NonTrivial
NonTrivial explores patterns at the intersection of science, philosophy, and complexity, revealing universal principles related to skills, growth, and life. The podcast helps listeners internalize these principles and apply them to their work, ideas, and worldview. It offers premium membership with access to data visualizations, study resources, and community features.
Episodes
Stop Trying to Find Closure
We spend our lives chasing closure; in our careers, relationships, beliefs, identity, and definitions of success. But reality rarely fits the neat version we have in our heads.In this episode, I explore why chasing closure creates so much frustration, why some things in life need to remain open, and how finding closure at the right level can give us something stable to navigate by.Support the show
Be Calm, and Blunt
We all have opinions, but many of us suppress them to avoid friction.In this episode, I argue that the cost of staying quiet is often higher than the cost of speaking up. Honest opinions create better signals, better relationships, better decisions, and better opportunities.The key is learning to be calm and blunt at the same time: state what you think clearly, without anger, without demanding agr
Be Really Good at One "Useless" Thing
Most people try to become useful by learning skills the world has already decided are valuable.But there may be another path: become exceptionally good at something you’re naturally drawn to, even if it seems “useless,” and let the useful application emerge later.In this episode, I explore why unusual abilities often become valuable only after they’re developed deeply enough for other people to re
Stop Expecting Things
In this episode, I discuss why expectation isn’t the same as preparation, and how long-held predictions can quietly limit your ability to adapt. I explore the hidden costs of committing too strongly to a specific outcome, the neuroscience behind prediction failure, and what simple organisms can teach us about navigating uncertainty. The key shift: stop asking “did this work?” and start asking “wha
Humans Passing as Machines
If you're an authentic creator, get ready; people are going to start calling your work AI-generated. Not because you used AI, but because AI has become so good that genuine quality now raises suspicion.In this episode, I dig into why this is happening, what it says about creativity itself, and why the common arguments against AI creativity don't hold up scientifically.Support the showIf
Get Yourself Distracted
In this episode I discuss why distraction isn’t the enemy modern society makes it out to be. From school to the workplace, we’re taught that focus is everything and distraction is a flaw to eliminate. But what if distraction is actually a discovery mechanism; a natural, evolutionary feature of the mind that helps us explore possibilities, make unexpected connections, and ultimately solve harder pr
You Don’t Need Cliches to Fix Your Life
In this episode I discuss why popular “fix your life” advice often fails, and explain how real, lasting change comes from focusing on a few deep structural levers rather than long lists of habits. I break down how confidence, discipline, and consistency are usually byproducts, not goals, and introduce three core constraints that can reorganize your life: identity, delivery, and rare skill.Support
Stop Caring How Long Things Take
In this episode I discuss why obsessing over speed and efficiency often slows real progress, and how treating time as the main variable causes people to optimize before they understand what actually matters. I explain that in complex domains like learning, creativity, startups, and decision-making, progress comes from uncovering underlying structure, not from doing more work faster. By focusing on
Don't Educate the Mouth, Educate the Mind
In this episode I discuss why real understanding and skill come from direct contact with meaning, rather than from verbalization, explanation, or rigid procedure. Using reading, intuition, music, and sports as examples, I explain how meaning is grasped before it’s put into words.I explore how humans naturally decode complex, subtle signals, often knowing something is right or wrong without being a
Always be in the Zone
In this episode I discuss why strict scheduling goes against the way nature and human creativity actually function. Real progress often appears in spontaneous gaps throughout the day, much like discoveries and insights in science and art that arise unexpectedly rather than through planning.I explain that people struggle with this approach because they feel a kind of energy barrier before starting.
