All Episodes
Displaying 1 - 30 of 431 in total
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...
The Noise Bottleneck: The Subtle Trap of More Information
This is one of my favorites:"If more information was the answer, then we'd all be billionaires with perfect abs." - Derek SiversHumor aside, it's a critical idea for m...
Solomon's Paradox: Why You Can't Take Your Own Advice
In the 10th century B.C., a young king was called upon to settle a seemingly impossible dispute.Two women stood before him with a single child, both claiming to be its...
The Doorman Fallacy
In his 2019 book, Alchemy, legendary British advertising executive Rory Sutherland offered an interesting lens on the perils of automation:Imagine you are the owner of...
The Think Week Playbook: A Step-by-Step Guide
The Think Week (or Day) is a ritual that will change your life.The concept was first popularized by several world-renowned entrepreneurs and innovators in the 1980s an...
The Dangers of Survivorship Bias
In the early days of World War II, the U.S. military was losing too many of its planes in battle. To stem the tide, analysts started mapping the bullet holes on the re...
Are Low Expectations The Key To Life?
The late investor Charlie Munger was known for his prolific wisdom.Perhaps his wisest insight of all came when he was asked to reflect on the source of his own happine...
The Pygmalion Effect: How Expectations Create Outcomes
In an ancient poem written by the Roman poet Ovid, a sculptor named Pygmalion grows disillusioned with the women of his society.Rather than compromise on a relationshi...
9 Reflections From My "Think Week" Retreat
Two weeks ago, I went on a “Think Week” retreat.The plan for the retreat was simple:3 daysLimited connectivityUnstructured schedule, no meetingsQuestion prompts as cat...
The Archimedes Principle: The Science of Sudden Insight
In the 3rd century B.C., a man named Archimedes steadily built a reputation as one of the greatest scientific minds of the era.Archimedes, who lived in the powerful Gr...
How to Thrive (A Science-Backed Approach)
In your life, there will always be someone standing on the side of the road waiting to tell you that you’re doing it wrong. Telling you to change. To be realistic. To ...
How I’m Breaking My Phone Addiction In 30 Days
I have an embarrassing confession to make…I’ve developed an unhealthy addiction to my phone.Honestly, it’s a bit embarrassing for me to admit. I’m someone who self-ide...
Amara’s Law: The Invisible Force That Shapes Your Life
In 1978, an American futurist named Roy Amara offered a reflection on the progression of technology:“We tend to overestimate the effect of a technology in the short ru...
The End of History Illusion
In 2013, a group of Harvard researchers conducted a study with over 19,000 people.They asked two simple questions:How much have your values, preferences, personality, ...
The Real AI Risk Nobody Told You About
Most writing about AI falls into one of two broad conversations:Speed: How fast things are moving and changing. The transformative (and perhaps destructive) potential ...