Curious Minds at Work

By Gayle AllenBusiness Science Social Sciences Arts Books Management

Curious Minds at Work episodes

November 30, 2015 CM 011: Thiel Fellow Alex Koren on Learning to Fail
Alex Koren had never considered dropping out of college. A successful high school student, he headed to Johns Hopkins University and was class president in his first year. Furthermore, that summer, Alex headed to a high-powered summer internship at Intel, seemingly the perfect opportunity for an undergraduate engineering major.
Then something happened. While working at Intel, Alex organized a hackathon that led to his first company, Hyv, which focused on solving big problems with data. The engagement and exhilaration that he felt led him to found the company Chrg, with the goal of using everyday outlets and chargers in service of electric vehicles. Not long after that, Alex dropped out of college to accept 2014 Thiel Fellow.
This week, in a special edition of Curious Minds, I share interviews with four young people, ages 18-22, each of whom decided either to drop out or never attend college, in order to pursue work that mattered to them. Each is either a current or past recipient of a Thiel Fellowship, a program founded in 2011 by Peter Thiel to encourage young people to sidestep college and a traditional life path, in order to chart their own course as entrepreneurs.
In this episode you will hear Alex talk about:
what he learned about failure
how pursuing work that mattered meant doing something that shocked even him
how to create communities for your passions
the difference between a life of extrinsic versus intrinsic motivation
the importance of living with uncertainty as you pursue your goals
the power of surrounding yourself with passionate people
our responsibility to make things relevant for ourselves
the reasons that we lose our creativity
his attraction to what tomorrow holds
Episode Links
Interroga Omnia
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27 min
November 30, 2015 CM 010: Thiel Fellow Jihad Kawas on Young Entrepreneurs
Jihad Kawas started his company, Saily, when he was 16 years old growing up in Lebanon. Now, two years later, after a recent public launch, his app has over 140,000 U.S. users and is gaining over 1,000 new users daily. Jihad is a 2015 Thiel Fellow who never attended college. Along the way, he was awarded a Forbes 30 Under 30 Scholarship, took first place at an MIT Social Innovation Camp, and has been a TEDx Talk speaker.
This week, in a special edition of Curious Minds, I share interviews with four young people, ages 18-22, each of whom decided either to drop out or never attend college, in order to pursue work that mattered. Each is either a current or past recipient of a Thiel Fellowship, a program founded in 2011 by Peter Thiel to encourage young people to sidestep college and a traditional life path, in order to chart their own course as entrepreneurs.
In this episode you will learn:
how building things as a young person led him to where he is today
why parents need to let their children build real, meaningful things
his beliefs regarding the impact of parents, families, and schools on young people
ways even cutting-edge schools have rules and policies that constrain
how he viewed school as something to get through in order to pursue his passion
the power of having to develop a pitch to persuade and convince
the funny way he found out about the Thiel Fellows program
what it is like to be an 18-year-old Thiel Fellow and company founder
how the success and accomplishments of his peers spur him on
how he spends his time
about the constant battle he faces with uncertainty and doubt
about his advice for young people
what he is curious about today
Episode Links
Project-based Learning
Apple Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC)
TEDx Talk by Jihad Kawas
Silicon Valley TV show
If you enjoyed the podcast, please rate and review it on iTunes. For automatic delivery of new episodes, be sure to subscribe. Thanks for listening!
29 min
November 30, 2015 CM 009: Thiel Fellow Charlie Stigler on College and Career
At the age of 16, Charlie Stigler built SelfControl, an app designed to block out online distractions. It has been downloaded by millions. Encouraged by that success, two years later, Charlie founded a successful ed tech company, Zaption, which rethinks the use of video for learning. He did both before the ink was dry on his high school diploma.
After graduation, Charlie did what everyone expected him to do. He headed off to college at Columbia University. Two years later, even he was surprised when he decided to drop out and become a Thiel Fellow in 2012.
