The Knowledge Project with Shane Parrish

Adam Karr outlines his personal framework for finding success in life and business. He shares insights into hiring the best CEOs (even if you have just ten minutes to talk with them), what CEOs he avoids, the simple ideas you should take seriously, the correlation between people's writing and their performance, and more. This episode is packed with practical wisdom on how to succeed as an investor and businessperson. Adam Karr is the President and Portfolio Manager at Orbis Investments. (00:00) Intro (02:44) Investing Strategies and Market Games (04:08) Adapting and Evolving Investment Styles (05:20) The Importance of Obsession and Environment (06:29) Aligning with Long-Term Investment Goals (07:11) Identifying and Evaluating Obsessed CEOs (08:13) The Role of Culture in Investment Decisions (08:54) Building Long-Term Positions and Overcoming Short-Term Pressures (12:21) The Blueprint for Success (15:24) Learning from Role Models and Mentors (21:25) The Power of Writing and Decision Analytics (29:11) The Magic in the Last 5% of Investment Research (35:25) Understanding Roll-Ups: Success Factors and Challenges (36:01) Applying Knowledge for an Unfair Advantage (37:42) Learning from Feedback and Case Studies (40:47) The Importance of Independent Thinking (43:06) Lessons from Industry Leaders (49:32) The Will to Practice and Time Management (56:44) Positioning for Success and Resilience (01:08:59) Defining Success and Helping Others Newsletter - The Brain Food newsletter delivers actionable insights and thoughtful ideas every Sunday. It takes 5 minutes to read, and it’s completely free. Learn more and sign up at https://fs.blog/newsletter/ -- Upgrade — If you want to hear my thoughts and reflections at the end of the episode, join our membership: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://fs.blog/membership/⁠⁠ and get your own private feed. -- Follow me: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://beacons.ai/shaneparrish⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ -- Watch on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@tkppodcast

In this episode, John Mackey takes us from the inception of SaferWay—the precursor to Whole Foods—to building one of the most successful natural food empires in the United States. He shares how a life-altering experience shifted his consciousness about food and health, leading him to pioneer the organic food movement. Learn about the delicate balance between staying true to personal ideals and adapting to market realities, as Mackey discusses the challenges of entrepreneurship, the importance of listening to customers, and the resilience needed to overcome crises, like the flood that nearly destroyed his first store. This conversation is packed with lessons on visionary leadership, the tension between idealism and business growth, and the power of staying committed to a mission. John Mackey is the co-founder of Whole Foods Market, where he was the CEO of the company from 1980 to 2022. He is the author of the bestselling book, Conscious Capitalism. Newsletter - The Brain Food newsletter delivers actionable insights and thoughtful ideas every Sunday. It takes 5 minutes to read, and it’s completely free. Learn more and sign up at https://fs.blog/newsletter/ -- Upgrade — If you want to hear my thoughts and reflections at the end of the episode, join our membership: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://fs.blog/membership/⁠⁠ and get your own private feed. -- Follow me: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://beacons.ai/shaneparrish⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ -- Watch on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@tkppodcast 00:00 Introduction 02:30 From Safer Way to Whole Foods: The Early Days 03:46 The Struggles and Successes of Whole Foods 05:22 Navigating Criticism and Market Realities 08:36 The Lamar Location and the 100-Year Flood 10:46 Rebuilding and Realizing Stakeholder Value 14:57 Learning the Retail Ropes 22:35 Growth, Challenges, and Entrepreneurial Resilience 35:51 Acquisitions and Expanding the Whole Foods Empire 41:17 The Drive to Build a Chain 42:17 Founder-Led vs. Professional Management 44:38 Challenges of Bureaucracy 46:56 The Importance of Cost Control 50:44 Entrepreneurial Spirit and Creativity 52:56 Facing Leadership Challenges 01:02:57 The Amazon Merger 01:19:01 Capitalism vs. Socialism 01:26:27 The Illusion of Control in Socialism 01:27:44 The Kibbutz Experiment: Idealism vs. Reality 01:30:53 Capitalism: A Win-Win Game 01:32:04 The Power of Win-Win-Win Philosophy 01:34:28 A Personal Story: Winning Over Deborah 01:37:29 The Role of Business Planning 01:38:49 Qualities of Successful Entrepreneurs 01:49:12 The Hero's Journey: Advice for Young Entrepreneurs 01:51:05 Introducing Love Life: A Holistic Health Venture 01:57:18 The Importance of Whole Foods and Nutrition 02:08:09 Concluding Thoughts on Success and Happiness

From commanding the cycling circuit with Team Canada to building an 8-figure enterprise, Rob Fraser reveals the sophisticated mental models that drive exceptional performance. This isn't about sports metaphors—it's a masterclass in translating elite competitive principles into business strategy. Rob Fraser is the owner and operator of the sock company OUTWAY. In this conversation, Rob and Shane discuss focus, executing under pressure, growing a business from hustling on the street to over 10 million in sales in a few years, how OUTWAY was almost destroyed, and arranging your life to operate at a consistently high level for a long time. As a special offer to listeners, the TKP community can get 30% off using the code SHANE at checkout. https://outway.com/ Newsletter The Brain Food newsletter delivers actionable insights and thoughtful ideas every Sunday. It takes 5 minutes to read, and it’s completely free. Learn more and sign up at https://fs.blog/newsletter/ Upgrade If you want to hear my thoughts and reflections at the end of the episode, join our membership: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://fs.blog/membership/⁠⁠ and get your own private feed. Follow Me: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/farnamstreet Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/shane-parrish-050a2183/ Follow Rob: X: https://x.com/robbfraser LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/robbfraser/ Sponsors: Somewhere.com https://www.somewhere.com/ Overlap: https://www.joinoverlap.com/

Through contrarian thinking and patient capital deployment, John Bragg built two multi-billion-dollar businesses from a remote village. John Bragg is the entrepreneur behind Oxford Frozen Foods, which processes over 50% of the world's wild blueberries, and Eastlink Communications, the largest private telecommunications company in North America. This epside isn't about startup hacks but the timeless principles behind building multi-generational businesses that operate through good and bad times. Shane and John discuss how he transformed a commodity agriculture business into a global leader and launched an unlikely telecommunications empire. This episode offers a rare glimpse into the strategic mind of one of North America's most private (and successful) business leaders. Newsletter The Brain Food newsletter delivers actionable insights and thoughtful ideas every Sunday. It takes 5 minutes to read, and it’s completely free. Learn more and sign up at https://fs.blog/newsletter/ Upgrade If you want to hear my thoughts and reflections at the end of the episode, join our membership: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://fs.blog/membership/⁠⁠ and get your own private feed. Follow Me: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/farnamstreet Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/shane-parrish-050a2183/ Sponsors: Overlap: https://www.joinoverlap.com/

When Princeton-educated attorney Erin Wade left law to open a restaurant, she didn't just create award-winning comfort food—she engineered a revolutionary workplace culture. This conversation reveals how she transformed an Oakland mac and cheese restaurant into a laboratory for modern management principles. Wade shares her groundbreaking 'color code of conduct' system (now adopted globally) and her radical approach to open-book management. A masterclass in building culture, solving industry-wide challenges, and leading with precision rather than convention. Newsletter The Brain Food newsletter delivers actionable insights and thoughtful ideas every Sunday. It takes 5 minutes to read, and it’s completely free. Learn more and sign up at https://fs.blog/newsletter/ Upgrade If you want to hear my thoughts and reflections at the end of the episode, join our membership: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://fs.blog/membership/⁠⁠ and get your own private feed. Follow Me: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/farnamstreet Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/shane-parrish-050a2183/ (00:00) Intro (02:30) Wade's surfing obsession (04:42) Defeating overthinking (05:00) Wade's background in food (06:40) Wade's law detour (10:20) On being fired (12:40) Early mistakes and freedom (20:00) Employee-centric companies (32:30) Homeroom Hard Times (34:40) How Wade's law background helped (and hurt) (42:40) The Color Code of Conduct (49:30) Why Wade sold Homeroom (and how she felt) (55:58) Impact vs. Intent (59:00) Why titles are important (01:04:00) On success

Matthew Dicks reveals the sophisticated frameworks behind storytelling mastery—an essential skill for leaders who need to persuade, inspire, and drive change. Far from basic presentation tips, this conversation deconstructs the psychological elements that make stories an instrument of influence. Learn the strategic principles of narrative architecture that separate forgettable anecdotes from stories that reshape boardrooms, pitch meetings, and executive communications. A masterclass in wielding one of leadership's most powerful but least understood tools. (00:00:00 Intro (00:03:28) What makes a good story (00:06:57) Stories vs anecdotes (00:08:29) A Story: The Spoon of Power (00:17:42) The art of story architecture (00:21:28) Create compelling stories (00:36:30) Common mistakes & how to fix them (00:55:01) Strategic Listening (01:03:32) Can you lie in stories? (01:05:10) 'And' stories vs. 'but / therefore' stories (01:10:05) Finding engaging stories in everyday life (01:20:05) Structuring a story (01:24:00) Storytelling for an unforgettable brand (01:31:20) Learn confidence (01:38:40) Writing vs telling a story (01:51:53) Teach kids to love writing (01:55:15) Define success Newsletter The Brain Food newsletter delivers actionable insights and thoughtful ideas every Sunday. It takes 5 minutes to read, and it’s completely free. Learn more and sign up at https://fs.blog/newsletter/ Upgrade If you want to hear my thoughts and reflections at the end of the episode, join our membership: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://fs.blog/membership/⁠⁠ and get your own private feed. Follow Me: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/farnamstreet Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/shane-parrish-050a2183/ -- Sponsor: Overlap https://www.joinoverlap.com/ - Listen to podcasts like never before.

Former IBM executive April Dunford reveals the sophisticated frameworks behind market leadership. This isn't about marketing tactics but how category leaders reshape markets to their advantage. Drawing from decades of experience, Dunford shares the nuanced art of market definition, competitive positioning, and strategic narrative. These are essential insights for leaders who understand that winning isn't about being better—it's about being different in meaningful ways. -- Newsletter - The Brain Food newsletter delivers actionable insights and thoughtful ideas every Sunday. It takes 5 minutes to read, and it’s completely free. Learn more and sign up at https://fs.blog/newsletter/ Upgrade — If you want to hear my thoughts and reflections at the end of the episode, join our membership: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://fs.blog/membership/⁠⁠ and get your own private feed. Follow me: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://beacons.ai/shaneparrish⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Timestamps: (00:00) Intro (02:07) Positioning, explained (16:47) Why is positioning important? (20:40) B2B vs. B2C positioning (29:03) When re-positioning a product failed (32:31) How to identify customer's pain points (34:35) How to position a product on a sales page (38:06) How technology has changed positioning (41:40) How to evaluate product positioning (45:43) Who's in charge of positioning at a company? (50:27) On storytelling (56:35) Should a company have a point of view on the market? (1:00:21) Dealing with gatekeepers in B2B marketing (1:03:02) Mistakes people make with positioning (1:05:21) What schools get wrong about marketing (1:08:59) Secrets of B2B decision-making (1:11:18) On success

From Cambridge startup to NYSE heavyweight, HubSpot co-founder Brian Halligan reveals the sophisticated frameworks behind scaling a $30B enterprise. Now a Sequoia Capital Senior Advisor, Halligan shares rare insights into the nuanced decisions that separate exceptional companies from merely successful ones. Learn the strategic principles of modern company building, including the counterintuitive culture choices, talent algorithms, and leadership pivots that defined HubSpot's trajectory. A masterclass in scaling excellence from startup to global enterprise. Timestamps: (00:00) Intro (02:36) Halligan's life-changing snowmobile accident (09:38) Shane's life-changing medical mystery (14:38) The different phases a CEO goes through while growing companies (20:44) Lessons learned from Steve Jobs (23:18) How to hire and fire people (and when) (27:55) The problems with "Best Practices" in business (31:11) The most underrated public CEOs (and why Jerry Garcia from The Grateful Dead is on this list) (43:38) The history and future of inbound marketing (51:08) On decision making (55:18) On work-life balance (58:28) On success Newsletter The Brain Food newsletter delivers actionable insights and thoughtful ideas every Sunday. It takes 5 minutes to read, and it’s completely free. Learn more and sign up at https://fs.blog/newsletter/ Upgrade If you want to hear my thoughts and reflections at the end of the episode, join our membership: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://fs.blog/membership/⁠⁠ and get your own private feed. Follow Me: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/farnamstreet Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/shane-parrish-050a2183/

Few episodes in The Knowledge Project’s nine-year history have impacted people’s relationships and lives more than when Esther Perel shared her infinite wisdom for the first time in 2019. Shane and Esther discuss how the stories you tell yourself shape how you see the world (and what to do about that), the important conversations to have at the beginning of a relationship, the most common arguments couples have and how to prevent them, what to say to a partner if the relationship isn’t working out, the relationship between desire, love, and pleasure, and so much more. Plus, the conversation starts out on an interesting note: Esther Perel shares stories about her parents surviving the Holocaust and how their experiences shaped her childhood and continue to shape her life today. (This episode is a replay of one of our most popular episodes ever and was recorded in 2019.) -- Newsletter - The Brain Food newsletter delivers actionable insights and thoughtful ideas every Sunday. It takes 5 minutes to read, and it’s completely free. Learn more and sign up at ⁠https://fs.blog/newsletter/⁠ -- Upgrade — If you want to hear my thoughts and reflections at the end of the episode, join our membership: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://fs.blog/membership/⁠⁠ and get your own private feed. -- Follow me: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://beacons.ai/shaneparrish⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ -- Timestamps: (00:00) Intro(02:38) Coming back to life after the war(08:09) The myth of stability(11:30) The power of reflections(19:48) Important conversations for early relationships(24:20) Can values change in relationships?(27:20) Being secure in a relationship(30:40) Better conversations with your partner(33:00) What's behind every criticism(36:52) Too much honesty(39:37) What happens if I don't love my partner(47:12) Why does good sex fade in relationships?(50:59) Love vs. desire(55:38) How to have difficult conversations with your partner(01:05:13) Conscious uncoupling Watch the episode on YouTube: ⁠⁠⁠https://www.youtube.com/c/theknowledgeproject/videos⁠⁠⁠ Newsletter - I share timeless insights and ideas you can use at work and home. Join over 600k others every Sunday and subscribe to Brain Food. Try it: ⁠⁠⁠https://fs.blog/newsletter/⁠⁠⁠ My Book! Clear Thinking: Turning Ordinary Moments into Extraordinary Results is out now - ⁠⁠⁠https://fs.blog/clear/⁠⁠⁠ Follow me: ⁠⁠⁠https://beacons.ai/shaneparrish⁠⁠⁠ Join our membership: ⁠⁠⁠https://fs.blog/membership/

Shane Parrish and Maya Shankar dive into the complexities of identity and personal transformation. They explore how significant life changes can reshape one's sense of self and explain how to navigate these transitions. Maya shares her personal stories and tips on making proactive choices and keeping a flexible, layered sense of self. They also discuss the psychological and philosophical aspects of identity, offering practical advice on goal-setting and personal growth. Maya Shankar is a cognitive scientist and the creator, executive producer, and host of the podcast, A Slight Change of Plans. Shankar was a Senior Advisor in the Obama White House, where she founded and served as Chair of the White House Behavioral Science Team. She holds a Ph.D. in Cognitive Psychology from Oxford and a B.A from Yale. -- Newsletter - The Brain Food newsletter delivers actionable insights and thoughtful ideas every Sunday. It takes 5 minutes to read, and it’s completely free. Learn more and sign up at ⁠https://fs.blog/newsletter/⁠-- Upgrade — If you want to hear my thoughts and reflections at the end of the episode, join our membership: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://fs.blog/membership/⁠ and get your own private feed. -- Follow me: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://beacons.ai/shaneparrish⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ -- Timestamps: (00:00) Intro (02:40) Shankar's "almost unbelievable" story of getting into Julliard (05:30) Why Shankar studied identity (11:38) What is identity? (14:52) Using your identity to accomplish your goals (18:00) Using anti-identities to accomplish your goals (18:51) What to do when your identity is "attacked" (26:30) How to re-establish trust in institutions (32:30) Use identity to start a positive habit (35:35) How to debunk myths with stories and facts (37:18) How does how we frame our goals help (or prevent) us from accomplishing them (43:11) The one motivational technique Shankar uses every day (45:15) On success Watch the episode on YouTube: ⁠⁠https://www.youtube.com/c/theknowledgeproject/videos⁠⁠ Newsletter - I share timeless insights and ideas you can use at work and home. Join over 600k others every Sunday and subscribe to Brain Food. Try it: ⁠⁠https://fs.blog/newsletter/⁠⁠ My Book! Clear Thinking: Turning Ordinary Moments into Extraordinary Results is out now - ⁠⁠https://fs.blog/clear/⁠⁠ Follow me: ⁠⁠https://beacons.ai/shaneparrish⁠⁠ Join our membership: ⁠⁠https://fs.blog/membership/

What ancient wisdom and modern science reveal about raising exceptional children. Through years of anthropological research and scientific inquiry, NPR correspondent Michaeleen Doucleff uncovers the counterintuitive principles that shape human development across cultures. This isn't about quick fixes or parenting hacks—it's a deep examination of how successful cultures have developed emotionally intelligent, capable humans for generations. Essential insights for leaders who understand that raising children, like building great organizations, requires sophisticated systems thinking and proven frameworks. Newsletter The Brain Food newsletter delivers actionable insights and thoughtful ideas every Sunday. It takes 5 minutes to read, and it’s completely free. Learn more and sign up at https://fs.blog/newsletter/ Upgrade If you want to hear my thoughts and reflections at the end of the episode, join our membership: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://fs.blog/membership/⁠⁠ and get your own private feed. Follow Me: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/farnamstreet Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/shane-parrish-050a2183/ Timestamps: (00:00) Intro (04:12) How (and why) we've lost our way as parents (08:02) The rise of the nuclear family (13:46) TEAM Parenting: T (17:20) TEAM Parenting: E (23:01) Why you don't need to praise your child (26:12) TEAM Parenting: A (36:42) TEAM Parenting: M (38:34) "Kids do not need to be entertained" (39:12) Technology, parenting, and transmitting values (1:02:59) Resources parents can use to educate kids about technology (1:04:50) How you can use the environment to give kids autonomy (1:09:56) Success and parenting

Succeeding in both life and business is very difficult. The skills needed to scale a company often clash with those required to cultivate a thriving home life. Yet, Brent Beshore seems to have cracked the code—or at least he's actively working on it. In this conversation, he spills his secrets on excelling in both arenas. This episode is split into two parts: the first 45 minutes covers life and how to be a better person. Brent opens up about the evolution of his marriage, physical health, and inner life. The rest of the episode focuses on business. Shane and Beshore discuss private equity, how to hire (and when to fire) CEOs, incentives, why debt isn’t a good thing in an unpredictable world, stewardship versus ownership, and why personality tests are so important for a functional organization.After beginning his career as an entrepreneur, Brent Beshore founded Permanent Equity in 2007 and leads the firm as CEO. He works with investors and operators to evaluate new investment opportunities. -- Newsletter - The Brain Food newsletter delivers actionable insights and thoughtful ideas every Sunday. It takes 5 minutes to read, and it’s completely free. Learn more and sign up at ⁠https://fs.blog/newsletter/⁠ -- Upgrade — If you want to hear my thoughts and reflections at the end of the episode, join our membership: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://fs.blog/membership/⁠⁠⁠ and get your own private feed. -- Follow me: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://beacons.ai/shaneparrish⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ -- Sponsors: Shopify: Making commerce better for everyone. https://www.shopify.com/shane Protekt: Simple solutions to support healthy routines. Enter the code "Knowledge" at checkout to receive 30% off your order. https://protekt.com/knowledge -- Timestamps: (00:00) Intro (05:08) Why Brent examined his life (09:44) How Brent "fixed" his relationships (20:04) How helping hurts (32:13) How Brent was subtly controlling relationships (40:36) Why Brent stopped drinking (mostly) (50:29) How to run a business with love yet competitively (01:00:34) Win-win relationships (01:05:34) On debt (01:19:28) On incentives (01:29:08) How to hire and fire CEOs (01:34:18) What most people miss about hiring (01:44:19) Brent's playbook for taking over a company (01:51:20) On projections (01:55:52) Revisiting investments (01:58:44) How "hands-off" is Brent? (02:08:34) Where people go wrong in private equity (02:14:07) On success

The skills it takes to get rich are drastically different from the skills it takes to stay rich. Few understand this phenomenon more than Morgan Housel. He's identified unique lessons about wealth, happiness, and money by studying the world's richest families and learning what they did to build their wealth and just how quickly they squandered it all.In this conversation, Shane and Housel discuss various aspects of risk-taking, wealth accumulation, and financial independence. Morgan explains the importance of understanding personal financial goals and the dangers of social comparison, lets everyone in on his personal financial “mistake” that instantly made him sleep better at night, and why the poorest people in the world disproportionately play the lottery—and why it makes sense that they do. They also touch on the influence of upbringing on financial behaviors, the difference between being rich and wealthy, and the critical role of compounding in financial success. Of course, we can’t have a writer as good as Morgan Housel on the podcast and not ask him about his process, so Housel concludes with insights into storytelling, his writing processes, and the importance of leading by example in teaching financial values to children. Morgan Housel is a partner at Collaborative Fund. Previously, he was an analyst at The Motley Fool. He is a two-time winner of the Best in Business Award from the Society of American Business Editors and Writers and was selected by the Columbia Journalism Review for the Best Business Writing anthology. He's the author of two books: The Psychology of Money and Same as Ever. -- Newsletter - The Brain Food newsletter delivers actionable insights and thoughtful ideas every Sunday. It takes 5 minutes to read, and it’s completely free. Learn more and sign up at ⁠https://fs.blog/newsletter/⁠ -- Upgrade — If you want to hear my thoughts and reflections at the end of the episode, join our membership: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://fs.blog/membership/⁠⁠⁠ and get your own private feed. -- Follow me: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://beacons.ai/shaneparrish⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ -- Sponsors Protekt: Simple solutions to support healthy routines. Enter the code "Knowledge" at checkout to receive 30% off your order. ⁠https://protekt.com/knowledge -- Timestamps: (00:00) Intro (04:46) Risk and income (07:40) On luck and skill (10:10) Buffett's secret strategy (12:28) The one trait you need to build wealth (16:20) Housel's capital allocation strategy (16:48) Index funds, explained (20:59) Expectations and moving goalposts (22:17) Your house: asset or liability? (27:39) Money lies we believe (32:12) How to avoid status games (35:04) Money rules from parents (40:15) Rich vs. wealthy (41:46) Housel's influential role models (42:48) Why are rich people miserable? (45:59) How success sows the seeds of average performance (49:50) On risk (50:59) Making money, spending money, saving money (52:50) How the Vanderbilt's squandered their wealth (1:04:11) How to manage your expectations (01:06:26) How to talk to kids about money (01:09:52) The biggest risk to capitalism (01:13:56) The magic of compounding (01:16:18) How Morgan reads (01:22:42) How to tell the best story (01:24:42) How Morgan writes (01:35:42) Parting wisdom and thoughts on success

Investigative journalist Abigail Shrier reveals an uncomfortable truth: our culture's overwhelming embrace of therapy might be harming the next generation. In this thought-provoking conversation, she challenges conventional wisdom about mental health, drawing from extensive research and disturbing patterns among lifelong therapy patients. Learn when therapy helps, when it hurts, and how successful parents navigate emotional resilience in their children. Newsletter - I share timeless insights and ideas you can use at work and home. Join over 700k others every Sunday and subscribe to Brain Food. Try it: https://fs.blog/newsletter/ My Book! Clear Thinking: Turning Ordinary Moments into Extraordinary Results is out now - https://fs.blog/clear/  Follow me: https://beacons.ai/shaneparrish Join our membership: https://fs.blog/membership/ (00:00) Intro (05:44) Inverse: How do we raise mentally unstable kids? (08:29) How we got to now (11:45) Bad therapy...or just social trends? (13:21) Being your kids' friend: good or bad? (15:55) The parenting type that raises the BEST kids (21:35) Is this all the parents' fault? (29:53) Is "Bad Therapy" a world-wide problem? (32:57) Talk to your kids' therapist about these things (42:09) The importance of facing adversity in childhood (47:06) Can we blame grad schools for all of this? (49:14) On technology and social media (51:03) Schools should "never" have gotten involved in mental health (54:43) Did COVID accelerate "bad therapy?" (56:07) How to return to normalcy (58:21) Why Shane shares negative YouTube comments with his kids (01:01:23) Shrier's experience being "cancelled" (01:04:13) On prestige media (01:07:47) Small steps parents can take to return to normal (01:11:02) Dealing with schools saying one thing and parents saying another (01:13:32) Why is the silent majority...silent? (01:16:32) If this continues, what happens? (01:18:19) What makes someone a successful parent?