Protect Your Growth: How Not to Betray Your Own Evolution
In this episode I discuss how building your own constraints can turn fleeting insights into structure, protect your growth, and help you stay aligned with who you’re becoming. Support the showIf you enjoyed this episode and want to go deeper, come find me over at dekyon.io/seanmcclure/nontrivialWith a premium membership you get the full NonTrivial learning experience: interactive visualizations of
Learn by Exposure: Immersing Yourself into Real Environments
In this episode I discuss the difference between learning rules and recognizing patterns, arguing that genuine understanding comes from immersing yourself in real environments rather than relying on isolated fundamentals. Through examples like chess, programming, language acquisition, and piano, I emphasize that patterns are felt and latent, not definable by textbooks. True learning requires expos
Spend Before You’re Rich
In this episode I discuss the idea that attitude must come before action and results, and that true growth requires courage. I explore how mindset shapes behavior, why resilience emerges from maintaining the right outlook, and how stepping into uncertainty allows new patterns to form. By embracing risk and venturing into the unknown, we create the conditions for authenticity, discovery, and ultima
Finding Peace in the How, Not the What
The episode is about how true peace of mind comes from discovering and practicing a personal process—the “how”—that aligns with who you are, rather than chasing external categories or “what” you do.Support the showIf you enjoyed this episode and want to go deeper, come find me over at dekyon.io/seanmcclure/nontrivialWith a premium membership you get the full NonTrivial learning experience: interac
Essence Generates Abundance
In this episode I discuss the importance of capturing the essence of things—the single core idea or statement that strips away noise and redundancy while anchoring creativity, learning, and performance. I explain how identifying this essence makes thought and action more efficient, portable across domains, and naturally generative, whether in writing, storytelling, life decisions, or science.Suppo
Relentlessness is the Mother of all Skills
In this episode, I discuss why relentlessness is the mother of all skills, enabling us to push forward despite frustration and setbacks. I explore how techniques and mindsets serve as anchors but ultimately subsume into the higher-level purpose of relentlessness. Through examples from nature, engineering, and AI, I show how consistency of effort amidst life’s complexity leads to long-term growth.S
Chase Patterns, Not Your Reasons for Them
The extremely effective skill of recognizing and following the patterns that move us. And the detrimental, interfering behavior of attempting to explain those patterns.Support the showIf you enjoyed this episode and want to go deeper, come find me over at dekyon.io/seanmcclure/nontrivialWith a premium membership you get the full NonTrivial learning experience: interactive visualizations of the key
Stop Prioritizing
In this episode I argue that we should choose to work on the first thing that comes to mind, rather than prioritize. While such behavior will cut into the time you would have spent on some other more prioritized task, it will be absolutely worth it. Choosing the non-prioritized action means much more movement, increasing the transition dynamics inside your state of possibilities. The long run outc
Doing It All in a Day: Nature’s Way
In this episode I discuss how doing everything in a day is almost always an impossibility, but is in fact possible if you learn to categorize your work in a fashion akin to how nature operates.Support the showIf you enjoyed this episode and want to go deeper, come find me over at dekyon.io/seanmcclure/nontrivialWith a premium membership you get the full NonTrivial learning experience: interactive
Balance is the Decision
In this episode I discuss how making decisions in an uncertain world is best handled, not through explicit weighing of choices, but by focusing on high level targets (like balance) that cut through the noise.Support the showIf you enjoyed this episode and want to go deeper, come find me over at dekyon.io/seanmcclure/nontrivialWith a premium membership you get the full NonTrivial learning experienc
Reading as Mental Training, and More
In this episode I discuss how reading should be done for more than just entertainment and knowledge. Reading should be done every day to train the mind in extended concentration, maintaining a single thread of thought, and holding your attention deliberately. I discuss what I think it means to read well, and show how this skill goes well beyond just reading, amplifying our personal and professiona