This week, in a special edition of Curious Minds, I share interviews with four young people, ages 18-22, each of whom decided either to drop out or never attend college, in order to pursue work that mattered. Each is either a current or past recipient of a Thiel Fellowship, a program founded in 2011 by Peter Thiel to encourage young people to sidestep college and a traditional life path, in order to chart their own course as entrepreneurs.
In this episode you will hear:
how the projects that got Charlie into college were the very things he had to give up once he got there
ways friends and family responded to his decision to choose a different path
what exposure to can-do, will-do entrepreneurs helped him see
what we lose when everything is done for us
how he learned to decide what structure looked like for him
how his real learning was taking place outside of high school and college
how high school did not support independent entrepreneurial thinking
advice for young people
how we delay and support young people in not knowing what they want to do rather than encouraging them to find out and supporting that
how technology and artificial intelligence and the rapid pace of change is helping us rethink our shoulds
Episode Links
Steve Lambert
James Stigler
If you enjoyed the podcast, please rate and review it on iTunes. For automatic delivery of new episodes, be sure to subscribe. Thanks for listening!
31 min
November 23, 2015 CM 008: Mona Patel on What Drives Great Design
Design thinking and creativity are like muscles: we all have them, but they are more useful when they are strengthened! In this bestselling book Reframe: Shift the Way You Work, Innovate, and Think, Mona Patel gives you the perfect exercises for your design workout, giving you the tools you need to unleash your inner designer.
Mona is a regular contributor to Fast Company, Time Magazine, and Forbes, and she is the founder and CEO of Motivate Design. Mona is also an adjunct professor at Parsons School of Design. In this episode, she explains the ways design thinking informs her life and her work, and she shares some of the strategies she uses with friends, family, colleagues, and clients.
In addition, you will learn:
how to unleash your creativity through design thinking
why everyone can be creative
creative openers you can use with your teams
questions that actually limit our creativity
how to push people to create something better without making them feel bad
the most important question for designing solutions
which assumptions hold us back
what it is like to be a woman of color leading a design company
the power of a design-centered culture in the workplace
If you enjoyed the podcast, please rate and review it on iTunes. For automatic delivery of new episodes, be sure to subscribe. Thanks for listening!
Episode Links
Four-C Model of Creativity by James Kaufman and Ronald Beghetto
TEDx Talk by Mona Patel
Ethnography
Kodak
Excuse Personas
White Space
Project Greenlight
Human-centered Design
Woman and Minority Owned Business
Maslow Hierarchy of Needs
25 min
November 16, 2015 CM 007: Janice Kaplan on How Gratitude Changes Your Life
What happens when you dedicate a year of your life to practicing gratitude? Maybe everything.
In this groundbreaking new book, The Gratitude Diaries: How a Year Looking on the Bright Side Can Transform Your Life, Janice Kaplan explains the science behind the power of gratitude. The author of twelve books, including The New York Times bestselling memoir, I will See you Again, Janice was an award-winning producer at ABC-TV Good Morning America, Executive Producer of the TV Guide Television Group, and Editor-in-Chief of Parade Magazine.
In this episode, Janice explains the surprising, counterintuitive connection between gratitude and happiness. She also shares simple steps we can take today to increase the amount of gratitude we express and how doing it can change your life.
In this episode, you will learn:
how a mindset of gratitude gives us control over our own happiness
simple steps you can take to express gratitude right now with family and friends
the mental and physical health benefits of practicing gratitude
the connection between gratitude and experiences over stuff
the importance of gratitude at work, and how it can drive purpose and ambition
how gratitude gets us beyond the comparison game
the differences between intentional and reactive gratitude
how gratitude plays an important role in rebounding from life tragedies
the power of a gratitude diet
how we have so much more control over our happiness than we think
If you enjoyed the podcast, please rate and review it on iTunes. For automatic delivery of new episodes, be sure to subscribe. Thanks for listening!
