For some people, the idea of a permanent commitment to one partner feels a little old-fashioned. Just flick on Netflix, and youll find plenty of documentaries about people opting into polyamorous relationships or other non-traditional setups. When things get tough, we might think that this person mustnt be right for us, and its easier just to let them go. Despite all of this scepticism around marriage and relationships, deep down, we still long for lasting love. Getting The Love You Want s...
Jan 27, 2021•27 min•Ep 308•Transcript available on Metacast If your personal finances are in a mess, there is perhaps no activity that is higher leverage than getting them sorted. If you find that you've dug yourself into a hole, stop digging! Dave Ramsey, the leading personal finance guru, shows us some simple steps for getting our money back in order. These steps are obvious - there's nothing revolutionary here, just plain and simple steps that work. If you're willing to make a few little sacrifices along the way, you can turn your financial life aroun...
Jan 15, 2021•29 min•Ep 307•Transcript available on Metacast Tim Ferris has applied the 80/20 principle to find the optimal path for a better-looking body. The goal is to focus on the 2.5% that deliver 95% of the rapid body redesign and performance enhancement results. If you are already at 5% body fat or bench pressing 181 kg, you are in the top 1%. This is for the other 99% who can experience near unbelievable gains in short periods of time. In this episode, well focus purely on the Slow Carb Diet, the optimal body recomposition strategy. This will make...
Jan 08, 2021•24 min•Ep 306•Transcript available on Metacast Success is within reach of just about everyone. But personal success without leadership only brings limited effectiveness. Without leadership ability, a person's impact is only a fraction of what it could be with good leadership. The higher you want to climb, the more you need leadership. Although it's true that some people are born with greater natural gifts than others. The ability to lead is really a collection of skills, nearly all of which can be learned and improved. If you want to be a le...
Jan 02, 2021•25 min•Ep 305•Transcript available on Metacast We all did it! We made it to the end of 2020. In this episode, we look back at our favourite books from Season 5 (so far). Our lists are VERY different again this year, with only two or three crossovers and the rest we had to fight over. Listen in or hear each of our favourite books, or check out the blog post at: https://www.whatyouwilllearn.com/best-of-2020/ Let us know your favourite books of 2020 - message us on social or email us at podcast@whatyouwilllearn.com Hos...
Dec 30, 2020•1 hr 1 min•Ep 304•Transcript available on Metacast Humans have been dreaming a long time about flying vehicles. In a famous IBM commercial, Avery Books asked: "it's the year 2000, but where are the flying cars?... I don't see them! Why!". Peter Thiel quips "we wanted flying cars and we got 140 characters". And today, the wait could finally be over. It looks like flying cars, alongside all sorts of pie in the sky innovations, are just around the corner. With new technologies such as AI, robotics, virtual reality, 3D printing and materials; and dr...
Dec 19, 2020•40 min•Ep 303•Transcript available on Metacast We've been doing a lot of dark books recently. Ordinary Men, The Prince and Collapse all paint a dim view of human nature. The idea goes that we have a thin veneer of niceness on the surface, but deep down we're all capable of pure evil. Thankfully, this book gives the opposite perspective. The simple idea of this book is that we're actually all pretty decent. Disasters and tough times don't cause us to descend a few rungs on the ladder of civilisation, but rather they bring out the best in us. ...
Dec 11, 2020•54 min•Ep 302•Transcript available on Metacast A six year study looked at 'visionary companies' and tried to identify what set them apart from the rest of the herd. These visionary companies were the ones that were the premier of their industry, were widely admired by knowledgeable businesspeople, had been through multiple product life cycles and multiple generations of leadership. The 18 companies identified outperformed the stock market by 16X. It was found that they had a few things in common. It largely boiled down to their culture, thei...
Dec 04, 2020•33 min•Ep 301•Transcript available on Metacast Steve Glaveski is back for Round 2, this time talking about the launch of his new book Time Rich: Do Your Best Work, Live Your Best Life. This book helps us work smarter and live better. In this episode we discuss the past, present and future of work, and how time is a better measure than money. Make sure you stay tuned all the way to the end for a special musical treat! Check out Steve's new book: https://www.timerichbook.com/ Check out Steve: https://www.steveglaveski.com/ Hosted on Aca...
Dec 03, 2020•42 min•Ep 300•Transcript available on Metacast The ultimate competitive advantage of successful organisations? Teamwork. A leader who can get their entire team rowing in the same direction can dominate any market in any industry. However, teamwork is as elusive as ever. Human beings are inherently dysfunctional. By acknowledging the imperfections of humans, members of functional teams can overcome our natural tendencies and work together toward success. According to author Patrick Lencioni, there are 5 dysfunctional elements that can destroy...
