Gamechanger Sessions: The Future of Learning No. 4
Shane Parrish, Founder of Farnam Street
Original livestream recorded on October 19th, 2020.
Shane is the founder of Farnam Street, a learning community I am obsessed with. Shane, once a spy (for real!), now runs a community dedicated to helping people get smarter by “Mastering the best of what other people have already figured out.”
He focuses on timeless and enduring truths that compound over time. Shane is the author of 2 books, writes a fantastic newsletter weekly, hosts a community and a podcast. Read more about this gamechanger in the NY Times.
Watch the video to learn more about:
Where the future of learning is headed
How to become a lifelong learner
Why communities of like-minded curious people are the best way to learn
The mental models we need to learn to deal with the unprecedented change occurring at lightning speed in the world today
Key Moments
03:21 – Shane on his definition of learning
06:04 – Why Shane decided to start Farnam Street
08:05 – How our consumerism behavior applies in the learning loop
10:33 – Building knowledge through the interconnectedness of ideas and why maps don’t always align with the territory
12:58 – How blind spots in your knowledge cause you to make bad decisions and how multi-disciplinary learning helps you correct that
16:21 – Some bodies of knowledge that Shane and his co-authors chose not to include in the Mental Models
19:59 – Why Shane is interested in helping people learn how to become better decision-makers
22:18 – What Farnam Street is doing to help people get feedback and become better at decision-making
25:22 – How intuition can come into play in the decision-making process
26:32 – Why the idea of being rational when making decisions does not always serve you best
28:11 – How that same decision-making framework influenced Shane to become a creator/entrepreneur
29:54 – Why the role of online communities is so important in the context of learning
33:46 – Shane’s thoughts on live learning experiences and the courses on decision-making that he runs at Farnam Street
37:10 – On how 1:1 live sessions can produce great learning results but why it becomes difficult scaling that in a larger group setting
39:14 – How the concept of compounding plays out in our relationships
41:04 – What Shane thinks about the future of institutions and where they still offer value in a world of information abundance
43:35 – How innovation takes place in economic models when you have competing forces – outsiders (new entrants) versus insiders (incumbents)
46:35 – Shane’s advice on teaching his own kids and how COVID has impacted those lessons
Q&A from Gamechanger/Mastermind Audience:
51:00 – How Farnam Street draws links to Charlie Munger’s work and some of the links to Ray Dalio’s Principles
52:30 – On the lack of a fully suitable digital alternative for physical interactions
53:51 – What resources Shane wishes existed to help people balance their attention in a world where attention is scarce