problem-solving

There Is More Than One Answer To Almost Every Question.

Should you be on a hard program and risk failure? Or a moderate program that is sustainable.

How to get the most out of learning.

How to avoid bitterness when criticized.

How to get more articulate and better at speaking to people.

How to deal with your ex-girlfriend hooking up with your best friend in the same house.

There are two parts of the mind: the conscious and the unconscious. While the former dominates your attention, the latter actually occupies far more of the brain, influencing your mood, generating inspiration, and making you who you are, all behind the scenes.

My guest would argue that to become all you're meant to be, you have to make your unconscious mind your ally and that this may be life's most important task.

His name is Daniel Z. Lieberman, and he's a psychiatrist and the author of Spellbound: Modern Science, Ancient Magic, and the Hidden Potential of the Unconscious Mind. Today on the show, Daniel first offers an overview of the nature, function, and study of the unconscious. From there we discuss Carl Jung's perspective on the unconscious, and his ideas around its archetypes and shadows. We then get into the way that things which are connected to magic and the supernatural, like fairy tales and tarot cards, can be seen as manifestations of the energy of the unconscious and as age-old attempts to confront and understand it. We end our discussion by talking about the quest for individuation, which requires bringing together the conscious and unconscious minds, and how to go about tapping into the power of the unconscious to become a kind of magician yourself.

Resources Related to the Episode

• Daniel's previous appearance on the show: Episode #429 — Taking Control of the Brain Chemical That Drives Excitement, Motivation, and More
• King, Warrior, Magician, Lover: Rediscovering the Archetypes of the Mature Masculine by Robert Moore and Douglas Gillette
• AoM's series on the king, warrior, magician, and lover archetypes 
• AoM Podcast #598: Journeying From the First to the Second Half of Life
• AoM Podcast #335: Exploring Archetypes With Jordan B. Peterson
• "The Golden Bird" fairy tale
• Iron John by Robert Bly

Connect With Daniel Lieberman

• Daniel's Website

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Problems can pester, persist and plague. They range from short-lived to chronic, bothersome to heart-wrenching, resolvable to unalterable. Problems cause what Jungian analyst and author James Hollis refers to as the three As: ambiguity, ambivalence, and anxiety. Ambiguity arises when a problem is complex and confusing, demanding action without certainty. Ambivalence is a state of conflicted feelings, often related to immediate versus long-term gratification. Anxiety is worry and doubt about whether we can meet a challenge or achieve a desired outcome. Problems confront us with a basic choice: action or avoidance—but action without analysis can also be a form of avoidance. We must accept the situation, tolerate the tension, and observe external and internal factors before identifying options. Jung says, “The most intense conflicts if overcome, leave behind a sense of security and calm that is not easily disturbed. It is just these intense conflicts and their conflagration which are needed to produce valuable and lasting results.”

Here’s the dream we analyzed:

“I was pregnant, and I went to a cafe with my husband. I went away and had my baby. I went to a party where some family and friends were welcoming the baby. I cradled a small plastic box with a transparent plastic lid. There were about six spaces pressed into the foam of the box and my baby, which was a tiny bee, was in the right bottom corner of the case. As the party was ending, family members encouraged me to let the bee out of the case. My husband said to do what I thought was right. I opened the case, and we left the party hall, the bee flying above us. When we got outside, it flew away. I ran to keep up with it, and it flew to a huge wooden and plexiglass hive on the lawn. My baby bee flew to a bigger bee, circled it, and was imitating it, even getting onto the big bee’s back while it flew. I wanted to catch my bee but was intimidated by the bigger bee. They flew off in a swarm with others. My husband told me it was time to go. I walked away, and we drove away with my in-laws. When we were alone again, I couldn’t stop crying. My husband took me to the same cafe, but I could hardly walk because I was crying so much. The server said I looked good for just having had a baby. I went to the bathroom, sobbing and feeling very swollen all over. I looked at my puffy face in the mirror and felt like I looked new.”

