Today's guest is Khe Hy, owner of radreads.co and creator of the excellent Notion Course, Supercharge Your Productivity. In our chat we skip right past the talk about notion dashboards or productivity hacks and dive right into some deeper existential questions.

We discuss introspection techniques, telic vs atelic activities, the core reasons for our behaviors, and much much more.

I really enjoyed this chat with Khe, and I think you will to.

Subscribe to Khe's newsletter: https://radreads.co/

Follow Khe on Twitter: https://twitter.com/khemaridh

Subscribe to Khe on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UColNfZXzL946wNgxPGWst1A

Sign up for one of Khe's excellent courses: https://10k.radreads.co/

Subscribe to my newsletter: https://jamesstuber.com/join

TIMESTAMPS:

00:00 Teaser - On fiction books

00:46 Introduction

01:43 What Khe would have done differently if he started all over

06:02 Authentic Networking and Duty

11:28 On Introspection and Reactivity

15:30 Why bring existential questions into a productivity class?

23:14 The existential producitivty crew

25:31 Telic vs Atelic activities (Meditating to focus better at work)

31:38 The core reasons for our behaviors

31:20 How to vet a life coach

41:15 Finding new friends on twitter

42:28 What is Khe truly scared of?

44:49 Khe's favorite fiction book

46:24 Where to find Khe online

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MUSIC

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In this episode of the Strangely Earnest Podcast, we chat with Tasshin Fogleman. Tasshin has been meditating for over a decade, and has trained and taught extensively at the Monastic Academy. We talk about:

- different types of meditation you might not have heard of

- common meditation misconceptions

- recommendations for beginners

- and much more.

Subscribe to Tasshin's newsletter:

- https://tasshin.com/join/

Follow Tasshin on twitter:

- https://twitter.com/tasshinfogleman

Meditation tips from Tasshin:

- https://tasshin.com/blog/meditation-tips-for-a-lifetime-of-practice/

On Loving-Kindness (Metta) meditation:

- https://tasshin.com/blog/practicing-love/

Subscribe to my newsletter:

- https://jamesstuber.com/join

TIMESTAMPS

00:00 Intro

00:57 Introducing Tasshin Fogleman   

01:19 How Tasshin started meditating   

03:44 Why join a monastery?   

07:18 Vocabulary for describing different meditation practices   

12:08 Style of meditation at the Monastic Academy   

12:47 Common misconceptions about meditation   

15:23 How would you approach meditation if you had to do it all over again   

18:36 You don't have to sit still to meditate   

20:55 On Loving Kindness (Metta) meditation  

28:31 For beginners, Consistency matters more than technique   

30:32 On standing or moving meditation   

34:26 Why is most of the focus on sitting first?   

36:49 Hatha yoga was prep work for sitting meditation   

37:40 100 days of solitary retreat   

44:19 The role of exercise in Tasshin's meditation training   

46:42 On Non-Doing meditation  

51:57 Final thoughts   

52:21 Where to find Tasshin online

GEAR

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MUSIC

- Epidemic Sound: https://www.epidemicsound.com/referral/0tdpyy/

In this episode of the Strangely Earnest Podcast, we chat with the one and only Marie Poulin. We talk permaculture, the creator economy, sharing revenue numbers in public, impostor complex, and more.

Marie helps business owners level up their digital systems, workflow, and product ecoystems, so they can spend more time on what matters.

Marie's Website: https://mariepoulin.com/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/mariepoulin

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/marieisanerd

Notion Mastery: https://notionmastery.com/

Marie's Imposter Complex coach: http://tanyageisler.com/

00:00 Preview

00:27 Introduction  

01:14 Marie's Tower Garden  

01:59 How does permaculture influence Marie's thinking? 

08:56 Doubling down on notion  

11:02 What if notion went out of business tomorrow?  