Nov 27, 2020•28 min•Ep 299•Transcript available on Metacast Lydia Denworth is the author of three books, including the recently published Friendship: The Evolution, Biology and Extraordinary Power of Lifes Fundamental Bond . In this interview, we chat with Lydia about the psychological impacts, evolutionary context and elements of a high-quality friendship. Lydia launched this book with perfect timing - just before a worldwide pandemic put friendships and connections to their greatest test. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information....
Nov 25, 2020•34 min•Ep 298•Transcript available on Metacast Disclaimer: we are not psychologists or psychiatrists, or in anyway giving medical advice. Johann Hari was depressed as a young man. He was told a story about why he felt so down: that depression is caused by a chemical imbalance in the brain. They say that the brains of depressed people have lower levels of serotonin (the happiness molecule). Then were told that Big Pharma has the answer. Theyve made drugs that can restore your serotonin levels back to normal. This version of the answer says th...
Nov 21, 2020•47 min•Ep 297•Transcript available on Metacast We had the pleasure of speaking to one of the Godfathers of habits and designing behaviours, BJ Fogg. We love the simplicity of his model: "Behaviour = Motivation + Ability + Prompt". Through this lens, we can see exactly why we do (or don't do) the things we want to do! Following on from our own discussion of his book Tiny Habits , this interview dives a little deeper into the intricacies of installing new habits or breaking old ones. BJ Fogg, PhD, founded the Behavior Design Lab a...
Nov 18, 2020•36 min•Ep 296•Transcript available on Metacast We all want some kind of change. But for most of us, there is a painful gap between what people want and what they actually do. If you have attempted to do something different in the past and haven't seen the results, you've probably figured out by now that change is hard. If you tried to put together a chest of drawers with faulty instructions and parts missing, you would feel frustrated. But you probably wouldn't blame yourself. You would blame the manufacturer instead. Similarly, any habits y...
Nov 13, 2020•28 min•Ep 295•Transcript available on Metacast "The extraordinary benefits of knowing when to quit (and when to stick)" A great short book the explains why there's always a 'dip' in your projects on your journey to becoming the best in the world - be that getting a promotion, building a business, writing a book, falling in love... anything! At the start, as you put in more effort you'll see good results. Then, theres a dip. You'll put in more and more effort but your results won't improve. This is where most people quit. If you can push thro...
Nov 06, 2020•34 min•Ep 294•Transcript available on Metacast Your life is a constant stream of decisions: what career to follow, how to manage a business, whom to marry, how to bring up children, whether to run for president, how to communicate with a colleague and how to react when life slaps you in the face. The common element is that you are not in a vacuum. Instead, you are surrounded by the world that interacts with any decision you make. The context of the situation you find yourself in matters. Game theory is the process of modelling the strategic ...
Oct 30, 2020•38 min•Ep 293•Transcript available on Metacast Malcolm Gladwell is one of the biggest selling non-fiction authors of our generation, with smash-hits like Outliers, Blink and The Tipping Point. This book is a collection of his essays and newspaper articles. We picked some of our favourites, taking us on a deep dive into three important distinctions: The Arts of Failure, The Nature of Secrets, and Success in the Young and the Old. In this episode, we look at the difference between: - Choking VS Panicking - Prodigies VS L...
Oct 24, 2020•39 min•Ep 292•Transcript available on Metacast When you buy a product, you can see it, touch it, and depending on the product you can taste/smell/hear it as well. Services, on the other hand, are intangible. Theres no exact clear definition of what youre getting when you buy a service - youre just purchasing what you hope the end result will be. Obviously services are different from products, so service marketing must be different from product marketing. But while more than 4 out of 5 people work in service companies, only 1 out of 5 busines...
Oct 16, 2020•35 min•Ep 291•Transcript available on Metacast So much you want to learn, so little time to learn it. Every new skill has what Josh calls a "FRUSTRATION BARRIER". At first the basics of a new skill can seem fun. But then you hit a wall, a few hours in, where you don't seem to be improving and it is just getting frustrating. You're still horribly unskilled, but now painfully aware of it. Maybe you learned to play Three Blind Mice on the piano, but you still can seem to work out which note on the keyboard matches which dot on the sheet music. ...
Oct 09, 2020•32 min•Ep 290•Transcript available on Metacast "The Art of Happiness" - by HH Dalai Lama XIV & Howard C Cutler 'A Handbook for Living' Happy people have it a lot better than unhappy people. Studies show you're more likely to pick up a better mate, have more satisfying marriages, you're more likely to be a better parent, you'll have a better immune system and live an extra 10 years. It also leads to better mental resilience and ability to deal with adversity or trauma. In the workplace, happy individuals perform much better and earn much ...
