How to use this simple principle for you.
Books give you access to the smartest brains on our planet. And learning from the greatest thinkers and doers is your fast track to health, wealth, and wisdom.
Yet, reading per se doesn’t elevate your life. You can read 52 books a year without changing at all.
Social climber Dale Carnegie used to say knowledge isn’t power until it’s applied. And to apply what you read, you must first remember what you learned.
Nobel Prize-winning physicist Richard Feynman (1918–1988) was an expert for remembering what he learned. …
How to create a cinema for the mind.
Humans connect with emotions, not facts. So the best way to put your ideas in the world is by telling stories.
Yet, many people don’t know how to captivate an audience. They recite a list of events, get lost in abstractions, or take away the surprise before even starting.
As a result, the audience feels bored and doesn’t listen. Instead of wondering where a story will take them, all they care about is when it will finally end.
My dad is the best storyteller I know, but I didn’t inherit his skills. My stories sucked. And while I was convinced…
Lessons from EdTech founder David Rogier.
If you look at MasterClass from a business perspective, it’s a clear success story.
In 2015 David Rogier founded the company. Five years later, he closed a Series E financing round with a post-money valuation of $500M to $1B. In a recent interview, Rogier said MasterClass is on the path to an IPO.
In short: MasterClass is one of the few emerging unicorns in EdTech.
Yet, if you look at the education platform from a learner’s perspective, its success story is less clear. After all, mastery of complex skills and processes is the result of deliberate practice.
Stop buying from bestseller lists.
If you look at humanity’s timeline —what are the chances that the truly great books have been written in the past 20 years? Approximately zero, right.
Still, many people buy the latest books instead of the greatest. Here’s what that leads to:
“A public that will leave unread writings of the noblest and rarest of minds (…), merely because these writings have been printed today and are still wet from the press.” — Schopenhauer
Common problems have been the same throughout all centuries: happiness, morality, power, justice, and love. That’s why the wisdom from great philosophers is still so applicable.
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3: Getting Recommendations from Lifelong Learners
Managing and discovering content can be tough when our feeds are flooded with fluff rather than inspiring ideas.
If you’re a content creator, you’ll likely know the struggle to find meaningful content. As a writer, I wasted much research time on social platforms. In the end, I was rarely satisfied with the results.
And apart from content discovery, there was another hurdle. Because if I found something worth keeping, it’d soon be buried in my browser’s bookmarks. Sometimes spent hours looking for a source I read a while ago.
But what if there was a better way to discover and…
We make reading more serious than it needs to be.
When you look at human history, the fundamental human problems are the same in all ages. No matter what problem we face, odds are someone has faced it before and written about it.
Carl Sagan states in ‘The Persistence of Memory’:
“Books break the shackles of time. A book is proof that humans are capable of working magic.”
Through books, we can learn from citizens of distant epochs. The solution to every problem lies in some a book. That’s why reading is the key to a successful and happy life.
Over the last years, I transformed from reading two books…
You find the most valuable insights at the intersection of ideas.
Do you finish a book or an article and think you’ve found great insights but don’t know what to do with them?
If you ever feel like reading isn’t moving you forward, it’s likely because you don’t collect and connect your knowledge in a good way.
You can read the best writing in the world without changing at all. As Ratna Kusner once said:
“Knowledge trapped in books neatly stacked is meaningless and powerless until applied for betterment of life.”
But what if there was a simple way to build a database for your personal knowledge? …
And the habits that helped him achieve success.
From 2017 to 2020, Ali Abdaal built a 7-figure online business while completing his full-time medical studies at Cambridge.
As a YouTuber, instructor, and podcaster, he explores the principles, strategies, and tools that help people live happier, healthier, more productive lives. His YouTube channel has 1.4 million subscribers, and with a book and a second online cohort around the corner, these numbers likely double in 2021.
Recently, he published a 50-minute video on how much he earned in 2020. Ali’s levels of humbleness, humor, and self-reflection make it one of the most inspiring entrepreneurship videos I’ve seen.
This article gives…
On white naiveté at Indian weddings.
It’s August 2014, and I’m 21 years old. The Airbus A380 just landed at New Delhi Airport. With a stolen flight blanket under my arm, I’m walking through the jet bridge. I’m about to start a new life.
It’s my first paid internship abroad, and I’m excited because I don’t know yet that breathing Delhi air is equal to smoking 44 cigarettes a day and that I’ll soon have the worst job of my life.
I’m still in this moment of excitement when I hop into an overpriced cab and drive towards my new home.
I think about my university…
Timeless advice on how to make the most of your books.
Books carry the wisdom of the smartest people who ever existed. Through reading, you find yourself on the surefire way to become happy, healthy, and wise.
Yet, books per se don’t make you a better person.
You can read every day without changing at all. It’s what and how you read that will improve your life’s quality and enhance your mind.
I’ve read a book a week for more than three years and always look for ways to improve my reading practice. Recently, I stumbled upon Arthur Schopenhauer’s essay on reading and books.
Eva Keiffenheim, MSc
Learning Enthusiast, Entrepreneur, Writer with +300K Views | Here to elevate your love for learning | Let’s grow together: http://bit.ly/togethergrowing
