profile

Hi! I'm Adam Gordon Bell

The 2 Sigma Problem

Published 4 days ago • 1 min read

Adam Gordon Bell

May 2nd

Hey!

Do you recognize this man?

Well, he has some things to teach us about learning in the latest episode:

​https://corecursive.com/the-power-of-context/​

Todays' podcast episode is about how to learn hard things. Guest Steve Krouse ( not pictured ) was a struggling student when he joined an after school program based around programming and some revolutionary teaching methods.

That after school program changed his life in pretty profound ways.

​
Today's episode is all about learning in context

Context is decisive. If you’re in math land, you learn math. If you’re in France, you learn French. And if you wanna learn a thing, really all you have to do is put yourself in a context where you will naturally learn that thing.
​
And for the vast majority of us, we’re not in that context. Otherwise, we would have already learned that thing naturally.
​
Yeah, you could self-flagellate yourself into doing it, or you could do the Duolingo thing, which is like, video gamify yourself into learning some simulacra of it, or you cannot learn it.
​
But to me, either come to peace with the fact that you actually don’t care enough to learn it, or move your context.
​
Like you have to actually put yourself into a new context where it will happen naturally, or we’re just fooling ourselves. You’re not gonna do this thing.
​
Like you have to actually put yourself into a new context where it will happen naturally, or we’re just fooling ourselves. You’re not gonna do this thing.

You should give it a listen.
​

Hi! I'm Adam Gordon Bell

Get a monthly update on my podcast, writing and whatever else I'm up to.

Read more from Hi! I'm Adam Gordon Bell

Adam Gordon Bell April 2nd Hey! I have a new podcast episode out about this graph: I know that doesn't sound exciting, but it actually is! https://corecursive.com/briffa-sep98-e/ That is a famous climate change graph that caused a lot of controversy, with newspapers and news shows accusing scientists of fraud and deception. While scientists claimed they were victims of a targeted attack. I got a little obsessed with what actually happened. It happened 15 years ago, but the code is still out...

about 1 month ago • 1 min read

Adam Gordon Bell Oct 2nd Hey! I have a new podcast episode is out: https://corecursive.com/one-million-checkboxes-with-nolen-royalty/ It's at the intersection of coding, game building, art and online trolls. That is to say it's a super fun episode about building something and having it become really really huge and all the unexpected things that follow. But it's also about how the internet used to be more fun, and how Nolen Royalty is trying to bring us back to the era of Boaty McBoatface I...

3 months ago • 1 min read
From Everest to startups

Adam Gordon Bell Oct 2nd Hey! It's October, and new podcast episode is out: https://corecursive.com/from-everest-to-startups-with-yoshio-goto/ This episode is about your life. It's about accepting that life is short and using that to structure how you live. Yoshio Goto shares his story of finding what matters by throwing himself at challenges like climbing Everest and joining early-stage start-ups in Silicon Valley. Then, where he finds meaning is totally somewhere else. It feels like I’m...

7 months ago • 1 min read