What if reaching the next level of success wasn't determined by another skill, degree, or course but by something that changed on the inside? That's what Dr. Jim Loehr believes, and in this episode, he reveals everything he knows about mental toughness and winning the mind game. Shane and Loehr discuss the radical importance of the stories you tell yourself—including how they can damage your kids—and how to change the negative stories you believe. Loehr also shares the best reflection questions to ask yourself to reveal personal blindspots, the importance of rituals for calming anxiety and performing under pressure, and how the best in the world use their recovery time effectively. Dr. Jim Loehr is a world-renowned performance psychologist and author of 16 books. Based on his more than 30 years of experience and applied research, Dr. Loehr believes the single most important factor in successful achievement, personal fulfillment, and life satisfaction is the strength of one’s character. He possesses a master's and doctorate in psychology and is a full member of the American Psychological Association. Watch the episode on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/theknowledgeproject/videos Newsletter - I share timeless insights and ideas you can use at work and home. Join over 600k others every Sunday and subscribe to Brain Food. Try it: https://fs.blog/newsletter/ My Book! Clear Thinking: Turning Ordinary Moments into Extraordinary Results is out now - https://fs.blog/clear/  Follow me: https://beacons.ai/shaneparrish Join our membership: https://fs.blog/membership/ Sponsor: Protekt: Simple solutions to support healthy routines. Enter the code "Knowledge" at checkout to receive 30% off your order. https://protekt.com/knowledge   (00:00) Intro (03:20) Parenting and storytelling (06:15) How to determine whether or not the stories are limiting or enabling you (08:41) What the stories world-class performers tell themselves (15:02) How to change the stories you tell yourself (23:26) Questions to journal about (26:16) Private voices vs. public voices (and how they impact your kids) (31:32) How to help your friends change their stories (37:30) How to better come alongside your kids to prevent destructive behavior (44:48) - (45:06) What Loehr knows about high performers that others miss (53:12) On time and energy (01:06:26) Conquering the "between point" ritual (01:11:50) On rituals vs. habits (01:15:54) How to increase your mental toughness (01:23:51) On success    

From a single storefront to a $200M enterprise, David Segal reveals the sophisticated frameworks behind building a category-defining business. Learn the counterintuitive principles that separate exceptional operators from average founders, including the hidden challenges of success and the strategic tension between working in versus on your business. A look into the mind of a builder who has mastered both the science of operations and the art of scale. And watch in real-time as he does it again with Firebelly Tea. TKP listeners can receive a special 15 percent discount on Firebelly Tea products by visiting www.firebellytea.com and entering the code Shane15 at checkout. Newsletter - I share timeless insights and ideas you can use at work and home. Join over 700k others every Sunday and subscribe to Brain Food. Try it: https://fs.blog/newsletter/ My Book! Clear Thinking: Turning Ordinary Moments into Extraordinary Results is out now - https://fs.blog/clear/  Follow me: https://beacons.ai/shaneparrish Join our membership: https://fs.blog/membership/   (00:00) Intro (04:59) What entrepreneurship is (07:10) How to manage your psychology (10:40) Yearly planning, daily action (15:50) Avoiding "ivory-tower syndrome" (18:30) Segal's childhood and background (25:15) The history of DAVIDsTEA and Firebelly (36:40) The evolution of tea and business over the last twenty years (42:30) On failures (49:00) Dealing with depression (52:30) Lessons about money (56:55) Business and life lessons from Warren Buffett (1:00:00) On time management (1:04:50) What's missing in Segal's life (1:08:39) On success

Shane Parrish sits down with the renowned biochemist Dr. Rhonda Patrick to explore the intricate world of nutrition and health. Dr. Patrick provides a deep dive into the role micronutrients play in our daily health, detailing how deficiencies and insufficiencies in vitamins, minerals, fatty acids, and amino acids can lead to serious health issues over time. Shane and Dr. Patrick also discuss the science behind deliberate heat exposure. She outlines the optimal sauna conditions—temperature, duration, and frequency—necessary to achieve these health benefits and explains the physiological mechanisms at play. Rhonda Patrick has a Ph.D. in biomedical science and a Bachelor of Science degree in biochemistry/chemistry from the University of California, San Diego. She has done extensive research on aging, cancer, and nutrition. (00:00) Intro (04:40) A philosophy for nutrition (15:36) Micronutrients through supplements vs. food (25:43) Wild-caught vs. farm-raised fish (28:44) Organic vs. non-organic vegetables (36:14) On macronutrients (40:20) How protein levels differ in different foods (45:27) The best morning smoothie recipe (54:48) Dr. Patrick grades Shane's "GOAT" smoothie recipe (59:14) Grass-fed vs. non-grass fed (01:04:40) On vitamin D (Is sunscreen killing us more than the sun?) (01:19:48) Deliberate heat and cold exposure (01:44:27) Top three behavioral and diet interventions for life and health improvements Watch the episode on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/theknowledgeproject/videos Newsletter - I share timeless insights and ideas you can use at work and home. Join over 600k others every Sunday and subscribe to Brain Food. Try it: https://fs.blog/newsletter/ My Book! Clear Thinking: Turning Ordinary Moments into Extraordinary Results is out now - https://fs.blog/clear/  Follow me: https://beacons.ai/shaneparrish Join our membership: https://fs.blog/membership/ Sponsors: Eight Sleep: Sleep to power a whole new you. https://www.eightsleep.com/farnamstreet Shopify: Making commerce better for everyone. https://www.shopify.com/shane

Throughout his tenure, Brad Jacobs has built multiple billion-dollar companies. While there is no "playbook" for growing a business, he focuses on a few factors above all else in every company he operates, and in this conversation, he reveals them all. Shane and Jacobs discuss how to read anyone during an interview through a series of intentional questions, the exciting role of AI and technology in the future of business, and where money-making ideas hide in companies. Jacobs also shares how his training in math and music made him a better business operator, the one thing he focuses on to grow his businesses, how to spot big trends before everyone else, and the only thing a company should focus on for success. Brad Jacobs has started five companies from scratch and led each to become a billion-dollar or multibillion-dollar enterprise. These include three publicly traded companies: XPO Logistics, where he serves as Chairman and CEO, United Rentals, and United Waste Systems. Before starting XPO in 2011, Jacobs founded United Rentals in 1997 and led the company as Chairman and Chief Executive Officer. In 1989, he founded United Waste Systems.   (00:00) Intro (04:44) The future of AI (07:21) How to think rationally (08:48) The major trend (10:57) The research process (13:29) On asking better questions (19:35) On rearranging your brain (22:23) On music, math, simplicity, and business (32:26) Leverage, debt, and optionality (35:11) What it takes to take contrarian bets (40:45) Confidence and parents (50:21) Why negative-only feedback is detrimental for employees (56:14) Money lessons (58:13) A deep dive on M&A (Jacobs' secret sauce to growing his companies) (01:07:51) Questions to immediately get to know anyone (01:11:14) On boards and board meetings (01:16:57) On decision-making (01:23:37) The role of capital markets (01:25:41) The type of person you don't want to hire (01:31:16) The best capital allocators (01:33:53) Biggest lesson Jacobs learned from the past year (01:37:20) On success   Watch the episode on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/theknowledgeproject/videos Newsletter - I share timeless insights and ideas you can use at work and home. Join over 600k others every Sunday and subscribe to Brain Food. Try it: https://fs.blog/newsletter/ My Book! Clear Thinking: Turning Ordinary Moments into Extraordinary Results is out now - https://fs.blog/clear/  Follow me: https://beacons.ai/shaneparrish Join our membership: https://fs.blog/membership/ Sponsors: Eight Sleep: Sleep to power a whole new you. https://www.eightsleep.com/farnamstreet Shopify: Making commerce better for everyone. https://www.shopify.com/shane

Most families who obtain immense wealth squander it by the third generation. But Chris Davis comes from a family whose grandfather and father all became independently wealthy of each other, and Davis has done the same. How does that keep happening? In this conversation, we find out. Shane and Chris discuss life and investment lessons he learned from his father and grandfather, why writing is more important to clarify one's thinking no matter who's reading it, and the surprising benefit of reading physical newspapers and wearing ties to work. Davis also shares his value-investing philosophy, what he learned from working with and meeting Charlie Munger, and what parents can do to raise kids who aren't entitled. Davis talks about his alcohol drink tracker and why it's important to him, why he never puts himself in situations where envy can grow, and the insights from Warren Buffett's key letter about why investment managers underperform. Chris Davis is on the board of Berkshire Hathaway and The Coca-Cola Company. Davis is Chairman of Davis Selected Advisers-NY, Inc., an independent investment management firm founded in 1969. Davis joined Davis Selected Advisers-NY, Inc. in 1989 as a financial analyst, and in 1995, he became a portfolio manager of the firm’s flagship funds. Watch the episode on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/theknowledgeproject/videos Newsletter - I share timeless insights and ideas you can use at work and home. Join over 600k others every Sunday and subscribe to Brain Food. Try it: https://fs.blog/newsletter/ My Book! Clear Thinking: Turning Ordinary Moments into Extraordinary Results is out now - https://fs.blog/clear/  Follow me: https://beacons.ai/shaneparrish Join our membership: https://fs.blog/membership/ Sponsors: Eight Sleep: Sleep to power a whole new you. https://www.eightsleep.com/farnamstreet   (00:00) Intro (03:20) Life lessons Davis learned from his grandfather and father (26:24) The importance of writing things no one reads (36:55) Davis' experiences through financial crises (52:31) Why Davis loves managing a mutual fund (55:49) Why Berkshire Hathaway operates with margin (01:01:05) What is risk? (01:04:02) On low interest rates and their future impact (01:14:46) The mismatched timelines between CEOs, companies, investors, and policy (01:22:19) How Davis and Munger met (01:30:20) Lessons learned from Munger (01:41:29) Why avoiding weaknesses is the ultimate recipe for success (01:55:46) How to raise non-entitled kids and avoid lifestyle creep (01:16:10) On happiness (02:27:00) Good vs. bad board meetings (02:31:34) Three generations of wealth (02:37:15) On success

What can you do (or avoid) tomorrow to guarantee you can live longer? In this episode, Bryan Johnson reveals the five simple disciplines you can start doing to live healthier and longer. Johnson shares what his daily routine looks like, the ins and outs of his experimentation process, and why he gave his father plasma. Johnson also opens up about the constant hate he receives from people online, how he deals with it all, and what he wishes he'd known when he sold his company. Bryan Johnson is the world's most measured human. Johnson sold his company to PayPal in 2013. Through Project Blueprint, Johnson has achieved metabolic health equal to the top 1.5% of 18 year olds, inflammation 66% lower than the average 10 year old, and reduced his speed of aging by the equivalent of 31 years. Johnson is also the founder of Kernel, creator of the world’s first mainstream non-invasive neuroimaging system; and OS Fund, where he invested in the predictable engineering of atoms, molecules, and organisms. Watch the episode on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/theknowledgeproject/videos Newsletter - Each week I share timeless insights and ideas that you can use at work and home. Add it to your inbox: https://fs.blog/newsletter/ My New Book! Clear Thinking: Turning Ordinary Moments into Extraordinary Results is out now - https://fs.blog/clear/  Follow me: https://beacons.ai/shaneparrish Join our membership: https://fs.blog/membership/ Sponsors: Eight Sleep: Sleep to power a whole new you. https://www.eightsleep.com/farnamstreet   Timecodes: (00:00:00) Intro (00:03:45) On biographies (00:08:03) On depression and coping mechanisms (00:14:18) Self-destructive behavior and how to pitch Blueprint to someone (00:26:50) What a day looks like on Blueprint (exercise and what to eat) (00:42:06) How to turn Blueprint protocols into habits (00:45:17) Embracing the hate (00:49:07) The downsides and lessons of making money (00:59:22) The five habits (01:05:09) Why does posture matter? (01:07:48) Relationship between biological health and sexual health (01:09:50) Hair-loss prevention (01:15:46) Sunscreen, plastics, and other miscellaneous impacts on aging (01:18:30) How will AI help us? (01:22:10) On success

<!-- wp:paragraph --> Dr. Becky Kennedy shares the crucial life and parenting skills you need but didn't get taught on regulating emotions, setting boundaries, and the best sentence you can say when a partner tells you something difficult. This episode applies to EVERY relationship in your life, not just your kids. Get ready to parent more effectively with less stress, repair after a disagreement, regulate emotions, and unlock the next level in all of your relationships.  Dubbed the “The Millennial Parenting Whisperer” by TIME Magazine, Dr. Kennedy is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Good Inside: A Guide to Becoming the Parent You Want to Be. She also hosts “Good Inside with Dr Becky,” the top kids and family show on Apple Podcasts. Follow Becky https://www.instagram.com/drbeckyatgoodinside/ Watch the episodes on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/theknowledgeproject/videos Newsletter - Each week I share timeless insights and ideas that you can use at work and home. Add it to your inbox: https://fs.blog/newsletter/ My New Book! Clear Thinking: Turning Ordinary Moments into Extraordinary Results is out now - https://fs.blog/clear/  Follow me: https://beacons.ai/shaneparrish Join our membership: https://fs.blog/membership/ Sponsors: Eight Sleep: Sleep to power a whole new you. https://www.eightsleep.com/farnamstreet Metalab: https://www.metalab.com  

Tom Gayner, CEO of Markel Group, reveals the lessons he’s learned from Charlie Munger and Berkshire Hathaway, how he invests, and the specific way he thinks about opportunity cost. Gayner shares the difference between good debt and bad debt, where he disagrees with Munger, and why he focuses on the basics. This intimate conversation offers a level of insight and honesty that Tom hasn’t offered anywhere else. Gayner is currently the CEO of Markel Group and the Director of The Coca‑Cola Company. He also serves as chairman of the Davis Series Mutual Funds board and on the boards of Graham Holdings and Markel. Listen and Learn. -- Watch the episodes on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/theknowledgeproject/videos Newsletter - Each week I share timeless insights and ideas that you can use at work and home. Add it to your inbox: https://fs.blog/newsletter/ My New Book! Clear Thinking: Turning Ordinary Moments into Extraordinary Results is out now - https://fs.blog/clear/  Follow me: https://beacons.ai/shaneparrish Join our membership: https://fs.blog/membership/ Sponsors: Eight Sleep: Sleep to power a whole new you. https://www.eightsleep.com/farnamstreet Sidebar: Accelerate your career. https://www.sidebar.com/shane Metalab: https://www.metalab.com    

Blake Eastman has dedicated his entire life to psychology and nonverbal behavior.   In 2009 he founded The Nonverbal Group, a  behavioral research and education company in New York City which conducts large scale studies on human behavior and uses a wide range of technologies to systematically deconstruct and improve human communication.   Eastman dives deep into how we communicate with one another, including the ability to read nonverbal cues, his thoughts on big talkers vs. silent types, how we can communicate with our partners without complaining, the value of watching ourselves communicate on video, understanding the power structures and social dynamics at work, and so much more.   Eastman has also served as an adjunct psychology professor at the City University of New York for six years where he taught General Psychology, Developmental Psychology, and Group Dynamics. He is also a former professional poker player and the founder of School of Cards, the first brick-and-mortar poker school in New York City.   Listen and Learn -- Watch the episodes on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/theknowledgeproject/videos Newsletter - Each week I share timeless insights and ideas that you can use at work and home. Add it to your inbox: https://fs.blog/newsletter/ My New Book! Clear Thinking: Turning Ordinary Moments into Extraordinary Results is out now - https://fs.blog/clear/  Follow me: https://beacons.ai/shaneparrish Join our membership: https://fs.blog/membership/ Sponsors: Eight Sleep: Sleep to power a whole new you. https://www.eightsleep.com/farnamstreet Sidebar: Accelerate your career. https://www.sidebar.com/shane  

The Knowledge Project closes 2023 with a look back at some of the best conversations of the year. Featuring interviews from nine of the most downloaded and acclaimed episodes of 2023, this collection of conversations offers a variety of insights into the power of intention, how to become a better listener, how to give and receive feedback at work, the Four Pillars of Integrity, facing the realities of life, the importance of having deadlines, taking responsibility, building trust in a large organization, and when to double-down on your plans for success.   Guests on this episode include: Mindfulness expert Jack Kornfield, executive coach Carloyn Coughlin, organizational expert Aaron Dignan, leadership expert Jim Dethmer, venture capitalist Ravi Gupta, author and Wired co-founder Kevin Kelly, doctor of psychology Julie Gurner, veteran CEO Frank Slootman, and performance psychologist Gio Valiante. -- Want even more? Members get early access, hand-edited transcripts, member-only episodes, and so much more. Learn more here: https://fs.blog/membership/ Every Sunday our Brain Food newsletter shares timeless insights and ideas that you can use at work and home. Add it to your inbox: https://fs.blog/newsletter/ Follow Shane on Twitter at: https://twitter.com/ShaneAParrish Our Sponsors: MetaLab: Helping the world’s top companies design, build, and ship amazing products and services. https://www.metalab.com Aeropress: Press your perfect cup, every time. https://aeropress.com Sidebar: Accelerate your career. https://www.sidebar.com

When Paul Assaiante announced his retirement from coaching the men's squash team at Trinity College in Connecticut earlier this year, it marked the end of the most successful run for any coach in the history of college athletics. During his tenure, Assaiante guided Trinity to 17 national titles, including 13 consecutive championships and 252 wins in a row from 1999 to 2011. On this episode of The Knowledge Project, Assaiante draws on his 30 years of coaching to discuss the lessons he learned during his career. These lessons include how to conquer fear and anxiety, why safety is actually found when facing adversity, the importance of practice, and what's keeping you from reaching your goals. Assaiante is also the author of the 2012 book, Run to the Roar: Coaching to Overcome Fear. Listen and learn. -- Want even more? Members get early access, hand-edited transcripts, member-only episodes, and so much more. Learn more here: https://fs.blog/membership/ Every Sunday our Brain Food newsletter shares timeless insights and ideas that you can use at work and home. Add it to your inbox: https://fs.blog/newsletter/ Follow Shane on Twitter at: https://twitter.com/ShaneAParrish Our Sponsors: MetaLab: Helping the world’s top companies design, build, and ship amazing products and services. https://www.metalab.com Aeropress: Press your perfect cup, every time. https://aeropress.com Sidebar: Accelerate your career. https://www.sidebar.com

We all inhabit different identities throughout our day. Perhaps we’re entrepreneurs or employees, mothers or fathers, athletes or CEOs. But how can you harness the strengths of these different identities to get the best out of yourself? And can these different identities be used to get through tough times? Todd Herman calls on more than two decades of experience working with top performers on performance, strategy, mindset, and execution to discuss his thoughts on peak performance, the value of patience, the fear that prevents us from performing our best, imposter syndrome, and how he worked with Kobe Bryant to build the legendary alter-ego of The Black Mamba. Herman has worked with elite athletes, peak performers, and entrepreneurial leaders for over 22 years. He helps them achieve their most ambitious goals by becoming more resilient, creative, confident, and courageous. He is also the author of the bestselling book The Alter Ego Effect. -- Want even more? Members get early access, hand-edited transcripts, member-only episodes, and so much more. Learn more here: https://fs.blog/membership/ Every Sunday our Brain Food newsletter shares timeless insights and ideas that you can use at work and home. Add it to your inbox: https://fs.blog/newsletter/ Follow Shane on Twitter at: https://twitter.com/ShaneAParrish Our Sponsors: MetaLab: Helping the world’s top companies design, build, and ship amazing products and services. https://www.metalab.com Aeropress: Press your perfect cup, every time. https://aeropress.com Vanta: Helping you get compliance-ready, fast. https://www.vanta.com/

In the second of a special two-part episode, performance psychologist Dr. Gio Valiante calls on his vast experience working with some of the world’s top athletes and entrepreneurs. Shane and Dr. Valiante discuss thoughts on failure and the fear that holds you back from making the most of your talent, shifting from an ego orientation to a mastery orientation, common misperceptions about success and failure, and how we learn when it’s time to cut our losses and move on to a different challenge.   Valiante is regarded as one of the most successful performance coaches in the world. He’s worked extensively with golfers on the PGA and LPGA Tours, Olympic athletes, and leading figures in NCAA football and the NFL, where he served as the Head Performance Coach of the Buffalo Bills. He has also logged over 5,000 hours coaching some of the most sophisticated investors in the world, including hedge fund manager Steve Cohen.   Listen to the first part of this special episode on the Farnam Street blog or wherever you listen to The Knowledge Project. -- Want even more? Members get early access, hand-edited transcripts, member-only episodes, and so much more. Learn more here: https://fs.blog/membership/ Every Sunday our Brain Food newsletter shares timeless insights and ideas that you can use at work and home. Add it to your inbox: https://fs.blog/newsletter/ Follow Shane on Twitter at: https://twitter.com/ShaneAParrish Our Sponsors: MetaLab: Helping the world’s top companies design, build, and ship amazing products and services. https://www.metalab.com Aeropress: Press your perfect cup, every time. https://aeropress.com Vanta: Helping you get compliance-ready, fast. https://www.vanta.com/

In the fifth installment in a series of episodes, The Knowledge Project curates essential segments from five guests revolving around one theme: learning and thinking. This episode will help you create an environment that’s more conducive to clear thinking, improve your intuition, learn the difference between the two main modes of thinking, examine the learning process,  use “online experimentation” to develop good judgment, and eliminate blind spots in your thought processes. The guests on this episode are psychologist and economist Daniel Kahneman (Episode 68), engineering professor Barbara Oakley (Episode 31), author and global macro advisor Adam Robinson (Episodes 47 and 48), economist and professor Tyler Cowen (Episode 39), and author and organizational psychology professor Adam Grant (Episode 112). -- Want even more? Members get early access, hand-edited transcripts, member-only episodes, and so much more. Learn more here: https://fs.blog/membership/ Every Sunday our Brain Food newsletter shares timeless insights and ideas that you can use at work and home. Add it to your inbox: https://fs.blog/newsletter/ Follow Shane on Twitter at: https://twitter.com/ShaneAParrish Our Sponsors: MetaLab: Helping the world’s top companies design, build, and ship amazing products and services. https://www.metalab.com Aeropress: Press your perfect cup, every time. https://aeropress.com Vanta: Helping you get compliance-ready, fast. https://www.vanta.com/

In the first of a special two-part episode, celebrated performance psychologist Gio Valiante calls on his vast experience working with some of the world’s top athletes and entrepreneurs. Shane and Valiante discuss developing discipline and resilience in work and life. Valiante offers his thoughts on the five ways to gain an advantage and win and how to change your habits. He also discusses the role your environment plays in discipline and how you can develop resilience in yourself and your children. Valiante is regarded as one of the most successful performance coaches in the world. He’s worked extensively with golfers on the PGA and LPGA Tours, Olympic athletes, and leading figures in NCAA football and the NFL, where he served as the Head Performance Coach of the Buffalo Bills. He has also logged over 5,000 hours coaching some of the most sophisticated investors in the world, including hedge fund manager Steve Cohen. -- Want even more? Members get early access, hand-edited transcripts, member-only episodes, and so much more. Learn more here: https://fs.blog/membership/ Every Sunday our Brain Food newsletter shares timeless insights and ideas that you can use at work and home. Add it to your inbox: https://fs.blog/newsletter/ Follow Shane on Twitter at: https://twitter.com/ShaneAParrish Our Sponsors: MetaLab: Helping the world’s top companies design, build, and ship amazing products and services. https://www.metalab.com Aeropress: Press your perfect cup, every time. https://aeropress.com Vanta: Helping you get compliance-ready, fast. https://www.vanta.com/    

Jerry Colonna was a high-flying New York venture capitalist in the early 1990s, but his life wasn’t as glamorous as most made it out to be. He was anxious, overweight, unhealthy, and unfulfilled, and after suffering a panic attack on the streets of Manhattan he gradually shifted into coaching, giving him a new lease on life and a career as one of the premier executive coaches in the United States.   In this episode, Colonna opens up on what went wrong and how he changed it. Offering raw and revealing insights on resilience, discernment, self-esteem, anxiety, motivation, and the rituals that keep him fulfilled in life. Colonna is the Co-Founder of Reboot.io, an executive coaching and leadership development firm dedicated to the notion that better humans make better leaders. He is also the author of Reunion: Leadership and the Longing to Belong. -- Want even more? Members get early access, hand-edited transcripts, member-only episodes, and so much more. Learn more here: https://fs.blog/membership/ Every Sunday our Brain Food newsletter shares timeless insights and ideas that you can use at work and home. Add it to your inbox: https://fs.blog/newsletter/ Follow Shane on Twitter at: https://twitter.com/ShaneAParrish Our Sponsors: MetaLab: Helping the world’s top companies design, build, and ship amazing products and services. https://www.metalab.com Aeropress: Press your perfect cup, every time. https://aeropress.com

Ever wondered why the world’s most successful individuals seem to have an uncanny ability to be in the right place at the right time? It’s not luck; it’s positioning. They are rarely backed into a corner by circumstances, and you don’t have to be either. On this special episode of The Knowledge Project, host and Farnam Street founder Shane Parrish offers a sneak peek into his upcoming book, Clear Thinking: Turning Ordinary Moments into Extraordinary Results, by sharing five essential insights from the book you can use for success in life and decision-making. Clear Thinking is not just another self-help book — it's a transformative guide that hands you the tools to master your fate, sharpen your decision-making, and set yourself up for unparalleled success. To learn more about the book, visit fs.blog/clear -- Want even more? Members get early access, hand-edited transcripts, member-only episodes, and so much more. Learn more here: https://fs.blog/membership/ Every Sunday our Brain Food newsletter shares timeless insights and ideas that you can use at work and home. Add it to your inbox: https://fs.blog/newsletter/ Follow Shane on Twitter at: https://twitter.com/ShaneAParrish Our Sponsors: MetaLab: Helping the world’s top companies design, build, and ship amazing products and services. https://www.metalab.com Aeropress: Press your perfect cup, every time. https://aeropress.com

Internationally renowned health and performance psychologist Dr. Leah Lagos discusses the concept of Heart Rate Variability (HRV) and how you can improve your mental and physical health by using signals from your body to gain control over stress. She’s also joined on this episode by Head Coach of Boston Celtics, Joe Mazzulla, who has worked with Dr. Lagos on HRV training. He discusses how he uses techniques taught by Dr. Lagos to help him manage his HRV and lower stress levels during his first season as an NBA head coach in 2022. Dr. Lagos has served as a Clinical and Performance Psychologist in private practice for the past 14 years. She consults a global hedge fund as well as elite performers in entertainment, business, and sport. Dr. Lagos is the author of Heart Breath Mind: Conquer Stress, Build Resilience, and Perform at Your Peak. Mazzulla took over as the interim head coach of the Boston Celtics in September 2022 and was officially named the team’s head coach in February 2023. In his first full season on the job, he led the Celtics to the Eastern Conference semifinals and was named one of three finalists for the NBA Coach of the Year. -- Want even more? Members get early access, hand-edited transcripts, member-only episodes, and so much more. Learn more here: https://fs.blog/membership/ Every Sunday our Brain Food newsletter shares timeless insights and ideas that you can use at work and home. Add it to your inbox: https://fs.blog/newsletter/ Follow Shane on Twitter at: https://twitter.com/ShaneAParrish Our Sponsors: MetaLab: Helping the world’s top companies design, build, and ship amazing products and services. https://www.metalab.com Aeropress: Press your perfect cup, every time. https://aeropress.com

