Podcasts about not caring what other people think

Maya Hu-Chan Maya Hu-Chan is a globally recognized keynote speaker, author, leadership educator, and ICF Master Certified Coach. Ranked Top 8 Global Solutions Thinkers by Thinkers50, World Top 30 Leadership Gurus, and Top 100 Thought Leaders in Management & Leadership, Maya has worked with thousands of leaders from Global Fortune 500 companies, government and non-profits around the world. She is the author of Saving Face: How to Preserve Dignity and Built Trust. Ed Lattimore Ed Latimore is a best-selling author, former professional heavyweight boxer, and competitive chess player. His writing focuses on self-improvement and a practical approach to stoic philosophy. He is the author Not Caring What Other People Think is a Superpower: Insights from a Heavyweight Boxer and Sober Letters to My Drunken Self.

http://www.alainguillot.com/the-escape-artist/ Barney, The Escape Artist, is a blogger based in England. The name of the blog came from the classic movie The Great Escape which plays every Christmas in England. His blog is about helping people get out of the financial prison camp in which many of us end up. If you are working on a job you don’t like or if you are in debt, you are in a prison-like situation. Breaking out of prison requires slow deliberate work which can have a huge payoff. Although not poor, during his childhood Barney developed some anxiety about money. His parents bought the biggest house they could afford. Shortly after the purchase interest rates went up in England to 17%. This series of events put Barney’s parents under a lot of stress. Barney decided he didn’t want that kind of life for himself, he chose a career which would pay him well and he decided not to climb escalator of lifestyle inflation. He tried to get a job as an investment banker, but because he wasn’t able to find a job in that field, he went into accounting. Barney wanted to send signals to his future employer that he was serious about earning money. Barney’s view on education is that education is an investment and he wanted a return for his money. Not to be critical, but some careers don’t offer many job opportunities, the return on investment is minimal and they can be considered a 3 year study holiday. Education in England, as in Canada, is partly subsidized by the government. Students don’t go into massive student debt to get an education. In the United States, some students can be harmed for the rest of their lives with the huge student debt they incur. After graduation, Barney decided to live in a low-income neighborhood as opposed to a higher level neighborhood that he could afford. In addition, Barney walked or cycled to work to save money. According to Barney, cars are money incinerating units. People living in big cities don’t need a car. Having a car can be a big hurdle in the journey to financial freedom. The best way to get around in London is by bicycle, and you get the added benefit of getting in better shape. Barney climbed the professional ladder, he worked in mergers and acquisitions, and he got paid to learn how to value stocks. He started applying the lessons he learned at work in his personal life. If people would apply the same amount of care and attention to their personal finance as they do to the work they do for their employer, everyone would be much better physically, emotionally, and financially. Barney himself gave his best energy, time, mental focus to his employer, but he had a plan. He was slowly putting some money away. He knew he would not be in his job forever, so he wanted to give his best and he wanted to take out the most. Money is power. The money that you hang on to, it gives you freedom, it gives you choices. When Barney was about 32 years old his wife got pregnant with their second child. It was a family decision that she would stay at home to take care of the kids and Barney was the sole breadwinner. At this same time, he started working at a job he hated. At this moment he felt in prison, in prison because of the added responsibility of a new child while not having another job option at the moment. The initial plan was to slash the spending to the minimum. Finally, Barney found another job in which he was feeling better, but he continued saving because once he cut down on spending money, he realized he didn’t miss any of the stuff he cut off from his regular spending. The more he saved, the more his scape fund grew and the more felt he was on the path of financial security. At that time, the concept of financial independence was not a common concept. This was before Mr. Money Mustache, before Early Retirement Extreme, so Barney was exploring new territory with no guidance from anyone else. Some of the unnecessary spending that Barney eliminated was: restaurants, shopping, buying stuff, going out on mini-breaks like going to Rome or Vienna, Prague. There was a bit of resistance on the part of Barney’s wife when faced with big cutbacks, but also there was the understanding that working long hours, indefinitely was not the solution either. One of the challenges to cutting back was the social factor. Their friends continued spending as always, so Barney and his wife had to mentally disconnect in order to stick to the plan. In prison talk, their friends were institutionalized. A book recommendation to deal with what other people may think about you is:Not Caring What Other People Think is a Superpower. As far as investments, Barney learned to like steady Eddy, boring companies. On the other hand, glamour and excitement are traps. So investing is partly quantitative, but it’s mainly about controlling your emotions, it’s about not getting carried away, it’s about NOT falling in love with a particular stock, it’s