All Episodes
Displaying 1 - 30 of 445 in total
The Goal Gradient Hypothesis
105.5.That's how many laps you have to run around the first lane of a regulation outdoor track to cover the 26.2 miles of a marathon.And, when I arrived at my local hi...
The ABC Goal System
"Just be consistent."By now, you've undoubtedly heard this advice countless times. So much so that it may even induce an eye roll or sigh.Yes, it’s true, consistency i...
The Pratfall Effect
In 1966, a University of Texas psychologist named Elliot Aronson ran an experiment to examine the role of imperfection on human connection.Aronson recruited 48 college...
5 Life Learnings From 5 Years of The Curiosity Chronicle
A few days ago, I was reminded by a reader that May 14 was the five year anniversary of my first Curiosity Chronicle newsletter.Sending that first newsletter, which we...
The Eject Button Mentality
In 2002, Harvard psychologists Daniel Gilbert and Jane Ebert designed a series of studies to test the role of optionality on happiness and human satisfaction.In the fi...
The Most Powerful Decision Making Razors
A razor is a rule of thumb that simplifies decision making.The term comes from philosophy. A principle that let you quickly cut away unlikely explanations or unnecessa...
The Powerful Art of Negative Capability
In 1902, a 19-year-old cadet in an Austrian military academy was silently becoming a bystander in his own life.Franz Xaver Kappus felt trapped. On the track for a life...
Dear Son - A Letter to My Son on His 4th Birthday
My son turns four years old this week.And if I'm being honest, I don't know where the time went.Everyone says this, and I spent most of my life rolling my eyes at it, ...
The Styrofoam Cup Theory
Last weekend, I had the joy of catching up for a quiet dinner in Omaha with a mentor and friend, Apple CEO Tim Cook.He recently announced that he would be transitionin...
How to Be More Magnetic
Over the weekend, I made what has become an annual pilgrimage to Omaha, Nebraska to attend the Berkshire Hathaway Annual Meeting.The event, which is nominally a busine...
The Streetlight Effect: Why Smart People Look In The Wrong Places
We all fall into the same trap: measuring what's easy instead of what's meaningful, clinging to routines we know instead of adapting ones that work, and asking the que...
The High Shoulders Theory
When I was 12 years old, I tried out for a baseball all-star team in our area.I really wanted to make this team. The tryouts were my first adventure beyond the confine...
The Michelangelo Phenomenon
The most famous sculpture in history was almost never created…In 1464, the Opera del Duomo—the committee overseeing the cathedral in Florence—commissioned a massive st...
The New Opportunity Razor
A few weeks ago, I had the unique opportunity to attend a small author’s retreat hosted by Atomic Habits author James Clear.To be honest, it was a bit of a ”pinch-me” ...
The Tinkerer's Mindset: How to Win More
A group of kindergarteners outperformed the CEOs, lawyers, and MBAs.The way they did it has a lesson I've never been able to forget.While in college over a decade ago,...
The Real Price of Success
My entire life changed when I realized that I would never want to trade lives with the people I read books about.Allow me to explain with a story about the richest man...
Black Coffee Theory
A few weeks ago, I shared a piece on my Anti-To-Do List and the general merits of using inversion to improve your life.The idea was straightforward:Write down what y...
Just Make the Coffee
A few years ago, I came across a beautiful story written by a woman named Pam Kearney in a local newspaper.I set a calendar reminder to re-read it every single year.Ta...
The Spotlight Effect
For the last decade, I've had a recurring nightmare that I can trace back to my days as a Division 1 baseball player at Stanford...I'm on the mound in a critical situa...
The Personal Quarterly Review
It's hard to believe that we’re already 25% of the way through 2026.This is an important time of year. The excitement and motivation of your new year planning has like...
The 85% Rule: A Secret of the World’s Best
The 85% Rule says that you can achieve more by pushing less.Carl Lewis won nine Olympic gold medals with this strategy.And as it turns out, the general principle here ...
The Deathbed Regret List
In 1888, Alfred Nobel was best known as the inventor of dynamite. He had been issued over 300 patents and his business had built more than 50 explosives and armament f...
The Empty Cup Mindset
In the mid-19th century, a physician named Dr. Ignaz Semmelweis was working as an assistant in Vienna General Hospital when he noticed something curious.The hospital h...
Dear Parker: A Letter to a 17-Year-Old Reader
Last week, I got an email from a reader that stopped me in my tracks:Dear Mr. Bloom,My name is Parker and I am 17. I am reaching out because I would like some advice.I...
The Motivation Triangle: The Science of Progress
In this episode, I explored a framework from Nir Eyal's new book, Beyond Belief, called the Motivation Triangle. Most people think motivation is about behavior and ben...
How to Break Your Phone Addiction (3 Painfully Simple Steps)
Six weeks ago, I shared an embarrassing confession on my phone addiction.It all began at my Think Week retreat in January, when I pondered a single question:If you ...
AI Negativity Bias: Why You Only Hear About AI Doom
I feel like I need to say something...Over the last few weeks, it seems like I can't go ten minutes without having a new "AI Doom" story hit my feed.The extraordinary ...
The Most Powerful Paradoxes of Life
It's tempting to view the world in black and white.Everyone wants you to do that. It's easier to do that. It's more comfortable to do that.But the world is more comple...
The Paradox of Effort
Carlos Alcaraz is a tennis phenom.The 22-year-old is the number one player in the world, having won 25 singles titles and 7 Grand Slams in his career. He is the younge...
The Anti-To-Do List: A Major Life Hack
In the 19th century, a German mathematician named Carl Jacobi developed an interesting insight:Many hard math problems become easier to solve when you flip them around...