The Science of Success

In this episode we discuss what happens when you mistake being busy with creating results, we take a hard look at time management and examine concrete strategies for carving out more time, we look at the dangerous power of “defaults” in shaping our behavior and how we can use them to our advantage, and examine how to have a healthy relationship with our inbox with our guest Jake Knapp.    Jake is the New York Times bestselling author of Sprint. He spent ten years at Google and Google Ventures, where he created the Design Sprint process and ran it over 150 times with companies like Nest, Slack, 23andMe, and Flatiron Health. Previously, Jake helped build products like Gmail, Google Hangouts, and Microsoft Encarta, and his work has been featured in Tech Crunch, Fast Company, The Wall Street Journal, NPR, and more.   Jake’s own battle and journey with time, time management, and figuring out how to make the most of his time, effort, and energy to create more results  Lessons from a “time dork” who has spent time in the trenches thinking about how to best spend your time We spend a lot of our time in the world of “defaults” - with our technology platforms The “busy bandwagon” - the cultural norm of wanting to be and appear that you’re busy Deleting instagram, facebook, twitter and more from his phone helped Jake be more present  What happens when you mistake being busy with creating results If you're caught up in the minutiae of life - what can you do to step back and get clarity on priorities and what’s really important in your life? There’s no secret solution for everyone - it’s about trying strategies to see what works for you - and constantly engaging in contemplative analysis of what’s important  A “burner list” strategy you can use to organize your todo list  We’re not super human and we don’t want to be - many of us wouldn’t be happy with the life of Elon Musk Every time the todo-list gets, full, stale, etc - reconsider what’s number one - and just focus on that  Think about the space between a TASK and a GOAL - clear 60-90 minutes to really dive in and create results on your most important item on your ToDo list You don’t need to be busier to create the results you want - its about taking control of what you’re doing “Someday” goals can become realities if you prioritize correctly and break them into executable chunks  If you’re not taking steps toward your goals, they effectively don’t exist The importance of creating a meaningful connection to your goals - to create motivation in the near term You have the ability to “recover time” in your day by spending less time in a reactive state As one of the early pioneers of email, spending his time help building gmail app and much more - Jake has some strong insights into how we can have a healthy relationship with our inboxes  Defaults are tremendously powerful in shaping our behavior - think about what defaults you have in your technology life - and how you may be able to tweak them to be create more of the results that you want  The difficulty of saying no - and how we can do a better job of it

In this episode, we explore the brain. Are the two halves of the brain really that different? What is the idea of whole brain thinking? How do you get your brain to do what you want it to do? Can we become more “right brained” or “left brained” if we want to? And we also dig into the personal story of our guest - a neuroanatomist who suffered from a devastating stroke - and how the experience transformed her worldview - with our guest Dr. Jill Taylor.    Dr. Jill Taylor is a Harvard-trained and published neuroanatomist. She is the bestselling author of her memoir My Stroke Of Insight which recounts her experience and recovery after a severe stroke, which left her unable to walk, read, write, or recall any of her life. Here iconic TED talk has been viewed over 22 million times and her work has been featured all over the globe from Oprah to the New York Times and more.     Are the two halves of the brain really completely disconnected? The right hemisphere and the left hemisphere process the world completely differently  Whole brain thinking - how to think about yourself and the world in a holistic way by integrating both hemispheres into your thinking process  The different hemispheres have different value structures and ways of perceiving the world  Every ability we have is a result of brain cells that perform that function - if those cells go away, we lose that function The more you practice/use a group of cells in the brain, the more automatically those cellular networks run - that’s true for an athlete training, and it's also true for how we think and act in the world  Whatever cells we exercise become dominant, and those begin to shape our thinking and action Is it true that people can be more left brained or right brained? How you can engage processing in the hemisphere that you are less dominant in How do you get your brain to do you want it to do? Self-awareness is a KEY component and the first step  Get an understanding of how much time you’re spending with each brain hemisphere being dominant Do your brain hemisphere’s get along? Each of your own cognitive minds (left and right hemisphere) have their own emotional limbic systems What should someone do if they don’t feel like they have the power or don’t understand how to CHOOSE which hemisphere to engage? Look at your own patterning and begin understanding how you react to given situations How do shape your reactions to negative emotional experiences The importance of observing your emotions instead of engaging in them - the simple fact that you’re alive and capable of having an experience of the negative experience is a powerful thing  Why is not the question its the WOW We all get caught up in the oh my gosh, I'm so important - when really we are just stardust The incredible story of how Dr. Taylor’s own stroke was a profound experience The experience of being one with everything that came from Dr. Taylor’s stroke Mindfulness research shows that certain tho

