happens again. But the same disasters tend not to happen twice in a row. A more effective approach is simply to prepare to be surprised by life, instead of expecting the past to repeat itself. | Continue reading
The key to major changes on a societal level is getting enough people to alter their behavior at the same time. It’s not enough for isolated individuals to act. Here’s what we can learn from coordination games in game theory about what it takes to solve some of the biggest proble … | Continue reading
Loneliness has more to do with our perceptions than how much company we have. It’s just as possible to be painfully lonely surrounded by people as it is to be content with little social contact. Some people need extended periods of time alone to recharge, others would rather give … | Continue reading
Here's the definition of Antifragility from Nassim Taleb. While a lot of people use the word, not many people know what it means and its implications. | Continue reading
Fear is a state no one wants to embrace, yet for many of us it's the background music to our lives. But by making friends with fear and understanding why it exists, we can become less vulnerable to harm—and less afraid. Read on to learn a better approach to fear. | Continue reading
If life is a game, how do you play it? The answer will have a huge impact on your choices, your satisfaction, and how you achieve success. | Continue reading
Do we dance simply for recreation? Or is there a primal urge that compels us to do it? Historian William McNeill claims it saved our species by creating community togetherness and transforming “me” into “we.” | Continue reading
Gresham's Law is an economic principle that sates "the bad drives out the good" as time passes. The concept has many broad and far reaching consequences. | Continue reading
Bikeshedding is a metaphor to illustrate the strange tendency we have to spend excessive time on trivial matters, often glossing over important ones. Here’s why we do it, and how to stop. | Continue reading
Innovation doesn’t occur in a vacuum. Doers and thinkers from Shakespeare to Jobs, liberally “stole” inspiration from the doers and thinkers who came before. Here’s how to do it right. | Continue reading
When you stop comparing yourself to others and turn your focus inward, you start being better at what really matters: being you. | Continue reading
When certain events need to take place to achieve a desired outcome, we’re overly optimistic that those events will happen. Here’s why we should temper those expectations. | Continue reading
Our devotion to our values gets tested in the face of a true crisis. But it’s also an opportunity to reconnect, recommit, and sometimes, bake some bread. | Continue reading
We’re often advised to excel at one thing. But as the future gets harder to predict, preserving optionality allows us to pivot when the road ahead crumbles. | Continue reading
A core component of making great decisions is understanding the rationale behind previous decisions. If we don’t understand how we got “here,” we run the risk of making things much worse. | Continue reading
When polarizing topics are discussed in meetings, passions can run high and cloud our judgment. Learn how mental models can help you see clearly from this real-life scenario. | Continue reading
The Feynman Technique is a method of learning that helps you understand deeply, learn faster, and apply what you've learned. Read this article to supercharge your learning. | Continue reading
When a “fact” tastes good and is repeated enough, we tend to believe it, no matter how false it may be. Understanding the illusory truth effect can keep us from being bamboozled. | Continue reading
There isn’t a harsher environment for a human being to live than outer space. Chris Hadfield shares some of the thinking tools he acquired as an astronaut to make high stakes decisions, be innovative in the face of failure, and stay cool under pressure. | Continue reading
Time is invisible so it's easy to spend without proper consideration to its value. Seneca offers a warning on how we squander our time only to regret it. | Continue reading
Recently, shame has gotten a bad rap. It’s been branded as toxic and destructive. But can shame be used as a tool to effect positive change? | Continue reading
In a digital world that clamors for clicks, news is sensationalized, and “facts” change all the time, here’s how to discern what is trustworthy and what is hogwash. | Continue reading
Being vulnerable is not a choice. It's a reality of living. What we do with that vulnerability can either open doors to deeper connection, or throw up walls that stifle growth and fulfillment. | Continue reading
Thanks for listening to The Knowledge Project this year. Because of you, we crossed 12 million downloads this year. | Continue reading
Grey thinking works. Reality is all grey area. All of it. There are very few black and white answers and no solutions without second-order consequences. | Continue reading
What gift communicates properly the feelings that you have for someone? One idea is to give yourself. Another is to give the gift of hope. | Continue reading
The disregard of tradeoffs and opportunity costs play out in the same pattern again and again in our lives. Every decision we make carries an opportunity cost. If we don’t budget wisely, we end up wasting time and energy on things that don’t matter. Here’s how to do it right. | Continue reading
Hanlon’s Razor is a useful mental model for rapid decision-making and intelligent cognition. Never attribute to malice that which can be adequately ... | Continue reading
Survivorship bias is a common logical error that distorts our understanding of the world. It happens when we assume that success tells the whole story and when we don’t adequately consider past failures. | Continue reading
Inversion is a powerful mental model to improve your thinking because it helps you identify and remove obstacles to success. Most of us tend to think one way about a problem: forward. Inversion allows us to flip the problem around and think backward. | Continue reading
Occam’s razor is one of the most useful, (yet misunderstood,) models in your mental toolbox to solve problems more quickly and efficiently. Here’s how to use it. | Continue reading
We tend to think that people can easily tell what we’re thinking and feeling. They can’t. Understanding the illusion of transparency bias can improve relationships, job performance, and more. | Continue reading
The Goal Gradient Hypothesis explains why we increase our effort as we get close to the finish line. Here's what you need to know to put this idea to work. | Continue reading
Nearly four decades after her death, the writings of Ayn Rand remain controversial and divide people into two camps: love them or hate them. Her book on philosophy is stands out as balanced, and provides timeless insights. Here are her thoughts on the value of philosophy. | Continue reading
Our brains employ two modes of thinking to tackle any large task: focused and diffuse. Both are equally valuable but serve very different purposes. To do your best work, you need to master both. | Continue reading
Our brains employ two modes of thinking to tackle any large task: focused and diffuse. Both are equally valuable but serve very different purposes. To do your best work, you need to master both. | Continue reading
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe’s Maxims and Reflections is a terrific source of philosophical thought and advice. Goethe was brilliant at distilling complex questions and concepts down into simple, reflective statements. From his 590 aphorisms, here are our favorites. | Continue reading
No action exists in a vacuum. There are ripples that have consequences that we can and can’t see. Here are the three types of externalities that can help us guide our actions so they don’t come back to bite us. | Continue reading
In this beautiful video Richard Feynman on the nature of why questions and how they help us understand the world. | Continue reading
Distinguishing between proximate and root causes is an important part of continuously improving. Read this to learn more about this mental model. | Continue reading
The quality of the answers we get are directly correlated with the quality of the questions we ask. Here’s how to improve your questions. | Continue reading
Opening doors for other people is a critical concept to understand in life. Read this article to learn more about how to show people that you care. | Continue reading
These 11 simple rules for getting along with others were first presented by Dave Packard at HP's second annual management conference in 1958. | Continue reading
The authors of "Getting it Done" tell us why our feedback usually stinks, the three types of feedback, and how to make feedback a lot better. | Continue reading
In 1960 David Packard gave an informal speech to HP managers outlining his business philosophy. The timeless speech was not intended for publication. | Continue reading