Episode Links
John Templeton Foundation
National Gratitude Survey
TSA
Habituation
Massachusetts General Hospital
Tom Gilovich
Paul Piff
Monopoly game
Daniel Gilbert
David Steindl Rast
30 min
November 09, 2015 CM 006: Mick Ebeling on How to Achieve the Impossible
Mick Ebeling is the Founder of Not Impossible Labs, an online crowdsourcing platform that dramatically improves the lives of millions by creating low-cost, open-source, and do-it-yourself devices. For example, through a combination of marking and hacking, Not Impossible Labs developed 150-dollar devices that helped people with ALS communicate with loved ones for the first time in years, as well as prosthetic limbs for Sudanese children for as low as 50 dollars.
The philosophy of Not Impossible Labs is to help one to help many, that is, to create a life-changing solution for one person, and then think about how to scale it. He describes these innovations in the bestselling book Not Impossible: The Art and Joy of Doing What Could Not Be Done.
Mick was deemed one of the Top 50 Most Creative People in 2014 by Advertising Age. He was also the recipient of the 2014 Muhammad Ali Humanitarian of the Year Award. In this interview, he shares the circumstances that launched Not Impossible Labs and that led to his book. He talks about the people whose problems he committed to solve and the hacking, making and do-it-yourself approaches he and his fellow innovators used to do just that.
In this episode, you will learn:
how to commit first to achieve the impossible
how a 150-dollar EyeWriter helped a renowned artist with ALS draw again
how 3D printers revolutionized life for Sudanese youth
the importance of making and hacking for solving real-world problems
how to empower young people to embrace a Not Impossible mindset
how seeking solutions helps us make creative connections
Mick also shares several of the new projects his organization has underway, and he talks about ways Not Impossible Labs is bridging the gap between makers and problem solvers.
If you enjoyed the podcast, please rate and review it on iTunes. For automatic delivery of new episodes, be sure to subscribe. Thanks for listening!
Episode Links
Mick Ebeling TED Talk
Street Art
Tony Tempt One Quan
Tempt One Foundation
Stephen Hawking
Time Magazine Top 25 Inventions
MoMA
EyeWriter
Optical character technology
Open source
The BrainWriter
Cameron Rodriguez
ALS or Lou Gehrig Disease
Triangulation
Consumer EEG Devices
Project Daniel
Dr. Tom Catena
Precipart
Richard Van As
Gait Trainer
33 min
November 02, 2015 CM 005: Nir Eyal on Rethinking Our Online Habits
Nir Eyal is the bestselling author of Hooked and a contributing writer for Forbes, TechCrunch, and Psychology Today. An entrepreneur, educator, and speaker, Nir writes about innovations at the intersection of psychology, technology, and business.
In this interview, Nir shares the psychology behind why we get hooked by our devices and apps. He talks about how product designers use this knowledge to deliberately build certain features into their products, and he encourages us to use this knowledge to rethink our tech habits.
In this episode, you will learn:
the psychology that informs our technology habits
the four key elements that make a technology product habit-forming
the connection between emotion and our habits with tech
what makes certain tech products are more sticky than others
tips for what to do when tech becomes too addictive
how we can use this technology to form good habits
Nir also shares how what hooks us with tech can be used to improve the quality of our lives, especially when it comes to physical and mental health and wellness, and how he makes that the focus of his work today.
If you enjoyed the podcast, please rate and review it on iTunes. For automatic delivery of new episodes, be sure to subscribe. Thanks for listening!
Episode Links
7 Cups of Tea
B. F. Skinner
Operant Conditioning
The IKEA effect
Dan Ariely
Michael Norton
Robert Cialdini
Foot in the Door Technique
Cognitive Dissonance
Marc Andreeson
Getting Unhooked by Nir Eyal
The Acceleration of Addictiveness by Paul Graham
38 min
October 26, 2015 CM 004: Wendy Suzuki on How Exercise Makes You Smarter
Wendy Suzuki is a Professor of Neural Science and Psychology at New York University. Wendy is an award-winning teacher and researcher, a TEDx speaker, and the author of the best-selling book Healthy Brain, Happy Life.
While we have become more familiar with ways exercise can improve our body, Wendy helps us understand what it can do for our brain. She shares how exercise can improve our memories, our learning abilities, and our creativity.