realizing that you want to play the percentages and you don’t want to strike out. The biggest lesson was that the less exciting a stock was, the better. Barney’s portfolio is 80% stocks, 20% bonds. The stock part is 50% individual stocks and the other 50% is index funds. We spoke about the home bias tendency in investing (the tendency for investors to invest a large percentage of their money in domestic equities) and how the Vanguard All Word Index may be a good solution to solve the home bias. Having his savings, earnings, and investing in place, it was time to make a move, to go for financial independence. There were several blogs which served as inspiration, some of those blogs where:Monevator, Mr. Money Mustache, J.L. Collins, and The Mad Fientist Podcast. After reading about the 4% rule, Barney did some calculations and discovered that he had enough to retire. After a conversation with his wife, the only step left was to wait 4 months, until his last bonus was paid off. Ironically, after Barney gave his notice of resignation he was asked to stay a bit longer as an independent contractor. The transition from employee to financially independent was slow and smooth. We spoke about The Count of Monte Cristo, who was a prisoner for many years until he made his escape. It’s not just about the scape, but it’s a journey of self-improvement and knowledge. The Count of Monte Christo represents many of the themes evoked in financial independence. When Barney gave notice that he would be leaving his job, he noticed that the power dynamic of employer vs. employee had shifted. No longer was the employer the party with most of the power. Now he, the employee, had as much power as the employer. They were dealing as equals, both parties working to achieve a common goal. Unlike the regular employer-employee relationship where one party is dependent on the other for subsistence. Being smart with your money doesn’t have to be about early retirement. Financial independence is about giving yourself choices. We spoke about the movie The Shawshank Redemption, where one of the prisoners is so institutionalized that he has a hard time dealing with life in the free world. Having enough money is not enough for financial independence, you must have enough mental fortitude to walk out even when the gates are open. We spoke about the books that shaped Barney’s thinking about financial independence before and after the breakout. Final thoughts: The idea of aggregation of marginal gains. Everything is optimized to achieve a particular objective, and it’s the aggregation of all those little details that create the big change, the successful execution of the goal. The Principles of Life Hacking. Read the blog post right here.  

  For complete show notes, visit: http://becomingthealphamuslim.com/meta-learning I know what you're thinking: What the hell does learning math have to do with Becoming the Alpha Muslim? I'll tell you what.  The Islamic Sacred Tradition is one of deep learning and transmission, so much so that entire books were written on the art of learning. More recently, the subject of meta-learning has become popular due to bloggers like Tim Ferriss, Cal Newport, and Scott H. Young. I don't know any of these guys, but I do know someone who I believe is somewhat of an authority on the subject.  My guest this episode is Ed Latimore. Ed is a professional heavyweight boxer, physicist, published author, and self-improvement blogger. I invited him on to teach us how to learn math and, more broadly, speak about the subject of meta-learning. Ed is in an interesting position to speak about this subject because he entered university at the not-quite-old but certainly not young age of 28. As well, he gets punched in the head for a living.  Both of these factors combined mean Ed had to take a deliberate and systematic approach to learning. One that he can now pass on to us. Enjoy. Show Notes [2:20] Ed's life circumstances necessitated that he learn HOW to learn so he can be successful at university and this had the added benefit of making him a good teacher [3:12] We live in an age where information is free. Because of this, the ability to process information soundly and efficiently has become priceless [4:25] Has entering university at 28 (as opposed to 18) and getting punched in the head for a living affected Ed's ability to learn? [5:30] When you are older, the tools you have available to learn are different than when you are younger, for example Young people don't have the concept of limitation, which is a plus, while adults have a better idea of what's possible Young people don't have the concept of failure, while adults understand that failure is not the be-all-end-all Young people learn as a matter of immersion, while adults know how to learn [9:35] As an adult you understand that the process of learning gets results no matter your natural aptitude. As long as you apply yourself over time, you will get better [13:30] How much does natural ability affect learning math? Yes, a high IQ helps, but does that mean you can't achieve a level of success? The world is not only composed of high IQ people. [17:00] Whether talent is real or not is irrelevant. What matters is whether you are using your belief in it to motivate yourself or to justify your weakness and lack of trying [17:39] If we take Goku and Vegeta as an example, Vegeta doesn't just accept that Goku is better than him and quit. He has an intrinsic belief in himself, as a pureblood Saiyan, that pushes him to train harder and harder and reach new heights [19:50] Walk around with the confidence Vegeta had when he let Cell absorb Android 18. That's the lie you must tell yourself about talent [21:00] When Ed decided to go back to school he knew that even though