REFERENCES:

Edwards Deming: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/W._Edwards_Deming

Video: It’s Not About the Nail: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-4EDhdAHrOg

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One snowy night in Boston, Leah Solivan ran out of dog food for her 100-pound yellow lab. She wondered: shouldn’t I be able to resupply Kobe without going to the store? That was the origin of TaskRabbit, an online errand service that matches users with “taskers” to do deliveries and other chores. When Leah left her IBM job to start coding the service, the peer-to-peer economy was still in its infancy. But she saw that three important developments—mobile, location services, and social media—were about to converge. She recruited errand-runners from Craigslist, and took an expensive gamble on a 15-minute meeting with Tim Ferriss to get advice and investors. After some management hiccups and a difficult rebranding, TaskRabbit sold to IKEA in 2017. 

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Puzzles may seem like fairly pedestrian pastimes — fun ways to while away a rainy afternoon. And while they certainly do make for satisfying diversions, my guest would say they're also more than that, and can teach us plenty about life as well.

His name is A.J. Jacobs, and he's the author of The Puzzler: One Man's Quest to Solve the Most Baffling Puzzles Ever, from Crosswords to Jigsaws to the Meaning of Life. Today on the show, A.J. explains what makes a puzzle a puzzle, and why we're drawn to them and enjoy them so much. We then discuss the charm of certain puzzles, from crosswords and Rubik's Cubes, to jigsaws and mazes. Along the way, we discuss some of the strategies behind solving these puzzles, and how these strategies can help you become an all-around better thinker and decision maker, and better at navigating the puzzling dilemmas of life itself.

Resources Related to the Podcast

• A.J.'s previous appearance on the podcast — Episode #53: Experimenting With Your Life
• Maki Kaji — the father of Sudoku
• AoM Article: The Best Riddles for Kids
• A.J.'s wife's scavenger hunt company, Watson Adventures
• Wordplay
• The Great Vermont Corn Maze
• Tanya Khovanova's Math Blog
• Kryptos — art sculpture with encrypted code on the grounds of the CIA
• Apophenia
• Sunday Firesides: Take It Bird by Bird

Connect With A.J. Jacobs

• A.J.'s Website
• A.J. on Twitter

Like so many of us, author Johann Hari noticed that the more time he spent looking at screens and switching from device to device, the harder it became for him to concentrate and achieve his goals. After talking to more than 200 doctors, researchers, and neuroscientists around the world, Johann came to a sobering conclusion: the human race is in the middle of an attention crisis. He examines this societal challenge in his new book, Stolen Focus: Why You Can’t Pay Attention and How to Think Deeply Again.

This week on How I Built This Lab, Johann and Guy discuss the factors chipping away at our ability to focus, and what we can do to reclaim our attention. They also talk about flow states – how we get into them, and why everyone in the business world should be working to achieve them. 

Check out Johann’s book here: https://amzn.to/3L3wsMC

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Famed investor Joel Greenblatt is the Managing Principal and Co-Chief Investment Officer at Gotham Asset Management, the successor to Gotham Capital, an investment firm he founded in 1985. He’s also spent more than two decades on the adjunct faculty at Columbia Business School, and he’s the author of five books focused on investment strategy, including You Can Be A Stock Market Genius and The Little Book that Beats the Market. Joel and Shane discuss a wide array of topics, including the differences between luck and skill, stock options, traits of successful management teams, lessons learned from Warren Buffett and what Joel fears most about today’s stock market.

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Chances are that you've heard the aphorism "fake it till you make it." Too many individuals seem to have this mentality when it comes to building confidence. Unfortunately, imitating confidence will only take you so far and often leads to imposter syndrome. 

In today's Empire episode, Bedros Keuilian breaks down a proven system to help you develop confidence at the highest level, the most accurate barometer to measure effectiveness, how stacking wins will accelerate your success, and so much more.

"The more you build credibility with yourself, the more confident you become. The more confident you become, the more likely you are to take action and become competent in the skills of making money, making decisions, leading people, growing companies, impacting lives, and whatever it is you want to do in life." -Bedros Keuilian

Here's what you don't want to miss:

1:05 Finding confidence Vs. building confidence

2:30 The single most significant form of self-development

3:39 The importance of emotional resilience

4:40 The three "Cs" to building confidence 

6:00 How stacking "little wins" builds integrity with yourself

7:46 Why breaking promises to yourself erodes trust in your ability

12:30 Why integrity is the first step to building long-lasting confidence 

13:39 How small wins compound into big wins

17:55 A 30-day challenge to help you start stacking more wins

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