Not Overthinking

In this episode, Taimur talks about the existential crisis that he's going through. We try and figure out what our real goals and motivations are for the things that we're doing. Links Venkatesh Rao Tweet How to be a loser Pain is not the unit of effort Trying to Try Sponsored by Brilliant This episode is kindly supported by Brilliant, the best way to learn maths, science, and computer science onl...

In this episode, Ali moans about how he always comes across poorly in podcasts while Taimur always comes across well, and how this doesn't accurately represent how we are in real life. -------------------------------------------------------------------- Sponsored by Skillshare This episode is kindly supported by Skillshare. Sign up at  skillshare.com/notoverthinkingpod . Leave us a Review If you...

John O'Nolan is the developer, founder and CEO at Ghost which he has grown to a $2.7m/year business. He has become a digital nomad in recent years and has been working remotely whilst travelling the world for well over a decade. John shares the lessons he’s learnt over the past decade, from setting up Ghost to successfully living the nomad life to why we should optimise for happiness rather than r...

This is an 'inbetweenasode' and features an interview Ali did with Austin Kleon as part of his Deep Dive series last month. Austin Kleon is the bestselling author of a trilogy of books about creativity and originality in the digital age. His three books - Steal Like An Artist, Show Your Work! and Keep Going - have sold millions of copies around the world and inspired thousands of people, including...

In this episode, we discuss Taimur and Mack's setup of co-living in the Caribbean while Ali's stuck in rainy England. We then wonder aloud at length about whether Ali is a bad person for posting his revenue numbers on social media. Sponsored by Brilliant This episode is kindly supported by Brilliant, the best way to learn maths, science, and computer science online. Brilliant focuses on helping yo...

This is the second part of our discussion of Morgan Housel’s book The Psychology of Money. We continue to explore some of the key points, like the role that luck plays in success, why poor people buy lottery tickets, and the differences between getting wealthy and staying wealthy. Links The Psychology of Money The Psychology of Money – Book Summary & Notes Morgan Housel's Website Morgan Housel...

In this episode, we discuss Morgan Housel’s book The Psychology of Money. We explore some of the key points, like the role that luck plays in success, why poor people buy lottery tickets, and the differences between getting wealthy and staying wealthy. Links The Psychology of Money The Psychology of Money – Book Summary & Notes Morgan Housel's Website Morgan Housel's Twitter Sponsored by Brill...

This week we read and discuss Brian Timar’s excellent blog post entitled “Mimetic Traps”. We try and figure out when competitiveness is unproblematic and how we can avoid inheriting desires from other people. Links Mimetic Traps Sponsored by Skillshare This episode is kindly supported by Skillshare. Sign up at  www.skillshare.com/notoverthinking for a 2-month free trial. It's a good alternative to...

In this episode, we start by discussing an insight Ali had about the nature of dissatisfaction and setting overly high standards for ourselves. We then turn to the start of a book discussion, where Taimur explains some of the theories he’s been reading around our values, how they change and how ‘rational’ our decision-making really is. Links Your Standards Are Too High by Neel Nanda Aspiration: Th...

In this episode, we discuss some of the concepts behind effective altruism with our friend Lucia. We touch on her motivations for setting up a public health charity, the Giving What We Can Pledge, and a few other curiosities. Enjoy! Sponsored by Skillshare This episode is kindly supported by Skillshare. Sign up at  www.skillshare.com/notoverthinking for a 2-month free trial. It's a good alternativ...

Sponsored by Brilliant This episode is kindly supported by Brilliant, the best way to learn maths, science, and computer science online. Brilliant focuses on helping you learn how to think, rather than just memorising methods and facts. Sign up at  https://brilliant.org/notoverthinking  — the first 100 people get 20% off an annual subscription. Leave us a Review If you enjoy listening to the podca...

As we were away this week, this episode is an interview that Ali recorded with Noah Kagan as part of his Deep Dive series on YouTube. Noah is an entrepreneur, YouTuber, blogger and podcaster as well as being one of the first employees at Facebook. In this long-form interview, we talk about a variety of things including moving on from disappointment, finding satisfaction, productivity, goals and mu...

Sponsored by Brilliant This episode is kindly supported by Brilliant, the best way to learn maths, science, and computer science online. Brilliant focuses on helping you learn how to think, rather than just memorising methods and facts. Sign up at  https://brilliant.org/notoverthinking  — the first 100 people get 20% off an annual subscription. Leave us a Review If you enjoy listening to the podca...

In this episode, we talk some more about how we can treat children better. Specifically — what it means to "take children seriously", why we should take children more seriously, and how we can take children more seriously. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

In this episode, we review Ali's unemployment, talk about how to talk about workism, and Taimur finally elucidates some concrete ideas about how society treats children immorally, and how we treat children better. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

We're joined this week by Paul Millerd, who's spent a lot of time thinking, reading, and writing about 'work'. We talk about the current culture of 'work-ism', the history of work and how we ended up here, the assumptions that our culture makes about work, and how to reimagine our relationship with 'work' to live happier lives. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy...

In this episode we chat to Valentin Perez and Cliff Weitzman about friendships, relationships, and the our ideas of the good life. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

In this episode, we discuss one of Taimur's new fledgling theories about the nefarious parasocial relationships that exist between 'productivity' content creators and their audience. We try and figure out other areas in which this applies, and explore why Ali felt the need to unfollow the various instagram models he'd been previously enamoured with. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy...

This is the third and final part of our "68 Bits of Unsolicited Advice" series, where we go through an excellent blog post by Kevin Kelly, offering his life advice after turning 68. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

In this episode, we discuss Nabeel Qureshi's recent blog post "How to Understand Things". We go through the post's main points, and talk about our own experiences of learning and understanding things, from school to university to today. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

This episode is mostly a discussion of Robin Hanson's "The Elephant in the Brain", a book about the 'hidden motives in everyday lives'. We also go on a long tangent about envy, and our personal experience of it over the years. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

In this episode, we explore we often fail to convince our friends to start having an online presence, and what a better approach might be. Possibly applicable to general "convincing" tasks as well. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

In this episode, we continue our exploration of Kevin Kelly’s 68 Bits of Unsolicited Advice. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

In this episode we discuss some of the responses we received to last week's episode ("Racism, Black Lives Matter, and Figuring Stuff Out"), from hate mail to not-hate mail. Ali also unveils his life plan for the next few years, and Taimur goes on a bit of a rant about "legibility". See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sel...

This week we talk about the Black Lives Matter movement, social justice, and how our towards these issues have changed over the past few years. Please interpret charitably. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.