Rob Henderson: An Internet Academic
North Star Podcast
Rob Henderson is one of my favorite up-and-coming writers. I like him because he's one of those people who doesn't fit into a category. He's a Ph.D. candidate in psychology, but I met him in a book club about technological stagnation. He's spent years in the academy, first at Yale and now at Cambridge, but most of his influence comes from his online writing. Most of all, he's interested in human nature. In particular, psychology, status, and social class.
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Chrisman Frank and Ana Lorena Fabrega: How Childhood Education Will Change
North Star Podcast
This week, I have two guests. Both are affiliated with Synthesis, a new kind of online school where kids learn through games and simulations. One is Chrisman Frank, the CEO of Synthesis. The other is Ana Lorena Fabrega, who is their Chief Evangelist.
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Ash Fontana: Building Artificial Intelligence
North Star Podcast
Ash Fontana is an entrepreneur, investor, and author. As an entrepreneur, he was only of the early employees at an online investing platform called AngelList. From there, he became the Managing Director at Zetta, the first investment fund focused on artificial intelligence. Now, he's the author of the AI-First Company.
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Li Jin: Creating the Creator Economy
North Star Podcast
My guest today is Li Jin, the founder and managing partner at an early-stage venture capital firm called Atelier.
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Zena Hitz: Liberal Arts Thinking
North Star Podcast
My guest today is Zena Hitz, a tutor at St John’s and the author of an excellent book called Lost in Thought: The Hidden Pleasures of an Intellectual Life. Her book explores the meaning and the value of learning for its own sake, through images and stories of bookworms, philosophers, scientists, and other learners, both fictional and historical.
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Tiago Forte and Will Mannon: Building Cohort-Based Courses
North Star Podcast
I have two guests today: Tiago Forte and Will Mannon.
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Gagan Biyani: Building Silicon Valley Startups
North Star Podcast
My guest today is Gagan Biyani, the current CEO of an education startup that helps teachers run Cohort-Based Courses on the Internet and has students from around the world. Gagan also founded a multi-billion dollar online education platform called Udemy. Afterward, he founded Sprig, a food delivery platform that grew to a nine-digit valuation but eventually failed. So today, he has the distinct pleasure of being both the founder of a unicorn and the founder of a massive failure.
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Trevor Bauer: Playing Professional Baseball
North Star Podcast
My guest today is Trevor Bauer, who is arguably the very best pitcher in Major League Baseball. I wanted to interview Trevor not only because he's an excellent pitcher, but because he takes a radical approach to the game. He's a physicist and a scientist. A scholar and an entrepreneur. And you don't find that combination very often.
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Nik Sharma: Building DTC Companies
North Star Podcast
My guest today is Nik Sharma, the founder of Sharma Brands and an advisor to companies like Judy and Cha Cha Matcha. Nik is one of my very best friends, and my go-to person for all things commerce. Since we first met, we've spent hours exploring the future of marketing and commerce together, and recorded this podcast to give you a window into what our conversations are like.
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Kevin Kelly: Seeing the Future
North Star Podcast
My guest today is Kevin Kelly, who co-founded Wired Magazine in 1993 and served as its Executive Editor for the first seven years. As one of the most important futurists of our generation, he's published a number of books including The Inevitable, What Technology Wants, and New Rules for the New Economy which is my favorite one. Coolest of all, he's also a founding member of the board of the Long Now Foundation, a non-profit devoted to encouraging long-term thinking.
info_outlineMy guest today is Tiago Forte. He runs an online course called Building a Second Brain, which I took in August of 2017. I went from being overwhelmed by information to being in control of it. My writer’s block disappeared and my productivity skyrocketed. Tiago changed the way I thought about work and my relationship with information. Fast forward to today, and Tiago and I are business partners. He helped me create my online writing course, Write of Passage and together, we’re building the infrastructure required to scale an online education business. Tiago is one of my closest friends and the person who shaped my career more than anybody else. In what’s becoming a tradition, Tiago and I used this podcast to reflect on our work together. First, we talked about what we’ve learned about email marketing. Then, we moved onto ideas like leadership, working in small packets, and personal growth. Please enjoy this window into our work and friendship.
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Links:
David Allen- Getting Things Done
Tyler Cowen- Emergent Ventures
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SHOWNOTES
1:54 Being a Citizen of the Internet. The role that ConvertKit provides for Tiago’s team. How thinking systematically changes how we work for the better.
14:05 The difference between training and teaching through SOP’s. Why David and Tiago hired expensive personal assistants. Why David and Tiago have the goal of only doing something once before finding an automation solution.
27:07 What David and Tiago have learned about running online courses. How online teaching has changed since Tiago and David began their school. What role entertainment and community have in the structure of their courses.
35:05 The dangers of only formulating for ease. The psychology of pricing. The benefits of small, self-motivated teams when you work remotely.
45:05 How “reusable packets” are the backbone of David and Tiago’s work. The “lego block” technique of creating content. How Tiago orients using objects, not humans as linchpins in his business. How David writes first and researches second.
56:33 How the “beginner’s mind” aids David and Tiago write well. How David takes 5 observations a day to create deep and insightful content.
1:04:00 Why books are a mark of legitimacy. The illogicality of fashion. Why publishers want a sure bet.
01:11:40 The next chapter of online education. How scarcity can make time important again. Tiago’s theory about how you to be your full self online now. How instinct works online.
1:23:40 The hero’s journey of sharing your authentic self online. How Tyler Cowen’s mentorship changed David’s life. How Venkatesh Rao changed Tiago’s life.
1:33:22 The shift from interchangeable courses to interesting and specific courses. Why Forte labs is creator-focused, not curriculum-focused. Why building a business is an act of discovery at Forte Labs.
1:42:16 Why David and Tiago are looking for people who have vision combined with passion. Why innovation is directly related to intuition. How to learn faster.
1:53:43 How growth is paying attention to what you are not capable of doing. The skill of knowing the difference between a challenging situation and a fundamentally incompatible one. How the internet can help people create their own definition of success.