Former General Electric CEO Jack Welch once nearly died of a heart attack. Years later he was asked what went through his mind while he was being rushed to the hospital in what could have been his las

Films with powerful environmentally centred narratives can transform our thinking and connect us with nature in ways that scientific papers cannot. For example, Studio Ghibli , a renowned Japanese fil

At Scale , we’ve hired more than 200 people. For a long time, I interviewed everyone we gave an offer to. I wrote this memo to the company more than a year ago before a period where we grew the team s

I’ve been thinking about the concept of “hustle porn” lately. There are a few interpretations of what it means. One is people who are busy but not productive — the visual of people bragging about how

While listening to Josh Kaufman’s Farnham Street interview the other day, it dawned on me that there are a few interconnected and important concepts related to learning that come together in an intere

Professor Terry Sejnowski at the Salk Institute [+] [-] for Biological Sciences and the University of California San Diego. Terrance J. Sejnowski The ‘Thinkers and Innovators’ series explores the scie

“Study hard what interests you the most.” Physicist Richard Feynman (1918–1988). Image sources: Feynman Estate and CERN Archives I have been writing about Richard Feynman for quite some time now and i

Ever wonder how Cyberpunk’s digital aesthetic took form? You’d be forgiven for turning your attention to film or manga when questioning its origins. Blade Runner encapsulated the noir tone and neon-fu

W hen Sarah, 36 years old and severely depressed, sat down in a lab with a head full of surgically implanted sensors last year, the last thing she expected was to spontaneously cackle. She hadn’t laug

PROVIDENCE, R.I. [Brown University and Providence Veterans Affairs Medical Center] — Brain-computer interfaces (BCIs) are an emerging assistive technology, enabling people with paralysis to type on co

W hen a routine echocardiogram revealed a large mass next to my heart, the radiologist thought it might be a hiatal hernia—a portion of my stomach poking up through my diaphragm to press against the s

Welcome to the third interview on 'The Observer Effect'. We are lucky to have oneof the most interesting founders in technology and commerce - Tobi Lütke, Founderand CEO of Shopify. This interview was

You spend years trying to learn new stuff but then look back and realize that maybe like 10 big ideas truly changed how you think and drive most of what you believe. Brent Beshore recently listed the

David Perell is a sharp writer whose words will absorb you. He writes, hosts a podcast, and runs a writing school called Write of Passage . In this guest column, David recounts how a recent dinner wit

That our atmosphere has low enough pressure and levels of deuterium that nuclear fission in air doesn’t cause hydrogen atoms to fuse into helium, meaning that the first nuclear bomb test in 1945 didn’

Neurologist Phil Kennedy set out to build the ultimate brain-computer interface. In the process he almost lost his mind. The brain surgery lasted 11 and a half hours, beginning on the afternoon of Jun

democratizing science

“What the pupil must learn, if he learns anything at all, is that the world will do most of the work for you, provided you cooperate with it by identifying how it really works and aligning with those

Moreover, you must walk like a camel, which is said to be the only beast which ruminates when walking. –Henry David Thoreau, “Walking,” 1861 * Charles Darwin was an introvert. Granted, he spent almost

Every mathematician worthy of the name has experienced … the state of lucid exaltation in which one thought succeeds another as if miraculously… this feeling may last for hours at a time, even for day

If you’re not sure what Odd Things in Odd Places is and why I’m in Japan by myself, you can learn here . It all started with a Gmail theme. A few years ago, on some standard Dark Playground toil sessi

We made a fancy PDF of this post for printing and offline viewing. Buy it here. Part 1: Meet Your Mammoth The first day I was in second grade, I came to school and noticed that there was a new, very p

Chronic pain is like a horror movie monster that sneaks up on you. It’s unpredictable, lingers silently, and when it strikes it’s often too late to tame. More diabolically, our best weapon against it—

“If you only put into action half of what you read, you’d already be a millionaire.” I’ve heard many variations of this advice, all making the point that the problem isn’t that we don’t have good idea

To a frustrated single person, life can often feel like this: And at first glance, research seems to back this up, suggesting that married people are on average happier than single people and much hap

A brief, no fluff, summary of Dale Carnegie’s How to Win Friends and Influence People . Techniques in Handling People Don’t criticize, condemn or complain. Give honest and sincere appreciation. Arouse