Math education consists primarily of learning rules to arrive at results. But these tricks bypass what is really happening. They can lead to a superficial grasp of mathematical concepts and hinder deeper learning and problem-solving abilities. Many of the skills we learn in schooling, and after, are akin to the mindless rules we learn in math. We have to learn something far deeper than rules to truly understand our work and our world. We can achieve true understanding by asking questions, engagi...
Feb 26, 2024•24 min•Season 5Ep. 7
Important things see the light of day, not by some plan or deterministic outline, but by making changes en-route to the goal. It's adaptability that matters in the face of real world situations. Finding the right mix of people, places and things happens as you move. Suggested Reading Related to Intro Example The Apocalypse Factory: Plutonium and the Making of the Atomic Age by Steve Olson Episode Music for Intro Example The Documentary by Alexey Ivanov Support the show Become a Member nontr...
Feb 06, 2024•32 min•Season 5Ep. 6
Some performances deliver deep authenticity, with standup comedy being a good example. Extremely authentic performances show us something we all should have; that ability to reach deep within us and share what we're really thinking, despite the risk this might pose to our normal, settled lives. Humans have evolved to filter for authenticity, as this leads to better information groups can use to solve problems. The world needs our authenticity, we just have to find it. Suggested Reading Rela...
Jan 31, 2024•18 min•Season 5Ep. 5
History is loaded with "bad" / "dumb" ideas. And this includes those made by high-ranking officials and government agencies. Looking at the various schemes and plots left on the drawing board one wonders how anyone took them seruously. But most of today’s useful inventions were deemed absurd at the time. This tells us that we need to have a lot of bad ideas to land on good ones, and if that's true, then we should be more concerned with taking the shots, then landing the ...
Jan 19, 2024•25 min•Season 5Ep. 4
Our lives are adversely impacted when our interactions are purely transactional. We see this play out in devastating fashion in industry, where certain businesses can cause great harm to society due to their insulation and disconnection from the lives they sell to. But this isn't just for businesses. Our personal and professional lives depend critically on organic, face-to-face interactions with real people. In this episode I argue that a successful life needs to be in direct contact with t...
Jan 08, 2024•38 min•Season 5Ep. 3
People look for stability in the labels we give ourselves. Our job, our title, our salary, the associations we join. But the only thing truly constant in life is its ever-changing nature. Those labels we take comfort in are in constant flux, getting reshaped and redefined by a changing economy, and the technologies that drive it. In this episode I argue that instead of looking for stability in the not-so-stable categories we create for ourselves, we can find greater security, peace and contentme...
Jan 02, 2024•32 min•Season 5Ep. 2
We do things for the mystery more than the facts. Scientists go on into the deepest parts of the ocean, yes to conduct research, but under highly uncertain and dangerous circumstances. What really drives deep sea exploration is the mystery. This is true of anything we create. If we are writing a book, yes there is structure, yes there are facts, but ultimately we are trying to deliver a kind of mysterious synthesis that precipitates out from our efforts. In this episode I argue that we need to c...
Dec 30, 2023•27 min•Season 5Ep. 1
School shows us topics worth learning, but it does not, I would argue, impart genuine comprehension. And yet, everyone’s life contains the same patterns that lead to what we are shown in school. This means that the knowledge locked away in textbooks is actually most useful to us later in life. In this episode, I argue that we should look to embrace scholastic information later in life, when our experiences give the collective knowledge of humanity meaning (and utility) to our lives. Support the ...
Dec 13, 2023•48 min•Season 4Ep. 34
When we are not in the mood our energy is low. But when our energy is low our mind is better aligned to what matters when it comes to doing good work; contemplation, reflection, prioritization. Critically, not being in the mood means not going down too many wrong paths. In this episode I argue that the best time to work on a given task is when we're not in the mood, and discuss how we should stop waiting for mental energy, and instead wait for mental clarity. Support the show Become a Membe...
Dec 08, 2023•33 min•Season 4Ep. 33
Our lives are a product of our thoughts. Our thinking directly latches onto tangible things in our lives. And whenever we think about our thoughts it’s always after-the-fact (introspection, therapy, etc.). But some thoughts we know do not lead to good outcomes (non-negotiable), and are thus not worth struggling with. In this episode I argue that there is no point in allowing thoughts that we know lack utility, or lead to poor outcomes, into our lives. If we don’t choose our thoughts, they’ll cho...