he was weak at math, given enough time, he could learn anything. So he started learning almost a year out. In having this mindset you learn the most valuable talent to have is hard work [22:50] Because had to learn these subjects the hard way, he is more proficient at teaching it than many high school teachers. The guy who doesn't have the most natural talent is always the best coach [25:20] Why should you study math? It's because math is just a series of relationships. If you can learn to think in terms of these abstract relationships, you can apply this skill to almost every aspect of your life [28:50] If you've watched A Beautiful Mind, the Nash Equilibrium was discovered because of Game, and trying to pick up girls (yes, I'm aware this is a fictionalized account). There's a reason the most high-paying careers have a math component [29:57] You don't lift weights because you regularly encounter barbell- and dumbbell-shaped objects you need to pick up and move around. You lift them because they make all the physical activity in your life much easier. Mathematics is weight-lifting for your brain [31:40] When you first start learning, you start by learning tactically and solving as many problems as possible until it becomes mechanical. Eventually, the problems will become harder and they won't be straightforward to solve. Then you have to move from HOW to WHY, and this is where you gain a deeper understanding of the subject matter [36:10] Your final aim should be, "how can I understand this well enough to explain it to someone without using mathematical terminology?" [38:30] Bruce Lee said, "the three stages of learning are: A punch is just a punch A punch is no longer just a punch A punch is just a punch" [40:00] Ed's studies directly help him in his day-to-day life. For example, learning math affects the way he operates on Twitter because he understands network effects. Learning physics makes him a much better boxer [45:30] Understanding momentum, power, impulse, and how they apply to boxing [50:00] Why should never use AP math credits in university, especially if you are in a technical major [54:30] Understanding math helps you become more analytical in everyday life situations and puts some finesse in your game, so you can save time and energy [56:30] Ed has increased his proficiency in mathematics to a point where he sees his limitations. While he would certainly like to take his understanding to the next level, he will likely only achieve this if he pursues graduate education in mathematics. You don't know how far you can be pushed until you need to be pushed that far [58:05] To go further than undergraduate-level math proficiency, the key is more immersion. Once you have improved to one plateau there is no reason you can't improve to a higher one. Your only limitations are time and effort (not talent). Your growth will become logarithmic (i.e. diminishing returns) [1:01:30] I tell Ed about the North-African tradition of learning; writing on wooden tablets, memorizing didactic poetry, and teaching what they learn (even to a tree or an animal) [1:03:30] The ability to learn instills self-confidence. "I did this difficult thing...what else can I do?" For Ed, getting through the Physics program means he can do anything he puts his mind to [1:08:00] At the very least, learning math gives you the ability to see relationships and make connections between seemingly unrelated topics and aspects of life. It also makes you a more interesting or fun person [1:09:10] Ed recommends The Art of Learning by Josh Waitzkin and A Mind for Numbers by Barbara Oakley [1:10:35] Nabeel recommends A Mathematician's Lament by Paul Lockhart and A Mathematicians Apology by G.H. Harvey [1:13:15] Ed's book, Not Caring What Other People Think is a Superpower, is available on Kindle and Paperback

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Today's guest on the podcast is a professional boxer, author, speaker, chess player, physics major, intellectual, and virtual mentor to a host of men connected with him on Twitter. Ed attributes much of his success in life to a fateful decision he made to give up alcohol for a season to focus on his life's ambitions. Ed and I discuss the expansive benefits of giving up alcohol and why most, if not all, men would also benefit by making this decision. The goal of this podcast is not to demonize all that choose to partake in drinking. The goal is to illuminate the benefits of taking some time away from drinking so that men who stand to gain immensely by doing so (i.e. most men) will be motivated to make that decision and reap the life-changing rewards. Show Highlights - The specific life events that motivated Ed to give up drinking - What Ed’s drinking habits were like before he decided to go sober - How to objectively determine if you have a drinking problem - The odd reactions to expect from others when not drinking at social events - How your friends will react to your decision to stop drinking - Why some guys that binge drink often actually don’t have a drinking problem - The consequences of consuming alcohol most guys fail to consider - Why drinking doesn’t actually help with social anxiety and is often harmful to our social interactions with others - What to expect if you decide to drink non-alcoholic beers and wines - The financial benefits of sobriety - Twitter Q&A on sobriety - The most pragmatic reason why every guy should consider taking a break from drinking alcohol Be sure to connect with Ed on his blog (EdLatimore.com) and on Twitter (@EdLatimore). And don't forget to go to Amazon.com to pick up a copy of his book, "Not Caring What Other People Think is a Superpower". Finally, if you enjoy this podcast, please do me a huge favor and leave a review on iTunes.