14:21 The Creator Economy  

18:02 Talking about money in public  

26:09 How to grow an online course  

30:28 Stacking functions  

31:47 What it's like to become "well known"

33:45 The impostor syndrome is because you care  

36:53 You can teach by being one step ahead  

38:06 Beta test your course  

41:02 The price tells a story  

43:30 Next steps for Marie  

45:31 Improving at YouTube   

48:33 100 Ways to say the same thing

51:19 Where to find Marie online

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- https://jamesstuber.com/join

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MUSIC

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A fantastic chat on public speaking, learning by doing, and vulnerability with Kyle Bowe (@kylebowe4)

Follow Kyle Bowe:

Subscribe to my newsletter:

Timestamps:

00:00 Intro

01:13 creativity requires letting go

03:29 Podcasting requires active listening

04:13 How to pick a niche

06:36 Put content out there and see what lands

07:44 How can you trust that a niche will emerge from doing?

09:11 First and foremost, create what you want

10:17 Learning in public requires psychological safety

11:35 Learning in public helps the hive mind

12:03 How to find uplifting communities

15:19 What would you tell a student who’s not participating?

16:26 Kyle’s Journey from the back of the classroom to the front

17:33 How Kyle takes online courses

22:04 Blacking out during a presentation

23:14 Become a leader by being vulnerable

24:02 How Kyle became a professor

27:13 Teaching isn’t about you, it’s about the discussion you generate

28:56 Get comfortable being uncomfortable

30:42 Shifting from teaching in person to teaching online

34:55 How to avoid the gear trap

36:09 Learning must be fun

37:46 You cannot design the perfect system up front

40:13 Time spent researching gear is better spent doing

43:11 Why we fixate on gear instead of creating

45:57 Watching a journey is more interesting than a perfectly polished ideal

47:35 Make friends by looking foolish in public

52:24 Where to find Kyle online

GEAR

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A fun playful chat with Reddy aka @reddy2go

Timestamps below.

Follow Reddy:

- https://twitter.com/reddy2go

- https://reddy2go.substack.com/

Subscribe to my newsletter:

- http://jamesstuber.com/join

Timestamps:

0:00 Intro

01:27 What does play mean to you?  

04:34 Can we play and be serious at the same time?  

04:44 You never say you're 'playing' towards your goals  

06:24 Children and animals are the true experts at play  

08:36 Why do we lose the ability to play?  

11:51 Play is the beginning of our lives and play is the end of our lives  

12:09 Learning the drums through play  

13:32 Play helps with adherence  

14:46 Play - Serious - Play Circle  

17:34 How to play for people who are too serious    

19:41 Meditate on your death  

20:30 Rewind to your childhood  

22:39 Play with the constraints around you  

23:14 The moment you do something silly or irreverent, you're playing  

26:39 3 Pillars of Play  

28:17 Why does play involve a rulebook?  

28:30 The Rules of Play  

32:07 An Artist is someone who cares  

35:02 If you love something, let the creator know!  

37:42 Remixing Austin Kleon's 'Keep Going'   

40:37 Play and emotion  

42:44 The moment a child can fake a smile, they're an adult  

45:00 Find Reddy online 

Gear:

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A fantastic chat with Alysson Costa from the University of Melbourne. Timestamps below.

Watch this episode on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cgrnlGt7v8Y&

Follow Alysson:

- https://twitter.com/alycosta

- https://scholar.google.com/citations?...

Timestamps:

00:00 Intro

00:23 Alysson's Background 

04:16 Childhood traits stick with you

06:09 Clifton's Strengths

07:51 Knowing what makes you happy is like another level of happiness

10:09 Pandemic has accelerated Alysson's understanding of himself

13:07 Working and resting based on mood, not time of day

16:03 Pomodoro technique feels too artificial

18:27 It's part of the deal to get bored

19:45 If you realize you don't want to do a masters before you do a masters, you already did a masters

20:11 The need for context when giving advice

23:44 Taking Building a Second Brain again, not about the apps, but how someone with the same tools as you can do something completely different

25:14 Sharing workflows online

26:11 Building an amazing twitter experience

28:09 You're the sum of 500 people you follow https://gregfrontiero.com/2020/11/20/...