In this episode, we go deep into a scientific look at consciousness. We ask, how do our brains experience reality? What is consciousness? Is our perception of reality nothing more than a “controlled hallucination?” What is the “hard problem of consciousness” and what are the major aspects of consciousness? How can we use the neuroscience of consciousness to better ourselves and improve our lives? And much more with our guest Anil Seth.    Anil Seth is the professor of Cognitive and Computational Neuroscience at the University of Sussex. He is the co-director of the Sackler Centre for Consciousness Science, the editor in chief of Neuroscience of Consciousness, and was the President of the British Science Association for psychology in 2017. His TED talk has been viewed over 2.5 million times and his work featured in The Guardian, the BBC, New Scientist, and more!   How does our brain experience reality? Consciousness is a funny thing - we don’t have a good definition of it, but everyone knows what consciousness is  There is a subjective experience of consciousness for being human  For much of the 20th century, much of psychology and neuroscience ignored the phenomenon of consciousness Consciousness is dependent on the brain The questions of consciousness are some of the most important and urgent questions we can ask What is the “hard problem of consciousness?” and why is it so important? What are the problems of consciousness? The easy problem is figuring out how brains do what they do, how they implement functions, guide behavior, allow the world to be sensed, how the brain works as a mechanism - this will keep neuroscientists and biologists busy for a long time The hard problem is explaining how and why any of this should have anything to do with conscious experience and why conscious experiences happen However detailed your understanding of the brain is - it will leave untouched the question of how/why consciousness exists in the first place  We don’t need to solve the hard problem to pursue a very productive study of consciousness How our biological understanding of life parallels our understanding of consciousness  The three major aspects of consciousness (they inter-related and not necessarily independent) Conscious level - a scale from being completely lacking in consciousness (a coma, dead) all the way to being fully awake and fully conscious Conscious content - when you’re conscious you’re conscious OF something The experience of being a particular person We don’t passively perceive the world, we actively generate it  When we perceive things, our brain is taking energy waves and electrical signals and interpreting them into prior predictions and expectations We aren’t conscious of our passive predictions, we’re only conscious of the results of them It seems to us that the world is out there, as we perceive it You will only see things that you believe  Optical ill

In this episode, we look at how to use insights from behavioral science to improve your life. We look at what it means to have a “good day” and figure out how to reverse engineer more good days, by examining decision making, the power of rest and recovery, intention setting, setting boundaries, and much more with our guest Caroline Webb.    Caroline Webb is CEO of Sevenshift, a firm that uses insights from behavioral science to improve their client’s working lives. She was previously a partner at McKinsey consulting and is the best selling author of How To Have A Good Day, which has been published in 16 languages in more than 60 countries. Her work has been featured in Inc., Forbes, Fortune, and much more.   What does it mean to have a good day? What does that have to do with the science of improving your life? What is a bad day? what is a good day? 3 Core things about having a good day Working on your priorities Feeling that you’re producing great work Can it be repeated? What is the science behind what actually allows people and organizations to change? The two system brain - there are two systems that interact in the brain, as Kahneman called them System 1 and System 2.  “System 2” - the slow system, our conscious experience, deliberate thinking mind, but it moves slowly and can only process information slowly and clunkily  “System 1” - the automatic system - our subconscious mind, immense processing power, but it often takes shortcuts  How do we create the conditions for our deliberate system to be as successful as possible? Breaks are not for wimps, breaks are crucial opportunities to reboot your deliberate system and improve your thinking and decision-making Frequent, short breaks enormously enhance your mental ability  Short cardio activity will boost your focus and mood materially When we are resting, we encode and consolidate information - and often create new insight When you “single task” you work about 30% faster than someone who is multi-tasking - every time your attention switches, there is a cost in time and processing power Why saying "ABCDEFG 1234567” is so much easier than saying "A1, B2, C3, D4, E5, F6, G7” What’s the most important thing you’re doing today and how can you get yourself to single task on that? Willpower is not the way to create big changes in your life, it's about changing your environment Switching your phone to monochrome to help make it less attractive  Nudges vs Sludges - how to shift your environment to create behavioral change The currency of our lives is attention Your brain is constantly filtering out a huge amount of information - and whatever is top of mind for you filter your reality The hard science of setting your intentions - set what attitude you want to have, what your aim is, what your assumptions are, etc - setting intentions can have a material impact on your behavior Def