Oct 03, 2020•27 min•Ep 289•Transcript available on Metacast We underestimate the role of randomness in just about everything. We often have the mistaken impression that a strategy is an excellent strategy, or an entrepreneur is a person endowed with unique vision. Nassim Taleb believes that the world is much more random than we think. Skills count, obviously. But they count much less in highly random environments like trading, than they do in the predictable ones, like dentistry. Fooled By Randomness shows us how to recognise and work with rand...
Sep 26, 2020•29 min•Ep 288•Transcript available on Metacast With Adam Jones turning 30 this week, we figured this was his last chance to work out what hed done wrong (or right) during his 20s. The key message of this book is that your twenties MATTER. A lot of young people like to say that your twenties dont matter, that you can put off lifes big decisions until later, that the 20s are the time for fun and enjoying life and not to be taken too seriously But the research shows otherwise: Two thirds of your lifetime wage growth happens in the first 10 year...
Sep 19, 2020•31 min•Ep 287•Transcript available on Metacast At the height of the Second World War, the German army had minimal resources to continue the war to the East with Russia, and simultaneously execute Hitler's "Final Solution". The Nazi party had already used up all of the ideological killers in their country. They were left with the dregs of society. They would have to use Joe the local Butcher, Jim the Primary School Teacher even Grandpa George to get the job done. The only people left all had working class jobs like truck drivers, dock workers...
Sep 12, 2020•33 min•Ep 286•Transcript available on Metacast Despite evidence to the contrary, we all use our brains. BUT - most of us have never learned how to think effectively. Were not talking about IQ or innate intelligence, were talking about thinking as a LEARNED SKILL. Were talking about a productive method of thinking and reasoning. Scott Adams, the creator of the Dilbert cartoons, author of How To Fail At Almost Everything And Still Win Big and Win Bigly , calls this Loserthink. Loserthink doesnt mean dumb or uninformed, it simply means unproduc...
Sep 05, 2020•29 min•Ep 285•Transcript available on Metacast In 1953, James Watson and Francis Crick introduced the world to their new discovery: the double-helix DNA structure. This so-called "secret of life" was widely considered the most important scientific discovery of the 20th Century. Their presentation won them a Nobel Prize. The most striking part of the pitch? It was only 5 minutes long. That was the COMPLETE presentation - introducing the secret of life, presenting their scientific discovery, explaining all of the need-to-know-details, showing ...
Aug 29, 2020•30 min•Ep 284•Transcript available on Metacast We started the podcast back in June 2016. In the last four-and-a-quarter years, we've read and reviewed 200 books on the podcast! We thought it was a great milestone to take a step back and have a look at what lessons we've learned from all of the books we've read and how they can tie in together. A couple of years ago when we hit our 100th book, we did our "Top 10 Lessons". You can listen to that podcast episode here: 100th BOOK Our Top 10 Lessons . They all hold up pretty well! Feel free...
Aug 23, 2020•41 min•Ep 283•Transcript available on Metacast The identities of all of the most powerful people in the country are similar: they're white, male, middle and upper class, and able bodied. Acknowledging this may be dismissed as political correctness, but Robin Diangello notes it is still a fact. Those people in the seats of power are making decisions that affect those not sitting at the table. Identity politics gets a pretty bad wrap. But looking through history, this has proven results. For example, women's suffrage, the American disability a...
Aug 22, 2020•25 min•Ep 282•Transcript available on Metacast Benjamin Disraeli: "There are three types of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics" There are some great statisticians and data manipulators out there, and that can manoeuvre things in a way to get exactly the result they want. Any time you see a statistic, you should consider that it might be a lie. You need to learn some of these tricks so that you can defend yourself. The author says that the crooks know exactly how to manipulate data and statistics, so the honest people must learn the tric...
Aug 15, 2020•26 min•Ep 281•Transcript available on Metacast You and everyone you know is going to one day die. This is an uncomfortable fact. So uncomfortable that we try to push it out of our minds. But this leaves most people totally unprepared for their meeting with the Grim Reaper. Doctors learn a lot in medical school, but mortality isn't on the curriculum. The textbooks have almost nothing on ageing, frailty or dying. How the process unfolds, how people experience the end of their lives and how it affects those around them seem useless to the Weste...
Aug 07, 2020•32 min•Ep 280•Transcript available on Metacast The Selfish Gene is one of the most influential books on Evolutionary Biology in history. Written by Richard Dawkins, the book shows us that we are just big lumbering robots whose purpose is to pass on genes. The gene itself sometimes generates selfish behaviour of the animal it inhabits. But it can also use altruistic behaviour, even sacrifice itself on the behalf of family who may share the same genes. In this episode we look evolution, competition, human purpose and memes. Hosted on Acast. Se...
Aug 01, 2020•52 min•Ep 279•Transcript available on Metacast 