Dec 05, 2023•33 min•Season 4Ep. 32
A formidable skill is one that is related to a high level of expertise, surpassing the norm. It is one that is difficult to acquire, requires significant effort and dedication. Formidable skills are ones that are largely automatic. The automation comes from the mind figuring things out in ways we don't understand. So much of honing a formidable skill is learning which parts are automatically handled by the mind, and which parts require our deliberate attention. To get really good at somethi...
Dec 01, 2023•35 min•Season 4Ep. 31
Doing more with less means being able to create a decent amount of content in a small amount of time. To create a lot using a small amount of time (and other resources) requires one to find something generative . Something generative is highly efficient because it encapsulates and expresses a high degree of abstraction and complexity in a compact form. We can do a lot more by doing less, if we learn to look for universally true things in our work. We need to learn how to find and develop univers...
Nov 29, 2023•30 min•Season 4Ep. 30
Moving slower means we can focus on what matters. But it's also true that moving fast is a signal that we are figuring things out. In this episode I argue that to really get good at something we should find the slowness that moves us. We should seek ways to move slowly, and expect brevity. Support the show Become a Member nontrivialpodcast.com Check out the Video Version https://www.youtube.com/@nontrivialpodcast...
Nov 23, 2023•31 min•Season 4Ep. 29
So much of life is about searching for answers. Answers have to do with information, but real-world information has no “location" (it does not exist at a single point inside the space of possibilities), meaning that in some sense, answers don't exist. In this episode I argue that we should be looking for conversations, not answers. Conversations provide us the kind of information that can move us in positive directions. If this is the case, then we should place ourselves into environme...
Nov 21, 2023•29 min•Season 4Ep. 28
There are 2 kinds of heroes; extraordinary people in ordinary circumstances, and ordinary people in extraordinary circumstances. The problem with heroes portrayed as extraordinary people in ordinary circumstances is that they are far less relatable, and more rigorously, reveal less useful information. In this episode I argue that our choice in heroes should be aligned to ordinary people in extraordinary circumstances, based on concepts of disorder, information and pattern. Support the show Becom...
Nov 04, 2023•42 min•Season 4Ep. 27
Meditation is a practice that has been around for thousands of years and is used for various purposes. But meditation is practiced periodically, once a day at best. This means the state of mind that makes the most difference in our life only makes up a small portion of our life. We need our most important state of mind to always be on, with us as we interact with the world. We need to see meditation not as a once-in-a-while session, but as an ever-present state of mind. Support the show Become a...
Oct 22, 2023•37 min•Season 4Ep. 26
Logic and emotion are both important. But society often chooses one or the other, rather than having them work together. This occurs because society tries to attend to emotions rather than use them effectively. If I redress my logic in the hopes of appeasing someone who's "offended" we fail to reach a rational solution. If I maintain my logic absent the other person's emotions, their feelings are not being acknowledged. Neither works, yet logic and emotion must be compatible....
Oct 18, 2023•32 min•Season 4Ep. 25
We all want a better world. But society cannot be forced into a specific governance or morality. In this episode I argue that we need to build our world from within, as individuals with solid moral and intellectual integrity. Only through a better inner world will our collective world reflect the truths we deem most important as individuals. I offer a solution that rises above any specific world view, promoting a better world without compromising other's existing beliefs. Support the show B...
Oct 13, 2023•32 min•Season 4Ep. 24
We all want our voices to be heard. But the reality is most of us will never live to see much of an audience. We need to realize we’re not really speaking to today’s generation, as much as we are to future people who will encounter our work. There are countless examples throughout history of people who died never seeing their true impact. As long we make our thoughts tangible, our audience will always be much larger than what we see today. Support the show Become a Member nontrivialpodcast.com C...
Oct 10, 2023•28 min•Season 4Ep. 23
We are told by society to chase happiness; that the "pursuit of happiness" is the most sensible goal in life. But I argue that happiness has much in common with misery when it comes to pursuing goals. Both happiness and misery are emotional extremes, and both things we cannot control. Making that which we cannot control a goal in life is untenable. I argue that we need to see the pursuit of contentment as being far superior to the pursuit of happiness. Support the show Become a Member ...