Calling on more than two decades of experience working with some of the biggest companies in tech, Shreyas Doshi joins The Knowledge Project for a deep dive into the connection between building a solid team and building a better product. He also discusses the three levels of product work, the origins of conflict on your team, the difference between measurement and evaluation, the benefits and drawbacks of a writing culture, decision-making, growing your competence, and the agency/talent matrix. Doshi is best known as the leader of some of the most successful products from Stripe, where he was one of the company’s first product managers. He also led and grew several products at Twitter, Google, and Yahoo. He currently advises fast-growing startups on strategy, scaling, and product management. Doshi is also a frequent angel investor and has privately coached product managers from Amazon, Meta, Salesforce, Uber, and LinkedIn. -- Want even more? Members get early access, hand-edited transcripts, member-only episodes, and so much more. Learn more here: https://fs.blog/membership/ Every Sunday our Brain Food newsletter shares timeless insights and ideas that you can use at work and home. Add it to your inbox: https://fs.blog/newsletter/ Follow Shane on Twitter at: https://twitter.com/ShaneAParrish Our Sponsors: MetaLab: Helping the world’s top companies design, build, and ship amazing products and services. https://www.metalab.com Aeropress: Press your perfect cup, every time. https://aeropress.com

Dubbed during his career as “The Man Who Knows What the World’s Richest People Want (and How To Get It),” Rey Flemings has years of experience dealing with success. He sees it every day as the co-founder and CEO of Myria, a company that provides concierge services to fewer than 100 elite clients with a combined wealth of over $400 billion. On this episode, Flemings discusses what he’s learned about wealth, money, success and happiness while on the job, how he makes impossible tasks possible, and what it was like to try and smuggle ventilators into New York City during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.   Flemings founded Myria in 2021 and has worked in the luxury services industry since 2017. He also served as the founder and CEO of Stripple, a web imagery monetization company, and CEO of Particle, an Internet services company acquired by Apple. -- Want even more? Members get early access, hand-edited transcripts, member-only episodes, and so much more. Learn more here: https://fs.blog/membership/ Every Sunday our Brain Food newsletter shares timeless insights and ideas that you can use at work and home. Add it to your inbox: https://fs.blog/newsletter/ Follow Shane on Twitter at: https://twitter.com/ShaneAParrish Our Sponsors: MetaLab: Helping the world’s top companies design, build, and ship amazing products and services. https://www.metalab.com Aeropress: Press your perfect cup, every time. https://aeropress.com

Frank Slootman doesn’t start companies. But no CEO has a better track record for turning the ideas of others into jackpots. On this episode of the Knowledge Project, Slootman dives deep into the no-nonsense, results-based strategies that have made him a leading executive, including how to approach the first 90 days after taking over a company, doing less and doing better, the difference between a good sales organization and a great one, how to get the best out of people, positioning yourself for future success,  and so much more.   Slootman is the Chairman and CEO at Snowflake, a cloud computing–based data company which currently boasts a market capitalization of $81 billion. Prior to taking over at Snowflake im April 2019, Slootman served as the Chairman and CEO of cloud computing company ServiceNow, and he also spent six years as the President and CEO of Data Domain Inc., a venture-backed storage company. -- Want even more? Members get early access, hand-edited transcripts, member-only episodes, and so much more. Learn more here: https://fs.blog/membership/ Every Sunday our Brain Food newsletter shares timeless insights and ideas that you can use at work and home. Add it to your inbox: https://fs.blog/newsletter/ Follow Shane on Twitter at: https://twitter.com/ShaneAParrish Our Sponsors: MetaLab: Helping the world’s top companies design, build, and ship amazing products and services. https://www.metalab.com Aeropress: Press your perfect cup, every time. https://aeropress.com

On the second of two special episodes, acclaimed executive performance coach and doctor of psychology Dr. Julie Gurner goes in-depth on a variety of strategies and actionable advice that will help you perform up to your potential. During this portion of her interview, Dr. Gurner discusses the standards we set for ourselves and others, cognitive ruts, curating friends and relationships, fighting up front, what success means, and much more.   Dr. Gurner has spent the past 14 years working with top percentile executives, talent, and teams operating in fast-paced, competitive environments. She specializes in improving personal productivity, focus, and decision-making strategies, as well as developing high performance cultures, teams, and executives emphasizing ownership and leadership.    Check out Part 1 of this interview in the same feed where you’re listening to this episode, or on the Farnam Street Blog. -- Want even more? Members get early access, hand-edited transcripts, member-only episodes, and so much more. Learn more here: https://fs.blog/membership/ Every Sunday our Brain Food newsletter shares timeless insights and ideas that you can use at work and home. Add it to your inbox: https://fs.blog/newsletter/ Follow Shane on Twitter at: https://twitter.com/ShaneAParrish Our Sponsors: MetaLab: Helping the world’s top companies design, build, and ship amazing products and services. https://www.metalab.com Aeropress: Press your perfect cup, every time. https://aeropress.com

No episode in the eight-year history of The Knowledge Project has made a bigger impact than when Naval Ravikant appeared on the show in 2017. Be it for longtime listeners who heard Naval when this episode first aired or for newer fans who missed Naval’s incredible insights, this is a must-listen to fans of The Knowledge Project and for those looking to hear from a deep thinker with an incredible wealth of insight.  On this episode Naval and Shane dive deep into reading habits, getting the best information from the most reliable sources, mental models for making critical high-stakes decisions, avoiding overcommitting and staying focused on the most important projects, how to facilitate better learning for our children and Naval’s definition for the meaning of life. Naval Ravikant is the former CEO and co-founder of AngelList, a platform for startups, investors, and job seekers dedicated to democratizing the investment process. He has also invested in more than 100 companies, including Uber, Twitter, Yammer, and many others. -- Want even more? Members get early access, hand-edited transcripts, member-only episodes, and so much more. Learn more here: https://fs.blog/membership/ Every Sunday our Brain Food newsletter shares timeless insights and ideas that you can use at work and home. Add it to your inbox: https://fs.blog/newsletter/ Follow Shane on Twitter at: https://twitter.com/ShaneAParrish Our Sponsors: MetaLab: Helping the world’s top companies design, build, and ship amazing products and services. https://www.metalab.com Aeropress: Press your perfect cup, every time. https://aeropress.com

In the fourth installment in a series of episodes, The Knowledge Project curates essential segments from six guests revolving around one theme: philosophy. This episode will help you control your anger in heated circumstances, explain how what you focus on makes achieving goals easier, gives you a recipe to increase happiness through gratitude, walk you through the three layers of emotion according to the stoics, teach you the importance of focusing on directives, and will explain how happiness isn’t a rate, but a rate of change. The guests on this episode are author Ryan Holiday (Episode 128), Associate Professor of Psychology at New York University Emily Bacletis (Episode 154), author and happiness-expert Neil Pasricha (Episode 72), a Distinguished University Professor and Professor of Philosophy at Georgetown University Nancy Sherman, (Episode 126), “philosopher-king” and author Derek Sivers (Episode 88), and professional heavy-weight boxer, philosopher, and poet Ed Latimore (Episode 22). --   Want even more? Members get early access, hand-edited transcripts, member-only episodes, and so much more. Learn more here: https://fs.blog/membership/ Every Sunday our Brain Food newsletter shares timeless insights and ideas that you can use at work and home. Add it to your inbox: https://fs.blog/newsletter/   Follow Shane on Twitter at: https://twitter.com/ShaneAParrish   Our Sponsors: MetaLab: Helping the world’s top companies design, build, and ship amazing products and services. https://www.metalab.com Aeropress: Press your perfect cup, every time. https://aeropress.com

On the first of two special episodes, acclaimed executive performance coach and doctor of psychology Dr. Julie Gurner goes in-depth on a variety of strategies and actionable advice that will help you perform up to your potential. During this portion of her interview, Dr. Gurner discusses discipline, motivation, the imaginary rules we learned as children that hold us back today, setting boundaries, the advantages of caring deeply and challenging directly, and much more.   Dr. Gurner has spent the past 14 years working with top percentile executives, talent, and teams operating in fast-paced, competitive environments. She specializes in improving personal productivity, focus, and decision-making strategies, as well as developing high performance cultures, teams, and executives emphasizing ownership and leadership. Check out Dr. Gurner's lecture on Mental Health for Kids in the Time of Coronovirus for The Kids Are In Charge, and you can sign up Dr. Gurner's Substack here. -- Want even more? Members get early access, hand-edited transcripts, member-only episodes, and so much more. Learn more here: https://fs.blog/membership/ Every Sunday our Brain Food newsletter shares timeless insights and ideas that you can use at work and home. Add it to your inbox: https://fs.blog/newsletter/ Follow Shane on Twitter at: https://twitter.com/ShaneAParrish Our Sponsors: MetaLab: Helping the world’s top companies design, build, and ship amazing products and services. https://www.metalab.com Aeropress: Press your perfect cup, every time. https://aeropress.com

What can the strategies of the chessboard teach us about how to succeed in life? Author, educator, entrepreneur, hedge fund advisor and US Chess Federation life master Adam Robinson makes a return appearance to The Knowledge Project to discuss some of the best ways to position yourself for success, including how to steer outcomes in your favor and what it takes to become a learning machine. He also weighs in on the potential uses of ChatGPT, investment strategies, and what it means to truly trust your instincts.   Robinson is the co-founder of The Princeton Review and the author of the only SAT test preparation book to become a New York Times bestseller. He is also a rated chess master with a Life Title who was actually personally mentored by Bobby Fischer, and, as the President of Robinson Global Strategies, a trusted advisor to some of the world's largest hedge funds. Robinson previously appeared on episodes 47 and 48 of The Knowledge Project. -- Want even more? Members get early access, hand-edited transcripts, member-only episodes, and so much more. Learn more here: https://fs.blog/membership/ Every Sunday our Brain Food newsletter shares timeless insights and ideas that you can use at work and home. Add it to your inbox: https://fs.blog/newsletter/ Follow Shane on Twitter at: https://twitter.com/ShaneAParrish Our Sponsors: MetaLab: Helping the world’s top companies design, build, and ship amazing products and services. https://www.metalab.com Aeropress: Press your perfect cup, every time. https://aeropress.com

Dr. Gina Poe has spent nearly four decades studying the science of sleep, and how we can all get a better night’s rest by making some simple changes in our lives. In this episode Poe dives deep into what she’s learned about sleep during her career, including the stages of sleep, why you’re waking up in the middle of the night, why some people remember their dreams, the best bedtime routines, and the real-life consequences when you miss a night’s sleep.   Dr. Poe is a professor of Integrative Biology and Physiology at UCLA, where she is also the Director of the school’s Sleep and Memory Laboratory, which investigates the mechanisms by which sleep traits serve learning and memory consolidation.  -- Want even more? Members get early access, hand-edited transcripts, member-only episodes, and so much more. Learn more here: https://fs.blog/membership/ Every Sunday our Brain Food newsletter shares timeless insights and ideas that you can use at work and home. Add it to your inbox: https://fs.blog/newsletter/ Follow Shane on Twitter at: https://twitter.com/ShaneAParrish Our Sponsors: MetaLab: Helping the world’s top companies design, build, and ship amazing products and services. https://www.metalab.com Aeropress: Press your perfect cup, every time. https://aeropress.com

When Kevin Kelly turned 68 years old, he began writing down notes and thoughts about all the lessons he’d learned in his life and the ones he wished he’d learned earlier. While those notes were originally intended for his young adult children, they eventually became the book Excellent Advice for Living: Wisdom I Wish I'd Known Earlier, which was released in May 2023. On this episode of the Knowledge Project, Kelly goes in-depth on some of the book’s most essential lessons, including learning, setting deadlines, perfection, forgiveness, living a meaningful life, reasoning, and so much more. Kelly is the co-founder of the magazine Wired, which twice won the National Magazine Award for General Excellence while he served as publication’s Executive Editor during the 1990s. He is also the co-chair of The Long Now Foundation, a membership organization that champions long-term thinking, as well as the founder of the popular Cool Tools website, which has been reviewing tools daily for 20 years. He is also an artist as well as the author of 14 books. -- Want even more? Members get early access, hand-edited transcripts, member-only episodes, and so much more. Learn more here: https://fs.blog/membership/ Every Sunday our Brain Food newsletter shares timeless insights and ideas that you can use at work and home. Add it to your inbox: https://fs.blog/newsletter/ Follow Shane on Twitter at: https://twitter.com/ShaneAParrish Our Sponsors: MetaLab: Helping the world’s top companies design, build, and ship amazing products and services. https://www.metalab.com Aeropress: Press your perfect cup, every time. https://aeropress.com

George Stalk Jr., business strategist and author of the book Competing Against Time, reveals the surprising ways companies can harness the power of time to blow past competitors, boost productivity, and send profits soaring. Competing Against Time is the ONE book that Apple CEO Tim Cook makes all his executives read. In this episode, you’ll learn the proven ‘hardball’ strategies that market leaders like Toyota use to win and discover the counterintuitive approach of paying more to ship and manufacture faster – and how those time advantages translate into unassailable market dominance. George shares eye-opening examples of how relentlessly reducing time and variance through the entire value chain creates an avalanche of competitive advantages nearly impossible for rivals to copy. But it’s not just about speed – it’s about building a fast-moving, low-variance organization primed to adapt, innovate, and seize opportunities others can’t even see. Whether you’re a business leader, entrepreneur or ambitious professional, this episode will give you a radical new lens for gaining an unbeatable edge in any industry. After listening, you’ll never think about business strategy or competition the same way again. -- Want even more? Members get early access, hand-edited transcripts, member-only episodes, and so much more. Learn more here: https://fs.blog/membership/ Every Sunday our Brain Food newsletter shares timeless insights and ideas that you can use at work and home. Add it to your inbox: https://fs.blog/newsletter/ Follow Shane on Twitter at: https://twitter.com/ShaneAParrish Our Sponsors: MetaLab: Helping the world’s top companies design, build, and ship amazing products and services. https://www.metalab.com Aeropress: Press your perfect cup, every time. https://aeropress.com

One of the main jobs Ravi Gupta has as a partner at venture capital giant Sequoia Capital is to help founders see the difference between fantasy and reality. On this episode of The Knowledge Project, Gupta dives deep into a wide range of topics that will help you better understand the realities of success, decision making, why it’s crucial to practice doing things you don’t want to do, the best advice he ever received, and the value of quality over quantity.   Gupta has served as a partner at Sequoia Capital since 2019. Prior to joining the world of venture capital he served as the Chief Operating Officer and Chief Financial Officer for Instacart, and he also spent a decade working in private equity with KKR & Co.  -- Want even more? Members get early access, hand-edited transcripts, member-only episodes, and so much more. Learn more here: https://fs.blog/membership/ Every Sunday our Brain Food newsletter shares timeless insights and ideas that you can use at work and home. Add it to your inbox: https://fs.blog/newsletter/ Follow Shane on Twitter at: https://twitter.com/ShaneAParrish Our Sponsors: MetaLab: Helping the world’s top companies design, build, and ship amazing products and services. https://www.metalab.com Aeropress: Press your perfect cup, every time. https://aeropress.com

Jason Karp was living what he thought was a successful life in his 20s. He graduated near the top of his class from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, and was well on his way to becoming a successful hedge fund manager. But when he noticed a series of health issues cropping up - including the frightening diagnosis that he would go blind by the age of 30 - he made a series of life-altering decisions focused on his health and wellness. On this episode Karp dives deep into the changes he made that saved his life, and offers valuable insights into what you can do to live a healthier life. Karp is the Founder and CEO of HumanCo., a private holding company that invests in and builds brands focused on healthier living and sustainability, including Snow Days, Cosmic Bliss, and Against The Grain. He also co-founded Hu Products and Hu Kitchen, and Hu is now one of the fastest growing snacking companies in the U.S. with a strict focus on transparent, simple ingredients to help everyone live a healthier life. Prior to founding Hu, Karp was the founder  CEO of Tourbillon Capital Partners, an investment fund that managed over $4 billion. -- Want even more? Members get early access, hand-edited transcripts, member-only episodes, and so much more. Learn more here: https://fs.blog/membership/ Every Sunday our Brain Food newsletter shares timeless insights and ideas that you can use at work and home. Add it to your inbox: https://fs.blog/newsletter/ Follow Shane on Twitter at: https://twitter.com/ShaneAParrish Our Sponsors: MetaLab: Helping the world’s top companies design, build, and ship amazing products and services. https://www.metalab.com Aeropress: Press your perfect cup, every time. https://aeropress.com

Visionary technology and business leader Nathan Myhrvold just might be the most interesting person in the world, and in this episode of The Knowledge Project he dives deep into some of the most pressing questions facing our world today. Where will technology take us in the future? Should we trust artificial intelligence? Where have we gone wrong in protecting our planet? How do we reverse the effects of what we’ve already done? Myhrvold answers all these and much, much more.   Myhrvold is a prominent scientist, technologist, inventor, author, and food photographer, and the former Chief Technology Officer at Microsoft. He’s also the co-founder of patent portfolio developer Intellectual Ventures, the principal author of the culinary book Modernist Cuisine: The Art and Science of Cooking, part of a team that won first place at the World Barbecue Championships, and he completed his postdoctoral fellowship under legendary theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking. -- Want even more? Members get early access, hand-edited transcripts, member-only episodes, and so much more. Learn more here: https://fs.blog/membership/ Every Sunday our Brain Food newsletter shares timeless insights and ideas that you can use at work and home. Add it to your inbox: https://fs.blog/newsletter/ Follow Shane on Twitter at: https://twitter.com/ShaneAParrish Our Sponsors: MetaLab: Helping the world’s top companies design, build, and ship amazing products and services. https://www.metalab.com Aeropress: Press your perfect cup, every time. https://aeropress.com

Get ready to upgrade your life with executive and leadership coach Jim Dethmer's powerful Four Pillars of Integrity. From owning your mistakes to boosting your emotional intelligence, Dethmer shares essential strategies to improve your relationships and live more purposefully. As a coach to over 150 CEOs and founding partner at The Conscious Leadership Group, Dethmer brings experience and results. And if you want more from Jim Dethmer, don't miss his first appearance on The Knowledge Project. -- Want even more? Members get early access, hand-edited transcripts, member-only episodes, and so much more. Learn more here: https://fs.blog/membership/ Every Sunday our Brain Food newsletter shares timeless insights and ideas that you can use at work and home. Add it to your inbox: https://fs.blog/newsletter/ Follow Shane on Twitter at: https://twitter.com/ShaneAParrish Our Sponsors: MetaLab: Helping the world’s top companies design, build, and ship amazing products and services. https://www.metalab.com Aeropress: Press your perfect cup, every time. https://aeropress.com

In the third installment in a series of episodes, The Knowledge Project curates essential segments from five guests revolving around one theme: leadership. This episode helps put a unique definition on leadership and examines whether or not good leaders are context-dependent, the differences between a great leader and an average leader, how great leaders should balance feedback, the difference between being right and doing right, a playbook for managing teams, and the importance of radical candor. The guests on this episode are author Jim Collins (Episode 61, 110), author and leadership expert Jennifer Garvey Berger (Episode 43), co-founder of the Admired Leadership Institute Randall Stutman (Episode 96), the President and COO of Athletic Greens Kat Cole (Episode 117), the former CEO of Ford Alan Mulally (Episode 151), and co-founder of the Conscious Leadership Group Diana Chapman (Episode 130).   -- Want even more? Members get early access, hand-edited transcripts, member-only episodes, and so much more. Learn more here: https://fs.blog/membership/ Every Sunday our Brain Food newsletter shares timeless insights and ideas that you can use at work and home. Add it to your inbox: https://fs.blog/newsletter/ Follow Shane on Twitter at: https://twitter.com/ShaneAParrish Our Sponsors: MetaLab: Helping the world’s top companies design, build, and ship amazing products and services. https://www.metalab.com Aeropress: Press your perfect cup, every time. https://aeropress.com

Are you scrolling on your phone constantly? How badly do you crave that morning cup of coffee? Are you compulsively gambling, drinking, shopping, or even reading romance novels just to fall asleep? The potential for addiction is everywhere in our society, and on this episode of The Knowledge Project psychiatrist and author Dr. Anna Lembke discusses dopamine, addictive behaviors, warning signs and treatment for addiction, and how our brains handle all that pleasure and pain in life.   Dr. Lembke is professor of psychiatry at Stanford University School of Medicine and chief of the Stanford Addiction Medicine Dual Diagnosis Clinic. She appeared in the 2020 Netflix documentary The Social Dilemma to discuss the addictive nature of social media, and she is the author of the 2021 New York Times bestseller Dopamine Nation: Finding Balance in the Age of Indulgence, which explores how to moderate compulsive overconsumption in a dopamine-overloaded world. -- Want even more? Members get early access, hand-edited transcripts, member-only episodes, and so much more. Learn more here: https://fs.blog/membership/ Every Sunday our Brain Food newsletter shares timeless insights and ideas that you can use at work and home. Add it to your inbox: https://fs.blog/newsletter/ Follow Shane on Twitter at: https://twitter.com/ShaneAParrish Our Sponsors: MetaLab: Helping the world’s top companies design, build, and ship amazing products and services. https://www.metalab.com Aeropress: Press your perfect cup, every time. https://aeropress.com

What if you could change the way your company operates, even if you’re not the CEO? Aaron Dignan believes it’s possible, and in this episode he’s offering a wealth of insights into how organizations are run, the perils of stagnant bureaucracy, and all the various hurdles keeping us from doing our best work. As the founder of The Ready - a global organizational transformation and coaching practice - Dignan helps companies large and small adopt new forms of self-organization and dynamic teaming. He’s worked with clients such as American Express, Microsoft, Citibank, Hyatt, Johnson & Johnson, Airbnb, and Sweetgreen. He’s also an active angel investor who helps build partnerships between the startups and end-ups he advises. Dignan is also the author of Brave New Work, co-host of the Brave New Work podcast and founder of Murmur.  -- Want even more? Members get early access, hand-edited transcripts, member-only episodes, and so much more. Learn more here: https://fs.blog/membership/ Every Sunday our Brain Food newsletter shares timeless insights and ideas that you can use at work and home. Add it to your inbox: https://fs.blog/newsletter/ Follow Shane on Twitter at: https://twitter.com/ShaneAParrish Our Sponsors: MetaLab: Helping the world’s top companies design, build, and ship amazing products and services. https://www.metalab.com Aeropress: Press your perfect cup, every time. https://aeropress.com Athletic Greens: Comprehensive nutrition and gut health support in one simple scoop.

Acclaimed executive coach and leadership development specialist Carolyn Coughlin calls on more than a decade of experience to help you become a better listener. She goes in-depth on why the language we use with each other and with ourselves is so important, the three different types of listening, the most common skill she teaches that makes an immediate impact, and how to help your kids become better listeners. Coughlin is a co-founder at Cultivating Leadership, a leadership development consultancy firm that helps leaders and organizations grow and lead in the face of complexity, ambiguity, and change. She also spent nine years with leadership consulting firm Kenning Associates and more than five years with McKinsey & Company. -- Want even more? Members get early access, hand-edited transcripts, member-only episodes, and so much more. Learn more here: https://fs.blog/membership/ Every Sunday our Brain Food newsletter shares timeless insights and ideas that you can use at work and home. Add it to your inbox: https://fs.blog/newsletter/ Follow Shane on Twitter at: https://twitter.com/ShaneAParrish Our Sponsors: MetaLab: Helping the world’s top companies design, build, and ship amazing products and services. https://www.metalab.com Aeropress: Press your perfect cup, every time. https://aeropress.com Athletic Greens: Comprehensive nutrition and gut health support in one simple scoop.

Author and Buddhist practitioner Jack Kornfield sits down for a candid, in-depth interview to help you suppress self-doubt and find inner calm.  Calling on decades of experience as one of the key teachers to introduce Buddhist mindfulness practice to the West, Kornfield offers valuable insights into how to best deal with conflict and stress in your life and how to handle harmful outside influences in healthy, constructive ways.   Kornfield trained as a Buddhist monk in the monasteries of Thailand, India and Burma. He has taught meditation internationally since 1974, co-founding the Insight Meditation Society in Barre, Mass., and the Spirit Rock Center in Woodacre, California. His books have been translated into 20 languages and sold over a million copies. -- Want even more? Members get early access, hand-edited transcripts, member-only episodes, and so much more. Learn more here: https://fs.blog/membership/ Every Sunday our Brain Food newsletter shares timeless insights and ideas that you can use at work and home. Add it to your inbox: https://fs.blog/newsletter/ Follow Shane on Twitter at: https://twitter.com/ShaneAParrish Our Sponsors: MetaLab: Helping the world’s top companies design, build, and ship amazing products and services. https://www.metalab.com Aeropress: Press your perfect cup, every time. https://aeropress.com Athletic Greens: Comprehensive nutrition and gut health support in one simple scoop.

The Knowledge Project closes 2022 with a look back at some of the best conversations of the year. Featuring interviews from 10 of the most downloaded and acclaimed episodes of 2022, this collection of conversations offers a variety of insights into evidence-based approaches to happiness, getting things done, small things you can do to make life great, eliminating drama, impulse control, making faster and better decisions, the core human nature that drives us all, sleeping better, slowing down your aging process, and what really matters.  Guests on this episode include: Happiness expert Laurie Santos, former Ford Motor Company CEO Alan Mulally, executive coach Marshall Goldsmith, leadership expert Diana Chapman, leading neuroscientist Dr. Andrew Huberman, LinkedIn founder Reid Hoffman, entrepreneur and venture capitalist Kunal Shah, sleep scientist Matthew Walker, aging expert David Sinclair, and business leader Sarah Jones Simmer. -- Want even more? Members get early access, hand-edited transcripts, member-only episodes, and so much more. Learn more here: https://fs.blog/membership/ Every Sunday our Brain Food newsletter shares timeless insights and ideas that you can use at work and home. Add it to your inbox: https://fs.blog/newsletter/ Follow Shane on Twitter at: https://twitter.com/ShaneAParrish Our Sponsors: MetaLab: Helping the world’s top companies design, build, and ship amazing products and services. https://www.metalab.com Aeropress: Press your perfect cup, every time. https://aeropress.com Athletic Greens: Comprehensive nutrition and gut health support in one simple scoop.

