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5 Keys to Get the Most out of the Feynman Technique

The most popular piece of studying advice I’ve ever come up with was the Feynman Technique. While the technique itself is only loosely based on Richard Feynman’s practices, the idea of self-explanations took off and became a studying meme that has since gone far beyond my own audience. The basic idea for the technique is simple: Pick an idea you...

Tue Mar 26, 2024 18:34
My New Book: Get Better at Anything (Special Offer for Preorders)

My new book, Get Better at Anything: 12 Maxims for Mastery, is now available for preorder. This book means a lot to me. It’s easily the longest and hardest I’ve ever worked on any project in my life. From start to finish, the project took over four years, involving hundreds of books, several hundred scientific papers and countless conversations...

Tue Mar 19, 2024 20:35
The Infinite Library Problem

Studying for school can be hard, but the process is pretty straightforward: Read all the material and attend all the lectures. Practice in ways that mirror what will be on the final exam. Use feedback to figure out what you need to fix. Outside of school, though, this strategy breaks down. It’s impossible even to be aware of all the books that...

Tue Mar 12, 2024 17:43
The Paradox of Productivity

What if being productive doesn’t mean feeling productive? A paradox of productivity is that the things that feel productive—working incessantly, checking off lots of tasks, feeling strained and drained—are often not what produces important accomplishments; in fact, these things can get in the way.  Recently, two of my friends have written books...

Tue Mar 5, 2024 17:49
My Simple Habit for Smarter Book Reading

A single habit has improved the quality of my book reading more than anything else: reading rebuttals. To explain, let me first give some context. I’ve long enjoyed reading big-idea books in science, business or self-improvement. These books range from mega-bestsellers (The Tipping Point; Guns, Germs and Steel) to the relatively obscure (The Enigma...

Tue Feb 27, 2024 18:34
The 6 Causes of Burnout (and How to Avoid It)

Burnout is miserable. You feel exhausted, but you still need to keep showing up to the job, day after day. Whatever fire you had for your work has now fizzled out—making you wonder whether you should quit and start over. Why does burnout happen, and how can we avoid it? Christina Maslach is one of the world’s leading experts on burnout. In the 1980s,...

Tue Feb 13, 2024 17:43

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