Build Your Life, Literally
In this episode I discuss the importance of creating a physical snapshot of your life, to add meaning and direction to your efforts.Support the showIf you enjoyed this episode and want to go deeper, come find me over at dekyon.io/seanmcclure/nontrivialWith a premium membership you get the full NonTrivial learning experience: interactive visualizations of the key concepts, a study space to learn th
Let the Environment Build You
In this episode I discuss the idea that our environment should make the "decisions" for us, when it comes to crafting our lives and the things in it.Support the showIf you enjoyed this episode and want to go deeper, come find me over at dekyon.io/seanmcclure/nontrivialWith a premium membership you get the full NonTrivial learning experience: interactive visualizations of the key concepts
Throw it In and See what Sticks: The New Engineering
In this episode I discuss the new direction engineering is headed, and why it sounds to many as unsophisticated. It's a "throw everything in a pot to see what happens" outlook on how to build things, which I argue is in fact a far more sophisticated approach than best-laid plans. Something we should learn to embrace in our creativity and life in general.Support the showIf you enjoye
When the Ink Fades; Why (and How) We are Now the Media
In this episode I argue that platforms like X are in fact a better source of truth than mainstream news outlets, despite their errors and lack of expertise. I lay out the underlying mechanism behind how truth persists in large collectives, and show how natural dynamics in large complex systems effectively materialize truth.Support the showIf you enjoyed this episode and want to go deeper, come fin
AI, Creativity, and the Benefit of Being Chased by the Machine
In this episode I talk about a recent comment made by Ben Affleck, suggesting that AI does not currently create. I challenge this, outlining how AI follows the same overall approach to creativity as humans. Further, I argue that our creativity should be challenged by AI, as this ensures we challenge ourselves to be as humanly creative as possible.Support the showIf you enjoyed this episode and wan
Dynamics are Truer than Facts: How to "Win" Debates
In this episode I discuss what I believe is missing from almost all debates today; an understanding of the dynamics at play in the systems being discussed. I argue that knowledge of natural systems and their dynamics can land debates on something more rigorous and true than the mere swapping of facts. O'Connor / Shapiro Debatehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j7rtkLJqbxMSupport the showIf you e
Life Goes Better with Guarantees
In this episode I discuss the importance of placing guarantees in your life, to ensure you biggest realizations get folded into your processes going forward.Support the showIf you enjoyed this episode and want to go deeper, come find me over at dekyon.io/seanmcclure/nontrivialWith a premium membership you get the full NonTrivial learning experience: interactive visualizations of the key concepts,
Stop Offloading Your Memory to the Machine
Externalizing your memory to machines ultimately makes you less productive.It feels like the opposite when you first do it. That’s what today’s products depend on. But what feels like an advantage is really just seeing the isolated definition of a task become optimized. Real world tasks do not function according to such isolation definitions.In the long run, externalization causes you to do many t
Infinite Palaces: The True Potential of the Mind
In this episode I discuss the potential of the human mind in terms of assumed versus actual boundaries. People frame their mental potential in terms of space and time complexity (although most don't call it that); in other words, they assume their potential is limited by the speed and space of the task (how much time it takes, the amount of raw information involved). But nature computes in wa
Hover and Wait: It Eventually Works
You can read more effectively by hovering above words and waiting until the text you thought would be too much to comprehend materializes in the mind. But if you try, sometimes it seems to work and sometimes it doesn't. But if you learn to hover and wait, it eventually always works. There is a universal pattern at play here, that occurs in many areas of life. In this episode I talk about the
Be Niche, and Grow
In this episode I discuss how to be more niche in your life and with your projects, and why that's the only way to truly grow. Support the showIf you enjoyed this episode and want to go deeper, come find me over at dekyon.io/seanmcclure/nontrivialWith a premium membership you get the full NonTrivial learning experience: interactive visualizations of the key concepts, a study space to learn th