In this episode we learn the memory tactics and strategies of an International Grandmaster of Memory, we look at why there is no such thing as a bad memory or a good memory - only bad memory strategies and good memory strategies, in real time we build a memory palace that you can use to memorize and effortlessly recall the ten emotions of power, go deep into the system for organizing and remembering huge chunks of information and much more with our guest Kevin Horsley.    Kevin Horsley is an International Grandmaster of Memory, and was one of the first five people in the world to obtain this title. Kevin is also the World Record Holder for the matrix memorization of 10,000 digits of Pi. He is also the bestselling author of several books on memory and his work has been featured in Oprah Magazine, Times, Forbes, Inc. and many more.   How Kevin went from severe dyslexia, almost being diagnosed with brain damage, to becoming a world record holder in memory  Lessons from studying people with superhuman abilities / superhuman memories You can never be more than your definition of yourself, you have to question your labels as they aren’t often the absolute truth There is no such thing as a good memory or a bad memory - there are only good memory strategies or bad memory strategies Auditory memory is always sequential - improving your spacial/visual memory allows you to move seamlessly through information  The best way to get your brain engaged is to imagine content and connect it to something you know  There are 3 keys to developing a super memory A place A unique image Glue them together “PUG”  Place (long-term memory) Unique Image Glue We build a memory palace on your body to memorize the 10 emotions of power from Tony Robbins Illogical images stick in your mind Long-term memory + short-term memory = medium-term memory Journeys are an incredible tool for building memories - routes, journeys, travel  Using google maps and tourist attractions to remember anything by exploring and planting memories anywhere on earth  There’s no real limit to what you can do with your mind - the only real limit is time  “The more you know, the easier it is to know more” We have a phenomenal brain and aren’t using all of its potential  Do you need to know something for Just in Time or Just In Case? The power and importance of periodic review to encode information for the long-term Just in case information - using a system of Evernote + Todoist to store and review information Book strategy:  Get the book - first do an overview of the book, look at the table of contents, make predictions what is the book about, what do you know about (active knowledge networks), once he’s overviewed the book, he does a preview of the book - what specifically do you want to know from this book? Lay the book contents out on a memory journey with the key principles ideas - what is the key content - put it on a journey  Put a little note - you put a specific information These memory methods are really simple but they're not easy You need to work on these ideas and get the key fundamentals - it’s like driving. You have to train yourself and improve and grow.  Slow is smooth, smooth is fast.  Kevin spends 1 hour a day on new content, 1 hour a day on review. Discipline is a key to this Memory is not just about le

In this episode we go deep into the high performance habits of the worlds top performers, look at the only place confidence truly comes from, dig into why we struggle to perform when the pressure is on, examine the habits, routines, and strategies the world’s absolute best use to perform at their peak, and much more with our guest Dr. Michael Gervais.    Dr. Michael Gervais is a high performance psychologist who has worked with some of the world’s top performers including the Seattle Seahawks, Felix Baumgartner (The Red Bull Athlete Who Completed the Stratosphere Jump) Olympians, musicians, and champions! His work has been featured on ESPN, CNN, The New York Times, and much more!   We love to put some of the world’s top performers on a pedestal - but there are extraordinary things that take place every day that aren’t capture on the cameras  Are extraordinary performers born that way? No. Why do we struggle to perform “when the lights are on”/ “when there is pressure” Top performers have fundamentally organized their lives around growth and improvement What does it mean to have your life organized around performance and growth? There are only 3 things we can train We can train our body We can train our craft We can train our minds The origins of sport are built on the ancient traditions of war  When we look at the best in the world across domains - they are more similar to each other than dissimilar  Relentless dedication to building and refining their craft Relentless dedication to building the right body / carriage  Ability to adapt and be strong from a mental perspective Provide opportunities to stress the system (mind & body) and to recover the system  Feedback loops are both internal and external  The importance of having consequences - both natural/physical consequences and man made consequences Lessons from working with coach Pete Carroll from the Seattle Seahawks  Ask yourself: Who in your life helps you be better and what are the characteristics of those people? The most significant accelerant to someone’s success is knowing that you have their back Internal feedback loops How am I doing? How does it feel? Am I executing at the right level? What is going on in my body? Being aware of the energy, tension in your body, your thoughts, etc  Once you become aware of maladaptive mental strategies - then you develop the tools to adjust First awareness, Then skill External feedback loops - having people in your life who can help you get better At any given time we can have our attention focused internally or externally - but we can’t spend too much time focused on the internal In training - the external feedback loops and human feedback becomes tricky - and that’s why Dr. Gervais has a deep commitment to maintaining and building healthy relationships To do extraordinary things in life - NOBODY does it alone. We need other people. You have to invest in the true connection with other people.  The greatest wayfinders, when they set sail, they don’t pray for calm waters, they pray for rugged seas, moving through the rugged seas is what forges strength - that is where you get made, that is where you find your true nature The brain’s job is to scan the world and see what’s dangerous - but you can’t let the brain have too much control

