Learning

Farnam Street

The Value of Grey Thinking

One of the most common questions we receive, unsurprisingly, is along the lines of What one piece of advice would you …

Bloomberg Businessweek

Is College Still Worth It Economically?

Yes—but who it benefits most is constantly changing.

The Conversation

People who are good at reading have different brains

The number of people who read for fun appears to be steadily dropping. Fifty percent of UK adults say they don’t read …

University of York

School smartphone ban results in better sleep and improved mood

Psychologists at the University of York, who tested the impact that smartphones have on children’s behaviour for a new …

The Atlantic

The Elite College Students Who Can't Read Books

To read a book in college, it helps to have read a book in high school.

The New Yorker

What Does It Really Mean to Learn?

A leading computer scientist says it’s “educability,” not intelligence, that matters most.

Lelouch

You Are NOT Dumb, You Just Lack the Prerequisites

The gap in comprehension wasn’t due to a lack of ability but rather a gap in prerequisite knowledge.

So here’s a …

Reactor

The Joy of Reading Books You Don't Entirely Understand

It really should be acceptable and normal to say “I don’t entirely understand what I just read, but I loved …

NPR

Why writing by hand beats typing for thinking and learning

In kids, studies show that tracing out ABCs, as opposed to typing them, leads to better and longer-lasting recognition and …

The New York Times Magazine

Americans Are Losing Faith in the Value of College. Whose Fault Is That?

For most people, the new economics of higher ed make going to college a risky bet.

Nautilus

To Supercharge Learning, Look to Play

Play and art engage all of our senses and enhance attention.

Farnam Street

How to Think: The Skill You've Never Been Taught

No skill is more valuable and harder to come by than the ability to critically think through problems. Schools don’t …

Farnam Street

How to Remember What You Read

Learning means being able to use new information. The basic process of learning consists of reflection and feedback. We learn …

Psyche

How to gain more from your reading

There’s more to words than meets the eye. Deepen your appreciation of literature through the art of slow, attentive …

Josh Comeau

How To Learn Stuff Quickly

It’s often said that the internet has democratized education: the sum of human knowledge is only a Google search away! …

The Atlantic

How College Became a Ruthless Competition Divorced From Learning

It is a truth universally acknowledged that elite parents, in possession of excellent jobs, want to get their kids into …

David Perell

Coolest Things I Learned in 2019

I write a weekly email called the Monday Musings.

The most popular part of the newsletter is a section called “Coolest …

Collaborative Fund

How to Read: Lots of Inputs and a Strong Filter

My reading strategy is to start as many books as I can but finish few of them.

MIT Sloan Management Review

Learning for a Living

Learning at work is work, and we must make space for it.

Paul Graham

The Lesson to Unlearn

The most damaging thing you learned in school wasn’t something you learned in any specific class. It was learning to …

Julian Shapiro

Writing Well

This handbook is for:

1. Aspiring writers who fear publishing themselves online: This will provide you with confidence in your …

The Guardian

Listen up: why we can't get enough of audiobooks

In this time-poor, podcast-friendly world, audiobooks are booming. So what is the science behind them – and do they change …

David R. MacIver

How to do hard things

This is a system I only somewhat tongue in cheek refer to as “The Fully General System For Learning To Do Hard …

Andy Matuschak

Why books don't work

All this suggests a peculiar conclusion: as a medium, books are surprisingly bad at conveying knowledge, and readers mostly …

Medium

The Future of Learning

We can’t outpace the half-life of knowledge, but we can change how we think.