You Should Be Reading at the Speed of Thought
In this episode I discuss how standing too close to the techniques we use can end up ruining their ability to help us.Support the showIf you enjoyed this episode and want to go deeper, come find me over at dekyon.io/seanmcclure/nontrivialWith a premium membership you get the full NonTrivial learning experience: interactive visualizations of the key concepts, a study space to learn the fundamentals
You Only Need the Title to Make the Rest Work
In this episode I argue that all that is required to produce your best work is the title of that work. The title captures the essence of what you're hoping to communicate, while everything else can be achieved automatically. The "everything else" includes the structures, transitions and details that will appear very deliberate, and at times even "academic", yet in reality
Work, Play, One Life
Most of us want some kind of work-life balance. We tend to assume this means creating a distinct separation between when we work and when we play. In this episode I argue that balance is more naturally achieved when we bring work and life together into a single flow.Support the showIf you enjoyed this episode and want to go deeper, come find me over at dekyon.io/seanmcclure/nontrivialWith a premiu
You Should Probably be Caring Less
In this episode I argue that it often makes more sense to go through life caring less. In today's society we are told we need to care more about how we look, how we speak, what we contribute to, etc. But we all care by default, and the real challenge is caring less about things that don't matter.Support the showIf you enjoyed this episode and want to go deeper, come find me over at dekyo
You Have to Pick Up the Sword
In this episode I talk about the need to realize that we are always in a war of some kind. This is true for our personal lives as much as society. If we stand for anything, than we must accept that messy friction is a part of life, and that embracing this reality leads to less problems in the long run. If we believe in anything, we must be willing to pick up the sword.Support the showIf you enjoye
What You Read Doesn't Matter
In this episode I look at the online judgement directed at those who post reading lists. I argue that what really matters is not so much what you read, but how you read, since the information you are after can only be gleaned by reading many different books.Support the showIf you enjoyed this episode and want to go deeper, come find me over at dekyon.io/seanmcclure/nontrivialWith a premium members
Diversity Works if You Don't Force It
In this episode, I discuss the recent assassination attempt on Donald Trump, and the ongoing criticism regarding the performance of the Secret Service. I argue that while diversity is critically important, when forced, it ends up creating more problems than solutions. I show how both the Left and the Right are in fact committing the same transgression, assuming they know what diversity is supposed
Is Music Only for Dumb People?
In this episode I talk about a study that says smarter people listen to less music.Support the showIf you enjoyed this episode and want to go deeper, come find me over at dekyon.io/seanmcclure/nontrivialWith a premium membership you get the full NonTrivial learning experience: interactive visualizations of the key concepts, a study space to learn the fundamentals behind each episode, and an "
What Does "Smart" Look Like?
In this episode I discuss the problem with thinking we know what smart looks like.Support the showIf you enjoyed this episode and want to go deeper, come find me over at dekyon.io/seanmcclure/nontrivialWith a premium membership you get the full NonTrivial learning experience: interactive visualizations of the key concepts, a study space to learn the fundamentals behind each episode, and an "A
You Can't Learn from Scratch
In this episode, I challenge the idea that we can learn effectively by "learning from scratch." I discuss how starting with the basics runs learning in the wrong direction, and how genuine learning only happens when we embed ourselves inside real environments. I use the difference in strength between bodybuilders and naturally strong individuals to highlight the problem with trying to de
The Difference Between Real and Polished
Society has become a little too enamoured with analysis and explanation, at the cost of building real things. Nature only validates by making things that work. This is what true validation looks like; less talking, more pointing (at what has been made). In this episode I use Mike Tyson as an example of the difference between real and polished. Support the showIf you enjoyed this episode and want t
Is Death Irrational?