In this episode we discuss the relationship between bad ideas and creative genius, the three biggest lessons from studying the most successful hedge fund on earth, why a complete stranger may often be a better judge of your abilities than you are, the key things that stand in the way of developing more self awareness and how you can fix them, why it’s so important to invest in the ability to make better decisions, and much more with our guest Dr. Adam Grant.    Dr. Adam Grant has been Wharton’s top-rated professor for six straight years and has been named a Fortune’s 40 under 40, as well as one of the world’s 10 most influential management speakers. He is the multi bestselling author of Give and Take, Originals and Option B which have been translated into over 35 languages. His work has been featured on Oprah, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal and he is the host of the new TED Podcast, WorkLife...   You don’t know yourself as well as you think you do There are two things that stand in the way of self awareness  We have blindspots that other can see, that we can’t Biases - the things we don’t want to see We are better judges of our internal state, but much worse at judging our external behaviors than our friends and colleagues We are motivated to have a positive image of ourself A complete stranger is a better judge of your assertiveness, creativity, and intelligence after 8 minutes than you are of yourself (after your entire life!) We all want to think of ourselves as being smart and creative “Male pattern blindness” Any time a trait is easy for others to see and hard for us to see - we are bad at judging it Human blindspots are predictable and most people have the same kinds of blindspots At Bridgewater they tape video + audio of every single meeting Bridgewater was a fascinating place to study deep self awareness No one has the right to hold a critical view without speaking up about it Peer support in the workplace is vital When we get criticized, we make the mistake of going to people to support and cheer us up - we need a “challenge network” to challenge our assumptions, push us, and see through our BS When things are going poorly, people usually ignore the naysayers and dissenters, but the more you do that the worse things typically get - you should be doing the opposite How do we avoid shooting the messenger when we receive negative feedback? Any time you are about to receive negative feedback, get some praise / positive feedback in a positive domain to buffer your negative emotional response first Why “feedback sandwiches” (praise, criticism, praise) doesn’t work as well as people think they do If you’re praising, praise in a separate realm “Democracy is a dumb idea for running a company” - some people’s decisions are objectively better than other people’s The power of domain specific believability scores and how that’s shaped Bridgewater’s results in a positive way Not all feedback is equal  Go around and look at your feedback sources and ask yourself two questions What’s their track record in the skill you’re asking for feedback on? How well do they know YOU? The three biggest lessons Adam learned from studying Bridgewater Turn the idea of Devil’s advocate upside down Someone arguing for a minority view often turns the group against that vi