Things you will learn in this episode:
how exercise can generate the kinds of brain cells we need the most
the potential of exercise to disrupt how we age
how to find a life-changing exercise regime
what we are learning about mood, focus and attention in relation to exercise
what movement can do for creativity and imagination
why there is an urgency when it comes to exercise and our brains
opportunities for thinking bigger when it comes to this kind of brain research
Wendy also shares how her experience with exercise has influenced her teaching and her research focus.
Episode Links
Marian Diamond
Intensati
New York University
Wendy Suzuki's Research Lab
Transistor: A STEM Audio Project podcast
If you enjoy the podcast, please rate and review it on iTunes - your ratings make all the difference. For automatic delivery of new episodes, be sure to subscribe. As always, thanks for listening!
25 min
October 17, 2015 CM 003: Bernie Roth on How to Design a Life
Bernie Roth is a Professor of Engineering and the Academic Director and Co-founder of the Hasso Plattner Institute of Design (the d.school) at Stanford University. A leader of international workshops on creativity and design thinking, Bernie is the author of the book, The Achievement Habit: Stop Wishing, Start Doing, and Take Command of Your Life.
Bernie talks about what it means to apply design principles to create a life well lived. His focus is on personal transformation and empowerment.
Things you will learn in this episode include:
the importance of how we see the world
the danger of having a reason for doing something
how a bias toward action can overcome fear
the answer to what is holding us back from learning, changing, and growing
how methods for reframing and asking good questions can help us figure out the actual problems we are trying to solve
ways to get unstuck
how the language we use can empower or disempower us
how teams and collaboration help us relate differently to one another and our work
the shift of design thinking from object-centered to human-centered
the origins and focus of his popular Designer in Society course for the d.school
how much physical space influences our mindsets, our relationships, and the ways we work and collaborate
Bernie also talks about how his work has changed the way he teaches. He is always striving to find ways to empower his students.
As always, thanks for listening! If you enjoyed this episode, please share it using the social media buttons you see at the bottom of the post. Also, please leave a review of the Curious Minds podcast on iTunes. Ratings and reviews are extremely helpful and greatly appreciated! I read every one of them.
Please subscribe to the show on iTunes to get automatic updates. Thanks!
Episode Links
Improv Wisdom by Patricia Ryan Madson
Make Space by Scott Doorley and Scott Witthoft
Designer in Society course
The Human Potential Movement
The Iceman Cometh by Eugene O’Neill
34 min
October 17, 2015 CM 002: David H. Hansson on How to Rethink Leadership
David Heinemeier Hansson is the Founder and CTO of Basecamp, best-selling author of Rework and Remote, and creator of the popular web application framework Ruby on Rails.
David is rethinking what it means to build a company in the digital age. He and his co-founder rejected the typical startup narrative in favor of a more traditional approach to building a global business. For this reason, Basecamp has the size of a typical startup, the reach of a global firm and the profitability of a mature company. Much of that success stems from a philosophy that puts customers and employees first, focuses on the long term, and prioritizes remote work.
You will also learn:
how he met his co-founder Jason Fried
how a series of blog posts turned into a best-selling book
how we may be underestimating the potential of remote workers
why most business books probably do not apply to your organization
how meetings deter employees from getting work done
the lessons of the dot-com crash for building a sustainable company
why he advises startup founders to avoid venture funding and working in Silicon Valley
how important it is to work for all kinds of bosses, especially bad ones
why the best work environment might be one where you are slightly out of your depth
how the ancient philosophy of stoicism can inform decisions in the modern world
David also talks about the importance of living a good life today rather than some time in the future.
As always, thanks for listening! If you enjoyed this episode, please share it using the social media buttons you see at the bottom of the post. Also, please leave a review of the Curious Minds podcast on iTunes. Ratings and reviews are extremely helpful and greatly appreciated! I read every one of them.
Please subscribe to the show on iTunes to get automatic updates. Thank you!
Episode Links
Maverick
The 4-Hour Workweek
Stoicism
32 min

About Curious Minds at Work

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Want to get better at work? At managing others? Managing yourself? Gayle Allen interviews experts who take your performance to the next level. Each episode features a book with insights to help you…