Social psychologist Emily Balcetis has devoted her career to understanding how people’s perceptions of the world fuel their motivations and life goals. In this episode she goes in-depth on that wealth of research, what she’s learned from studying some of the world’s most successful people and how they set goals, and how you can get better results in life if you change the way you see the world and where you place your focus.   Balcetis is an Associate Professor of Psychology at New York University (NYU), focused on how the motivations, emotions, needs, and goals people hold impact the basic ways people perceive, interpret, and ultimately react to information around them. She is also the author of the book Clearer, Closer, Better: How Successful People See the World, which was released in 2020. -- Want even more? Members get early access, hand-edited transcripts, member-only episodes, and so much more. Learn more here: https://fs.blog/membership/ Every Sunday our Brain Food newsletter shares timeless insights and ideas that you can use at work and home. Add it to your inbox: https://fs.blog/newsletter/ Follow Shane on Twitter at: https://twitter.com/ShaneAParrish Our Sponsors: MetaLab: Helping the world’s top companies design, build, and ship amazing products and services. https://www.metalab.com Aeropress: Press your perfect cup, every time. https://aeropress.com House of Macadamias: Nourish your daily routine, and nurture your lifestyle. https://www.houseofmacadamias.com/TKP

Keith Creel calls on nearly a decade of experience working with the Canadian Pacific Railway to discuss his strategies for leadership and how he’s turned the company around over five years in charge.   We discuss all you need to know about the rail industry and how it affects our daily lives, what changes he sees coming in the future for the industry, how he thinks about leadership in times of change, and how Canadian Pacific secured a $27 billion deal to take over its rival, Kansas City Southern.   Creel became the President and CEO of Canadian Pacific in 2017, giving him executive control of one of the largest Class I rail systems in North America, with more than 13,000 miles of rail network stretching from the Atlantic to the Pacific. In 2021 he helped broker a deal that marked the first major merger in the railroad industry in the U.S. in two decades and created the first freight rail network linking Canada, the U.S. and Mexico. -- Want even more? Supporting Members get early access, hand-edited transcripts, member-only episodes, and so much more. Learn more here: https://fs.blog/membership/   Every Sunday, our Brain Food newsletter gives you a mental edge in 5 minutes with timeless insights you can use. Add it to your inbox: https://fs.blog/newsletter/   Follow Shane on Twitter at: https://twitter.com/ShaneAParrish   Our Sponsors:   MetaLab: Helping the world’s top companies design, build, and ship amazing products and services. https://www.metalab.com   Aeropress: Press your perfect cup, every time. https://aeropress.com   House of Macadamias: Nourish your daily routine, and nurture your lifestyle. https://www.houseofmacadamias.com/TKP

My guest today is Shopify co-founder and CEO Tobi Lütke.  We discuss the differences between founders and professional managers, how he’s scaled with Shopify, the constant fight against bureaucracy, how he thinks about innovation in a large company, and how he manages to keep his head when everyone else is losing theirs.   A coder at heart who emigrated from Germany to Canada two decades ago, Lütke co-founded the e-commerce giant Shopify in Ottawa in 2006. The Globe and Mail named Lütke "CEO of the Year" in November 2014,  and in May 2021 the company reported that it had more than 1.7 million businesses in approximately 175 countries using its platform. As of July 2022, Shopify is among the top 20 largest publicly traded Canadian companies by market capitalization, and the company’s total revenue for 2021 was $4.611 billion. Lütke previously appeared on Episode 41 of The Knowledge Project.   --   Want even more? Supporting Members get early access, hand-edited transcripts, member-only episodes, and so much more. Learn more.   Every Sunday, our Brain Food newsletter gives you a mental edge in 5 minutes with timeless insights you can use. Add it to your inbox.   Follow Shane on Twitter.   Our Sponsors:   MetaLab: Helping the world’s top companies design, build, and ship amazing products and services.   Aeropress: Press your perfect cup, every time.   House of Macadamias: Nourish your daily routine, and nurture your lifestyle.

Widely regarded as one of the top business leaders of his generation, Alan Mulally joins the show to discuss the formation of his leadership strategy and how you can apply his lessons to your life and business. On this episode Mulally breaks down the principles of how a team can work together toward a larger goal, creating a culture of love by design, the role of the leader, what happens when people opt out of working together, how to use the ideas of working together in your family life, and so much more.   Mulally is perhaps best known as the former President and CEO of the Ford Motor Company, which was struggling during the late-2000s recession before Mulally used his teamwork-oriented philosophy to save the company. Under Mulally’s leadership from 2006-14, Ford was the only major car manufacturer to avoid a government bailout, and Mulally was named one of the 100 Most Influential People in the World by Time. Prior to joining Ford, Mulally spent more than three decades at Boeing, where he eventually served as an Executive Vice President and CEO of Boeing Commercial Airplanes. -- Want even more? Members get early access, hand-edited transcripts, member-only episodes, and so much more. Learn more here: https://fs.blog/membership/ Every Sunday our Brain Food newsletter shares timeless insights and ideas that you can use at work and home. Add it to your inbox: https://fs.blog/newsletter/ Follow Shane on Twitter at: https://twitter.com/ShaneAParrish Support The Knowledge Project's Sponsors: MetaLab: Helping the world’s top companies design, build, and ship amazing products and services. Aeropress: Press your perfect cup, every time. House of Macadamias: Nourish your daily routine, nurture your lifestyle. 

This episode is packed with wisdom from previous guests on the art of making better decisions.  We discuss the three types of decision-makers, how to control your emotions when making decisions, why it’s crucial to look at every decision differently, the processes for coming to the right decision, and how to learn from your mistakes when you get it wrong. The guests on this episode are author Ventakesh Rao (Episode 7), psychologist, author and professional poker player Maria Konnikova (Episode 89), Stripe co-founder Patrick Collison (Episode 32), cognitive-behavioral decision science author and professional poker player Annie Duke (Episode 37), and Shopify co-founder Tobi Lutke (Episode 41).   Transcript: https://fs.blog/knowledge-project-podcast-transcripts/tkp-insights-decision-making/ -- Want even more? Members get early access, hand-edited transcripts, member-only episodes, and so much more. Learn more here: https://fs.blog/membership/ Every Sunday, our Brain Food newsletter shares timeless insights and ideas you can use at work and home. Add it to your inbox: https://fs.blog/newsletter/ Follow Shane on Twitter at: https://twitter.com/ShaneAParrish

Shane's guest on this episode of the show is New York Times bestselling author Neil Pasricha, who returns for his second appearance on The Knowledge Project. We discuss the importance of gratitude and how simple acts can change the way you feel, where confidence comes from, the specific routines and habits you can use to counter anxiety, the recipe for building resilience, and so much more. Pasricha is the author of seven books which collectively have sold over 2 million copies and spent over 200 weeks on bestseller lists, including The Happiness Equation and Two-Minute Mornings. His first TED talk, “The 3 A’s of Awesome,” is ranked as one of the 10 Most Inspiring of all time, and he also hosts a podcast called 3 Books, where he uncovers the 1,000 most formative books in the world.    Neil previously appeared on Episode 72 of the The Knowledge Project, one of the show’s most downloaded conversations to date. His new book, Our Book of Awesome, will be released Dec. 6. -- Want even more? Members get early access, hand-edited transcripts, member-only episodes, and so much more. Learn more here: https://fs.blog/membership/ Every Sunday our Brain Food newsletter shares timeless insights and ideas that you can use at work and home. Add it to your inbox: https://fs.blog/newsletter/ Follow Shane on Twitter at: https://twitter.com/ShaneAParrish

Artificial intelligence researcher and author Kenneth Stanley has argued that “as soon as you create an objective, you ruin your ability to reach it.” So what should you consider when thinking about your objectives, and what will set you up for success? On this episode Stanley discusses how to set the right objectives for your life, why we’re too tied to accomplishments, what role accountability plays in our education system, the value of peer review,  why transformative innovations are always counter intuitive, and so much more. Stanley is the co–author of Why Greatness Cannot Be Planned: The Myth of the Objective,  as well as the former Head of Core AI Research at Uber AI and the Open-Endedness Team Leader at OpenAI. He has also served as the Charles Millican Professor in Computer Science at University of Central Florida. -- Want even more? Members get early access, hand-edited transcripts, member-only episodes, and so much more. Learn more here: https://fs.blog/membership/ Every Sunday our Brain Food newsletter shares timeless insights and ideas that you can use at work and home. Add it to your inbox: https://fs.blog/newsletter/ Follow Shane on Twitter at: https://twitter.com/ShaneAParrish

Few figures have shaped the way we think about business over the past 20 years more than Reid Hoffman. The co-founder of LinkedIn and former PayPal executive is also a wildly successful venture capitalist, author and podcaster, but he didn’t get to his place as a Silicon Valley giant without making plenty of crucial decisions. On this episode Hoffman discusses lessons learned from decades spent as a hands-on operator and investor, including what he knows about scaling that others miss, the three principles of decision making, how to constantly evolve your learning pattern, and why the best leaders adapt to the crisis at hand. Hoffman is perhaps best known for co-founding the professional networking site LinkedIn, which he started in 2003 and later sold for a reported $26.2 billion to Microsoft in 2016. Prior to founding LinkedIn, Hoffman was one of the first employees at PayPal, where he served as an executive vice president. He is also a partner at the venture capital firm Greylock Partners, an investor in Airbnb, the author of a series of successful business books including Masters of Scale, and the host of the podcast of the same name. Want to hear the entire episode with Reid Hoffman? Become a member today! Members get early access, hand-edited transcripts, member-only episodes, and so much more. Learn more here: https://fs.blog/membership/ Every Sunday our Brain Food newsletter shares timeless insights and ideas that you can use at work and home. Add it to your inbox: https://fs.blog/newsletter/ Follow Shane on Twitter at: https://twitter.com/ShaneAParrish

My guest today is acclaimed psychologist and longtime Stanford University professor Barbara Tversky who calls on her nearly 50 years in the field of cognitive psychology for an in-depth discussion about how our minds work. We discuss the Nine Laws of Cognition, why action shapes thought, how the language we use changes what we think, tactics to communicate better on Zoom, why she dove into the work of Leonardo da Vinci, when to use charts and when to avoid them, the importance of perspective taking, learned knowledge vs. earned knowledge, and so much more. -- Want even more? Members get early access, hand-edited transcripts, member-only episodes, and so much more. Learn more here: https://fs.blog/membership/ Every Sunday our Brain Food newsletter shares timeless insights and ideas that you can use at work and home. Add it to your inbox: https://fs.blog/newsletter/ Follow Shane on Twitter at: https://twitter.com/ShaneAParrish

LA Rams General Manager Les Snead dives deep into some of the strategies that made the Rams a Super Bowl Champion, including assessing character, how to draft the right player, the complicated nature of trading players, how to build a team, hiring the right coach, hidden performance, why it’s so important to be relentlessly curious, and so much more.   A native of football-crazed Eufaula, Alabama, Snead served as a graduate assistant at Auburn University before he spent 14 years as an NFL scout for the Jacksonville Jaguars and Atlanta Falcons. He became the Rams’ GM in 2012 and over time built a reputation as an executive willing to make insightful draft picks as well as blockbuster trades, including his move to draft future Hall of Famer Aaron Donald in 2014 and to trade for superstars Von Miller and Matthew Stafford on the way to winning the Super Bowl in February. -- Want even more? Members get early access, hand-edited transcripts, member-only episodes, and so much more. Learn more here: https://fs.blog/membership/ Every Sunday our Brain Food newsletter shares timeless insights and ideas that you can use at work and home. Add it to your inbox: https://fs.blog/newsletter/ Follow Shane on Twitter at: https://twitter.com/ShaneAParrish

My guest today is celebrated research psychologist Gary Klein who has spent nearly 50 years studying how and why people make the decisions they do. We discuss naturalistic decision making, the crucial difference between experience and expertise, why some people stagnate and others progress, Cognitive Flexibility Theory, the role of storytelling, surprising ways to gain insights, fixation errors, cognitive biases, mental models, accelerated learning, and so much more. -- Want even more? Members get early access, hand-edited transcripts, member-only episodes, and so much more. Learn more here: https://fs.blog/membership/ Every Sunday our Brain Food newsletter shares timeless insights and ideas that you can use at work and home. Add it to your inbox: https://fs.blog/newsletter/ Follow Shane on Twitter at: https://twitter.com/ShaneAParrish

My guest is businessman and investor Andrew Wilkinson, who has made a successful career out of channeling his entrepreneurial spirit, but he knows that sometimes that energy can be a double-edged sword. We discuss the lessons learned acquiring 40 companies, why he struggled to find happiness and what changed, mimetic desire, competing with venture-backed companies, hiring and firing CEOs, getting back up after million dollar mistakes, and so much more. -- Want even more? Members get early access, hand-edited transcripts, member-only episodes, and so much more. Learn more here: https://fs.blog/membership/ Every Sunday our Brain Food newsletter shares timeless insights and ideas that you can use at work and home. Add it to your inbox: https://fs.blog/newsletter/ Follow Shane on Twitter at: https://twitter.com/ShaneAParrish

My guest today is Marshall Goldsmith, one of the world’s leading executive coaches. We discuss the surprising lessons he’s learned coaching some of the best CEOs in the world, where confidence comes from, common mistakes leaders make, why changing behavior is easier than changing perception, how to change others’ perceptions when you change your behavior, the three words that kill any conversation, the relationship between intensity and consistency, and so much more. -- Want even more? Members get early access, hand-edited transcripts, member-only episodes, and so much more. Learn more here: https://fs.blog/membership/ Every Sunday our Brain Food newsletter shares timeless insights and ideas that you can use at work and home. Add it to your inbox: https://fs.blog/newsletter/ Follow Shane on Twitter at: https://twitter.com/ShaneAParrish

My guest is Indian entrepreneur and venture capitalist Kunal Shah who calls on his decades of entrepreneurial experience to discuss what he’s learned about what motivates people, and how observing trends hiding in plain sight has made him a runaway success in business. We also discuss the many cultural differences between India and the West, what he learned growing up in the family business and how he applies it today, observing reality, why he dropped out of an MBA program, strategies for decision-making, and so much more. -- Want even more? Members get early access, hand-edited transcripts, member-only episodes, and so much more. Learn more here: https://fs.blog/membership/ Every Sunday our Brain Food newsletter shares timeless insights and ideas that you can use at work and home. Add it to your inbox: https://fs.blog/newsletter/ Follow Shane on Twitter at: https://twitter.com/ShaneAParrish

In the first of a new series of themed episodes of the podcast, The Knowledge Project curates essential segments from five different past episodes all revolving around one theme: sex and relationships. Combining some of the most illuminating insights from the leading minds in the fields of psychology and sex therapy, this episode breaks down how we first find our mate, the important conversations to have early in a relationship, the different kinds of sex we have, the differences and connections between desire and arousal, and how healthy lines of communication can improve your relationship and make you a better business leader. The guests on this episode are clinical psychologist and couples therapist Dr. Sue Johnson (Episode 62), psychotherapist Esther Perel (Episode 71), sex educator and author Emily Nagoski (Episode 66), psychologist and sex therapist Suzanne Iasenza (Episode 75), and business leader Kat Cole (Episode 117). -- Want even more? Members get early access, hand-edited transcripts, member-only episodes, and so much more. Learn more here: https://fs.blog/membership/ Every Sunday our Brain Food newsletter shares timeless insights and ideas that you can use at work and home. Add it to your inbox: https://fs.blog/newsletter/ Follow Shane on Twitter at: https://twitter.com/ShaneAParrish

Can you accurately identify what aspects of life make you happy? Would you even know if you found true happiness? Leading psychology professor and happiness expert Laurie Santos dives deep on all the factors that contribute to our happiness, why we spend so much energy pursuing it, some evidence-based methods to boost your happiness, why it’s crucial to protect yourself from unhappy people, and so much more. Santos is a Professor of Psychology and the Head of Silliman College at Yale University. Since 2018 she’s been teaching Psychology and the Good Life, which is one of the most popular courses at Yale and at one point included approximately a quarter of the school’s undergraduates. She has also turned her course into a popular podcast series, The Happiness Lab. -- Want even more? Members get early access, hand-edited transcripts, member-only episodes, and so much more. Learn more here: https://fs.blog/membership/ Every Sunday our Brain Food newsletter shares timeless insights and ideas that you can use at work and home. Add it to your inbox: https://fs.blog/newsletter/ Follow Shane on Twitter at: https://twitter.com/ShaneAParrish

Is there really a straight line between you and the things you want in life? Entrepreneur and educator Luke Burgis goes deep on how understanding mimetic desire can help you better connect the dots between where you are now, and where you want to go. Burgis breaks down the theories behind mimetic desire and the teachings of René Girard, why all of our behaviors are imative, why we desire things we don’t need, and why this all leads to missing out on aspects of life that are far more meaningful and valuable.   Burgis has co-created and led four companies in wellness, consumer products, and technology. He’s currently Entrepreneur-in-Residence and Director of Programs at the Ciocca Center for Principled Entrepreneurship, where he also teaches business at The Catholic University of America. He is also the author of Wanting: The Power of Mimetic Desire in Everyday Life. -- Want even more? Members get early access, hand-edited transcripts, member-only episodes, and so much more. Learn more here: https://fs.blog/membership/ Every Sunday our Brain Food newsletter shares timeless insights and ideas that you can use at work and home. Add it to your inbox: https://fs.blog/newsletter/ Follow Shane on Twitter at: https://twitter.com/ShaneAParrish  

Justin Su'a calls on more than a decade of working with the world’s top athletes to discuss how to improve your mental performance. Su’a explores the strategies you need to be your best mentally with lessons that resonate well beyond the world of sports — including how to connect and build trust, the relationship between consistency and intensity, the fragility of confidence, the difference between success and talent, how to raise the bar of your own performance, and so much more. Su'a has spent the past three years as the Head of Mental Performance for the Tampa Bay Rays of Major League Baseball, where he works with players to optimize their mental performance and perform under enormous pressure. He has also worked for the Boston Red Sox as well as the NFL’s Cleveland Browns, and as the Head of Mental Conditioning Department for the IMG Academy, which develops star athletes of the future. He’s also written two books on the subject of developing mental toughness in adolescents. -- Want even more? Members get early access, hand-edited transcripts, member-only episodes, and so much more. Learn more here: https://fs.blog/membership/ Every Sunday our Brain Food newsletter shares timeless insights and ideas that you can use at work and home. Add it to your inbox: https://fs.blog/newsletter/ Follow Shane on Twitter at: https://twitter.com/ShaneAParrish

Biologist and genetics expert Dr. David Sinclair is out to prove he can live past 100 years old, and he thinks you can too. On this episode Sinclair goes in-depth on the process of aging and the techniques you can incorporate into your life that help you live a longer, healthier life, including optimizing your diet, the benefits of exercise, the role of a positive attitude, the importance of sleep, the three supplements he takes every day, why it’s never too late to slow the process of aging, and so much more.   Dr. Sinclair is a professor of genetics and co-director of the Paul F. Glenn Center for Biology of Aging Research at Harvard Medical School, and he is best known for his research on aging, with a focus on epigenetics. He’s been called one of the 100 Most Influential People in the World by Time, and in 2019 he released the New York Times bestselling book, Lifespan: Why We Age – and Why We Don't Have To. -- Want even more? Members get early access, hand-edited transcripts, member-only episodes, and so much more. Learn more here: https://fs.blog/membership/ Every Sunday our Brain Food newsletter shares timeless insights and ideas that you can use at work and home. Add it to your inbox: https://fs.blog/newsletter/ Follow Shane on Twitter at: https://twitter.com/ShaneAParrish

Sarah Jones Simmer calls on her years of experience as an advisor, investor, and top-level executive to offer a series of crucial career tips, and discuss how work helped rehabilitate her following a frightening cancer diagnosis. Simmer goes deep on scaling a business, making the right hire for your company, female-led companies, fundraising, setting boundaries, and how she learned to re-focus on the big deals in life. Simmer is the CEO of Found, a company focused on making evidence-based, sustainable weight care for all. She joined the company in September 2021 after serving as the Chief Strategy Officer at Bumble, Inc., the parent company of the wildly popular relationship app. During her time with Bumble she was responsible for core strategy, international growth, marketing initiatives, business operations, and expanding Bumble’s rapidly growing team. She also led the investment strategy for the Bumble Fund, the company’s early-stage investing vehicle. -- Want even more? Members get early access, hand-edited transcripts, member-only episodes, and so much more. Learn more here: https://fs.blog/membership/ Every Sunday our Brain Food newsletter shares timeless insights and ideas that you can use at work and home. Add it to your inbox: https://fs.blog/newsletter/ Follow Shane on Twitter at: https://twitter.com/ShaneAParrish

Balaji Srinivasan makes a return appearance to The Knowledge Project, this time to go in-depth on Web3, Crypto, and the state of the world today. Srinivasan offers his unfiltered thoughts on the advantages and disadvantages of established democracies, the Russia-Ukraine situation, housing as an investment, education, legacy wealth, and which country he would bet on to dominate the future. Srinivasan is the former CTO of Coinbase and General Partner at Andreessen Horowitz, and is an early investor in many successful tech companies and crypto protocols. He is also the author of the book The Network State: How To Start a New Country. -- Want even more? Members get early access, hand-edited transcripts, member-only episodes, and so much more. Learn more here: https://fs.blog/membership/ Every Sunday our Brain Food newsletter shares timeless insights and ideas that you can use at work and home. Add it to your inbox: https://fs.blog/newsletter/ Follow Shane on Twitter at: https://twitter.com/ShaneAParrish

Leading neuroscientist and Stanford University School of Medicine professor Dr. Andrew Huberman goes in-depth on how small behaviors can make a huge impact on your health.  Dr. Huberman offers essential insights into how light affects your sleep and your energy levels, which supplements actually work, tips to control bad impulses, exercises to slow the aging process, and so much more.   Dr. Huberman has made numerous significant contributions to the fields of brain development, brain function and neural plasticity, which is the ability of our nervous system to rewire and learn new behaviors, skills and cognitive functioning. Huberman is a McKnight Foundation and Pew Foundation Fellow and was awarded the Cogan Award in 2017, given to the scientist making the most significant discoveries in the study of vision. His lab’s most recent work focuses on the influence of vision and respiration on human performance and brain states, such as fear and courage.   -- Want even more? Members get early access, hand-edited transcripts, member-only episodes, and so much more. Learn more here: https://fs.blog/membership/ Every Sunday our Brain Food newsletter shares timeless insights and ideas that you can use at work and home. Add it to your inbox: https://fs.blog/newsletter/ Follow Shane on Twitter at: https://twitter.com/ShaneAParrish

Retired United States Army General Stanley McChrystal calls on more than three decades of military experience to discuss the fundamental tenets of leadership, and practical advice for taking calculated risks and making important decisions. This wide-ranging conversation includes insights on mitigating risk, making decisions under uncertainty, why civilian leadership is tougher than military leadership, developing mental toughness, teaching discipline, and so much more.   A veteran of four U.S. wars in the Middle East, McChrystal was a four-star general best known for his command of Joint Special Operations Command from 2003-08, when he oversaw special operations in both Iraq and Afghanistan. His troops were responsible for both the capture of Saddam Hussein in 2003 and the 2006 death of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the leader of Al-Qaeda in Iraq. After retiring from the military in 2010 he joined Yale University as a Jackson Institute for Global Affairs senior fellow, and in 2011 he founded a consultancy firm, McChrystal Group, which helps organizations tap into human potential in service of stronger business outcomes.   -- Want even more? Members get early access, hand-edited transcripts, member-only episodes, and so much more. Learn more here: https://fs.blog/membership/ Every Sunday our Brain Food newsletter shares timeless insights and ideas that you can use at work and home. Add it to your inbox: https://fs.blog/newsletter/ Follow Shane on Twitter at: https://twitter.com/ShaneAParrish

Renowned sleep scientist Matthew Walker discusses everything you need to know about what a better night’s sleep can do for your life, and how to prioritize and perfect the way you sleep. Walker breaks down how to identify when you need more sleep, how to deal with insomnia, the best devices to track your sleep, and some unconventional sleep hygiene tips, including why it’s never a good idea to count sheep. Walker is a Professor of Neuroscience and Psychology at the University of California-Berkeley, and is also the founder and director of the Center for Human Sleep Science. He has published over 100 scientific research studies on the impact of sleep on human brain function, and he is the author of the 2017 book, Why We Sleep: Unlocking the Power of Sleep and Dreams.   -- Want even more? Members get early access, hand-edited transcripts, member-only episodes, and so much more. Learn more here: https://fs.blog/membership/ Every Sunday our Brain Food newsletter shares timeless insights and ideas that you can use at work and home. Add it to your inbox: https://fs.blog/newsletter/ Follow Shane on Twitter at: https://twitter.com/ShaneAParrish

Acclaimed leadership advisor Diana Chapman offers a masterclass in changing the way you respond to challenges, understanding where you are in the drama triangle so you can eliminate drama, and the power of the whole body yes. You’ll walk away from this episode a better leader, partner, and parent.     Chapman is a co-founder of The Conscious Leadership Group and has served as an advisor to more than 1,000 exceptional leaders and their teams. She also co-authored the best-selling book The 15 Commitments of Conscious Leadership: A New Paradigm for Sustainable Success, in 2015. -- Want even more? Members get early access, hand-edited transcripts, member-only episodes, and so much more. Learn more here: https://fs.blog/membership/ Every Sunday our Brain Food newsletter shares timeless insights and ideas that you can use at work and home. Add it to your inbox: https://fs.blog/newsletter/ Follow Shane on Twitter at: https://twitter.com/ShaneAParrish

