best conversations of 2020

2020 best of The Knowledge Project that I dearly recommend.

it has helped me fight insomnia, as well 😉 (true story)

One of the best ways to learn is a good conversation.

While there are many advantages to a good conversation, perhaps the best is that you can benefit from the lessons that other people have already paid the price for. Of course, that’s not all. Good conversations can also offer a new way to interpret your past experiences, discover something new, and remind us of something we already know.

A good conversation updates the software in your brain. But not all updates are the same. Learning more isn’t simply a matter of having more conversations, but rather getting more out of each conversation that you are apart of. Deep conversations with ‘people that do’ offer the richest source of learning. Conversations that skim the surface, on the other hand, only offer the illusion of learning.

With that in mind, we’d like to invite you to join us in the top conversations we had on The Knowledge Project in 2020.

It’s time to listen and learn.

  • Episode 82: Bill Ackman: Getting Back Up — Legendary activist investor, Bill Ackman talks about lessons he’s learned growing up, raising a family, what drives him forward and back up from failure, consuming information and ideas, and facing criticism.
  • Episode 94: Chamath Palihapitiya: Understanding Yourself — Founder and CEO of Social Capital, Chamath Palihapitiya sits down with Shane Parrish to chat about what it means to be an observer of the present, how to think in first principles, the psychology of successful investing, his thoughts on the best public company CEOs and much more.
  • Episode 74: Embracing Confusion with Jeff Hunter — CEO of Talentism, Jeff Hunter, teaches how to rewrite damaging narratives that hold us back, how to give and receive helpful feedback, and why confusion can be a good thing.
  • Episode 80: Developing the Leader in You with John Maxwell — Leadership expert John Maxwell breaks down the four traits every successful person possesses and how to awaken the leader within you, no matter what your job title says.
  • Episode 85: Bethany McLean: Crafting a Narrative — Best-selling author of The Smartest Guys in the Room and All the Devils are Here, Bethany McLean, discusses how to write a story, the behaviors of CEO’s, visionaries and fraudsters and so much more.

Honorary mention to Derek Sivers: Innovation Versus Imitation [The Knowledge Project Ep. #88], who was only 131 downloads away from making the list.

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In other news this year, we released a TKP youtube channel with full-length videos of our conversations so you can see the guest, as well as a “Clips” channel, where we are building the world’s best repository of nugget-sized information you can use in work and life.

If you’re still curious, check out the 2019 list.

 

small habits

I’ve been trying more intensively in the last months to factor this in my day-to-day routines. With some success, actually!

This is a good read from a cool newsletter and podcast (The Knowledge Project) done by Farnam Street:

Here’s how the math works out: if you can get 1 percent better each day for one year, you’ll end up thirty-seven times better by the time you’re done. Conversely, if you get 1 percent worse each day for one year, you’ll decline nearly down to zero. What starts as a small win or a minor setback accumulates into something much more.

Habits are the compound interest of self-improvement. The same way that money multiplies through compound interest, the effects of your habits multiply as you repeat them. They seem to make little difference on any given day and yet the impact they deliver over the months and years can be enormous. It is only when looking back two, five, or perhaps ten years later that the value of good habits and the cost of bad ones becomes strikingly apparent.

One More Year

A great song to start 2021 – click here to listen…

One whole year – click to watch video clip

Do you remember we were standing here a year ago?
Our minds were racing and time went slow
If there was trouble in the world we didn’t know
If we had a care, it didn’t show
But now I worry our horizon’s bear nothing new
‘Cause I get this feeling and maybe you get it, too
We’re on a rollercoaster stuck on its loop-de-loop
‘Cause what we did one day on a whim
Has slowly become all we do
I never wanted any other way to spend our lives
I know we promised we’d be doing this ’til we die
And now I fear we might
Oh, now I fear we might
But it’s okay, I think there’s a way
Why don’t we just say one more year?
(One more year)
Not worrying if I get the right amount of sleep
(One more year)
Not caring if we do the same thing every week
(One more year)
Of living like I’m only living for me
(One more year)
Of never talking about where we’re gonna be
(One more year)
One more year
Of living like the free spirit I wanna be
We got a whole year
(One more year) Fifty-two weeks
Seven days each
(One more year) Four seasons, one reason
One way, one year
(One more year)
One year, one year
From today (From today)
From today (From today)
I never wanted any other way to spend our lives
Now one of these is gonna be the last for all time
For all time
One more year

Rejoice

Lia reaching her sweet thirteen !
listen and Rejoice

It’s tight
The more convict
The crime
Tears are not needed
Did you have your lot today?
Of guilt and sorrow
Secrets have taught you
Live life with joy
Go on and just do it
Why won’t you come and take it?
Go on and just do it
Why won’t you come and take it?
Slave to the darkest hour
We’re longing for the light
Rejoice from this very day
Rejoice every situation
Rejoice from this very day
Rejoice, don’t let life pass you by
Rejoice from this very day
Rejoice every situation
Rejoice from this very day
Rejoice, don’t let life pass you by
You crave focus with no meaning
You pray again to the heroine
You keep on looking for
Something to get on over
But the journey meaning and rule your life
Go on and just do it
Why won’t you come and take it?
Go on and just do it
Why won’t you come and take it?
Slave to the darkest hour
We’re longing for the light
Rejoice from this very day
Rejoice every situation
Rejoice from this very day
Rejoice, don’t let life pass you by
Rejoice from this very day
Rejoice every situation
Rejoice from this very day
Rejoice, don’t let life pass you by
Go on and just do it
Ooooh go on
Go on and just do it
Come and take it
Take it
Take it
Take it
Take it
Take it
Take it
Take it
Come and take it

Stand tall

listen to reason from the old Neil Young with Stand Tall

Stand tall for earth
Long may our planet live
Together we can win
As long as you and I
Stand tall
Stand tall

Some say it’s the era of sedition
Our way of life turning upside down
Old ideas put out on exhibition
Like criminals paraded through the town
You can turn with me
We can face this foe
Wherever you go
Whatever you do
We win when you and I
Stand tall
Stand tall

Stand tall for earth
Long may our planet live
Together we can win
As long as you and I
Stand tall
Stand tall
For a woman’s right to be equal
Doing all that she was born to do
Let earth become a rainbow of people
Blending all the colors as they choose
It’s the dawn of our day
The light of our way
Wherever you go
Whatever you do
We win when you and I
Stand tall
Stand tall
Stand tall
Stand tall

The boy king don’t believe in science
It goes against the big money truth
His playpen is full of deniers
They’ll flush our future down the tubes
Don’t you get me wrong
‘Cause we got to be strong
Wherever we go
Whatever we do
We win when you and I
Stand tall
Stand tall
Stand tall
Stand tall