In a world of accelerating knowledge one of the more unfortunate side-effects is that our ignorance grows even faster than our knowledge. (This is because all that “you don’t know” is naturally growing faster than that small amount of new knowledge you can and are absorbing.) This might seem like a depressing notion but it…

Lesson #6: Study at an Anti-Library  “There is a huge difference between what people actually know and how much they think they know.” – Nassim Taleb Question #6: Which of these animals is more likely to kill you: A shark or a deer? The right answer is the deer. In fact, the contest isn’t even…

In my new book, Higher Unlearning: 39 Post-Requisite Lessons for Achieving a Successful Future, Lesson #1 is entitled “Unlearn or Die.” In the short chapter, I recount the story of how it took the British Navy 247 years from the time it discovered citrus fruit prevented scurvy to the time it actually implemented an official…

"… he has persuaded me that we can solve many of our problems as long as we don't assume that we know more than we do." So concludes John Horgan in his insightful review of David Deutsch's new book, The Beginning of Infinity: Explanations That Will Transform the World. I not only agree with the…

One of my favorite authors, Seth Godin, recently had an insightful post entitled "The Hard Part (One of Them)." I'll repeat it below for your reading enjoyment: A guy asked his friend, the writer David Foster Wallace, "Say, Dave, how'd y'get t'be so dang smart?" His answer: "I did the reading." No one said the preparation…

"There is a huge difference between what people actually know and how much they think they know." – Nassim Taleb  Question: Which of these animals is more likely to kill you: A shark or a deer? The right answer is the deer. In fact, the contest isn’t even close. You are 300-times more likely to…

How do you know what you don't know? It sounds like an inane question. After all, how can you possibly know what you don't know?  The answer is that you can't. This doesn't imply, however, that the question isn't important. In fact, it is vital to your future success because it will keep you learning…

Seth Godin has an interesting post on the future of libraries in which he suggests that libraries' survival depends on training people to take intellectual initiative.   It's an interesting idea and I encourage librarians to consider instructing people in the art of unlearning as one way to do this. For example, librarians could introduce…

“I have what I call an iron prescription that helps me keep sane when I naturally drift toward preferring one ideology over another and that is: I say that I’m not entitled to have an opinion on this subject unless I can state the argument against my position better than the people who support it….

Like many of you, the bookshelf by my bed is stacked with more books than I can possibly read. As a result, I often find myself reading two or three books concurrently. One of the beauties of this approach is that you can stumble upon serendipitous insights. One such insight just occurred last night. I…