Future Skills

Tyler Cowen is an American economist, academic, and writer. He is the author of books like The Great Stagnation, Average is Over, The Complacent Class, and more.

He occupies the Holbert L. Harris Chair of economics, as a professor at George Mason University, and is co-author, with Alex Tabarrok, of the popular economics blog Marginal Revolution. Cowen and Tabarrok have also ventured into online education by starting Marginal Revolution University. He currently writes a regular column for Bloomberg View. He also has written for such publications as The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Forbes, Time, Wired, Newsweek, and the Wilson Quarterly. Cowen also serves as faculty director of George Mason's Mercatus Center, a university research center that focuses on the market economy. In February 2011, Cowen received a nomination as one of the most influential economists in the last decade in a survey by The Economist. He was ranked #72 among the "Top 100 Global Thinkers" in 2011 by Foreign Policy Magazine "for finding markets in everything."

His newest book (subject of conversation today) is Stubborn Attachments. It took him almost 20 years to write it.

A few practical tips by Tyler: You should re-read the best books; you should have hobbies that make you think more, and you should argue for what you think is correct, but also understand it’s likely that you’re wrong.

Then we talk about big picture things, like:

Learn more about Tyler:

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If you enjoyed this discussion:

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We answer questions from listeners on our newsletter.

The following 11 questions are answered in the episode:

1) How can I change careers and become a real estate copywriter?

2) Will biotech become a big industry? Does Free Will exist?

3) Should you work in finance? How can I study better? How does one become a renaissance man?

4) What 3 top things would you recommend for business and career for a college freshman?

5) How do you develop an international career? What is the best job for an international career?

6) How do I start a commonplace in Evernote?

7) How much do you attribute luck to your finance career, Mikael?

8) What path would you take if you were 18 again?  

9) What is the best way to get 10.000 euro from you?

10) People say gold has intrinsic value. Why?

11) How do you set your goals? Do you tell others? Or do you have systems and processes?

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Grandmaster of Memory Mattias Ribbing joins us today. He is an author, educator, and 3-time Swedish champion of memory sport. He’s also become a Grandmaster of Memory internationally. Mattias sits down for a conversation about mnemonics, biohacking, self-improvement, minimalism, and his thoughts on improving the school system.

The first half of the episode is about learning and the human brain:

Here are the questions asked during the second half, about the school system:

Please enjoy this conversation with Mattias.

Also, watch his TED talk about memory techniques here.

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How To Avoid Herd Mentality.

Stephenie Meyers broke all the rules and created a $3 Billion Dollar franchise (just with movies), sold 120 million books, and in the process, created a new genre: “Vampire-Romance”. So don’t underestimate her powers.

We talk about how to get started diverging from the crowd. Before you can be a real contrarian, you need to practice being one in small things.... like daring to walk into forbidden places, going to places other tourists aren’t, and walking in the middle of the road, or across the square alone. All of these things, there is a slight resistance towards doing, wouldn’t you agree?

Finally, we get to the big leagues—how to differentiate your thinking: (1) have different inputs for information and stimulation, (2) develop your own unique view, (3) analyze information differently or better than others.

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There are 4 modes of being: Herd Animal, Stoic, Independent, and Contrarian.

You can look at it visually like this:

Herd Animal------------------------Stoic------Independent------------------Contrarian

Herd Animal = Go with the crowd, fit in, be nice, and stampede in collective panic.

Stoic = Self-centered and serene, focused on one’s own world and work.

Independent = Going with/against crowd, but without any strong emotion attached.

Contrarian = Taking a stand for something and against the crowd for profit/ideology

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Erik Townsend is a retired software entrepreneur turned hedge fund manager and host of Macrovoices Podcast. Throughout his career, Erik has capitalized on his ability to understand complex systems and anticipate paradigm shifts far in advance of the mainstream. A teenage computer protégé, he spent most of his high school years at MIT's Artificial Intelligence laboratory, where he taught himself several computer programming languages. Erik became an independent software development and design consultant to Digital Corporation's manufacturing systems technology group at age 17. By age 20 he owned his first private aircraft.

Erik draws on many different world trends and we learn a lot.

Here are some highlights:

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In this second episode with Walter Kiechel, we continue where we left off last time in our discussion about Strategy, and Walter’s popular book “The Lords of Strategy”.

In case you didn’t listen to the last episode, Walter has over 30 years of experience in the media industry and among other things --- he's been the Managing Editor of Fortune Magazine and the Editorial Director of Harvard Business Publishing (which includes the famous Harvard Business Review). You can get in touch with Walter through the Lords of Strategy website.

In this episode we go in-depth about the Strategy consulting industry:

If you learned something new about business thinking and the strategy consulting industry, please head over to iTunes and give us a review, that would help more people find the show.

Also -- Be sure to subscribe to Future Skills on your favorite podcast platform: iTunes | Android | Stitcher | Spotify

We talk to Walter Kiechel III.

This episode will be particularly interesting if you'd like to get into the media business and understand how it works.

Walter has more than 30 years of experience in the media industry; first as a business journalist, then as an author. Walter has served as the Managing Editor of Fortune Magazine and the Editorial Director of Harvard Business Publishing (which, of course, includes the famous Harvard Business Review). He’s also authored the two books “Lords of Strategy” and “Office Hours: a Guide in the Managerial Life.” 

In this episode we learn:

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In thís episode you'll learn:

... and a few more things, Mikael Syding picked up on his way from total beginner to the head of The European Hedge Fund Of The Decade.

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The 2x Rule is a practical application of the Experience Curve. It's a guideline for how you can plan your career.

The 2x Rule states that you should be willing to take half the entry salary of a prestigious company in order to maximize on learning for some time while you are still young.

In this episode we talk about:

- What the 2x rule is
- How you can use it
- 3 bad career choices
- And 4 areas where (future industries) where the 2X Rule might apply most
- And the risks it entails

As a final tip, if you are in university we advice you to make two lists: one with high-paying jobs and another with jobs you're really interested in.

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Email us at [email protected]