Similarly, modern learning is not a process for maximizing the throughput of insights, but for maximizing the throughput of learning process improvements. The best assumptions to invalidate in our quest for learning are assumptions about learning itself. This is why meditation retreats, globe-trotting, and having kids will always be net productivity gains, broadly defined: even a slight improvement in the machinery of learning (via a shift in perspective, for example) will pay dividends over time far greater than a mere few months of lost labor.

Amazing read!

“When you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change.”— Max Planck, German quantum theorist and Nobel Prize winner

There are two primary mental shifts that occur in the lives of all highly successful people. Many make the first, but very few make the second.

Both of these shifts require a great deal of mental stretching from conventional and societal ways of thinking. In many ways, these shifts require you to unlearn the negative and sabotaging programming from your youth, public education, and even adulthood.

These findings are among those published today by the Varkey Foundation, based on in-depth opinion polling by Populus, on the wellbeing, priorities, ambitions and beliefs of over 20,000 15- to 21-year-olds in twenty countries. Generation Z: Global Citizenship Survey – What the world’s young people think and feel is the most comprehensive up-to-date global survey of the views of Generation Z – the teenagers and young adults who were born around the turn of the millennium.

“As a founder, learning how to launch your startup is incredibly important. But as your project grows, you will have more and more people following your lead. Many founders are inexperienced at the art of leadership and lack the management principles necessary to build an enduring company. History ー even the history of Silicon Valley ー furnishes many illustrations of skillful leadership and of principles that every leader should adhere to.

Goal of a leader: The most important quality of a good leader is to empower those you lead to do their best.”

I have no idea if they will be entrepreneurs like me, but I think these lessons matter regardless of what path they take in life.

It’s a long way from clinic and there’s scant data, but the premise has promise.

Brainy teenagers are less likely to smoke tobacco, but are more likely to drink alcohol and use cannabis than their less intelligent peers.

Amazingly comprehensive list - bookmark fodder! As an early business hire you’re the right hand of the founder when it comes to acquiring customers. 

Here’s an outline of the reading list:

1. What Startups Want

2. Why Customers Buy

3. Crafting an Effective Message

4. The Sales and Marketing Machine

5. Metrics that Matter

6. Getting Early Traction

7. Next Steps: Learning the Tactics

Companies must be open to radical reinvention to find new, significant, and sustainable sources of revenue.

“Cognitive skills in topics like maths and English have long been used as to measure the calibre of a job candidate. But a report by The Hamilton Project, an economic think-tank, says that non-cognitive skills are also integral to educational performance and success at work – and are becoming increasingly so.

Non-cognitive skills are your “soft skills”: things like how well you can communicate, how well you work with others, how well you lead a team and how self-motivated you are.”

“The world is increasingly complex. The lifespan of companies has decreased significantly; from 60 years to below 30. Technology is increasing exponentially; it’s expected there will be 1 trillion sensors connected to the internet by 2025. The number of factors that could influence a given organization is unfathomable.

With this being the case, how do we future-proof our organizations? Focus on the middle.

While senior leaders are the most visible and “powerful” in some respects, it is the middle manager/operational core that has the largest impact on actual behavior and team performance”

“Have you ever wondered about internal organization dynamics and why some groups of people (who aren’t on the same team) are more successful than others? Why different “tribes” inside the organization seem to be at war with one another lowering performance in increasing politics? Why certain groups of people never seem to do anything? Or why its hard to move into the next level? Read on”

Tren Griffin explores 12 key lessons around product/market fit. 

But if we’re not careful, we ignore the fact that these ‘products’ are altering key aspects of a human being’s selfhood. Without realising it, we drift into an instrumental mode of thought, which would reduce a person to the sum total of her modified or unmodified traits. We could lose sight of the individual’s intrinsic value and dignity, and start comparing people as if they were used vehicles in a car lot.

Kelly Clancy explores the field of neuromorphic computing, which seeks to design computers that take inspiration from biology.

As we become increasingly skilled at deploying AI, says author Yuval Harari in a conversation with WIRED, we’ll transform into a new breed of superhuman.