articles

You just keep on trying till you run out of cake

Writing and editing should be separate activities. When I’m in this creation mode, I shoot for a flow state. I keep my fingertips on the keyboard and measure progress by how many words I put on the page. My physical environment helps me be generative too. If I’m sitting down at my computer, I’ll turn

Creating a yearly them is like making a memorable marketing slogan for your most important value.

Josh Spector shares how he helps thousands of creators succeed by providing transformational, niche content.

I probably get asked this question more than any other: How do you read so much? I don’t think the question is really about me. I’m an author. It’s my job to read a lot. I think what people are really asking is how they can read more. Because as wonderful as reading is, in a busy, distracting world, it’s hard to find the time. Or rather, it’s hard to make the time. So when people ask: How can I read more? How can I read more books this year? What’s the secret to reading a lot? The short answer is just do it. (Nobody asks, “How do you find the time to eat?”) But obviously you know that. What...

Businesses that figure out how to leverage TikTok will have an advantage in building brand awareness, cultivating user trust, and efficiently acquiring customers.

I travelled the world and trawled the archive to unearth the hidden lessons from history’s most brilliant people

How to run a successful paid membership program in 2020

This brief guide on power laws covers what they are and how we can use them to expand our understanding of the world and get better results.

Learn how I went from zero to tens of million views in 5 years… and how to make your best ideas go viral in an age of information…

Five Mental Models for Creativity and Innovative Thinking

The “cook vs chef” dynamic is one that I’ve been thinking about more and more. WBW gives the best start to finish overview of the difference between reasoning from first principles and following the crowd.

Industrial visionaries tend to have chaotic and disruptive personalities. Their goals don't neatly fit the social ladder. But societies that make room for them reap immense rewards.

The long read: The phrase ‘adult beginner’ can sound patronising. It implies you are learning something you should have mastered as a child. But learning is not just for the young

After the response to this recent LifeHacker piece, I thought I would explain the system I use to take notes, research books and keep track of anecdotes, stories and info I come across in my work. This isn’t the perfect system. It might not work for you. All I can say is that since learning it about 7 years ago, it has totally transformed my process and drastically increased my creative output. It’s responsible for helping me publish three books in three years, (along with other books I’ve had the privilege of contributing to), write countless articles published in newspapers and websites, ...

MBAs love to talk about “optionality” and how they want more of it. But you don’t need an MBA to explain yourself by saying you’re…

In his AMA on reddit, Elon Musk talks about how to build knowledge.

How to efficiently get what you need out of reading, multiple books at a time

What skill do hunter-gatherers value most? Research on the Agta hunterer-gather tribe reveals that it wasn't hunting or gathering.

The 5 Elements of Effective Thinking offers easily learnable habits of mind that improve your ability to think clearly and rationally.

If you’re after a way to supercharge your learning and become smarter, the Feynman Technique might just be the best way to learn absolutely anything. Devised by a Nobel Prize-winning physicist, it leverages the power of teaching for better learning.

If you’re after a way to supercharge your learning and become smarter, the Feynman Technique might just be the best way to learn absolutely anything. Devised by a Nobel Prize-winning physicist, it leverages the power of teaching for better learning.

One day in your early school years, a teacher probably told you to “take notes” for the first time. Looking around at your fellow classmates, this seemed to involve writing down what the teacher said, word for word, on lined pieces of paper. For most of us, this is how our experience of note-taking started: ... Read more

The full story about why procrastinators routinely ruin their own lives.

How personal productivity transformed work—and failed to.

This interview was recorded earlier this year and originally appeared on The Observer Effect; it has only been lightly edited for formatting here. TABLE OF CONTENTS On productivity Let’s get into it. Over a decade ago, you wrote a …

Marc Andreessen on how he spends his time, learns, the 'build' essay and much more.

Read this article to discover the strategy Warren Buffett uses to simplify his priorities and focus on the right things.