In this episode we approach the concept of the self from a concrete perspective, not in an abstract philosophical way. What do the hard sciences like biology and physics say about the existence of the self? Does the “self” exist from a psychological perspective? What does the science say and what does that mean for ourselves, our future, and how we think about change and self improvement? We explore the scientific search for the self with Dr. Robert Levine.    Dr. Robert Levine is a professor of psychology and former dean of the College of Science and Mathematics at California State University. Robert is the bestselling author of Geography of Time, Stranger in the Mirror, and The Power of Persuasion, which has been translated into eight languages. His work has been featured in The New York Times, NPR, CNN, and more!   Is our current conception of “the self” accurate? The hard sciences demonstrate that there is not one, single, conception of the self The boundaries that we imagine divide us from the rest of the world are vague, porous, and sometimes non existent The self is a changeable object and we have control over changing it When does the self become the non-self? A huge portion of our body is bacteria - does that constitute part of the self? From a psychological perspective, we do not have a single personality or self Who are you?  Approaching the concept of the self in a real way, not in an abstract philosophical way What do virtual body parts have to do with the perception of the self? What are the consequences of the lack of a concrete, definitive, self? Your mind can be tricked, despite knowing that it’s being tricked Context and situation often determine your behavior moreso than your personality / self The interconnectedness of everything / are we actually separated from the universe / what is the “boundary” of the self? Where do our thoughts, decisions, and ideas come from? The notion from early psycho-neurology that your brain decides before we are aware that we have decided The self versus the non-self Where do our thoughts, desires, and impulses come from?  The boundary between ourselves and others is vague & malleable How do we use the fluidity of the self to reshape and edit ourselves? We are multiple personalities and selves - and this allows for and creates real possibilities for change What are the implications of this fluidity of the self? We can actualize the possibilities within our multiple and complex understanding of self-hood to create positive change in our lives We are the “editors” of our own lives and “selves” Creating positive change in your life requires thinking for self, introspection, and self honesty The lowest hanging fruit for keeping track of your “self” and editing to become the person you want to be

In this episode we discuss how your environment plays a tremendous role in shaping who you are, look at how personality develops and what underscores it, talk about how to engineering your own environment to make yourself more productive and effective, examine at how to battle self sabotage and much more with our guest Benjamin Hardy.    Benjamin is a PhD candidate at Clemson University in Industrial and Organizational Psychology and is currently the #1 Writer for Medium.com with over 50 million page views recorded. He is the author of the upcoming book Willpower Doesn’t Work and his research and writing has been featured in Psychology Today, Business Insider, The Huffington Post, and more!   Success is about growth, never plateauing Always be a student, always be growing Living according to a value system that you believe in / a cause you believe in / serving people who you love The difference between security and freedom. Many people base their security in something external to themselves.  Develop your own worldview / beliefs / values / goals to help form a more independent Transformational learning experiences” helps transform your world view and perception of yourself Stretch your mind, push your body - to start to open up your world view If you do not create and control your environment, your environment controls you  The western belief that we exist independent of our context, what psychological research shows is that your environment has a tremendous impact. Your environment shapes who you are. Mindfulness is awareness of your surrounding and how those surroundings influence you You can also shape your environment, and this creates the possibility for radical change Who you are is influenced and shaped by your environment Epigenetics shows that your environment has a huge impact on your personality Most people are unintentional in shaping their environment Personality is more of an adaptation to situations and unresolved trauma  The false belief of western culture is that we think personality is a fixed trait - science shows that it’s not Suppressed trauma can “freeze” your personality  Memories are social and contextual - they are shaped by your experiences  “You are a sick as your secrets” - the things you keep isolated are the things that keep your personality frozen, your personality changes and continues to grow, you are stuck as a child in some aspects of your personality  Will Durant - most people believe that history was shaped by heroes, “It’s not heroes that shape history, its demanding situations that create heroes - the average person could have double their ability or more if the situation demanded it of them” The Pygmalion effect How to “up the stakes” of your environment to create external situation to force you into the behaviors you want to create  The two kinds of “enriched environments” you need in order to maximize your performance Only 16% of creative ideas happen when you’re at your desk (when the mind is in a rested state) The concept of “psychological detachment” - letting go of work for a few days - really helps you fully engage when you come back to it The vital importance of recovery as a key component of being both happier and more productive How do you stop from self sabotaging? Put yourself in situations where its a self fulfilling prophecy. Create the environmental components necessary for you to succeed and thrive.  Creating “forcing functions” in your life to make yo