Oct 08, 2023•25 min•Season 4Ep. 22
Our best ideas come unannounced. We might be walking, taking a shower, playing with our children, etc. But this means when we sit down to do our actual work we are missing so much of the original inspiration and energy. We’re missing the quality insight we had in the moment. I argue that we need to capture our ideas the moment they arrive if we are to deliver truly authentic and in-context work. I put forward a solution to make this possible. Support the show Become a Member nontrivialpodcast.co...
Oct 05, 2023•30 min•Season 4Ep. 21
Life is full of narratives. They're how we make sense of the world. But narratives exist somewhere between truth and nonsense. The challenge is to see past the narratives, aligning our lives with that which is true. I discuss the technique needed to see past the narratives in our lives. Support the show Become a Member nontrivialpodcast.com Check out the Video Version https://www.youtube.com/@nontrivialpodcast...
Sep 30, 2023•31 min•Season 4Ep. 20
Temptations are things we desire to do, but are also things we deem wrong or unwise. Temptations take us away from who we want to be in life. Temptations start off harmless, but have a tendency to grow without notice, until we are living an incorrect life. I argue that we must learn to stop problematic distractions early, by replacing our damaging preoccupations with more productive and authentic actions. Support the show Become a Member nontrivialpodcast.com Check out the Video Version https://...
Sep 28, 2023•22 min•Season 4Ep. 19
Collaboration is good, but friction is needed to solve tough problems as a group. The quality of information depends on stark individualism, rather than some engineered collaboration based on excess politeness and etiquette. In this episode I argue that collaboration should not be equated to "being nice", and that the energy and authenticity we need to work well in groups depends on a good deal of friction and even anger. Support the show Become a Member nontrivialpodcast.com Check out...
Sep 19, 2023•20 min•Season 4Ep. 18
When we think about the things we want to accomplish, we often frame them in terms of the barriers we need to pass. But this isn't the case for things that comprise our lifestyle. When something is part of our lifestyle we just do it, and often do it well. Exercise, writing, whatever; our goals become far more obtainable when we stop putting them on pedestals and instead just move. I discuss how to turn what we intend to do into things we always do. Support the show Become a Member nontrivi...
Sep 11, 2023•27 min•Season 4Ep. 17
We are often told that if we want to be good at something we should focus more. But a single (real world) task has multiple facets that must be honed, and you cannot learn those facets from the task itself; they must come from other areas of life. In this episode I argue that to be good at any one thing we should do many things. Support the show Become a Member nontrivialpodcast.com Check out the Video Version https://www.youtube.com/@nontrivialpodcast...
Sep 05, 2023•27 min•Season 4Ep. 16
In 2014 there was a debate between Bill Nye and Ken Ham regarding whether or not Creationism is a viable explanation for earth's origin. Regardless of which side you agree with, there was what I consider a problematic response from some of the scientific community, which was that the debate never should have happened, because it gave a voice to something counter to the scientific consensus. I argue that such a response is antithetical to science itself, which, above all, is supposed to be a...
Aug 31, 2023•24 min•Season 4Ep. 15
Human society has always applied filters, to select who should be in a particular group. This is both evolutionary and required for good social dynamics. But we also apply filters institutionally, using systems of meritocracy to vet candidates both in academia and industry. I argue that these institutional filters are far too narrowly-defined to account for the complexity and high-dimensionality of human intelligence. I argue that today's complex world suffers from such narrow filtering, el...
Aug 26, 2023•28 min•Season 4Ep. 14
As we go through life we notice things about our ability to perform, like when things work and when they don't. But most people tend to leave at that, hoping they'll gravitate towards the better parts over time. But what really transforms our ability to perform is when we convert the things that work into specific techniques we employ. I'll give an example of just how powerful this is, and discuss how we can all turn the truths we notice into techniques we live by. Support the sho...
Aug 22, 2023•29 min•Season 4Ep. 13
In this episode I challenge the idea that discipline is what's needed to achieve successful outcomes. Discipline requires we act against our instincts and willpower. Anything so opposed to our natural evolution can't be right. I believe that what looks like discipline in successful individuals is really just the behaviour people take-on when they put themselves in the right environment. I argue that the most important decision we can make regarding how to accomplish anything is what en...
Aug 19, 2023•26 min•Season 4Ep. 12