In this episode I discuss the increasingly popular idea that valuing death is irrational, and that death should be treated as a problem to solve. I argue that such a stance is itself irrational, and that death should be viewed more objectively as an essential piece to how nature works. I show how the death-as-a-problem stance suffers from being intractable, and fails to align to the fundamental ro
Nature is not Magic, Just Different: Why AI Shouldn't Surprise You
In this episode I use a recent statement made by Sam Altman, regarding the emergence of intelligence, to highlight the outdated way both laymen and many scientists view AI specifically, and complexity more broadly. I argue that, despite what we are told, a truly scientific and rigorous theory or decision does not demand a causal explanation, and in fact such causal approaches are quite counter to
Round and Round We Go: The Circularity of IQ
In this episode I discuss one of the core flaws in IQ research, showing how it violates basic logic (let alone any notion of complexity). I discuss how such studies are not mere niche areas of research, but rather directly affect people's lives through the policies they encourage.Support the showIf you enjoyed this episode and want to go deeper, come find me over at dekyon.io/seanmcclure/nont
Low Dimensional Thinking
For video version: https://youtu.be/kAnnsjl-jygIn this episode I discuss the problem with taking only the final/best parts of something, and using those parts as a system to run our lives. I look at the importance of "waste" and redundancy in natural systems, and how this runs counter to our modern world's obsession with stripped down efficiency. Apologies for audio quality on this
Protecting Your Reputation is a Tragedy
Reputations are things people tend to protect. But protecting our reputation means blocking our values from being known, which I argue invites the wrong opportunities into our lives. Having a life filled with wrong opportunities means never having the chance to deliver your real potential to the world, which really is a tragedy.Support the showIf you enjoyed this episode and want to go deeper, co
People Who Understand Beethoven Don’t Play Beethoven
Many people proclaim to understand something because they study it. But you cannot know a thing by studying the thing, you have to create the thing. Playing Beethoven is replicating what you see in front of you, it is not creating the thing you see in front of you. Those who don’t create don’t understand. It doesn’t matter what you create, but if you want to understand something you must attempt
Bet What You Know
Placing bets means wagering something of value on the outcome of an uncertain event with the hopes of achieving a payoff. The decisions we make in life are akin to placing bets, and as with all bets, access to good information is what increases the chances of a bet achieving a payoff. Most people approach accessing good information by conducting research, analysis, understanding odds and placing
Get Yourself Triggered
Getting triggered means someone experiences a strong emotional reaction to a particular stimulus or event. But there is a good side to being triggered. Getting triggered can compel us towards positive action. We can deliberately trigger ourselves to produce good work by putting in place things that compel us to write/speak/draw etc. in the best way possible. In this episode I argue that we should
Stop Trying to Be Your Hero
A lot of people try to be their hero. But not only can we not do what our heroes do, our heroes cannot do what we do. It is our unique abilities that make us bring value to the world. The same thing can be achieved in countless ways, and those different ways are what the world needs. We need to stop trying to be our heroes. We should use heroes as nothing more than peripheral inspiration, and inst
Don’t Let Schooling Turn You Into an Idiot
Math education consists primarily of learning rules to arrive at results. But these tricks bypass what is really happening. They can lead to a superficial grasp of mathematical concepts and hinder deeper learning and problem-solving abilities. Many of the skills we learn in schooling, and after, are akin to the mindless rules we learn in math. We have to learn something far deeper than rules to tr
Nothing Happens Without Critical Mass
Important things see the light of day, not by some plan or deterministic outline, but by making changes en-route to the goal. It's adaptability that matters in the face of real world situations. Finding the right mix of people, places and things happens as you move.Suggested Reading Related to Intro ExampleThe Apocalypse Factory: Plutonium and the Making of the Atomic Age by Steve OlsonEpisod
To Be Brutally Honest
Some performances deliver deep authenticity, with standup comedy being a good example. Extremely authentic performances show us something we all should have; that ability to reach deep within us and share what we're really thinking, despite the risk this might pose to our normal, settled lives. Humans have evolved to filter for authenticity, as this leads to better information groups can use
You Need More Bad Ideas