In this episode, we take a journey into the inquiry know as “The Work’ and uncover the 4 question framework that you can use to break down negative thoughts and limiting beliefs. We examine what happens when we argue with reality, look at the difference between being right and being free, explore the causes of suffering, and much more with our guest Byron Katie. Byron Katie is an American speaker, author, and founder of the method of self-inquiry known as “The Work”. She has worked with millions of individuals at both private and public events in prisons, hospitals, treatment centers, universities, and schools. She is the author of three bestselling books and her work has been featured in TIME, The Huffington Post, Oprah, and much more!  What happens when you don’t accept reality? Do you like it when you scrape your knee? How should you deal with negative experience? Missing the miracle of life by arguing with it What happens when we get caught up in having to be right? Why it’s painful to “believe your own thoughts” and why you should question your own thinking The Four Questions of “The Work” that can allow you to challenge your negative thoughts and limiting beliefs Using the “Four Questions” to meditate on and reflect on challenges in your life How to become a better listener, listening is powerful When you argue with someone else, you miss valuable information and become disconnected with that person We are often looking outside for the answers to our questions - we should instead look inside The only way to change the world is to question what you believe about the world? How to be open and fearless What you think that causes your suffering - it's only what you’re thinking and believing that causes your suffering Test it for yourself What we think and believe create our identities What you THINK causes your suffering - it's not the external world. The events of the People don’t need to change - what you think and believe about them could use some work Be aware of your life right here, right now - the value and the gift of life and how to take care of it. The Four Questions of the Work and how you can apply each of them Is it true? Can I absolutely know that it’s true? Who am I when I believe this to be true? Who would I be without this thought? Turnaround You can never change others but you can always change yourself

In this episode we discuss the danger of getting addicted to your screens. We look at how technology is designed to be as addictive as possible, and how those addictions specifically make you spend more time on things like social media and news that make you less happy. We discuss how screens rob us of time and attention and why it’s so hard to break away from them. We also look at how-how you can structure your environment to spend more time away from your phone and create ways to get out of these addictive behavior loops with our guest Dr. Adam Alter.    Dr. Adam Alter is an Associate Professor of Marketing at New York University’s Stern School of Business, with an affiliated appointment in the New York University Psychology Department. His research focuses on judgment, decision making, and social psychology. He is the bestselling author of Drunk Tank Pink, and Irresistible, and his work has been featured in The New York Times, The Washington Post, WIRED, and much more!   Technology programs like Facebook are not designed to make you happy - they're designed to be as addictive as possible and consume you Steve Jobs didn't let his children use iPads Why technology giants in Silicon Valley often don’t let their children use technology (and why that’s important for you) The four negative affects of being addicted to your screens Your psychological wellbeing Your threshold for boredom declines dramatically Bordem is good, it creates creative and divergent thinking Negatively impacts your social wellbeing Lowers your emotional intelligence and your ability to read the emotions of others Negatively impacts you financially In app purchases Negatively impacts you in a physical way Too much time in front of screens Screens rob you of time and attention Can’t get into Deep Work Get less sleep Not spending time being present, enjoying time with loved one and friends The Drug of Choice Today is the PHONE There’s a huge rise in behavioral addictions today Social media and news make you LESS HAPPY when you use them - leaving you hollow and unfulfilled People spend 3x time on average on apps that make them unhappy  Is Adam a luddite for hating on smartphones? AR and VR will make it even more difficult to break away from technology addiction Apps today are built like slot machines - they are intentionally designed to hook you and not let you go The same strategies used to keep people gambling are used in apps and technology to keep you addicted Humans don’t like open loops - goals help close them  “Email is a lot like zombies” - you can kill them all and they just keep coming The abscence of stopping queues makes technology keep you addicted How can we mindfully create stopping queues in our own lives? You must become the architect of your own environment to control your own stopping queues How to break your phone addiciton? Set alarms t