28:46 Possible solution to algorithms: make them transparent?

31:28 "Everybody needs to quit social media" is not a good solution

32:50 Over-focus on measurable metrics

33:38 Student's obsession with marks/grades is systemic

39:06 The one thing marks/grades don't measure

41:47 Looking for lost keys under the lamppost

43:13 Questioning whether or not to stay in academia

44:33 The spirit of engineering

45:40 Using multiple metrics rather than one

47:11 Where to find Alysson online

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- http://jamesstuber.com/join

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We talk with Ben Ford about the his course, Communicate to Operate. Timestamps below:

Apologies for the audio quality on my end.

Follow Ben:

- https://twitter.com/commandodev

- https://commando.dev

- https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCh2u...

Timestamps:

00:27 Ben's Commando Background  

02:43 3 Principles of Communicate to Operate   

04:02 OODA loop is a hierarchy, not a loop 

04:22 Full OODA loop diagram  

05:59 How can companies stay in touch with reality?  

06:35 Getting inside the ooda loop is more than just going faster   

08:45 Why a course?

10:14 3 fundamental concepts 

10:37 Challenges when building this course?  

12:21 More participation in online courses  

13:31 Company inflection points  

15:39 OODA Loop as a meta-process 

15:50 Shifts in military and industry thinking

17:04 Team of Teams 

20:49 In a complex world you need to use emergent behavior  

20:59 Applying these principles as a 'low level' developer  

21:18 There's always a locus of control  

22:51 Agile vs Shape Up  

23:06 Context and Boundaries  

24:20 Ben's newest thinking on dev/biz separation  

27:07 Can you skip the siloing stage?  

29:55 Avoid siloing with a clear roadmap  

31:13 Mission Command  

31:34 Three building blocks of blitzkrieg  

31:41 Don Vandergriff   

33:59 3 aspects of Mission Command  

34:58 The Doctrine of Empowerment  

35:28 Group flow as a security team  

37:16 Can't get to emergence by only thinking about individuals  

39:16 Psychological safety  

41:21 Where to find Ben  

41:44 Twitter serendipity 

Subscribe to my newsletter:

- http://jamesstuber.com/join

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We talk with Michael Ashcroft about the development of his course, Fundamentals of Alexander Technique. Timestamps below:

Watch this chat on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n09tGb6mJKI

Follow Michael:

Timestamps:

0:25 What is Alexander Technique?

3:22 Shifting in-person teaching to online courses

5:18 Michael's Energy Sector background

8:46 Where are the double-blind studies??

9:45 Michael's iterative approach to course building

13:37 First lesson anxiety and getting buy-in

16:52 The structure of Michael's AT course

19:04 What do you wish you would have known before making the course?

22:40 What's coming in the next iteration?

24:18 Building slower, peaceful learning communities

25:13 No deadlines for students?

27:05 How building this course transformed Michael

29:32 Meta-skills gained from course building

30:41 Figure out who you are, then make a course

34:38 The creation of the Digital Productivity Course

37:33 Scene building and filling the gaps in the eco-system

39:06 Becoming an on-ramp and breaking into new markets

40:22 Using twitter to make friends

46:17 Coercion

49:16 Music Recommendations: https://open.spotify.com/album/7pmQoB...

50:23 Where to find Michael

Subscribe to my newsletter:

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We chat with Wendell Britt about his course, Mastering the Game of Allyship. Timestamps below.

Watch this chat on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=II3yaF-0XSw

Follow Wendell:

Check out Mastering the Game of Allyship:

Timestamps:

0:30 Michael Ashcroft's Alexander Technique Course

Subscribe to my newsletter:

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