Habits

My favorite problems

My Favorite Favorite Problems

One of my favorite things about open questions is that they can be freely borrowed anywhere you encounter them. In my course Building a Second Brain, I lead students through an exercise to identify their own favorite problems. They can then serve as a filter for what to capture in their notes, a guide for…

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Case Study: Favourite Porblems

How Favorite Problems Evolve: A Case Study

Your favorite problems will likely stay consistent over many years, but that doesn’t mean they can’t evolve. I’ve found that in most cases I never actually arrive at a final, definitive answer to a question. Instead, the question changes as I learn more. Let me illustrate this with a case study. I’ll show you how one of my favorite problems – teaching – changed over time as my life went through different stages.

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4 step guide

How to Generate Your Own Favorite Problems: A 4-Step Guide

In this step-by-step guide, I’ll share the exact process I use for myself and my students to formulate the most powerful open-ended questions possible. In Part 1, I introduced “favorite problems” as a lens through which to filter the immense amount of information we are exposed to every day. A favorite problem is an open-ended question you use to prime your subconscious to notice potential answers in the information you’re consuming.

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CNBC

Why the Most Successful People Sharpen Their Memory Power | CNBC OpEd

Information is the fundamental building block of everything we do. But we often find ourselves mentally juggling and straining to recall things. I’ve found that the most successful people are always sharpening their memory power — so that their ideas become more concrete and new connections are easily revealed. I call it the “CODE” method:…

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How to Sustain Behavior Change | Creator Lab Podcast

I joined Bilal Zaidi on the Creator Lab podcast to talk about sustaining behavior change, adopting the mindset of a curator, and designing notes for your future self. We also covered: Why there is no right way to express your thoughts The power of cohort-based courses A comprehensive summary of the CODE method (Capture, Organize,…

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Building a Second Brain with Ali Abdaal

How to Organize Your Life | Ali Abdaal

Popular productivity YouTuber and Ali Abdaal summarized Building a Second Brain in this 15-minute video. This is an incredible distillation and expression of the book’s core principles. Ali discussed: What is a Second Brain and why should you have one The CODE method: my 4-step process for knowledge management and creative work How having a Second Brain…

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Scott Young Thumbnail

Notetaking As a Tool for Personal Development | Scott Young

I joined Scott Young, the author of Ultralearning, to discuss all things Second Brain. We covered: The power of habits How life can be a marathon or a sprint How notes are tools for thinking My personal tech stacks How notetaking can be a tool for personal development What we can learn from artists Watch…

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