In this episode we discuss how to become a “superconnector." We look at the idea that networking is not about tactics, it’s about a fundamental shift in how you think about interacting with people. We examine how to break free from the lazy and shallow networking that social media often creates, discuss why you should never ask “how can I help?”, look at the power of curiosity and asking better questions and much more with our guest Scott Gerber.    Scott Gerber is CEO of The Community Company and founder of Young Entrepeneur’s Council. He is also an internationally syndicated columnist, the co-author of Superconnector and the author of Never Get a “Real” Job. Scott has been featured in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, Bloomberg and has even been honored by White House.   How do we cut through the quagmire of endless linked-in connections, twitter followers and more? Self awareness is one of the key attributes of super connectors Rather than being authentic, we are being internet authentic - social media conscious  We have to reverse course away from the lazy networking of social media Providing real signal, being human, allowing your humanity to show through - amplify your humanity We have conflated the idea of connection with being connected We live under the illusion that vanity metrics determine social status Step one is the cultivation of emotional intelligence Focus on being of service to others Networking is not about tactics, its about a fundamental shift in how you think about interacting with people One of the key principles to networking is that you have to be a real, authentic human What kind of service / value do you want to bring to a community of peers? Failure is often a result of not building your relationships and communities Come from a true place of wanting to help others first Don’t be a “networker": A taker Out for yourself Wolf in sheeps clothing We don’t live in a tactics world - we’ve created one Get back down to the basics - guru nonsense, marketing hucksters etc are full of it A connector thinks about - what questions / context do I need to ask that this person is not giving me, so that I can figure out how to play a role to help them in succeeding in life or business - where I can be helpful? Focus on actually being helpful instead of just asking “how can I help you?” Why asking “How Can I Help” is the Worst Question You put the onus on the other person to tell a stranger how they can help Directionally it provides no guidance It shows you don’t care - because if you actually wanted to help, you would be curious, keep asking questions, to come up with a thesis and then say “here are some ways I CAN help, proactively” Offer actual assistance, not the platitude that you can help It’s the new social script - but it has no meaning or value You MUST ask better questions. The best connectors are curious.  Most people like to talk about how obvious things are, but they never actually implement it.  Great question - “what does success look like for you?” “what are the steps you need to take to get there” How to cultivate curiosity and ask better questions Start with auditing your conversations Be curious about the other person Figure out questions that you want to ask people Most introve

In this episode we discuss becoming a SuperLearner. We dig into questions that I’ve pondered for a long time - does speed reading work? Can we actually speed read and increase our reading comprehension? Are there strategies you can use to improve your memory? And perhaps most importantly - how can we align the way we think, learn, and remember with the way our brains actually operate? We go into this and more with our guest Jonathan Levi.   Jonathan Levi is an author, learning expert, and founder of Super Human Enterprises. He is the author of the book Become a SuperLearner and has helped over 120,000 students improve their learning methodology through his online courses. He has been featured on the TED Stage and his work has been published in Inc. Magazine, The Wall Street Journal, and more.   How Jonathan went from a “troubled student” to a learning and memory expert Memory strategies from greek philosophers to current day experts - what actually works? What to do if speed reading doesn’t work? You average college graduate reads about 250 wpm, at Jonathan’s peak he was reading 750-800 wpm with 80-90% comprehension Its vital to distinguish between rote memorization and how the memory actually works Most people have no concept of how powerful and effective memory techniques actually are By doing memory work you can change the physical structure and neurochemistry of your brain "Paleo Learning” - Get back to what actually works, from an evolutionary standpoint, with learning strategies Using our brains in the way they are intended to use - aligning our learning with our evolutionary design - creates an huge impact on your learning  The framework of 40 day study with 30 minute sessions per day Strategic memory techniques you can use to improve your memory What FMRI scans reveal about the brains of world memory champions  How these two specific memory techniques could more improve your memory by 135% Short amount of training can impact your brain in a big way Pygmalion effect and the golem effect - people typically conform to the expectations of teachers and leaders  The same thing happens with your ego and your perception of yourself Even if these techniques don’t work for you, they still work for you Your ego’s incentive is always trying to prove you right Lessons from both the hard and soft sciences on how you can improve your memory Our brains are built in clusters / neural networks There are more neurons in your brain than stars in the known universe The human brain is the most complex object known to man The 3 primary strategies for improving your memory Strongest memory effect are SMELL and TASTE - very deeply rooted in your brain Second most effective memory sense is sight - the "Picture superiority effect” Next most powerful is location-based memory Visual memory and location based memory are deeply ingrained in your brain and the keys to unlocking super learning Can you remember what was on your mom’s nightstand when you were a child? Connecting all of your knowledge to preexisting knowledge “Hebb's Law” - Neurons that fire together, wire together Our brains thrive on novelty and newness - our brains are amazing at recognizing patterns and connections Always think of novel and creative imagery to remember things Learning how to use the memory palace technique  Create strange / novel /

