Episode

#240: Accelerated Learning and Mentors - My Personal Story
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1:02:34
Published: Wed May 17 2017
Description

This episode is by request. You have asked me many times for an episode on education, accelerated learning, and my mentors. It will all be covered in the following conversation with Charles Best (@charlesbest), the founder and CEO of DonorsChoose.org, a nonprofit website that enables anyone to help a classroom in need. It is one of my favorite companies -- profit or non-profit -- in the world. (And I'm not just saying that because we used to be wrestling partners in high school.) Charles founded DonorsChoose.org back in 2000 at a public high school in the Bronx where he taught history. Flash forward to 2017, and DonorsChoose.org is one of Oprah Winfrey's "ultimate favorite things" and made the cover of Fast Company as one of the "50 Most Innovative Companies in the World," the first time a charity has received such recognition. To date, teachers at more than seventy percent of all the public schools in America have created classroom project requests on DonorsChoose.org, and more than two million people have given to those projects. Charles joined me for a conversation at SXSWedu in front of an audience of educators and administrators to talk about learning things faster, good teaching versus bad teaching, the value of tough love, and much more. Enjoy! Show notes and links for this episode can be found at www.fourhourworkweek.com/podcast. This podcast is sponsored by Alibaba and Gateway17. If you're an entrepreneur or business owner in the US, the stars don't always align -- but this might get close. Alibaba (if you're not familiar with it, imagine Amazon and Google having a baby in China) is hosting Gateway17, a conference designed to help US businesses tap into the five hundred million consumers of China's growing middle class. Gateway17 takes place June 20-21 in Detroit, Michigan, and it puts you in direct contact with experts who want to help you grow your business into the booming Chinese marketplace. Speakers include Alibaba founder Jack Ma (in his only speaking engagement of the year), UPS CEO David Abney, and master interviewer Charlie Rose. As a Tim Ferriss Show listener, Alibaba is offering you a ticket for $125 (they're usually $500) if you sign up at gateway17.com by May 25 and use the code "Tim" at checkout. This podcast is also brought to you by Soothe.com, the world's largest on-demand massage service. Because I've been broken so many times, I have body work done at least twice a week -- so I have a high bar for this stuff. I do not accept mediocrity, and I wouldn't expect you to, either. After much personal testing, I can affirm that Soothe delivers a hand-selected, licensed, and experienced massage therapist to you in the comfort of your own home, hotel, or office in as little as an hour. I was amazed at the quality of service and convenience. Think of it as Uber for massages, available in fifty cities worldwide. Download the app at Soothe.com and use code TITAN20 to get $20 off your first massage.***If you enjoy the podcast, would you please consider leaving a short review on Apple Podcasts/iTunes? It takes less than 60 seconds, and it really makes a difference in helping to convince hard-to-get guests. I also love reading the reviews!For show notes and past guests, please visit tim.blog/podcast.Sign up for Tim’s email newsletter (“5-Bullet Friday”) at tim.blog/friday.For transcripts of episodes, go to tim.blog/transcripts.Interested in sponsoring the podcast? Visit tim.blog/sponsor and fill out the form.Discover Tim’s books: tim.blog/books.Follow Tim:Twitter: twitter.com/tferriss Instagram: instagram.com/timferrissFacebook: facebook.com/timferriss YouTube: youtube.com/timferrissPast guests on The Tim Ferriss Show include Jerry Seinfeld, Hugh Jackman, Dr. Jane Goodall, LeBron James, Kevin Hart, Doris Kearns Goodwin, Jamie Foxx, Matthew McConaughey, Esther Perel, Elizabeth Gilbert, Terry Crews, Sia, Yuval Noah Harari, Malcolm Gladwell, Madeleine Albright, Cheryl Strayed, Jim Collins, Mary Karr, Maria Popova, Sam Harris, Michael Phelps, Bob Iger, Edward Norton, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Neil Strauss, Ken Burns, Maria Sharapova, Marc Andreessen, Neil Gaiman, Neil de Grasse Tyson, Jocko Willink, Daniel Ek, Kelly Slater, Dr. Peter Attia, Seth Godin, Howard Marks, Dr. Brené Brown, Eric Schmidt, Michael Lewis, Joe Gebbia, Michael Pollan, Dr. Jordan Peterson, Vince Vaughn, Brian Koppelman, Ramit Sethi, Dax Shepard, Tony Robbins, Jim Dethmer, Dan Harris, Ray Dalio, Naval Ravikant, Vitalik Buterin, Elizabeth Lesser, Amanda Palmer, Katie Haun, Sir Richard Branson, Chuck Palahniuk, Arianna Huffington, Reid Hoffman, Bill Burr, Whitney Cummings, Rick Rubin, Dr. Vivek Murthy, Darren Aronofsky, and many more.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Chapters
The Five Bullet Friday email newsletter is a popular subscription, sent every Friday, containing five bullet points with interesting information and findings, including apps, books, documentaries, supplements, gadgets, and more.
00:00 - 00:54 (00:54)
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Newsletter
Summary

The Five Bullet Friday email newsletter is a popular subscription, sent every Friday, containing five bullet points with interesting information and findings, including apps, books, documentaries, supplements, gadgets, and more.