Silicon Valley icon Marc Andreessen explores investing, decision making, and the art of solving unsolvable problems.    In this discussion, Andreessen reveals why the Internet has become the conduit for some people to disrupt traditional power structures and for others to enforce them, optimistic and pessimistic scenarios for the future of the Internet, assessing judgment, and the book he turns to for insight.    Andreessen is a co-founder and general partner at the venture-capital firm Andreessen Horowitz, and has invested in companies such as Facebook, Pinterest, Twitter and Skype, among others. He co-created the highly influential Mosaic internet browser and co-founded Netscape, and has been named one of the 100 most influential people in the world by Time.   The books recommended by Marc Andreessen in this episode are:  The WEIRDest People in the World, by Joseph Henrich The Machiavellians: Defenders of Freedom, by James Burnham The Revolt of The Public and the Crisis of Authority in the New Millennium, by Martin Gurri The Ancient City, by Numa Denis Fustel De Coulanges  -- Want even more? Members get early access, hand-edited transcripts, member-only episodes, and so much more. Learn more here: https://fs.blog/membership/ Every Sunday our Brain Food newsletter shares timeless insights and ideas that you can use at work and home. Add it to your inbox: https://fs.blog/newsletter/ Follow Shane on Twitter at: https://twitter.com/ShaneAParrish

Stoic philosopher and author Ryan Holiday shows us how to use the ancient philosophy to calm our mind and create a foundation for lasting success. Listen as Holiday takes us behind the scenes, revealing how he not only reads books and what he looks for, but his process for writing and retaining information he can later put to use. He also discusses what he writes and reads, why he journals, and the four virtues of Stoicism.   Holiday is a New York Times bestselling author. He has written a combined 10 books, covering both the fundamentals of Stoicism as well as key elements of modern-day marketing and media, and his books have sold more than 2 million copies in 30 languages. His most recent release is entitled Courage is Calling.    -- Want even more? Members get early access, hand-edited transcripts, member-only episodes, and so much more. Learn more here: https://fs.blog/membership/ Every Sunday our Brain Food newsletter shares timeless insights and ideas that you can use at work and home. Add it to your inbox: https://fs.blog/newsletter/ Follow Shane on Twitter at: https://twitter.com/ShaneAParrish

The Knowledge Project closes 2021 with a look back at some of the best conversations of the year. Featuring interviews from 10 of the most downloaded and acclaimed episodes of 2021, this collection of conversations offers a variety of insights into how to make crucial decisions, how to spark creativity, the best ways to avoid distraction, how to deal with loneliness, what traits to look for in a leader, the value of re-thinking your position, the importance of personal relationships, and much more.   Guests on this episode include: business leader Kat Cole, NBA basketball player Chris Bosh, loneliness expert Noreena Hertz, organizational psychologist Adam Grant, NASA astrophysicist Thomas Zurbuchen, video game expert Jane McGonigal, author Nir Eyal, author and entrepreneur Seth Godin, psychologist Angela Duckworth, and business expert Jim Collins.   -- Want even more? Members get early access, hand-edited transcripts, member-only episodes, and so much more. Learn more here: https://fs.blog/membership/ Every Sunday our Brain Food newsletter shares timeless insights and ideas that you can use at work and home. Add it to your inbox: https://fs.blog/newsletter/ Follow Shane on Twitter at: https://twitter.com/ShaneAParrish

What can we learn from the intersection between the fundamental tenets of Stoicism and military heroism? Author and professor Nancy Sherman uses her extensive experience in both subjects to discuss why there’s much to gain from examining ancient Greek and Roman philosophies and how to use their teachings today. On this episode Sherman explores how to gain control of your emotions, Stoic techniques for decision making, building resilience, the difference between honor and virtue, and much more. Sherman is a Distinguished University Professor and Professor of Philosophy at Georgetown University, and she is also the inaugural Distinguished Chair in Ethics at the United States Naval Academy. She has written extensively during her career on the Stoics, and her most recent book is Stoic Wisdom: Ancient Lessons for Modern Resilience. -- Want even more? Members get early access, hand-edited transcripts, member-only episodes, and so much more. Learn more here: https://fs.blog/membership/ Every Sunday our Brain Food newsletter shares timeless insights and ideas that you can use at work and home. Add it to your inbox: https://fs.blog/newsletter/ Follow Shane on Twitter at: https://twitter.com/ShaneAParrish

Paul Rabil knows what it takes to reach the top in both sports and business. In this episode, he teaches us the mindsets to succeed, where confidence comes from, and even tells us about the time Bill Belichick recruited him to play in the NFL.   Rabil spent 14 years as a professional lacrosse player in the United States and in 2019 co-founded the Premier Lacrosse League, where he played for the final three seasons of his career before retiring in 2021. He was a 10-time All-Star in Major League Lacrosse, where he also won two league titles. He also won two World Lacrosse Championship gold medals.   -- Want even more? Members get early access, hand-edited transcripts, member-only episodes, and so much more. Learn more here: https://fs.blog/membership/   Every Sunday our Brain Food newsletter shares timeless insights and ideas that you can use at work and home. Add it to your inbox: https://fs.blog/newsletter/   Follow Shane on Twitter at: https://twitter.com/ShaneAParrish

Douglas Rushkoff is obsessed with technology and how it impacts our lives. In this interview, he offers insight into how we shape and are shaped by technology, what’s happening with mainstream media, and some tips on remaining sane online.   Rushkoff is an author, professor, and documentarian who focuses on the ways people, culture, and institutions create, share and influence each other's values. He is the author of 17 books including the 2019 release Team Human, and he is a Professor of Media Theory and Digital Economics at CUNY/Queens.   -- Go Premium: Members get early access, ad-free episodes, hand-edited transcripts, searchable transcripts, member-only episodes, and more. Sign up at: https://fs.blog/membership/   Every Sunday our newsletter shares timeless insights and ideas that you can use at work and home. Add it to your inbox: https://fs.blog/newsletter/   Follow Shane on Twitter at: https://twitter.com/ShaneAParrish

Author and philosophy professor William Irvine goes in-depth on Stoicism, and why the fundamental tenets of this ancient philosophy can provide answers to some of the toughest problems in today’s society. On this episode Irvine offers a definition and some useful background on Stoicism and its origins, the original Stoics, their thoughts on failure, their advice on decision making, and how we can train ourselves to be more stoic.   Irvine has written seven books including the wildly popular 2008 release A Guide to the Good Life: The Ancient Art of Stoic Joy, and the 2019 follow-up, The Stoic Challenge: A Philosopher's Guide to Becoming Tougher, Calmer, and More Resilient. Irvine also teaches philosophy and logic courses at Wright State University in Dayton, Ohio.   Go Premium: Members get early access, ad-free episodes, hand-edited transcripts, searchable transcripts, member-only episodes, and more. Sign up at: https://fs.blog/membership/   Every Sunday our newsletter shares timeless insights and ideas that you can use at work and home. Add it to your inbox: https://fs.blog/newsletter/   Follow Shane on Twitter at: https://twitter.com/ShaneAParrish

What are the best strategies to get people to say “Yes” to your requests in life? Acclaimed psychologist Robert Cialdini dives deep into the seven small things that make a huge impact in influencing others, as well as the difference between being influenced and being manipulated into making decisions. What are the tactics, how do they work, and how do we defend against them? This episode is jam-packed with practical advice that will make you more persuasive in life.   Known colloquially as “The Godfather of Influence,” Cialdini is a foundational expert in the science of influence and how to apply it ethically in business. His books, including Influence: Psychology of Persuasion and Pre-Suasion, have sold more than 7 million copies in 44 different languages, and he is the Regents’ Professor Emeritus of Psychology and Marketing at Arizona State University.    -- Go Premium and get the full episode. Members get early access, ad-free episodes, hand-edited transcripts, searchable transcripts, member-only episodes, and more. Sign up at: https://fs.blog/membership/   Every Sunday our newsletter shares timeless insights and ideas that you can use at work and home. Add it to your inbox: https://fs.blog/newsletter/   Follow Shane on Twitter at: https://twitter.com/ShaneAParrish

What do Steve Jobs, Leonardo da Vinci, Benjamin Franklin and Jennifer Doudna all have in common? Celebrated journalist and author Walter Isaacson calls upon his years of research to explain how curiosity has always fueled creativity among history’s greatest innovators, and how each of those individuals shaped the world around them. On this episode Issacson dives deep into the curious obsessions of Jobs, da Vinci’s ability to develop a brilliant mind, Ada Lovelace and how she developed the algorithm, and how Doudna’s work with gene editing could shape the future to come.   A journalist by trade, Issacson served as the editor of Time and then chairman and CEO of CNN before eventually spending 15 years as president and CEO of the Aspen Institute, the international research institute and think tank. Isaacson has also written bestselling biographies on Jobs, da Vinci, Franklin and Albert Einstein, and in 2021 released his latest biography, The Code Breaker: Jennifer Doudna, Gene Editing, and the Future of the Human Race.   -- Go Premium: Members receive early access to episodes, hand-edited transcripts, searchable transcripts, member-only episodes, and more. Sign up at: https://fs.blog/membership/   Every Sunday our newsletter shares timeless insights and ideas that you can use at work and home. Add it to your inbox: https://fs.blog/newsletter/   Follow Shane on Twitter at: https://twitter.com/ShaneAParrish

Two-time NBA champion and 2021 Basketball Hall of Fame inductee Chris Bosh goes in-depth on the skills it takes to become a winner on the basketball court and in life. On this episode Bosh discusses the rare combination of talent and hunger, emulating others before becoming your own person, individual success vs. team success, the subjective traits that set championship teams apart, what it means to lead by example, where confidence comes from, and so much more.   Bosh is widely regarded as one of the best big men of his generation and was part of the Basketball Hall of Fame’s celebrated Class of 2021. An 11-time NBA All-Star and 2008 Olympic Gold medalist, Bosh won two NBA titles with the Miami Heat after being drafted fourth overall in the 2003 NBA Draft by the Toronto Raptors. He spent 13 seasons in the NBA and is the author of the 2021 memoir, Letters to a Young Athlete.   -- Go Premium: Members get early access, ad-free episodes, hand-edited transcripts, searchable transcripts, member-only episodes, and more. Sign up at: https://fs.blog/membership/   Every Sunday our newsletter shares timeless insights and ideas that you can use at work and home. Add it to your inbox: https://fs.blog/newsletter/   Follow Shane on Twitter at: https://twitter.com/ShaneAParrish

Todd Simkin calls on experiences from his lengthy career in financial services and educating traders to help Shane understand how to make better decisions. Simkin breaks down all the influences that go into how and why we make decisions, why financial decisions are different than inter-personal ones, the strategies involved with teaching other people to make better decisions, what he looks for when he’s hiring, the value of asking the right questions, and so much more. Simkin is Associate Director at Susquehanna International Group, a privately held trading and technology firm. During his 25 years with the company he has held a variety of roles, including responsibility for SIG’s firm-wide education and trader development, where he taught the company’s new traders what questions to ask and what criteria to weigh before making hugely impactful decisions for the firm. -- Go Premium: Members get early access, ad-free episodes, hand-edited transcripts, searchable transcripts, member-only episodes, and more. Sign up at: https://fs.blog/membership/ Every Sunday our newsletter shares timeless insights and ideas that you can use at work and home. Add it to your inbox: https://fs.blog/newsletter/ Follow Shane on Twitter at: https://twitter.com/ShaneAParrish

Doug Conant breaks down how putting his employees first made him an internationally renowned business leader atop both the Nabisco Foods Company and the Campbell Soup Company. On this episode Doug discusses why you can’t win in the marketplace if you haven’t won in the workplace,  his first 100 days as CEO of Campbell Soup, adjusting to shifting consumer preferences, how to know when you have the right people and the wrong people, and so much more.   Conant served as the President of Nabisco from 1999-2001 and then spent a decade as President and CEO of The Campbell Soup Company. In 2011 he founded ConantLeadership, a consulting company focused on championing leadership that works in the 21st century. He’s also the author of The Blueprint: 6 Practical Steps to Lift Your Leadership to New Heights.   -- Go Premium: Members get early access, ad-free episodes, hand-edited transcripts, searchable transcripts, member-only episodes, and more. Sign up at: https://fs.blog/membership/   Every Sunday our newsletter shares timeless insights and ideas that you can use at work and home. Add it to your inbox: https://fs.blog/newsletter/   Follow Shane on Twitter at: https://twitter.com/ShaneAParrish

Kat Cole discusses how "the power of possible" guided her from a part-time job as a hostess at a Hooters restaurant to one of the most respected business leaders in America. In this wide-ranging episode Cole discusses the dark side of gratitude and how it can keep you in place, defaulting to believing in people, leading with a heavy heart while navigating through tough times, adopting new roles at work, questions to ask to uncover the truth in business and personal life, and so much more.   Cole spent roughly a decade in leadership roles with Focus Brands, the global multi-channel franchisor and operator of Cinnabon, Auntie Anne’s, Jamba Juice and others. She was named President and COO of Focus Brands in 2017 after she spent five years as the President of Cinnabon. She left the company in December 2020.   -- Go Premium: Members get early access, ad-free episodes, hand-edited transcripts, searchable transcripts, member-only episodes, and more. Sign up at: https://fs.blog/membership/   Every Sunday our newsletter shares timeless insights and ideas that you can use at work and home. Add it to your inbox: https://fs.blog/newsletter/   Follow Shane on Twitter at: https://twitter.com/ShaneAParrish

Former General Electric CEO Jeff Immelt looks back on his two decades with the company and the strategies he used to lead during three separate crises. In this episode, Immelt discusses what happened during those events and why, what it was like to take over for GM icon Jack Welch, getting the information you need to make decisions, activist investors, fighting complexity, the mismatched timelines between CEOs and shareholders, unions, and so much more. Immelt is currently a venture partner at New Enterprise Associates and a lecturer in management at the Stanford University Graduate School of Business. He served as the Chairman and CEO of GE from 2001-17, and is the author of the 2021 memoir Hot Seat: What I Learned Leading a Great American Company.   -- Go Premium: Members get early access, ad-free episodes, hand-edited transcripts, searchable transcripts, member-only episodes, and more. Sign up at: https://fs.blog/membership/   Every Sunday our newsletter shares timeless insights and ideas that you can use at work and home. Add it to your inbox: https://fs.blog/newsletter/   Follow Shane on Twitter at: https://twitter.com/ShaneAParrish

Celebrated restaurateur Danny Meyer discusses the intersection between hospitality and humanity, and why we are all in the hospitality business regardless of where we work. Meyer defines hospitality and how to deliver it with every interaction, how we can scale a feeling, hiring great people and when to let them go, and so much more. Meyer is the Chief Executive Officer of the Union Square Hospitality Group, which comprises some of New York's most beloved and acclaimed restaurants, including Gramercy Tavern, The Modern, and Maialino. In 2004 Meyer and USHG founded the wildly popular Shake Shack, a New York fast-casual restaurant chain that has since grown to more than 250 locations around the world. Go Premium: Members get early access, ad-free episodes, hand-edited transcripts, searchable transcripts, member-only episodes, and more. https://fs.blog/membership/ Every Sunday our newsletter shares timeless insights and ideas that you can use at work and home. Add it to your inbox:https://fs.blog/newsletter/ Follow Shane on Twitter at: https://twitter.com/ShaneAParrish

Acclaimed economist and author Noreena Hertz breaks down the world’s loneliness crisis, and what it means for the well-being of our minds, bodies, economies and democratic institutions. In this episode we define loneliness and how to recognize it, its mental and physical health implications, the shame around admitting you’re lonely, what we can do to help alleviate the crisis for ourselves and our kids, and so much more. Hertz has been an Honorary Professor at the Institute for Global Prosperity at University College London since 2014 and she’s the author of five books, including the 2020 release The Lonely Century: Coming Together in a World that's Pulling Apart.    -- Want even more? Members get early access, hand-edited transcripts, member-only episodes, and so much more. Learn more here: https://fs.blog/membership/   Every Sunday our Brain Food newsletter shares timeless insights and ideas that you can use at work and home. Add it to your inbox: https://fs.blog/newsletter/   Follow Shane on Twitter at: https://twitter.com/ShaneAParrish  

Sarah Tavel has spent the past four years as a general partner at venture capital firm Benchmark, after previously serving in the same role with Greylock Partners and as the first-ever product manager at Pinterest. In this episode Shane and Sarah how studying philosophy helped in her career as a venture capitalist, the value of intellectual rigor, her concept of the net-present value of pain, why every strength has a corresponding weakness, where executive boards go wrong, assessing the performance of a CEO, lessons of rapidly scaling at Pinterest, and so much more. -- Want even more? Members get early access, hand-edited transcripts, member-only episodes, and so much more. Learn more here: https://fs.blog/membership/   Every Sunday our Brain Food newsletter shares timeless insights and ideas that you can use at work and home. Add it to your inbox: https://fs.blog/newsletter/   Follow Shane on Twitter at: https://twitter.com/ShaneAParrish

Celebrated organizational psychologist and author Adam Grant provides compelling insight into why we should spend time not just thinking, but rethinking. In this episode we cover how to change our own views, how to change the views of others, hiring processes, psychological safety, tribes and group identity, feigned knowledge, binary bias, and so much more.   Grant is a Professor of Psychology at The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and the author of five books, including his most recent release, the New York Times bestseller Think Again. He also serves as the host of WorkLife, a TED original podcast.   -- Want even more? Members get early access, hand-edited transcripts, member-only episodes, and so much more. Learn more here: https://fs.blog/membership/   Every Sunday our Brain Food newsletter shares timeless insights and ideas that you can use at work and home. Add it to your inbox: https://fs.blog/newsletter/   Follow Shane on Twitter at: https://twitter.com/ShaneAParrish

Famed investor Joel Greenblatt is the Managing Principal and Co-Chief Investment Officer at Gotham Asset Management, the successor to Gotham Capital, an investment firm he founded in 1985. He’s also spent more than two decades on the adjunct faculty at Columbia Business School, and he’s the author of five books focused on investment strategy, including You Can Be A Stock Market Genius and The Little Book that Beats the Market. Joel and Shane discuss a wide array of topics, including the differences between luck and skill, stock options, traits of successful management teams, lessons learned from Warren Buffett and what Joel fears most about today’s stock market. Go Premium: Members get early access, ad-free episodes, hand-edited transcripts, searchable transcripts, member only episodes, and more. https://fs.blog/knowledge-project-premium/ Every Sunday our newsletter shares timeless insights and ideas that you can use at work and home. Add it to your inbox: https://fs.blog/newsletter/ Follow Shane on twitter at: https://twitter.com/ShaneAParrish

Renowned researcher and author Jim Collins makes his second appearance on The Knowledge Project, this time to share a wealth of life lessons learned from his mentor and collaborator, Bill Lazier. Jim recently released BE 2.0 (Beyond Entrepreneurship 2.0), an ambitious upgrade of his first book Beyond Entrepreneurship, co-authored with Lazier and focused on effective leadership style. Shane discusses all new topics with Jim in their follow-up conversation, including what it means to be a mentor and a father, why we should trust by default, why we confuse living a long life with a great life, and the difference between being afraid of risk and being afraid of ambiguity. -- Want even more? Members get early access, hand-edited transcripts, member-only episodes, and so much more. Learn more here: https://fs.blog/membership/   Every Sunday our Brain Food newsletter shares timeless insights and ideas that you can use at work and home. Add it to your inbox: https://fs.blog/newsletter/   Follow Shane on Twitter at: https://twitter.com/ShaneAParrish

Angela Duckworth is the Rosa Lee and Egbert Chang Professor of Psychology at the University of Pennsylvania and the Founder and CEO of Character Lab, a not-for-profit whose mission is to advance the science and practice of character development. She’s also the author of Grit, a New York Timesbestseller that examines why some people succeed and others fail, and why talent is hardly a guarantor of success. Angela and Shane discuss whether human behavior is constant or circumstantial, the mindsets that help us succeed in life, developing our passion, and personal rules for success. -- Want even more? Members get early access, hand-edited transcripts, member-only episodes, and so much more. Learn more here: https://fs.blog/membership/   Every Sunday our Brain Food newsletter shares timeless insights and ideas that you can use at work and home. Add it to your inbox: https://fs.blog/newsletter/   Follow Shane on Twitter at: https://twitter.com/ShaneAParrish

Thomas Zurbuchen is currently Associate Administrator for the Science Mission Directorate at NASA, where he seeks answers to big questions about the universe and our place in it. Previously, he was a professor of space science and aerospace engineering at the University of Michigan and a founding director of its Center for Entrepreneurship. In this episode, Thomas and Shane discuss the origin of his passion for astrophysics, commercial spaceflight, exciting experiments going on at the International Space Station, the challenges of space flight, how he makes decisions, whether humans will ever live on Mars, and more. -- Want even more? Members get early access, hand-edited transcripts, member-only episodes, and so much more. Learn more here: https://fs.blog/membership/   Every Sunday our Brain Food newsletter shares timeless insights and ideas that you can use at work and home. Add it to your inbox: https://fs.blog/newsletter/   Follow Shane on Twitter at: https://twitter.com/ShaneAParrish

Matt Ridley is the author of several books related to science and human progress, biologist, newspaper columnist and member of the House of Lords in the UK. Matt and Shane discuss writing books about science, the age-old battle between viruses and humans, rational optimism, the difference between innovation and invention, the role of trial and error and the effects of social media on seeing others’ points of view. -- Want even more? Members get early access, hand-edited transcripts, member-only episodes, and so much more. Learn more here: https://fs.blog/membership/   Every Sunday our Brain Food newsletter shares timeless insights and ideas that you can use at work and home. Add it to your inbox: https://fs.blog/newsletter/   Follow Shane on Twitter at: https://twitter.com/ShaneAParrish

Author of one of the best business books of all time, The Personal MBA, Josh Kaufman chats with Shane about rapid skill acquisition, mental models, decision making, overcoming fear and so much more. -- Want even more? Members get early access, hand-edited transcripts, member-only episodes, and so much more. Learn more here: https://fs.blog/membership/   Every Sunday our Brain Food newsletter shares timeless insights and ideas that you can use at work and home. Add it to your inbox: https://fs.blog/newsletter/   Follow Shane on Twitter at: https://twitter.com/ShaneAParrish

Seth Godin is the author of 20 bestselling books, founder of altMBA, the Akimbo podcast and runs one of the most popular blogs in the world. Seth and Shane chat about creative work, fear, shame, trusting yourself, what it means to be a professional, how to become an observer of reality, emotional labor, how we learn and so much more. -- Want even more? Members get early access, hand-edited transcripts, member-only episodes, and so much more. Learn more here: https://fs.blog/membership/   Every Sunday our Brain Food newsletter shares timeless insights and ideas that you can use at work and home. Add it to your inbox: https://fs.blog/newsletter/   Follow Shane on Twitter at: https://twitter.com/ShaneAParrish

Bestselling author of Hooked and Indistractable, Nir Eyal was dubbed by The M.I.T. Technology Review as, “The Prophet of Habit-Forming Technology.” In this episode, Shane and Nir discuss regaining control of our attention from technology, how to get more done in less time, controlling the things you have agency over and so much more. -- Want even more? Members get early access, hand-edited transcripts, member-only episodes, and so much more. Learn more here: https://fs.blog/membership/   Every Sunday our Brain Food newsletter shares timeless insights and ideas that you can use at work and home. Add it to your inbox: https://fs.blog/newsletter/   Follow Shane on Twitter at: https://twitter.com/ShaneAParrish

Loch Kelly is an author, meditation teacher, psychotherapist, and founder of the Open-Hearted Awareness Institute. Shane and Loch do a deep dive into mindfulness, consciousness, how to not let your emotions take over, ways to access your hidden awareness, debugging your mind and so much more. -- Want even more? Members get early access, hand-edited transcripts, member-only episodes, and so much more. Learn more here: https://fs.blog/membership/   Every Sunday our Brain Food newsletter shares timeless insights and ideas that you can use at work and home. Add it to your inbox: https://fs.blog/newsletter/   Follow Shane on Twitter at: https://twitter.com/ShaneAParrish

Sendhil Mullainathan is the Professor of Computation and Behavioral Science at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business and the author of Scarcity: Why Having Too Little Means So Much. Sendhil reflects on lessons he learned from his father, how creativity is the marrying of ideation and filtration, direct versus associative memory, what we can do to get better, rules versus decisions, positioning over predicting, outcome over ego and so much more. Listen now for some ideas that you can put into practice that will help you become a better version of yourself. -- Want even more? Members get early access, hand-edited transcripts, member-only episodes, and so much more. Learn more here: https://fs.blog/membership/   Every Sunday our Brain Food newsletter shares timeless insights and ideas that you can use at work and home. Add it to your inbox: https://fs.blog/newsletter/   Follow Shane on Twitter at: https://twitter.com/ShaneAParrish

Jane McGonigal is a PhD Game Designer who advocates for the use of video games to help people learn skills that transfer to the real world, heal physical problems like concussions and improve attitudes and self-esteem in children. Shane and Jane discuss how video games help with decision making, post-traumatic growth as well as how much is too much, what to watch out for and so much more. -- Want even more? Members get early access, hand-edited transcripts, member-only episodes, and so much more. Learn more here: https://fs.blog/membership/   Every Sunday our Brain Food newsletter shares timeless insights and ideas that you can use at work and home. Add it to your inbox: https://fs.blog/newsletter/   Follow Shane on Twitter at: https://twitter.com/ShaneAParrish

Matt Mullenweg is the co-founder of WordPress, the open platform that runs most of the sites you visit and the CEO of Automattic. In this episode Matt and Shane discuss distributed work, the 5 levels of autonomous organizations, decision making, running an organization with more than 1300 people, integrating acquisitions and so much more. -- Want even more? Members get early access, hand-edited transcripts, member-only episodes, and so much more. Learn more here: https://fs.blog/membership/   Every Sunday our Brain Food newsletter shares timeless insights and ideas that you can use at work and home. Add it to your inbox: https://fs.blog/newsletter/   Follow Shane on Twitter at: https://twitter.com/ShaneAParrish

For over a decade, Kris Cordle worked directly with the CEOs at Yahoo, Twitter, and Slack. She joined Twitter and Slack early and helped them scale into public companies. Most recently she was Chief of Staff at Slack but left to launch Devenu Collaborations, helping rapid-growth CEOs scale. Kris and Shane discuss life in a religious cult, automatic rules for success, lessons in decision making and scaling, why it's hard for founders to scale, the common patterns to success, and much more. It's time to Listen and Learn. -- Want even more? Members get early access, hand-edited transcripts, member-only episodes, and so much more. Learn more here: https://fs.blog/membership/   Every Sunday our Brain Food newsletter shares timeless insights and ideas that you can use at work and home. Add it to your inbox: https://fs.blog/newsletter/   Follow Shane on Twitter at: https://twitter.com/ShaneAParrish

