Think Different TV

Episode #4: Ben Casnocha and Marty Nemko

Episode #4 of Think Different TV features Ben Casnocha and Marty Nemko in conversation for 35 minutes. Topics include:

• Where should you look for a job in these tough times?
• Is China the next big entrepreneurial power?
• How does a liberal media, liberal president, and liberal congress affect things?
• How can advocating an unpopular view make an impact?
• Should productivity and achievement be a more important goal in life than happiness?
• Do romantic adventures and misadventures contribute to more misery than happiness, on the whole?

I recommend watching it on the Vimeo site and letting it load all the way. Then you can use the chapter markings on that page.

Here's an MP3 audio file of the episode.

Episode #3: Ben Casnocha and Josh Kaufman

Episode #3 of Think Different TV features Ben Casnocha and Josh Kaufman in conversation for 40 minutes about books, self-education, the process of reading, ambition, and other topics. Below is the embedded version. I recommend watching it on the Vimeo site and letting it load all the way. Then you can use the chapter markings on that page. Below the embed are the topics discussed. Here's an MP3 audio file of the episode.

1:13 Josh says he's reading personal development books since it's the beginning of the year and you want to start the year off right

2:14 Steve Pavlina? He promotes 30 day experiments - just test something and see how you like it

4:30 Reducing goals into manageable, bite size pieces helps you start achieving them.

6:20 It's important to have at least one experimental side project going at all times

6:49 Ambition - what is it, how has the word evolved

8:48 When ambition is nakedly about power and money, it can be unattractive

10:40 There are people who are trying to do big things where the motivation is wanting to make the world better or just craftsmanship -- wanting to do something for the joy of doing it, have the ability to exercise skill.

12:40 How we choose what books to read

16:28 The role of books in the self-education process

18:00 Searching Amazon and Google for the best books

18:34 Are customer reviews on Amazon reliable?

20:54 The process of reading a book - start to finish or cherry pick sections?

22:18 Take a few minutes before reading a book to think about what you want to get out of it. Selective attention.

26:50 Read until you've gotten the key points and could re-hash them to others

28:00 Recording / summarizing important nuggets from a book

30:00 Looking for mental models: concepts that have broad explanatory power

31:08 The value of book summaries / outlines that are sold?

33:00 If you're a business person, what % of books you read should be in the business book genre?

35:55 Study how people work (psychology, communication, history) and systems / processes.

37:00 Reading about science can help you understand systems / processes (ie, friction)