Episode
#240: Accelerated Learning and Mentors - My Personal Story
Podcast
The Tim Ferriss Show
In this episode, Tim Ferriss talks with Charles Best, founder and CEO of DonorsChoose.org, about accelerated learning, education, mentors, and the value of tough love in teaching.
00:54 - 08:48 (07:54)
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Accelerated Learning
Summary

In this episode, Tim Ferriss talks with Charles Best, founder and CEO of DonorsChoose.org, about accelerated learning, education, mentors, and the value of tough love in teaching. The conversation took place at an event for educators and administrators.

Episode
#240: Accelerated Learning and Mentors - My Personal Story
Podcast
The Tim Ferriss Show
Tim discusses his approach to deconstructing and selecting the most important pieces of any skillset, including examples such as language learning and swimming.
08:48 - 14:05 (05:17)
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Learning
Summary

Tim discusses his approach to deconstructing and selecting the most important pieces of any skillset, including examples such as language learning and swimming. He also touches on using stakes and incentives as motivators for staying on track.

Episode
#240: Accelerated Learning and Mentors - My Personal Story
Podcast
The Tim Ferriss Show
Tim Ferriss shares his tips on mastering skills quickly, including finding the key exercise that makes all other exercises less important, questioning assumptions, and using competition as a motivator.
14:05 - 24:32 (10:26)
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Skill Mastery
Summary

Tim Ferriss shares his tips on mastering skills quickly, including finding the key exercise that makes all other exercises less important, questioning assumptions, and using competition as a motivator.

Episode
#240: Accelerated Learning and Mentors - My Personal Story
Podcast
The Tim Ferriss Show
This episode features discussions on the importance of scientific literacy and how to become an astute reader of scientific results, as well as the learning framework for mastery created by chess prodigy Josh Waitzkin.
24:32 - 33:58 (09:25)
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Science and Learning.
Summary

This episode features discussions on the importance of scientific literacy and how to become an astute reader of scientific results, as well as the learning framework for mastery created by chess prodigy Josh Waitzkin.

Episode
#240: Accelerated Learning and Mentors - My Personal Story
Podcast
The Tim Ferriss Show
Tim Ferriss discusses the role of technology in learning, highlighting that it can be a powerful tool in solving problems, but it can also hinder the pursuit of learning through distractions.
33:58 - 41:46 (07:48)
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Technology in Learning
Summary

Tim Ferriss discusses the role of technology in learning, highlighting that it can be a powerful tool in solving problems, but it can also hinder the pursuit of learning through distractions. He suggests that the ability to single-task effectively has become a superpower and that establishing ways of blocking out distractions can provide a competitive advantage.

Episode
#240: Accelerated Learning and Mentors - My Personal Story
Podcast
The Tim Ferriss Show
Tim Ferriss suggests that a curriculum to teach people to pick apart and analyze their fears could be formulated with fun exercises to make students more resilient and willing to take risks.
41:47 - 49:48 (08:01)
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Education
Summary

Tim Ferriss suggests that a curriculum to teach people to pick apart and analyze their fears could be formulated with fun exercises to make students more resilient and willing to take risks. He believes in leveling the playing field in specific ways, such as funding projects for schools and teachers that can't afford resources such as headgear and wrestling mats for wrestling programs.

Episode
#240: Accelerated Learning and Mentors - My Personal Story
Podcast
The Tim Ferriss Show
Tim Ferriss shares that there is no skill that a person cannot learn rapidly if they choose the smarter way of learning.
49:48 - 55:16 (05:28)
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Education
Summary

Tim Ferriss shares that there is no skill that a person cannot learn rapidly if they choose the smarter way of learning. He also reveals that his sub $100 life-changing purchase is a Marpac dome white noise machine to help with sleep, and suggests that the key to addressing inequity in public schools is helping kids become more comfortable with discomfort and dissecting their own fears.

Episode
#240: Accelerated Learning and Mentors - My Personal Story
Podcast
The Tim Ferriss Show
The speaker talks about how dosing individuals with their fear and gradually increasing it can help them overcome it.
55:16 - 1:00:49 (05:32)
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Anxiety, Learning Disabilities
Summary

The speaker talks about how dosing individuals with their fear and gradually increasing it can help them overcome it. Additionally, as a teacher, he believes that getting students comfortable on stage will help them be adept learners in high-stress environments.

Episode
#240: Accelerated Learning and Mentors - My Personal Story
Podcast
The Tim Ferriss Show
Tim Ferriss thanks his listeners for their time and introduces his email newsletter, Five Bullet Friday, which contains his favorite discoveries of the week.
1:00:49 - 1:02:32 (01:42)
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Productivity
Summary

Tim Ferriss thanks his listeners for their time and introduces his email newsletter, Five Bullet Friday, which contains his favorite discoveries of the week.

Episode
#240: Accelerated Learning and Mentors - My Personal Story
Podcast
The Tim Ferriss Show