Sahil Lavingia is the founder and CEO of Gumroad, an online marketplace for creators. In this conversation Sahil and Shane cover building a billion dollar business, the most critical skills for success, how he hires, his worst mistake, the patterns of success and failure and so much more. -- Want even more? Members get early access, hand-edited transcripts, member-only episodes, and so much more. Learn more here: https://fs.blog/membership/   Every Sunday our Brain Food newsletter shares timeless insights and ideas that you can use at work and home. Add it to your inbox: https://fs.blog/newsletter/   Follow Shane on Twitter at: https://twitter.com/ShaneAParrish

The former Dean of the Rotman School of Management at the University of Toronto, Roger Martin is one of the top management thinkering in the world. You’ll walk away from this conversation a better leader and decision maker as he discusses patterns of good leadership, the hardest skill to transfer when decision making, self-sabotage, overcoming fear and integrative thinking. -- Want even more? Members get early access, hand-edited transcripts, member-only episodes, and so much more. Learn more here: https://fs.blog/membership/   Every Sunday our Brain Food newsletter shares timeless insights and ideas that you can use at work and home. Add it to your inbox: https://fs.blog/newsletter/   Follow Shane on Twitter at: https://twitter.com/ShaneAParrish

The founder and co-head of the Leadership Practice at CRA and the Admired Leadership Institute, Randall Stutman is an incredible executive coach with an impressive roster of clients. You’ll walk away from this episode with some tools to put into practice to make you a better leader, partner and parent as Randall discusses the behavioral versus psychological view of leadership, what really drives results, and the uncommon routines of the world’s best leaders. -- Want even more? Members get early access, hand-edited transcripts, member-only episodes, and so much more. Learn more here: https://fs.blog/membership/   Every Sunday our Brain Food newsletter shares timeless insights and ideas that you can use at work and home. Add it to your inbox: https://fs.blog/newsletter/   Follow Shane on Twitter at: https://twitter.com/ShaneAParrish

Managing Director of Mistral Venture Partners Code Cubitt has an interesting origin story. After being kicked out of University twice he still managed to graduate and quickly climbed the ranks for several prominent companies before striking out on his own. Hear how he evaluates founders, his decision-making process, common mistakes companies make as they scale, and much more. -- Want even more? Members get early access, hand-edited transcripts, member-only episodes, and so much more. Learn more here: https://fs.blog/membership/   Every Sunday our Brain Food newsletter shares timeless insights and ideas that you can use at work and home. Add it to your inbox: https://fs.blog/newsletter/   Follow Shane on Twitter at: https://twitter.com/ShaneAParrish

The Founder and CEO of Social Capital Chamath Palihapitiya sits down with Shane Parrish to chat about what it means to be an observer of the present, how to think in first principles, the psychology of successful investing, his thoughts on the best public company CEO’s and much more. -- Want even more? Members get early access, hand-edited transcripts, member-only episodes, and so much more. Learn more here: https://fs.blog/membership/   Every Sunday our Brain Food newsletter shares timeless insights and ideas that you can use at work and home. Add it to your inbox: https://fs.blog/newsletter/   Follow Shane on Twitter at: https://twitter.com/ShaneAParrish

Matthew Holland is one of the world’s leading authorities in cyber security. He explains exploits, hacking, and defending while providing insight on the mind of the attacker, Huawei, Snowden and what you should be asking your cyber security vendor. -- Want even more? Members get early access, hand-edited transcripts, member-only episodes, and so much more. Learn more here: https://fs.blog/membership/   Every Sunday our Brain Food newsletter shares timeless insights and ideas that you can use at work and home. Add it to your inbox: https://fs.blog/newsletter/   Follow Shane on Twitter at: https://twitter.com/ShaneAParrish

Neuroscientist, psychologist and author, Lisa Feldman Barrett discusses the complexities of the brain, our emotions, improving ourselves and our relationship with others, making good decisions and giving yourself an existential break. -- Want even more? Members get early access, hand-edited transcripts, member-only episodes, and so much more. Learn more here: https://fs.blog/membership/   Every Sunday our Brain Food newsletter shares timeless insights and ideas that you can use at work and home. Add it to your inbox: https://fs.blog/newsletter/   Follow Shane on Twitter at: https://twitter.com/ShaneAParrish

Author and co-founder of the Enneagram Institute, Russ Hudson, explains how the Enneagram was developed, how it helps us grow personally and with others, the nine interconnected personality types and what it means to be present. -- Want even more? Members get early access, hand-edited transcripts, member-only episodes, and so much more. Learn more here: https://fs.blog/membership/   Every Sunday our Brain Food newsletter shares timeless insights and ideas that you can use at work and home. Add it to your inbox: https://fs.blog/newsletter/   Follow Shane on Twitter at: https://twitter.com/ShaneAParrish

8x Olympic medalist and short-track speed skating legend, Apolo Ohno chats about his origin story, recovering from multiple failures, mental training, confidence, and leaving it all on the ice. -- Want even more? Members get early access, hand-edited transcripts, member-only episodes, and so much more. Learn more here: https://fs.blog/membership/   Every Sunday our Brain Food newsletter shares timeless insights and ideas that you can use at work and home. Add it to your inbox: https://fs.blog/newsletter/   Follow Shane on Twitter at: https://twitter.com/ShaneAParrish

Professional poker player, psychologist and author of two New York Times best-sellers, Maria Konnikova discusses her mentors, making decisions in environments of uncertainty, the importance of reflection, cooling down your emotions and Sherlock Holmes. -- Want even more? Members get early access, hand-edited transcripts, member-only episodes, and so much more. Learn more here: https://fs.blog/membership/   Every Sunday our Brain Food newsletter shares timeless insights and ideas that you can use at work and home. Add it to your inbox: https://fs.blog/newsletter/   Follow Shane on Twitter at: https://twitter.com/ShaneAParrish

Musician, speaker, writer and entrepreneur, Derek Sivers chats about creating and running CD Baby, reading, mental models, living a meaningful life and that biggest mistake he’s ever made. -- Want even more? Members get early access, hand-edited transcripts, member-only episodes, and so much more. Learn more here: https://fs.blog/membership/   Every Sunday our Brain Food newsletter shares timeless insights and ideas that you can use at work and home. Add it to your inbox: https://fs.blog/newsletter/   Follow Shane on Twitter at: https://twitter.com/ShaneAParrish

Mathematician and author of Hello World and The Mathematics of Love, Hannah Fry discusses the role of maths in society, the dating world and we explore what it means to be human in the age of algorithms. -- Want even more? Members get early access, hand-edited transcripts, member-only episodes, and so much more. Learn more here: https://fs.blog/membership/   Every Sunday our Brain Food newsletter shares timeless insights and ideas that you can use at work and home. Add it to your inbox: https://fs.blog/newsletter/   Follow Shane on Twitter at: https://twitter.com/ShaneAParrish

Behavior scientist and author of Tiny Habits, BJ Fogg, discusses improving decision making, motivation trends, the role of emotion in sense of self and so much more. -- Want even more? Members get early access, hand-edited transcripts, member-only episodes, and so much more. Learn more here: https://fs.blog/membership/   Every Sunday our Brain Food newsletter shares timeless insights and ideas that you can use at work and home. Add it to your inbox: https://fs.blog/newsletter/   Follow Shane on Twitter at: https://twitter.com/ShaneAParrish

Best-selling author of The Smartest Guys in the Room and All the Devils are here, Bethany McLean, discusses how to write a story, the behaviors of CEO’s, visionaries and fraudsters and so much more. -- Want even more? Members get early access, hand-edited transcripts, member-only episodes, and so much more. Learn more here: https://fs.blog/membership/   Every Sunday our Brain Food newsletter shares timeless insights and ideas that you can use at work and home. Add it to your inbox: https://fs.blog/newsletter/   Follow Shane on Twitter at: https://twitter.com/ShaneAParrish

In a more conversational episode than our last discussion (ep. 43), Jennifer Garvey Berger opens up about coping in these uncertain times, and how we’re feeling about the current changing world that has become the new normal. -- Want even more? Members get early access, hand-edited transcripts, member-only episodes, and so much more. Learn more here: https://fs.blog/membership/   Every Sunday our Brain Food newsletter shares timeless insights and ideas that you can use at work and home. Add it to your inbox: https://fs.blog/newsletter/   Follow Shane on Twitter at: https://twitter.com/ShaneAParrish

Writer and director Brian Koppelman discusses his career ups and downs, dealing with fear, and learning to live a meaningful life. -- Want even more? Members get early access, hand-edited transcripts, member-only episodes, and so much more. Learn more here: https://fs.blog/membership/   Every Sunday our Brain Food newsletter shares timeless insights and ideas that you can use at work and home. Add it to your inbox: https://fs.blog/newsletter/   Follow Shane on Twitter at: https://twitter.com/ShaneAParrish

Legendary activist investor, Bill Ackman talks about lessons he’s learned growing up, raising a family, what drives him forward and back up from failure, consuming information and ideas, and facing criticism. -- Want even more? Members get early access, hand-edited transcripts, member-only episodes, and so much more. Learn more here: https://fs.blog/membership/   Every Sunday our Brain Food newsletter shares timeless insights and ideas that you can use at work and home. Add it to your inbox: https://fs.blog/newsletter/   Follow Shane on Twitter at: https://twitter.com/ShaneAParrish

Angel investor Jason Calacanis talks high stakes poker, how to make intelligent investing decisions, how systems enable or forbid, and demystifies the culture of Silicon Valley. -- Want even more? Members get early access, hand-edited transcripts, member-only episodes, and so much more. Learn more here: https://fs.blog/membership/   Every Sunday our Brain Food newsletter shares timeless insights and ideas that you can use at work and home. Add it to your inbox: https://fs.blog/newsletter/   Follow Shane on Twitter at: https://twitter.com/ShaneAParrish

John Maxwell breaks down the four traits every successful person possesses and how to awaken the leader within you, no matter what your job title says.   -- Want even more? Members get early access, hand-edited transcripts, member-only episodes, and so much more. Learn more here: https://fs.blog/membership/   Every Sunday our Brain Food newsletter shares timeless insights and ideas that you can use at work and home. Add it to your inbox: https://fs.blog/newsletter/   Follow Shane on Twitter at: https://twitter.com/ShaneAParrish

Esther Wojcicki discusses the current education model and how we can fix it and shares her powerful TRICK acronym, Esther’s secret for raising happy, resilient children.   Go Premium: Members get early access, ad-free episodes, hand-edited transcripts, searchable transcripts, member-only episodes, and more. Sign up at: https://fs.blog/membership/   Every Sunday our newsletter shares timeless insights and ideas that you can use at work and home. Add it to your inbox: https://fs.blog/newsletter/   Follow Shane on Twitter at: https://twitter.com/ShaneAParrish

This special pop-up episode explores Covid-19, with Balaji Srinivasan. Balaji is one of the more thought-provoking, interesting, and multi-disciplinary thinkers I know and we do a deep dive, including possible second and third-order consequences. For a list of references check out: https://fs.blog/balaji-srinivasan/   Go Premium: Members get early access, ad-free episodes, hand-edited transcripts, searchable transcripts, member-only episodes, and more. Sign up at: https://fs.blog/membership/   Every Sunday our newsletter shares timeless insights and ideas that you can use at work and home. Add it to your inbox: https://fs.blog/newsletter/   Follow Shane on Twitter at: https://twitter.com/ShaneAParrish

Mike Maples, a partner at the VC firm Floodgate, shares how mental models shape his decision-making process, where to find the next big idea, and how to rally people to your cause.   Go Premium: Members get early access, ad-free episodes, hand-edited transcripts, searchable transcripts, member-only episodes, and more. Sign up at: https://fs.blog/membership/   Every Sunday our newsletter shares timeless insights and ideas that you can use at work and home. Add it to your inbox: https://fs.blog/newsletter/   Follow Shane on Twitter at: https://twitter.com/ShaneAParrish

Renowned car designer Frank Stephenson teaches the path to mastery, innovation, and taking creative risks. He also gives us a peek into the future of automobiles and what it means for us.   Go Premium: Members get early access, ad-free episodes, hand-edited transcripts, searchable transcripts, member-only episodes, and more. Sign up at: https://fs.blog/membership/   Every Sunday our newsletter shares timeless insights and ideas that you can use at work and home. Add it to your inbox: https://fs.blog/newsletter/   Follow Shane on Twitter at: https://twitter.com/ShaneAParrish

Sex therapist Dr. Suzanne Iasenza explains how our personal narratives determine how we grow as a couple, how we communicate, even how we make love.   Go Premium: Members get early access, ad-free episodes, hand-edited transcripts, searchable transcripts, member-only episodes, and more. Sign up at: https://fs.blog/membership/   Every Sunday our newsletter shares timeless insights and ideas that you can use at work and home. Add it to your inbox: https://fs.blog/newsletter/   Follow Shane on Twitter at: https://twitter.com/ShaneAParrish

CEO of Talentism, Jeff Hunter, teaches how to rewrite damaging narratives that hold us back, how to give and receive helpful feedback, and why confusion can be a good thing.   Go Premium: Members get early access, ad-free episodes, hand-edited transcripts, searchable transcripts, member-only episodes, and more. Sign up at: https://fs.blog/membership/   Every Sunday our newsletter shares timeless insights and ideas that you can use at work and home. Add it to your inbox: https://fs.blog/newsletter/   Follow Shane on Twitter at: https://twitter.com/ShaneAParrish

Mathematician Steven Strogatz reveals how math is the key to exploring and understanding the beauty of our world.   Go Premium: Members get early access, ad-free episodes, hand-edited transcripts, searchable transcripts, member-only episodes, and more. Sign up at: https://fs.blog/membership/   Every Sunday our newsletter shares timeless insights and ideas that you can use at work and home. Add it to your inbox: https://fs.blog/newsletter/   Follow Shane on Twitter at: https://twitter.com/ShaneAParrish

Author and happiness expert Neil Pasricha shares the recipe for resilience, an antidote for anxiety, and how his two minute morning routine primes each day for success.   Go Premium: Members get early access, ad-free episodes, hand-edited transcripts, searchable transcripts, member-only episodes, and more. Sign up at: https://fs.blog/membership/   Every Sunday our newsletter shares timeless insights and ideas that you can use at work and home. Add it to your inbox: https://fs.blog/newsletter/   Follow Shane on Twitter at: https://twitter.com/ShaneAParrish

Relationship expert Esther Perel reveals her favorite strategies for “fighting” fair, rewriting stories that damage relationships, and breathing new life into our romantic partnerships.   Go Premium: Members get early access, ad-free episodes, hand-edited transcripts, searchable transcripts, member-only episodes, and more. Sign up at: https://fs.blog/membership/   Every Sunday our newsletter shares timeless insights and ideas that you can use at work and home. Add it to your inbox: https://fs.blog/newsletter/   Follow Shane on Twitter at: https://twitter.com/ShaneAParrish

Dilbert creator and author Scott Adams shares cognitive tools and tricks we can use to think better, expand our perspective, and avoid slumping into “loserthink.”   Go Premium: Members get early access, ad-free episodes, hand-edited transcripts, searchable transcripts, member-only episodes, and more. Sign up at: https://fs.blog/membership/   Every Sunday our newsletter shares timeless insights and ideas that you can use at work and home. Add it to your inbox: https://fs.blog/newsletter/   Follow Shane on Twitter at: https://twitter.com/ShaneAParrish  

Blackstone CEO Stephen Schwarzman gives advice on attracting and assessing strong talent, making smart decisions, and how to press forward when the chips are down.   Go Premium: Members get early access, ad-free episodes, hand-edited transcripts, searchable transcripts, member-only episodes, and more. Sign up at: https://fs.blog/membership/   Every Sunday our newsletter shares timeless insights and ideas that you can use at work and home. Add it to your inbox: https://fs.blog/newsletter/   Follow Shane on Twitter at: https://twitter.com/ShaneAParrish

Psychologist and Nobel laureate Daniel Kahneman shines a light on the biases that cripple our decision-making, hamstring negotiations, and damper our thinking, and shares what limited actions we can take to combat their effects.  Go Premium: Members get early access, ad-free episodes, hand-edited transcripts, searchable transcripts, member-only episodes, and more. Sign up at: https://fs.blog/membership/   Every Sunday our newsletter shares timeless insights and ideas that you can use at work and home. Add it to your inbox: https://fs.blog/newsletter/   Follow Shane on Twitter at: https://twitter.com/ShaneAParrish

An earnest student and powerful teacher, mega best-selling author Jim Collins goes under the hood and shows what all enduring companies have in common. We talk luck, leadership, and business longevity.    Go Premium: Members get early access, ad-free episodes, hand-edited transcripts, searchable transcripts, member-only episodes, and more. Sign up at: https://fs.blog/membership/   Every Sunday our newsletter shares timeless insights and ideas that you can use at work and home. Add it to your inbox: https://fs.blog/newsletter/   Follow Shane on Twitter at: https://twitter.com/ShaneAParrish  

Sex educator and author Dr. Emily Nagoski demystifies the science of sexuality and shows us how to shed our insecurities, connect more closely with our partner, and define pleasure on our own terms.   Go Premium: Members get early access, ad-free episodes, hand-edited transcripts, searchable transcripts, member-only episodes, and more. Sign up at: https://fs.blog/membership/   Every Sunday our newsletter shares timeless insights and ideas that you can use at work and home. Add it to your inbox: https://fs.blog/newsletter/   Follow Shane on Twitter at: https://twitter.com/ShaneAParrish  

Legendary show-business manager, agent, and producer Shep Gordon talks sex, drugs, and rock and roll. He also shares the formula for manufacturing fame, and his unique philosophy on success, love and happiness.   Go Premium: Members get early access, ad-free episodes, hand-edited transcripts, searchable transcripts, member-only episodes, and more. Sign up at: https://fs.blog/membership/   Every Sunday our newsletter shares timeless insights and ideas that you can use at work and home. Add it to your inbox: https://fs.blog/newsletter/   Follow Shane on Twitter at: https://twitter.com/ShaneAParrish  

Greg Walton, Associate Professor of Psychology at Stanford University shares the four types of interventions, how they’re used to create positive behavior change, and strategies we can use right now to improve our health, well-being, and relationships.   Go Premium: Members get early access, ad-free episodes, hand-edited transcripts, searchable transcripts, member-only episodes, and more. Sign up at: https://fs.blog/membership/   Every Sunday our newsletter shares timeless insights and ideas that you can use at work and home. Add it to your inbox: https://fs.blog/newsletter/   Follow Shane on Twitter at: https://twitter.com/ShaneAParrish  

Hugh Howey had two dreams: to make a living from writing and sail around the world. In this interview, he describes how he did both, why traveling is so good for the soul, and how he sold millions of books on his own (even turning down a 7 figure book deal.)   Go Premium: Members get early access, ad-free episodes, hand-edited transcripts, searchable transcripts, member-only episodes, and more. Sign up at: https://fs.blog/membership/   Every Sunday our newsletter shares timeless insights and ideas that you can use at work and home. Add it to your inbox: https://fs.blog/newsletter/   Follow Shane on Twitter at: https://twitter.com/ShaneAParrish  

Dr. Sue Johnson is a researcher, clinical psychologist and developer of EFT or Emotionally Focused Therapy. In this interview, we discuss how to create, protect, and nourish fulfilling sexual and emotional relationships.   Go Premium: Members get early access, ad-free episodes, hand-edited transcripts, searchable transcripts, member-only episodes, and more. Sign up at: https://fs.blog/membership/   Every Sunday our newsletter shares timeless insights and ideas that you can use at work and home. Add it to your inbox: https://fs.blog/newsletter/   Follow Shane on Twitter at: https://twitter.com/ShaneAParrish  

Jonathan Haidt is an author, social psychologist and one of the world’s leading experts in moral psychology. On the show we discuss helicopter parenting, the rise of the “call out culture,” and the dangers of social media.   Go Premium: Members get early access, ad-free episodes, hand-edited transcripts, searchable transcripts, member-only episodes, and more. Sign up at: https://fs.blog/membership/   Every Sunday our newsletter shares timeless insights and ideas that you can use at work and home. Add it to your inbox: https://fs.blog/newsletter/   Follow Shane on Twitter at: https://twitter.com/ShaneAParrish  

Jim Dethmer, founder of The Conscious Leadership Group shares practical advice about becoming more self-aware, ditching the victim mindset, and connecting more fully with the people in our lives.    Go Premium: Members get early access, ad-free episodes, hand-edited transcripts, searchable transcripts, member-only episodes, and more. Sign up at: https://fs.blog/membership/   Every Sunday our newsletter shares timeless insights and ideas that you can use at work and home. Add it to your inbox: https://fs.blog/newsletter/   Follow Shane on Twitter at: https://twitter.com/ShaneAParrish  

Thomas Tull, founder of Tulco and former CEO of Legendary Entertainment shares valuable lessons on learning from our own mistakes, asking difficult questions, and protecting our intellectual curiosity.   Go Premium: Members get early access, ad-free episodes, hand-edited transcripts, searchable transcripts, member-only episodes, and more. Sign up at: https://fs.blog/membership/   Every Sunday our newsletter shares timeless insights and ideas that you can use at work and home. Add it to your inbox: https://fs.blog/newsletter/   Follow Shane on Twitter at: https://twitter.com/ShaneAParrish  

Sheila Heen, two time NY Times best selling author, consultant, and lecturer at Harvard Law School, makes the tough talks easier by breaking down the three layers that make up every difficult conversation   Go Premium: Members get early access, ad-free episodes, hand-edited transcripts, searchable transcripts, member-only episodes, and more. Sign up at: https://fs.blog/membership/   Every Sunday our newsletter shares timeless insights and ideas that you can use at work and home. Add it to your inbox: https://fs.blog/newsletter/   Follow Shane on Twitter at: https://twitter.com/ShaneAParrish  

I am joined by Gabriel Weinberg, founder of privacy-focused search engine DuckDuckGo and author of Super Thinking: The Big Book of Mental Models. Our conversation will help you upgrade your thinking, prepare your kids for the future, and protect your privacy online. Gabriel shares powerful mental models like ‘thinking gray’ and ‘foreseen function’ that you can use today to make better decisions, avoid mental biases, and get to the core of any issue. He also reveals his secrets for raising curious, creative kids who love learning – including the surprising technique of discussing adult-level podcasts and debates with his children. Finally, Gabriel reveals the hidden ways companies track your data online and shares simple, practical steps you can take right now to protect your digital privacy without sacrificing convenience. Whether you’re an executive looking to sharpen your thinking skills, a parent trying to set your kids up for success, or just someone who wants more control over your digital footprint, this episode will give you the tools and strategies you need. Don’t miss this masterclass on upgrading your thinking, parenting, and privacy from one of the sharpest minds in tech. -- Go Premium: Members get early access, ad-free episodes, hand-edited transcripts, searchable transcripts, member-only episodes, and more. Sign up at: https://fs.blog/membership/   Newsletter - I share timeless insights and ideas you can use at work and home. Join over 600k others every Sunday and subscribe to Brain Food. Try it: https://fs.blog/newsletter/ Follow me: https://beacons.ai/shaneparrish  

Daniel Gross, former Y Combinator partner and current founder of Pioneer, discusses how we can make our success less about luck, the powerful role we play in the lives of others, and the valuable lessons he learned about leadership.   Go Premium: Members get early access, ad-free episodes, hand-edited transcripts, searchable transcripts, member-only episodes, and more. Sign up at: https://fs.blog/membership/   Every Sunday our newsletter shares timeless insights and ideas that you can use at work and home. Add it to your inbox: https://fs.blog/newsletter/   Follow Shane on Twitter at: https://twitter.com/ShaneAParrish  

On this episode, Scott Page, 5x Author and Professor of Complex Systems at the University of Michigan explains the power mental models have in how we view the world, discover creative solutions and solve complex problems.   Go Premium: Members get early access, ad-free episodes, hand-edited transcripts, searchable transcripts, member-only episodes, and more. Sign up at: https://fs.blog/membership/   Every Sunday our newsletter shares timeless insights and ideas that you can use at work and home. Add it to your inbox: https://fs.blog/newsletter/   Follow Shane on Twitter at: https://twitter.com/ShaneAParrish  

Basecamp CEO and co-founder Jason Fried gives us a peek behind the scenes of his company and discusses his philosophy on doing great work, making a positive difference, and learning to breathe in the fast-paced culture of today’s workplace.   Go Premium: Members get early access, ad-free episodes, hand-edited transcripts, searchable transcripts, member-only episodes, and more. Sign up at: https://fs.blog/membership/   Every Sunday our newsletter shares timeless insights and ideas that you can use at work and home. Add it to your inbox: https://fs.blog/newsletter/   Follow Shane on Twitter at: https://twitter.com/ShaneAParrish  

Billionaire investor, author and co-founder of Oaktree Capital Howard Marks discusses risk assessment, how to think different than the crowd, and the three mighty dares that separate the successful from the also-rans.   Go Premium: Members get early access, ad-free episodes, hand-edited transcripts, searchable transcripts, member-only episodes, and more. Sign up at: https://fs.blog/membership/   Every Sunday our newsletter shares timeless insights and ideas that you can use at work and home. Add it to your inbox: https://fs.blog/newsletter/   Follow Shane on Twitter at: https://twitter.com/ShaneAParrish  

Parenting expert and multiple best-selling author Dr. Laura Markham breaks down the three keys to successful discipline, how to properly model emotions and conflict resolution, and the coveted recipe for raising happy, resilient kids.   Go Premium: Members get early access, ad-free episodes, hand-edited transcripts, searchable transcripts, member-only episodes, and more. Sign up at: https://fs.blog/membership/   Every Sunday our newsletter shares timeless insights and ideas that you can use at work and home. Add it to your inbox: https://fs.blog/newsletter/   Follow Shane on Twitter at: https://twitter.com/ShaneAParrish  