History is loaded with "bad" / "dumb" ideas. And this includes those made by high-ranking officials and government agencies. Looking at the various schemes and plots left on the drawing board one wonders how anyone took them seruously. But most of today’s useful inventions were deemed absurd at the time. This tells us that we need to have a lot of bad ideas to land on good one
The Danger of Being Disconnected
Our lives are adversely impacted when our interactions are purely transactional. We see this play out in devastating fashion in industry, where certain businesses can cause great harm to society due to their insulation and disconnection from the lives they sell to. But this isn't just for businesses. Our personal and professional lives depend critically on organic, face-to-face interactions w
Finding Stability in Change
People look for stability in the labels we give ourselves. Our job, our title, our salary, the associations we join. But the only thing truly constant in life is its ever-changing nature. Those labels we take comfort in are in constant flux, getting reshaped and redefined by a changing economy, and the technologies that drive it. In this episode I argue that instead of looking for stability in the
Channel the Mystery
We do things for the mystery more than the facts. Scientists go on into the deepest parts of the ocean, yes to conduct research, but under highly uncertain and dangerous circumstances. What really drives deep sea exploration is the mystery. This is true of anything we create. If we are writing a book, yes there is structure, yes there are facts, but ultimately we are trying to deliver a kind of m
The Worst Time to Learn What You “Learned” in School Was When you Were in School
School shows us topics worth learning, but it does not, I would argue, impart genuine comprehension. And yet, everyone’s life contains the same patterns that lead to what we are shown in school. This means that the knowledge locked away in textbooks is actually most useful to us later in life. In this episode, I argue that we should look to embrace scholastic information later in life, when our ex
The Detriment of Passion: Why the Best Time to Work is When We’re Not in the Mood
When we are not in the mood our energy is low. But when our energy is low our mind is better aligned to what matters when it comes to doing good work; contemplation, reflection, prioritization. Critically, not being in the mood means not going down too many wrong paths. In this episode I argue that the best time to work on a given task is when we're not in the mood, and discuss how we should
Choose Your Thoughts, Or They’ll Choose You
Our lives are a product of our thoughts. Our thinking directly latches onto tangible things in our lives. And whenever we think about our thoughts it’s always after-the-fact (introspection, therapy, etc.). But some thoughts we know do not lead to good outcomes (non-negotiable), and are thus not worth struggling with. In this episode I argue that there is no point in allowing thoughts that we know
Our Brains Know More Than We Do: Trusting our Mind’s Ability to Learn Automatically
A formidable skill is one that is related to a high level of expertise, surpassing the norm. It is one that is difficult to acquire, requires significant effort and dedication. Formidable skills are ones that are largely automatic. The automation comes from the mind figuring things out in ways we don't understand. So much of honing a formidable skill is learning which parts are automatically
Do A Lot, By Doing Less
Doing more with less means being able to create a decent amount of content in a small amount of time. To create a lot using a small amount of time (and other resources) requires one to find something generative. Something generative is highly efficient because it encapsulates and expresses a high degree of abstraction and complexity in a compact form. We can do a lot more by doing less, if we lear
Find the Slowness that Moves You
Moving slower means we can focus on what matters. But it's also true that moving fast is a signal that we are figuring things out. In this episode I argue that to really get good at something we should find the slowness that moves us. We should seek ways to move slowly, and expect brevity.Support the showIf you enjoyed this episode and want to go deeper, come find me over at dekyon.io/seanmcc
Look for Conversations, Not Answers
So much of life is about searching for answers. Answers have to do with information, but real-world information has no “location" (it does not exist at a single point inside the space of possibilities), meaning that in some sense, answers don't exist. In this episode I argue that we should be looking for conversations, not answers. Conversations provide us the kind of information that ca
How to Choose a Hero
There are 2 kinds of heroes; extraordinary people in ordinary circumstances, and ordinary people in extraordinary circumstances. The problem with heroes portrayed as extraordinary people in ordinary circumstances is that they are far less relatable, and more rigorously, reveal less useful information. In this episode I argue that our choice in heroes should be aligned to ordinary people in extraor
Make Life the Meditation
Meditation is a practice that has been around for thousands of years and is used for various purposes. But meditation is practiced periodically, once a day at best. This means the state of mind that makes the most difference in our life only makes up a small portion of our life. We need our most important state of mind to always be on, with us as we interact with the world. We need to see meditati