In this episode we discuss how money messes with your brain. We look into the obvious traps we fall into when we think about money, examine how cultural influences shape our financial choices, and explore the key biases that underpin the most common and dangerous financial mistakes that you are most likely to make with our guest Jeff Kreisler.   Jeff Kreisler is a bestselling author and the winner of the Bill Hicks Spirit Award for Thought Provoking Comedy. He is most recently the co-author of the new book Dollars and Sense: How We Misthink Money and How To Spend Smarter with Dan Ariely. (who we have previously had on the show as well?) Jeff is a regular contributor for CNN, Fox News, MSNBC and more!   Get rich cheating??? What’s that all about? The common tropes within the self help industry (and how many of them are not based in evidence) The power of satire to explore the underpinnings of human behavior What is money? Why do we have such a hard time thinking about money? Awareness of your biases is a huge difference maker (even if you do nothing other than just being aware of your biases) Spending is very obvious in our culture, but saving is not Research shows men are more willing to admit they take viagra, than how much money they've saved in their 401ks We dig deep into several of the mental biases that stop you from understanding money The relativity bias and how that impacts spending habits ‘What do you want for dinner” vs “would you rather have chicken or fish for dinner” One of the most obvious traps that we fall into with money “The Pain of Paying” Bias and how it impacts what we think about money “The credit card premium” and how using a credit card makes you pay more Anchoring bias and arbitrary coherence.  How your social security number could impact how much you pay for a bottle of wine We often obsess about small financial decisions, but make judgements on a whim with large financial decisions like buying a home or car Self control is really hard “Ulysseses contracts," reward substitution and how to create self control How self awareness is the cornerstone of making better financial decisions The locksmith example and how we misunderstand value and fairness

In this episode we discuss how to build a rockstar brain. We get into the neurochemical compositions that create moods from happiness to depression and look at you can change the building blocks of the neurochemicals by changing your diet and your habits. In a world were people are more stressed than ever, sleeping less, and trying to do more - we look at the causes of “brain drain” and what we can do to have physically happier and more productive brains with Dr. Michael Dow.    Dr. Michael Dow is a psychotherapist, neurotherapist, and a New York Times Bestselling author. He has been the host of several television series examining relationships, brain health, addiction, and mental illness. Dr. Mike is frequently a guest cohost on The Doctors and his work has been featured in Today, Good Morning America, Nightline, and more.   Your brain is being drained every day by stress, life, etc  The 3 subtypes of brain drain Adrenaline Norepinephrine Cortisol What happens, neurologically, when you suffer from “brain drain” or brain fog What are we doing in our daily lives to cause brain drain? The brain balancing neurochemicals that are the antidotes to stress hormones Through everyday lifestyle changes you can transform your neurochemicals  EPA and DHA Omega 3 Acids - and why they are important co-factors in building a healthy brain People are feeling more stressed than ever, working more, sleeping less How are we causing “brain drain” with our daily habits and activities? The 24 hour relationship between cortisol and melatonin Throughout the day, your melatonin level rises and your cortisol level decreases What we do every single day has a far more profound effect on our neurochemicals than we even realize Lifestyle interventions you can implement to rebalance and change your neurochemicals Stay away from foods that boost your glycemic index Sugar and flour drain and shrink the hippocampus - which is the main site of neurogenesis Eat more spinach, quiona, bananas  How do we cultivate GABA? Glutamine from spinach Vitamin B6 in bananas, magnesium and zinc Eat seven servings of whole fruits and vegetables every day “Probiotics are the new prozac” Are vitamins and supplements are useful tool or should we get all our nutrients from whole foods? The importance of getting Omega-3 fatty acids (EPA and DHA) EPA = Feel Better Omega 3 (stress less Omega 3) DHA = Sleep soundly Omega 3 (promotes restful sleep) EPA and DHA compete for space in your cells Vegan and vegetarian options for Omega 3 fatty acids (ALA) Omega 3s are one of the best foods you can eat for your brain - they are the building blocks of yo You can build a “rockstar brain” with a modified mediterranean diet Lean protein Nuts Olive Oil Fish Lots of fruits and vegetables How soybean oil & Omega 6 fats cause brain inflammation  The modified mediterranean diet has been shown via research to combat major depressive disorder "You are what you eat, ate" Common sources of omega 6 fats - soybean oil and factory farmed meat products - most intense source of omega 6 fats which cause brain inflammation Strategies for shifting the brain from the sympathetic to the parasympat