Speaker, author and radio journalist Celeste Headlee has had decades of experience fine tuning the recipe for engaging and rewarding conversation. She shares some tips to help us instantly improve our conversational skills and meaningfully connect with others.   Go Premium: Members get early access, ad-free episodes, hand-edited transcripts, searchable transcripts, member-only episodes, and more. Sign up at: https://fs.blog/membership/   Every Sunday our newsletter shares timeless insights and ideas that you can use at work and home. Add it to your inbox: https://fs.blog/newsletter/   Follow Shane on Twitter at: https://twitter.com/ShaneAParrish  

Josh Wolfe, co-founder of Lux Capital discusses how to unearth the unexplored ideas that will reshape our future. We also talk about parenting, decision-making, and which generation has the best rap.   Go Premium: Members get early access, ad-free episodes, hand-edited transcripts, searchable transcripts, member-only episodes, and more. Sign up at: https://fs.blog/membership/   Every Sunday our newsletter shares timeless insights and ideas that you can use at work and home. Add it to your inbox: https://fs.blog/newsletter/   Follow Shane on Twitter at: https://twitter.com/ShaneAParrish  

Former NHL player turned mining executive Brent Gilchrist joins me to share the lessons he learned in the trenches of professional hockey. We discuss leadership, hard work, and what it takes to win as a team.   Go Premium: Members get early access, ad-free episodes, hand-edited transcripts, searchable transcripts, member-only episodes, and more. Sign up at: https://fs.blog/membership/   Every Sunday our newsletter shares timeless insights and ideas that you can use at work and home. Add it to your inbox: https://fs.blog/newsletter/   Follow Shane on Twitter at: https://twitter.com/ShaneAParrish  

Author, educator, and hedge fund advisor, Adam Robinson returns for part 2 of our fascinating discussion. We talk chess, AI, handicapping horse races, and the secret to learning that nobody is teaching.   Go Premium: Members get early access, ad-free episodes, hand-edited transcripts, searchable transcripts, member-only episodes, and more. Sign up at: https://fs.blog/membership/   Every Sunday our newsletter shares timeless insights and ideas that you can use at work and home. Add it to your inbox: https://fs.blog/newsletter/   Follow Shane on Twitter at: https://twitter.com/ShaneAParrish  

Author, educator, and hedge fund advisor, Adam Robinson shares powerful lessons on winning the game of life. He teaches us how to learn, how to fail, and his three secrets of happiness and success.   Go Premium: Members get early access, ad-free episodes, hand-edited transcripts, searchable transcripts, member-only episodes, and more. Sign up at: https://fs.blog/membership/   Every Sunday our newsletter shares timeless insights and ideas that you can use at work and home. Add it to your inbox: https://fs.blog/newsletter/   Follow Shane on Twitter at: https://twitter.com/ShaneAParrish  

Television personality, activist, mother, and wife to Canada’s Prime Minister, Sophie Grégoire Trudeau discusses her battle with eating disorders, why nature and art play such a huge role in her life and what unites us as people.     Go Premium: Members get early access, ad-free episodes, hand-edited transcripts, searchable transcripts, member-only episodes, and more. Sign up at: https://fs.blog/membership/   Every Sunday our newsletter shares timeless insights and ideas that you can use at work and home. Add it to your inbox: https://fs.blog/newsletter/   Follow Shane on Twitter at: https://twitter.com/ShaneAParrish  

Dan Kluger, award-winning chef and owner of NYC’s Loring Place joins me on the podcast to reveal what really happens behind the scenes of a bustling restaurant, why every detail of your craft matters, and how to create the perfect experience for every guest.   Go Premium: Members get early access, ad-free episodes, hand-edited transcripts, searchable transcripts, member-only episodes, and more. Sign up at: https://fs.blog/membership/   Every Sunday our newsletter shares timeless insights and ideas that you can use at work and home. Add it to your inbox: https://fs.blog/newsletter/   Follow Shane on Twitter at: https://twitter.com/ShaneAParrish  

Parenting expert and best selling author Barbara Coloroso shares her three foundational principles of child-rearing, how to get kids to be accountable for their actions, and what we can do as parents to raise confident, happy children.   Go Premium: Members get early access, ad-free episodes, hand-edited transcripts, searchable transcripts, member-only episodes, and more. Sign up at: https://fs.blog/membership/   Every Sunday our newsletter shares timeless insights and ideas that you can use at work and home. Add it to your inbox: https://fs.blog/newsletter/   Follow Shane on Twitter at: https://twitter.com/ShaneAParrish

In a world that changes at a dizzying rate, effective leaders need to develop the skills to keep up. Developmental coach and author Jennifer Garvey Berger shares 3 habits to ensure continual growth, accelerated learning and deepened relationships of trust.   Go Premium: Members get early access, ad-free episodes, hand-edited transcripts, searchable transcripts, member-only episodes, and more. Sign up at: https://fs.blog/membership/   Every Sunday our newsletter shares timeless insights and ideas that you can use at work and home. Add it to your inbox: https://fs.blog/newsletter/   Follow Shane on Twitter at: https://twitter.com/ShaneAParrish  

The world-renowned surgeon, writer, and researcher Atul Gawande shares powerful lessons about creating a culture of safe learning, the critical difference between a coach and a mentor, and how to ensure constant improvement in key areas of your personal and professional life.   Go Premium: Members get early access, ad-free episodes, hand-edited transcripts, searchable transcripts, member-only episodes, and more. Sign up at: https://fs.blog/membership/   Every Sunday our newsletter shares timeless insights and ideas that you can use at work and home. Add it to your inbox: https://fs.blog/newsletter/   Follow Shane on Twitter at: https://twitter.com/ShaneAParrish  

Today, I interview fellow Ottawan and the founder and CEO of Shopify, Tobi Lütke. In case you’re still new to the internet, Shopify is the largest ecommerce platform that allows people to easily set up online storefronts to sell everything from jewelry to surfing lessons. Shopify began as a simple two man operation selling snowboards online, but it became clear rather quickly that it had the potential to grow into much more. Now Shopify employs more than 4,000 people and supports more than 600,000 businesses online. It’s a remarkable story, with a remarkable leader at the helm. There was so much I wanted to talk to Tobi about that we hop around quite a bit. Here are a few of the topics we discuss: Tobi’s thoughts on how video games helped him prepare to run a company How selling snowboards online slowly transitioned to the creation of one of the biggest tech companies in the world Why Tobi intentionally headquartered Shopify outside of Silicon Valley and how that fits into his overall growth strategy One of the most underrated resources Tobi leans on to mine nuggets of wisdom when trying to get insight or solve a problem The hard and valuable lessons Tobi learned as they scaled from a 2 employee company to a 4,000 employee company What the “Tobi test” is, and how it helps Shopify team members become more adaptable, unified and prepared when things go haywire How employees use the “trust battery” and how it fosters better teamwork, communication, and productivity throughout the company The benefits of hiring employees in a “secondary market” as opposed to a “primary market” and how that contributes to the unique culture at Shopify Tobi’s decision-making process and his philosophy on making quick vs analytic decisions Tobi’s unusual morning routine that gets him in the right mindset to tackle the day His optimistic view of AI and machine learning and how they will impact the way we do things in the future And more… Whether you’re building a business of your own, want to create a more dynamic and unified culture at work, or just like hearing entrepreneur war stories, this episode will not disappoint. Go Premium: Members get early access, ad-free episodes, hand-edited transcripts, searchable transcripts, member-only episodes, and more. Sign up at: https://fs.blog/membership/   Every Sunday our newsletter shares timeless insights and ideas that you can use at work and home. Add it to your inbox: https://fs.blog/newsletter/   Follow Shane on Twitter at: https://twitter.com/ShaneAParrish  

Today’s guest is Stratechery author and founder Ben Thompson. If you’re an investor in Silicon Valley, work at a tech start-up, or just love to geek out on technology and business analysis, odds are good that Stratechery is on your short list of must-read blogs. What started as a side project, quickly ballooned into one of the most influential tech blogs on the web. The New York Times called Stratechery, “one of the most interesting sources of analysis on any subject.” I agree. In this interview, Ben and I cover a lot of ground. Here are a few of the things we discuss: Learn once and for all how to pronounce Stratechery. :) How Ben’s business model was developed and how he massaged it over the years to become what it is today The one metric Ben looks at each day to gauge the health of his business How Ben deals with people who rip off his work and pass it off as their own Ben’s thoughts on pricing, free trials, content and other important aspects of online membership sites How Ben structures his day to churn out such incredible content so consistently How Ben handles being wrong on his site, and his process for screening his work for confirmation bias How the internet has changed the traditional view of supply and demand, and what companies should do about it What Ben would teach an MBA class about internet strategy (if you do any business online, you need to hear this) What it would take for a start-up to overtake Google or Apple, and the vulnerabilities that all companies share, no matter how big or profitable The new era of technology and how companies like Netflix, Airbnb, and Amazon are doing it right (and what you can do in your own business to take full advantage) This is one of the most jam-packed interviews I’ve done on the Knowledge Project. Ben’s answers are so thoughtful and informative that you’re going to want to have a notebook handy.   Go Premium: Members get early access, ad-free episodes, hand-edited transcripts, searchable transcripts, member-only episodes, and more. Sign up at: https://fs.blog/membership/   Every Sunday our newsletter shares timeless insights and ideas that you can use at work and home. Add it to your inbox: https://fs.blog/newsletter/   Follow Shane on Twitter at: https://twitter.com/ShaneAParrish  

There are only a handful of websites that I read religiously. One of those is MarginalRevolution.com, started by my next guest, Tyler Cowen. Other than hosting one of the most popular economic blogs in the world, Tyler is also an economics professor at George Mason University, a regular New York Times columnist, and the author of over a dozen books, including Average is Over, and The Complacent Class. With such a prolific guest, it’s no wonder that we cover a lot of ground. In this episode, we discuss: How the future of labor will look drastically different than it does today, and what we can do to future-proof our livelihood The pros and cons of virtual reality and the impact it could have on society The fate of newspapers and how information will be more and more “bundled” according to our tastes and preferences Race relations in the world, and how in many ways we’ve taken discouraging steps backwards How we’re losing touch with the physical world, and some of the symptoms that indicate that we could be in for a rough ride What Tyler suggests doing to improve decision making and how important (and rare) that skill will be in the coming years Tyler’s advice to parents about how to foster resilience, tenacity and internal drive in their children Tyler’s “quake books” and the reading process he’s developed over the years that keeps him sharp Why giving books as gifts can be dangerous The one skill every person should possess before Googling anything What playing competitive chess as a child taught Tyler about how he thinks and views the world today And much more, including Tyler’s thoughts on minimum wage, bitcoin, and his favorite television programs. If you want to upgrade your thinking so you’re prepared for the brave new world that’s rapidly developing before our eyes, you won’t want to miss this fascinating episode.   Go Premium: Members get early access, ad-free episodes, hand-edited transcripts, searchable transcripts, member-only episodes, and more. Sign up at: https://fs.blog/membership/   Every Sunday our newsletter shares timeless insights and ideas that you can use at work and home. Add it to your inbox: https://fs.blog/newsletter/   Follow Shane on Twitter at: https://twitter.com/ShaneAParrish

My guest for this short episode of The Knowledge Project is a man who wears many hats. Ali Almossawi is a San Francisco-based author of books on critical thinking and computer science education, and the creator of An Illustrated Book of Bad Arguments. He is also a principal engineer at Apple and was formerly employed as a data visualization engineer by Mozilla. His books have been read by 3 million readers, translated into 20 languages, and have sold over a quarter million copies in print. This interview is only 20 minutes along, but there was a lot I wanted to cover, so we move pretty fast. Specifically, we cover: The unique format Ali chooses when writing a book to help people understand the concepts more deeply The place for empathy in algorithmic thinking and how we can be more empathetic in our daily interactions with each other Ali’s note taking process and how he tracks the ideas and topics he’d like to explore Ali’s daily routine and the “algorithms” he uses to make the most of his day The single habit that has the most profound impact on Ali’s day to day The cost/benefit of sharing on social media and the impact it has on society as a whole And more. If you’ve ever wanted to improve the way you process information, think more clearly and make better decisions, you won’t want to miss this interview.   Go Premium: Members get early access, ad-free episodes, hand-edited transcripts, searchable transcripts, member-only episodes, and more. Sign up at: https://fs.blog/membership/   Every Sunday our newsletter shares timeless insights and ideas that you can use at work and home. Add it to your inbox: https://fs.blog/newsletter/   Follow Shane on Twitter at: https://twitter.com/ShaneAParrish

I have wanted to do this interview for a long time. On this episode, I am thrilled to have Annie Duke, former professional poker player and author of the new book, Thinking in Bets: Making Smarter Decisions When You Don't Have All the Facts. Annie has a very interesting background that makes her uniquely qualified to speak about high-level decision making. As an author, speaker, world-class poker player, and academic in the fields of psychology and cognitive theory, Annie understands the intersection of luck, skill, and making decisions in uncertain, chaotic environments better than most people on the planet. This is a whirlwind of an episode, and we cover all kinds of fascinating topics, including: The strange circumstances that shifted Annie’s path from finishing a Ph.D. in linguistics to becoming a professional poker player What it was like to be a female poker player in a predominantly male sport (especially before poker had become socially acceptable) What drew Annie into such a high stakes, time-pressured environment and why she felt like poker was the perfect fit for her How her graduate work in psychology informed the way she approached the game of poker — and helped her rack up wins How she finds the signal in a very noisy stream of feedback The big mistakes Annie noticed other players making that were stalling their progress in the game but allowed her to make giant leaps forward The role that mental models played in her learning process (and which models Annie liked to lean on the most in a high stakes game) The power of surrounding yourself with people that can help you expand your circle of competence — and how that made all the difference in Annie’s development as a player Confirmatory and exploratory thought, and how one helps us to be “accurate” and one helps us to be “right.” The secret pact you should be making with the people who are closest to you And so much more. This episode is just under two hours long, but there’s no fat in it. Annie delivers a masterclass in making the smartest decisions we can, even when our hubris insists otherwise. Do some finger stretches before hitting play, because you’re going to be taking some serious notes. Please enjoy the interview! *** Go Premium: Members get early access, ad-free episodes, hand-edited transcripts, searchable transcripts, member-only episodes, and more. Sign up at: https://fs.blog/membership/   Every Sunday our newsletter shares timeless insights and ideas that you can use at work and home. Add it to your inbox: https://fs.blog/newsletter/   Follow Shane on Twitter at: https://twitter.com/ShaneAParrish  

On this episode of The Knowledge Project, I’m happy to have William MacAskill. William is the co-founder and President of the Centre for Effective Altruism (CEA) and an Associate Professor in Philosophy at Oxford University. He is also the founder and president of 80,000 Hours, the co-founder and vice-president of Giving What We Can, and the author of Doing Good Better: Effective Altruism and a Radical New Way to Make a Difference. William’s work is primarily focused on encouraging people to use reason and evidence to find the best possible ways they can use their resources to make the biggest possible impact in the world. We cover a lot of ground in this interview, including: Why good intentions aren’t enough when giving to charity and how we can do better How William's giving philosophy was formed and how it developed into The Centre for Effective Altruism The best metrics to assess how good a charity is before donating a dime How letting our emotions guide our charitable giving can lead to ineffective, and sometimes harmful outcomes. How many charities today unknowingly reward low dollar donors and sell themselves short millions of dollars in potential donations A powerful thought exercise to help you gain a different but valuable perspective about helping the poor and suffering in the world The one cognitive bias William believes is the most damaging to any business, organization or individual William’s foundational values that guide his day to day decisions and actions William’s take on “radical honesty” and when honesty can be taken too far and is no longer constructive William’s definition of success and the imaginary conversation he has with himself on his deathbed to make sure he’s on the right track (this is awesome) The most common mistake William sees people make over and over (and the embarrassingly simple way to avoid making it) And then to wrap up, I gave him a softball question: What is the purpose and meaning of life? If you’ve wanted to make more of a positive impact in the world around you, this insightful interview will give you plenty to think about. Your resources are precious and should be optimized to improve the lives of those you help. I don’t know of a better person to guide you than William. *** Go Premium: Members get early access, ad-free episodes, hand-edited transcripts, searchable transcripts, member-only episodes, and more. Sign up at: https://fs.blog/membership/   Every Sunday our newsletter shares timeless insights and ideas that you can use at work and home. Add it to your inbox: https://fs.blog/newsletter/   Follow Shane on Twitter at: https://twitter.com/ShaneAParrish  

In this episode of The Knowledge Project, I have the brilliant Robert Greene. Robert is the author of 5 New York Times bestsellers, including The 48 Laws of Power and The 33 Strategies of War. He's also written on mastery and seduction. Robert’s books have been somewhat controversial over the years and have been called amoral, cunning, and even ruthless for what they reveal. Yet millions of readers, from mid-level managers to hip-hop royalty and corporate executives have revered his work as a sort of canonized scripture for the ambitious. In this conversation, we cover a lot of ground, including: Why Robert believes his first book, 48 Laws of Power has continued to sell steadily for over two decades. What Robert calls “alive time” and “dead time” and how we can optimize each day to be filled with “alive time” and live the life we’re proud of The one skill that determines how far you’ll get in life, no matter how talented you are in anything else Robert’s research method and how he finds such unique and interesting examples What Robert looks for when he reads, and what qualities separate good books from excellent books How Robert developed his famous note card system to extract the meat out of anything he reads Why Robert insists on writing all his notes longhand even though it’s less convenient and less accessible than taking notes digitally What Robert’s daily routine looks like, particularly when he’s writing and researching for a new book What Robert considers to be the single greatest power any human has, and what we can do to strengthen it How having unfettered access to information is actually making us dumber in very important ways and what we can do about it How to fine tune your “bullshit detector” so you’re able to tell the difference between pretenders and performers. (As a bonus, Robert shares a few ways you can improve your bullshitting skills when it becomes necessary) And a lot more. Plus, Robert gives us a sneak peek into his newest project, The Laws of Human Nature, which explores the hidden motivations that drive what we do and say. This interview is packed to the brim with interesting and actionable insights that I think you’re going to love. Grab a pen, a notebook, and a glass of wine and enjoy!   Go Premium: Members get early access, ad-free episodes, hand-edited transcripts, searchable transcripts, member-only episodes, and more. Sign up at: https://fs.blog/membership/   Every Sunday our newsletter shares timeless insights and ideas that you can use at work and home. Add it to your inbox: https://fs.blog/newsletter/   Follow Shane on Twitter at: https://twitter.com/ShaneAParrish  

Since the popularity of Obstacle Course Racing, or OCR, has exploded onto the scene, there has been one woman who has dominated the sport: Amelia Boone. Amelia ran her first race in 2011 after some prodding from a co-worker, and though she says she stumbled her way to an unimpressive finish, she was smitten. She has since amassed over  50 podiums and two dozen victories, including the Spartan Race World Championship in 2013, and the World's Toughest Mudder (three times!) in 2012, 2014 and 2015. Oh, and her 2014 victory came just eight weeks after major knee surgery. Though she vehemently denies it, Amelia is superhuman. This interview is a little different than others you may have heard on The Knowledge Project but no less fascinating. We cover a wide variety of topics including habits, reading, self-reliance, and training. Specifically, you’ll learn: Why Amelia was drawn to obstacle racing even though running was something she despised The complementary connection between her sport and her professional work and how racing has made her a more effective attorney How Amelia fights physical and mental fatigue when most people quit (she even shares a story of how she dealt with a vacant support station halfway through a 100 mile race) What she does to develop grit and resilience so she knows she can rely on herself when things get rough Amelia’s “to-do list” trick that makes sure she’s productive — you’ll want to steal this How a serious injury taught Amelia some of her most powerful lessons about who she is and what’s important to her What Amelia’s parents did to teach her to be self-sufficient from a very young age How she learned to deal with setbacks, and how careful she is with the language she uses when she speaks to herself when things go wrong Why Amelia runs with a Sharpie and the same playlist she’s listened to for the past 5 years How Amelia transformed herself from a casual weekend warrior to one of the most finely tuned athletes in the world Whether you’re an athlete, a weekend jogger, or the only exercise you get is the leisure stroll from the couch to the refrigerator, there are lots of insights and plenty of inspiration waiting for you in this interview. Go Premium: Members get early access, ad-free episodes, hand-edited transcripts, searchable transcripts, member-only episodes, and more. Sign up at: https://fs.blog/membership/   Every Sunday our newsletter shares timeless insights and ideas that you can use at work and home. Add it to your inbox: https://fs.blog/newsletter/   Follow Shane on Twitter at: https://twitter.com/ShaneAParrish  

On this episode of the Knowledge Project, I’m joined by the fascinating Dan Ariely. Dan just about does it all. He has delivered 6 TED talks with a combined 20 million views, he’s a multiple New York Times best-selling author, a widely published researcher, and the James B Duke Professor of Psychology and Behavioral Economics at Duke University. For the better part of three decades, Dan has been immersed in researching why humans do some of the silly, irrational things we do. And yes, as much as we’d all like to be exempt, that includes you too. In this captivating interview, we tackle a lot of interesting topics, including: The three types of decisions that control our life and how understanding our biases can help us make smarter decisions How our environment plays a big role in our decision making and the small changes we can make to automatically improve our outcomes The “behavioural driven” bathroom scale Dan has been working on to revolutionize weight loss Which of our irrational behaviors transfer across cultures and which ones are unique to certain parts of the world (for example, find out which country is the most honest) The dishonesty spectrum and why we as humans insist on flirting with the line between “honest” and “dishonest” 3 sneaky mental tricks Dan uses to avoid making ego-driven decisions “Pluralistic ignorance” and how it dangerously affects our actions and inactions (As a bonus, Dan shares the hilarious way he demonstrates this concept to his students on their first day of class) The rule Dan created specifically for people with spinach in their teeth The difference between habits, rules, and rituals, and why they are critical to shaping us into who we want to be This was a riveting discussion and one that easily could have gone for hours. If you’ve ever wondered how you’d respond in any of these eye-opening experiments, you have to listen to this interview. If you’re anything like me, you’ll learn something new about yourself, whether you want to or not.   *** Go Premium: Members get early access, ad-free episodes, hand-edited transcripts, searchable transcripts, member-only episodes, and more. Sign up at: https://fs.blog/membership/   Every Sunday our newsletter shares timeless insights and ideas that you can use at work and home. Add it to your inbox: https://fs.blog/newsletter/   Follow Shane on Twitter at: https://twitter.com/ShaneAParrish  

On this episode of the Knowledge Project Podcast, I chat with Patrick Collison, co-founder and CEO of the leading online payment processing company, Stripe. If you’ve purchased anything online recently, there’s a good chance that Stripe facilitated the transaction. What is now an organization with over a thousand employees and handling tens of billions of dollars of online purchases every year, began as a small side experiment while Patrick and his brother John were going to college.   During our conversation, Patrick shares the details of their unlikely journey and some of the hard-earned wisdom he picked up along the way. I hope you have something handy to write with because the nuggets per minute in this episode are off the charts. Patrick was so open and generous with his responses that I’m really excited for you to hear what he has to say. Here are just a few of the things we cover: The biggest (and most valuable) mistakes Patrick made in the early days of Stripe and how they helped him get better The characteristics that Patrick looks for in a new hire to fit and contribute to the Stripe company culture What compelled he and his brother to move forward with the early concept of Stripe, even though on paper it was doomed to fail from the start The gaps Patrick saw in the market that dozens of other processing companies were missing — and how he capitalized on them The lessons Patrick learned from scaling Stripe from two employees (he and his brother) to nearly 1,000 today How he evaluates the upsides and potential dangers of speculative positions within the company How his Irish upbringing influenced his ability to argue and disagree without taking offense (and how we can all be a little more “Irish”) The power of finding the right peer group in your social and professional circles and how impactful and influential it can be in determining where you end up. The 4 ways Patrick has modified his decision making process over the last 5 years and how it’s helped him develop as a person and as a business leader (this part alone is worth the listen) Patrick’s unique approach to books and how he chooses what he’s going to spend his time reading ...life in Silicon Valley, Baumol’s cost disease, and so, so much more. Patrick truly is one of the warmest, humblest and down-to-earth people I’ve had the pleasure to speak with and I thoroughly enjoyed our conversation together. I hope you will too! Go Premium: Members get early access, ad-free episodes, hand-edited transcripts, searchable transcripts, member-only episodes, and more. Sign up at: https://fs.blog/membership/   Every Sunday our newsletter shares timeless insights and ideas that you can use at work and home. Add it to your inbox: https://fs.blog/newsletter/   Follow Shane on Twitter at: https://twitter.com/ShaneAParrish  

Just when I start to think I’m using my time well and getting a lot done in my life, I meet someone like Barbara Oakley. Barbara is a true polymath. She was a captain in the U.S. Army, a Russian translator on Soviet trawlers, a radio operator in the South Pole, an engineer, university professor, researcher and the author of 8 books. Oh, and she is also the creator and instructor of Learning to Learn, the most popular Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) ever(!), with over one million enrolled students. In this fascinating interview, we cover many aspects of learning, including how to make it stick so we remember more and forget less, how to be more efficient so we learn more quickly, and how to remove that barriers that get in the way of effective learning. Specifically, Barbara covers: How she changed her brain from hating math and science to loving it so much she now teaches engineering to college students What neuroscience can tell us about how to learn more effectively The two modes of your brain and how that impacts what and how you learn Why backing off can sometimes be the best thing you can do when learning something new How to “chunk” your learning so new knowledge is woven into prior knowledge making it easily accessible The best ways to develop new patterns of learning in our brains How to practice a skill so you can blast through plateaus and improve more quickly Her favorite tactic for dealing with procrastination so you can spend more time learning The activities she recommends that rapidly increase neural connections like fertilizer on the brain Whether memorization has a place in learning anymore, or simply a barrier to true understanding The truth about “learning types” and how identifying as a visual or auditory learner might be setting yourself up for failure. ...and a whole lot more. If you want to be the most efficient learner you can be, and have more fun doing it, you won’t want to miss this discussion. Go Premium: Members get early access, ad-free episodes, hand-edited transcripts, searchable transcripts, member-only episodes, and more. Sign up at: https://fs.blog/membership/   Every Sunday our newsletter shares timeless insights and ideas that you can use at work and home. Add it to your inbox: https://fs.blog/newsletter/   Follow Shane on Twitter at: https://twitter.com/ShaneAParrish