It Takes a Logical Mind to Listen to Emotions
Logic and emotion are both important. But society often chooses one or the other, rather than having them work together. This occurs because society tries to attend to emotions rather than use them effectively. If I redress my logic in the hopes of appeasing someone who's "offended" we fail to reach a rational solution. If I maintain my logic absent the other person's emotions,
Building a Better World from Within
We all want a better world. But society cannot be forced into a specific governance or morality. In this episode I argue that we need to build our world from within, as individuals with solid moral and intellectual integrity. Only through a better inner world will our collective world reflect the truths we deem most important as individuals. I offer a solution that rises above any specific world v
Your Real Audience Isn't Born Yet
We all want our voices to be heard. But the reality is most of us will never live to see much of an audience. We need to realize we’re not really speaking to today’s generation, as much as we are to future people who will encounter our work. There are countless examples throughout history of people who died never seeing their true impact. As long we make our thoughts tangible, our audience will al
Contentment is Better than Happiness
We are told by society to chase happiness; that the "pursuit of happiness" is the most sensible goal in life. But I argue that happiness has much in common with misery when it comes to pursuing goals. Both happiness and misery are emotional extremes, and both things we cannot control. Making that which we cannot control a goal in life is untenable. I argue that we need to see the pursui
Capturing Ideas the Moment they Arrive
Our best ideas come unannounced. We might be walking, taking a shower, playing with our children, etc. But this means when we sit down to do our actual work we are missing so much of the original inspiration and energy. We’re missing the quality insight we had in the moment. I argue that we need to capture our ideas the moment they arrive if we are to deliver truly authentic and in-context work. I
Seeing Past Narratives
Life is full of narratives. They're how we make sense of the world. But narratives exist somewhere between truth and nonsense. The challenge is to see past the narratives, aligning our lives with that which is true. I discuss the technique needed to see past the narratives in our lives.Support the showIf you enjoyed this episode and want to go deeper, come find me over at dekyon.io/seanmcclu
Nipping Temptations in the Bud
Temptations are things we desire to do, but are also things we deem wrong or unwise. Temptations take us away from who we want to be in life. Temptations start off harmless, but have a tendency to grow without notice, until we are living an incorrect life. I argue that we must learn to stop problematic distractions early, by replacing our damaging preoccupations with more productive and authentic
Collaborating Doesn't Mean Being Nice
Collaboration is good, but friction is needed to solve tough problems as a group. The quality of information depends on stark individualism, rather than some engineered collaboration based on excess politeness and etiquette. In this episode I argue that collaboration should not be equated to "being nice", and that the energy and authenticity we need to work well in groups depends on a g
Most Barriers are Imagined: Turning Intention into Lifestyle
When we think about the things we want to accomplish, we often frame them in terms of the barriers we need to pass. But this isn't the case for things that comprise our lifestyle. When something is part of our lifestyle we just do it, and often do it well. Exercise, writing, whatever; our goals become far more obtainable when we stop putting them on pedestals and instead just move. I discuss
Do Many Things to be Good at Any One Thing
We are often told that if we want to be good at something we should focus more. But a single (real world) task has multiple facets that must be honed, and you cannot learn those facets from the task itself; they must come from other areas of life. In this episode I argue that to be good at any one thing we should do many things. Support the showIf you enjoyed this episode and want to go deeper, co
The Wise Don’t Silence Their Opponents
In 2014 there was a debate between Bill Nye and Ken Ham regarding whether or not Creationism is a viable explanation for earth's origin. Regardless of which side you agree with, there was what I consider a problematic response from some of the scientific community, which was that the debate never should have happened, because it gave a voice to something counter to the scientific consensus. I
Rewarding Dumbness: How Modern Society Filters Away Intelligence
Human society has always applied filters, to select who should be in a particular group. This is both evolutionary and required for good social dynamics. But we also apply filters institutionally, using systems of meritocracy to vet candidates both in academia and industry. I argue that these institutional filters are far too narrowly-defined to account for the complexity and high-dimensionality o
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