Today, I’m joined by speaker, international executive and five-time author Margaret Heffernan. We discuss how to get the most out of our people, creating a thriving culture of trust and collaboration, and how to prevent potentially devastating “willful blindness.”   Go Premium: Members get early access, ad-free episodes, hand-edited transcripts, searchable transcripts, member-only episodes, and more. Sign up at: https://fs.blog/membership/   Every Sunday our newsletter shares timeless insights and ideas that you can use at work and home. Add it to your inbox: https://fs.blog/newsletter/   Follow Shane on Twitter at: https://twitter.com/ShaneAParrish  

When Pixar was dreaming up the idea for Inside Out, a film that would explore the roiling emotions inside the head of a young girl, they needed guidance from an expert. So they called Dacher Keltner. Dacher is a psychologist at UC Berkeley who has dedicated his career to understanding how human emotion shapes the way we interact with the world, how we properly manage difficult or stressful situations, and ultimately, how we treat one another. In fact, he refers to emotions as the “language of social living.” The more fluent we are in this language, the happier and more meaningful our lives can be. We tackle a wide variety of topics in this conversation that I think you’ll really enjoy. You’ll learn: The three main drivers that determine your personal happiness and life satisfaction Simple things you can do everyday to jumpstart the “feel good” reward center of your brain The principle of “jen” and how we can use “high-jen behaviors” to bootstrap our own happiness How to have more positive influence in our homes, at work and in our communities. How to teach your kids to be more kind and empathetic in an increasingly self-centered world What you can do to stay grounded and humble if you are in a position of power or authority How to catch our own biases when we’re overly critical of another’s ideas (or overconfident in our own) And much more. We could have spent an hour discussing any one of these points alone, but there was so much I wanted to cover. I’m certain you’ll find this episode well worth your time. *** Go Premium: Members get early access, ad-free episodes, hand-edited transcripts, searchable transcripts, member-only episodes, and more. Sign up at: https://fs.blog/membership/   Every Sunday our newsletter shares timeless insights and ideas that you can use at work and home. Add it to your inbox: https://fs.blog/newsletter/   Follow Shane on Twitter at: https://twitter.com/ShaneAParrish  

Michael Mauboussin returns for a fascinating encore interview on the Knowledge Project. We geek out on decision making, luck vs. skill, work life balance, and so much more. *** Michael Mauboussin is back as a returning guest on the Knowledge Project! He was actually the very first guest on the podcast when it was still very much an experiment. I enjoyed it so much, I decided to continue with the show. (If you missed his last interview, you can listen to it here, or if you’re a member of The Learning Community, you can download a transcript.) Michael is one of my very favorite people to talk to, and I couldn’t wait to pick up right where we left off. In this interview, Michael and I dive deep into some of the topics we care most about here at Farnam Street, including: The concept of “base rates” and how they can help us make far better decisions and avoid the pain and consequences of making poor choices. How to know where you land on the luck/skill continuum and why it matters Michael’s advice on creating a systematic decision-making process in your organization to improve outcomes. The two most important elements of any decision-making process How to train your intuition to be one of your most powerful assets instead of a dangerous liability The three tests Michael uses in his company to determine the health and financial stability of his environment Why “algorithm aversion” is creating such headaches in many organizations and how to help your teams overcome it, so you can make more rapid progress The most impactful books that he’s read since we last spoke, is reading habits, and the strategies he uses to get the most of every book The importance of sleep in Michael's’ life to make sure his body and mind are running at peak efficiency His greatest failures and what he learned from them How Michael and his wife raised their kids and the unique parenting style they adopted How Michael defines happiness and the decisions he makes to maximize the joy in his life Any one of those insights alone is worth a listen, so I think you’re really going to enjoy this interview. Go Premium: Members get early access, ad-free episodes, hand-edited transcripts, searchable transcripts, member-only episodes, and more. Sign up at: https://fs.blog/membership/   Every Sunday our newsletter shares timeless insights and ideas that you can use at work and home. Add it to your inbox: https://fs.blog/newsletter/   Follow Shane on Twitter at: https://twitter.com/ShaneAParrish  

Negotiation expert Chris Voss teaches a masterclass on the art of negotiation. Chris is the former lead international kidnapping negotiator at the Federal Bureau of Investigation.   Go Premium: Members get early access, ad-free episodes, hand-edited transcripts, searchable transcripts, member-only episodes, and more. Sign up at: https://fs.blog/membership/   Every Sunday our newsletter shares timeless insights and ideas that you can use at work and home. Add it to your inbox: https://fs.blog/newsletter/   Follow Shane on Twitter at: https://twitter.com/ShaneAParrish  

The quality of your outcome depends on the quality of your questions. Through asking the right questions we can spark innovation and creativity, gain deeper knowledge in the topics that are most important to us, and propel us forward in our personal and professional pursuits. Yet very few of us do it well — if we do it at all. My guest on the podcast today is Warren Berger — journalist, speaker, best selling author, and self-proclaimed questionologist. His insightful book A More Beautiful Question shows how the world’s leading innovators, education leaders, creative thinkers, and red-hot start-ups ask game-changing questions to nurture creativity, solve problems, and create new possibilities. In this episode, we discuss the importance of asking the right questions, why they’re critical to your success, and how you may be one great question away from a major breakthrough. You’ll also learn: How Warren manages the constant input and stimulation from online consumption when it’s time to create. The small habits that pack the biggest punch and make the most difference in Warren’s life What makes a question more or less effective How to create a culture where questions are welcome and encouraged Why answering all your kids’ questions may be doing them a disservice — and what to do instead What “collaborative inquiry” is and how to use it to get the most out of your teams in the workplace How Warren transformed one of his most painful failures into one of his most proud achievements Why Warren insists that everyone is creative, and what we can do to fan the flames of our own creativity If you think you could improve the quality (and frequency) of your questions to enhance key areas of your life, this is not a conversation you’ll want to miss.   Go Premium: Members get early access, ad-free episodes, hand-edited transcripts, searchable transcripts, member-only episodes, and more. Sign up at: https://fs.blog/membership/   Every Sunday our newsletter shares timeless insights and ideas that you can use at work and home. Add it to your inbox: https://fs.blog/newsletter/   Follow Shane on Twitter at: https://twitter.com/ShaneAParrish

It seems that nowadays, aside from religion and politics, one of the most hotly debated topics is that of nutrition. Should we eat high carb diets? Low carb? High fat? High protein? What about wheat or gluten? Should we eat meat or adopt a vegan diet? There are as many opinions as there are people — and books, magazines and websites are overflowing with information showing you the “right” way to eat and exercise to lose weight. But if “eating less and moving more” is all it takes to lose weight and enjoy a healthy lifestyle, why are so many of us fat and getting fatter? In this episode, I chat with Gary Taubes, bestselling author of three books, The Case Against Sugar (2016), Why We Get Fat and What to Do About It (2011) and Good Calories, Bad Calories (2007). We talk about the sharp rise of obesity and diabetes in America, the structural hurdles to effective nutrition research, and explore the common myth that a calorie is just a calorie. Here are a few other things you’ll learn in this interview: How diets shifted in the last century, and what impact it’s having on our bodies today. Why a carb isn’t just a carb — and why you should know the difference Is the sugar industry the new Big Tobacco? What role genetics play in our health, and how much is under our control Why humans are so attracted to sugar and how to break the habit Gary’s suggestions to improve your health, drop body fat and feel terrific The benefits of fasting and how you can try it out yourself And a bunch more. If you think at all about your health, give this podcast a listen.    Go Premium: Members get early access, ad-free episodes, hand-edited transcripts, searchable transcripts, member-only episodes, and more. Sign up at: https://fs.blog/membership/   Every Sunday our newsletter shares timeless insights and ideas that you can use at work and home. Add it to your inbox: https://fs.blog/newsletter/   Follow Shane on Twitter at: https://twitter.com/ShaneAParrish

For decades, introversion was looked at as something to overcome, almost like an illness. The way to win in life was through charisma, outspokenness, and self-promotion. Even now, in an increasingly noisy world, introverts may feel added pressure to take one of two paths: force themselves into more extroverted behavior, or become even more reserved and shrink back to themselves. My guest Susan Cain says both paths are wrong and in fact, rob the world of the unique contributions introverts make when they choose to be true to themselves. Susan knows what she’s talking about. A self-proclaimed introvert, she wrote the New York Times bestselling book, Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World that Can't Stop Talking and delivered one of the most popular TED talks ever delivered, with nearly 18 million views to date. Whether you consider yourself an extrovert, an introvert, or an ambivert (those lucky bastards in the middle) you’ll find a ton of value in this interview.   Go Premium: Members get early access, ad-free episodes, hand-edited transcripts, searchable transcripts, member-only episodes, and more. Sign up at: https://fs.blog/membership/   Every Sunday our newsletter shares timeless insights and ideas that you can use at work and home. Add it to your inbox: https://fs.blog/newsletter/   Follow Shane on Twitter at: https://twitter.com/ShaneAParrish  

Are you in love with your own ideas regardless of how good they are Would you like to make better decisions and fewer mistakes? Would you like to improve the most important relationships in your life? These are just some of the topics I discuss with my guest, Ray Dalio. Ray Dalio is the founder of the world’s largest hedge fund, Bridgewater Associates, and is the author of the new book Principles: Life and Work. He is also a leading figure in the world of philanthropy, is an avid supporter of transcendental meditation, and has appeared on Time magazine’s list of the 100 most influential people in the world. Ray gave me over an hour and a half of his time, and I didn’t waste a minute of it.    Go Premium: Members get early access, ad-free episodes, hand-edited transcripts, searchable transcripts, member-only episodes, and more. Sign up at: https://fs.blog/membership/   Every Sunday our newsletter shares timeless insights and ideas that you can use at work and home. Add it to your inbox: https://fs.blog/newsletter/   Follow Shane on Twitter at: https://twitter.com/ShaneAParrish

Are you a giver or a taker? Have you ever struggled to find work/life balance? How do you build resilience in yourself, your team, or your children? I tackle these topics and many more in this interview with my special guest, Adam Grant. In this interview, we cover a lot, including: How to tell if you are a giver or a taker (Spoiler: if you just told yourself you’re a giver, you might be in for a rude awakening) How Adam filters down hundreds of ideas and opportunities to the select few he focuses on How to tell if your business idea is a winner or a huge waste of time Why “quick to start and slow to finish” is great advice for budding entrepreneurs How to nurture creativity and resilience in your children (or team culture) How to create positive competitive environments that bring out the best in people Adam’s two core family values and how he instills them in his children “Mental time travel” and how it can make you resilient to any challenge or obstacle Why “how can I be more productive” is the wrong question to ask (and what to ask instead) How Adam and I each address the topic of work/life balance And so much more.   Go Premium: Members get early access, ad-free episodes, hand-edited transcripts, searchable transcripts, member-only episodes, and more. Sign up at: https://fs.blog/membership/   Every Sunday our newsletter shares timeless insights and ideas that you can use at work and home. Add it to your inbox: https://fs.blog/newsletter/   Follow Shane on Twitter at: https://twitter.com/ShaneAParrish  

Ed Latimore might be the most interesting person you'll ever meet. Ed is a professional heavyweight boxer, physics major, and philosopher. He's also the author of the cult-hit Not Caring What Other People Think Is a Superpower. If there's anything Ed feels like doing, he simply does it. This interview explores the physics of boxing, the value of a coach, and much of Ed’s hard-fought wisdom. You’ll discover: How the painful end to a relationship lit a fire under Ed that hasn’t stopped burning How Ed knows when he’s bitten off more than he can chew and needs to ease up on the accelerator Why motivation is a terrible way to achieve great things (and what to do instead) The unlikely way that Ed’s runaway best selling book came about Why Ed thinks every person should step into the boxing ring at least once in their life How people get stuck on the “dopamine treadmill” which feels productive but actually gets you nowhere (this is the kiss of death if you want to accomplish any important goal) Ed’s brilliant philosophy on pain and suffering that will change the way you view hardships in your life Ed’s somewhat controversial approach to coaching children and getting the very best out of them The most important element of creating a positive habit (most people get this wrong) And more. After listening to this warrior poet, you won’t look at life the same again.   Go Premium: Members get early access, ad-free episodes, hand-edited transcripts, searchable transcripts, member-only episodes, and more. Sign up at: https://fs.blog/membership/   Every Sunday our newsletter shares timeless insights and ideas that you can use at work and home. Add it to your inbox: https://fs.blog/newsletter/   Follow Shane on Twitter at: https://twitter.com/ShaneAParrish

Marc Garneau is a Canadian politician, Engineer, and the Minister of Transport. This interview was recorded live in front of an audience in Montreal. As a bilingual country, you'll hear bits of French from the audience questions here and there but the interview is predominately in English. In this interview, we discuss the future of transportation (including self-driving cars), infrastructure investments, space, what it means to be a liberal in 2017, how we — as citizens — can judge an elected politician, how he ensures he's getting accurate information in a political system and so much more.  Enjoy this amazing conversation.   Go Premium: Members get early access, ad-free episodes, hand-edited transcripts, searchable transcripts, member-only episodes, and more. Sign up at: https://fs.blog/membership/   Every Sunday our newsletter shares timeless insights and ideas that you can use at work and home. Add it to your inbox: https://fs.blog/newsletter/   Follow Shane on Twitter at: https://twitter.com/ShaneAParrish  

In this info-packed and entertaining interview, Rory Sutherland, Vice Chairman of Ogilvy & Mather, and I dive deep on advertising, persuasion, and why humans do some of the silly things we do.   Go Premium: Members get early access, ad-free episodes, hand-edited transcripts, searchable transcripts, member-only episodes, and more. Sign up at: https://fs.blog/membership/   Every Sunday our newsletter shares timeless insights and ideas that you can use at work and home. Add it to your inbox: https://fs.blog/newsletter/   Follow Shane on Twitter at: https://twitter.com/ShaneAParrish

Naval Ravikant is the CEO and co-founder of AngelList. He’s invested in more than 100 companies, including Uber, Twitter, Yammer, and many others. It’s difficult to nail down exactly what we discuss in our conversation because I had so many questions to ask him. Naval is an incredibly deep thinker who challenges the status quo on so many things. This is an interview you’ll want to listen to, think a bit, and then listen to again. Here are just a few of the many things we cover in this episode: What a “typical day” looks like (not the answer I expected, and not one you’ve likely heard before) How Naval developed his legendary reading habits and how he finds time to read no matter how busy life gets How the internet has impacted book reading (both good and bad) and how to make sure you’re getting the best information from the most reliable sources What popular habit advice Naval thinks is BS and why Naval’s habit stacking technique that helped him overcome a desire for alcohol and other potentially destructive habits How Naval’s core values give direction to his life and how those values developed over time Naval’s thoughts on the current education system and what we can do to facilitate better learning for our children Naval’s favorite mental models for making critical high-stakes decisions His brilliant two-factor calendar authentication concept to keep him focused on only the most important projects Naval’s definition for the meaning of life (buckle up for this one) His amazing response to the investor who wanted to be just like Steve Jobs And so, so much more. Just a heads up, this is the longest podcast I’ve ever done. While it felt like only thirty minutes, our conversation lasted over two hours! And although it is the longest, it’s also our most downloaded episode on the Knowledge Project, so make sure you have a pen and paper handy. There’s a lot of wisdom up for grabs here. Enjoy this amazing conversation.   Go Premium: Members get early access, ad-free episodes, hand-edited transcripts, searchable transcripts, member-only episodes, and more. Sign up at: https://fs.blog/membership/   Every Sunday our newsletter shares timeless insights and ideas that you can use at work and home. Add it to your inbox: https://fs.blog/newsletter/   Follow Shane on Twitter at: https://twitter.com/ShaneAParrish

This is one of 2 interviews that I conducted while visiting Greece this summer. Greek history is deep routed in many things as philosophy, democracy and culture and has laid the foundation of so much of what we know and how we live today. Today I speak with Aristotle Koskinas (@aristotlekoskin), a guide with Athens walking tours. He's one of the best guides you can find in Athens. In order to be a guide in Greece, an individual must complete a 2½ year program at the School of Tourist Guides in Greece - which is a state school under the Ministry of Development. Some of the courses in the curriculum include Ancient Greek history, Byzantine history, Prehistoric Archaeology, Mythology, Geology, history of Theater –and psychology of the tourist. Listen in for details on the history of Athens over the past 3000 years, the influence Greek culture has had across the world, and some insight on what surprises him meeting visitors from different countries.   Go Premium: Members get early access, ad-free episodes, hand-edited transcripts, searchable transcripts, member-only episodes, and more. Sign up at: https://fs.blog/membership/   Every Sunday our newsletter shares timeless insights and ideas that you can use at work and home. Add it to your inbox: https://fs.blog/newsletter/   Follow Shane on Twitter at: https://twitter.com/ShaneAParrish

The island of Santorini has not only has breathtaking views but also a fascinating history. Traces of its first inhabitants have been linked back to 4500 BC. In 1613 BC the most powerful volcanic event in the last 10,000 years took place – completely destroying all the islands within a 60 km radius. It has been estimated that 90 billion tons of molten rock was injected into the air, the sea swallowed the volcano, and a massive tsunami swept across the Aegean Sea. Along with the obvious devastation of nature, it is believed that the eruption also sealed the deal for the most civilized nation on the island at the time, the Minoans. Thanks to the thick layer of ash cause by the event, the Bronze Age settlement of Akrotiri was so well preserved that we are able to see how prosperous the area had once been with an elaborate drainage systems, multi-storied buildings, incredible wall paintings, furniture and vessels. The site has as much of a significant importance as does Pompeii. The island’s main volcanic rock, its mineral rich soil, and the amazing climate, has produced some incredibly unique wines. Santorini is known for some of the oldest vineyards in the world. And we know that wine is one of my favourite topics. On today’s podcast I speak with Panayiota Kalogeropoulou about Santorini’s wines. Panayiota is the Director at the Domaine Sigalas vineyard. Paris Sigalas, a mathematician with a goal to make his Santorini vineyard a world heritage site, focuses on grapes that thrive in Santorini (these include the Aidani, Athiri, Plantana – and the prime Greek grape Assyrtiko). *** Go Premium: Members get early access, ad-free episodes, hand-edited transcripts, searchable transcripts, member-only episodes, and more. Sign up at: https://fs.blog/membership/   Every Sunday our newsletter shares timeless insights and ideas that you can use at work and home. Add it to your inbox: https://fs.blog/newsletter/   Follow Shane on Twitter at: https://twitter.com/ShaneAParrish

Samuel Arbesman is a complexity scientist focusing on the changing nature of science and technology. We discuss learning, reading, and how to optimize both to get the best outcome.   Go Premium: Members get early access, ad-free episodes, hand-edited transcripts, searchable transcripts, member-only episodes, and more. Sign up at: https://fs.blog/membership/   Every Sunday our newsletter shares timeless insights and ideas that you can use at work and home. Add it to your inbox: https://fs.blog/newsletter/   Follow Shane on Twitter at: https://twitter.com/ShaneAParrish

Financial writer Morgan Housel and I discuss reading, writing, filtering information, admitting error, important qualities to have in friends and so much more.   Go Premium: Members get early access, ad-free episodes, hand-edited transcripts, searchable transcripts, member-only episodes, and more. Sign up at: https://fs.blog/membership/   Every Sunday our newsletter shares timeless insights and ideas that you can use at work and home. Add it to your inbox: https://fs.blog/newsletter/   Follow Shane on Twitter at: https://twitter.com/ShaneAParrish

In this interview with AI expert Pedro Domingos, you’ll learn about self-driving cars, where knowledge comes from, and the 5 schools of machine learning.   Go Premium: Members get early access, ad-free episodes, hand-edited transcripts, searchable transcripts, member-only episodes, and more. Sign up at: https://fs.blog/membership/   Every Sunday our newsletter shares timeless insights and ideas that you can use at work and home. Add it to your inbox: https://fs.blog/newsletter/   Follow Shane on Twitter at: https://twitter.com/ShaneAParrish

Véronique Rivest and I explore the fascinating world of wine, including an on-air tasting, tips and tricks for serving wine that will impress your friends and so much more.   Go Premium: Members get early access, ad-free episodes, hand-edited transcripts, searchable transcripts, member-only episodes, and more. Sign up at: https://fs.blog/membership/   Every Sunday our newsletter shares timeless insights and ideas that you can use at work and home. Add it to your inbox: https://fs.blog/newsletter/   Follow Shane on Twitter at: https://twitter.com/ShaneAParrish

In this episode, I talk with multiple best selling author Ryan Holiday about how he reads, what it means to be a stoic, and how to gracefully deal with freeloaders. *** Go Premium: Members get early access, ad-free episodes, hand-edited transcripts, searchable transcripts, member-only episodes, and more. Sign up at: https://fs.blog/membership/   Every Sunday our newsletter shares timeless insights and ideas that you can use at work and home. Add it to your inbox: https://fs.blog/newsletter/   Follow Shane on Twitter at: https://twitter.com/ShaneAParrish

An inbetweenisode of sorts where Jeff Annello and I discuss whether we're too busy to pay attention to life - on whether we're too busy to live. If you want more of these let me know #tkp on twitter.   Go Premium: Members get early access, ad-free episodes, hand-edited transcripts, searchable transcripts, member-only episodes, and more. Sign up at: https://fs.blog/membership/   Every Sunday our newsletter shares timeless insights and ideas that you can use at work and home. Add it to your inbox: https://fs.blog/newsletter/   Follow Shane on Twitter at: https://twitter.com/ShaneAParrish

In this incredible episode, I’m joined by Maestro Alexander Shelley. We dive deep into the architecture of music, the necessity of arts, and what makes Beethoven’s 5th Symphony is so popular.   Go Premium: Members get early access, ad-free episodes, hand-edited transcripts, searchable transcripts, member-only episodes, and more. Sign up at: https://fs.blog/membership/   Every Sunday our newsletter shares timeless insights and ideas that you can use at work and home. Add it to your inbox: https://fs.blog/newsletter/   Follow Shane on Twitter at: https://twitter.com/ShaneAParrish

On this episode of the Knowledge Project, I discuss rationality, changing minds (our own and others), filtering information, and a lot more with Julia Galef.   Go Premium: Members get early access, ad-free episodes, hand-edited transcripts, searchable transcripts, member-only episodes, and more. Sign up at: https://fs.blog/membership/   Every Sunday our newsletter shares timeless insights and ideas that you can use at work and home. Add it to your inbox: https://fs.blog/newsletter/   Follow Shane on Twitter at: https://twitter.com/ShaneAParrish

In this episode, Venkatesh Rao, founder of Ribbonfarm and author of the book Tempo discusses the 3 types of decision-makers and shares how to adopt useful mental models *** Go Premium: Members get early access, ad-free episodes, hand-edited transcripts, searchable transcripts, member-only episodes, and more. Sign up at: https://fs.blog/membership/   Every Sunday our newsletter shares timeless insights and ideas that you can use at work and home. Add it to your inbox: https://fs.blog/newsletter/   Follow Shane on Twitter at: https://twitter.com/ShaneAParrish

In this episode of the Knowledge Project, I chat with professor and New York Times best-selling author Philip Tetlock about how we can get better at the art and science of predicting the future.   Go Premium: Members get early access, ad-free episodes, hand-edited transcripts, searchable transcripts, member-only episodes, and more. Sign up at: https://fs.blog/membership/   Every Sunday our newsletter shares timeless insights and ideas that you can use at work and home. Add it to your inbox: https://fs.blog/newsletter/   Follow Shane on Twitter at: https://twitter.com/ShaneAParrish

In this episode, a16z partner Chris Dixon and I discuss the history of venture capital, artificial intelligence, what makes a great entrepreneur, and why companies fail. *** Go Premium: Members get early access, ad-free episodes, hand-edited transcripts, searchable transcripts, member-only episodes, and more. Sign up at: https://fs.blog/membership/   Every Sunday our newsletter shares timeless insights and ideas that you can use at work and home. Add it to your inbox: https://fs.blog/newsletter/   Follow Shane on Twitter at: https://twitter.com/ShaneAParrish

WSJ columnist Jason Zweig and I tackle important topics like how to be a smarter investor, filtering out noise, why philosophy and history matters, and his new book, The Devil’s Financial Dictionary.   Go Premium: Members get early access, ad-free episodes, hand-edited transcripts, searchable transcripts, member-only episodes, and more. Sign up at: https://fs.blog/membership/   Every Sunday our newsletter shares timeless insights and ideas that you can use at work and home. Add it to your inbox: https://fs.blog/newsletter/   Follow Shane on Twitter at: https://twitter.com/ShaneAParrish

In this episode, I chat with professor and value investing genius Sanjay Bakshi about the power of mental models, multidisciplinary thinking, reading, and acquiring worldly wisdom.   Go Premium: Members get early access, ad-free episodes, hand-edited transcripts, searchable transcripts, member-only episodes, and more. Sign up at: https://fs.blog/membership/   Every Sunday our newsletter shares timeless insights and ideas that you can use at work and home. Add it to your inbox: https://fs.blog/newsletter/   Follow Shane on Twitter at: https://twitter.com/ShaneAParrish

New England Patriots Coach Michael Lombardi and I discuss the four aspects of leadership, high stakes decision making, creating a winning culture at work and at home and much more.   Go Premium: Members get early access, ad-free episodes, hand-edited transcripts, searchable transcripts, member-only episodes, and more. Sign up at: https://fs.blog/membership/   Every Sunday our newsletter shares timeless insights and ideas that you can use at work and home. Add it to your inbox: https://fs.blog/newsletter/   Follow Shane on Twitter at: https://twitter.com/ShaneAParrish

Multiple best selling author and financial strategist Michael Mauboussin shares his wisdom on parenting, daily routines, reading, and how to make better decisions.   Go Premium: Members get early access, ad-free episodes, hand-edited transcripts, searchable transcripts, member-only episodes, and more. Sign up at: https://fs.blog/membership/   Every Sunday our newsletter shares timeless insights and ideas that you can use at work and home. Add it to your inbox: https://fs.blog/newsletter/   Follow Shane on Twitter at: https://twitter.com/ShaneAParrish