NTL: Improving In Work, Life, And Learning

Jess and Jon discuss the complicated business of building successful collaborations and how to manage control, trust, and the flow of information in situations where there is no boss or clear authority. They also talk about a new collaboration of Jon’s (a new podcast on Subject Radio) and how to maintain a remote community or build a new community in person when you pick up and move.

Jess and Jon touch on what they’ve been reading and learning about lately before talking about their writing processes including everything from the software they use to how they seperate editing from composition. They follow this up with some unusual thoughts on setting deadlines, how you can use others to keep yourself accountable, and how regularizing things and focusing on habit formation can make all of this easier.

Jon and Jess start by touching on proactively dealing with procrastination. Then they discuss their years in review and explain their plans for the coming months. They debate the ins and outs of developing complex creative skills and whether copying other peoples’ work should be a part of this process. They then go into their reasons and inspiration for the NTL podcast in the context of the kinds of media they consume. They close by analyzing the progressive changes in the broader media landscape, how much more narrowly niched educational content is being made these days, and some warnings about the dangers of niching down too far.

Jon and Jess talk about the pressure to have new year’s resolutions, the busy circus that is December, and how they’re preparing for the coming year. They go on to discuss how important the recent sexual abuse scandals are and why they feel compelled to address them. They explain how the internet has pressaged and created the environment that allows for these scandals to be made public, discuss some parallels with the progress of the civil rights movement, and debate whether the shift in sentiment around the scandals is a momentary blip or a permanent change. They also go into their personal views on the boundaries of relationships in work and the difficulty of deciding what is acceptable when you work independently or are networking in less formal settings. They close by touching on the international impact of the scandals.

Jess and Jon trace the progress of technology since the 1980’s and how that has gradually reduced barriers to entry for many freelancers and small scale entrepreneurs. It has also disaggregated many media and creative industries. They then talk about the effects of this on the global economy, our individual working lives, and increased the return on personal development and hard skills. This trend is largely driven by the dropping cost and complexity of production and distribution methods. After that they break down how mindsets about lifelong learning, personal development, and physical fitness have changed in recent years. They close with a discussion on the illusion of talent, how we undervalue things we can’t see, how perceived weaknesses and strengths are self reinforcing, and the difference between simple skills and highly composite skills.

Jess and Jon give an update on the challenges they laid down for themselves last week. They then explore how they make major decisions about what matters in a place to live, where to work, and how they spend their free time. They explain their thinking and motivation going into big moves between countries. Then they discuss the value of putting yourself in difficult or challenging situations, the importance of intentionality and taking action rather than letting things happen to you, and the need to define your own success by focusing on possibility and abundance rather than limitations. They close with how people overestimate the risks of mistakes and their thinking about the weight of your values in the face of questions about your income and financial stability.

Jess and Jon get into Jess’s new job at the bakery, the history of bread, and brewing beer. After that they talk about what outcomes matter in side projects, how investment in skill development squares with producing value now, and how we can make things more efficient by finding activities that allow us to work two two different goals at the same time. They then break down their thinking about Checklists, SOPs, and mind maps, how these are used, and the kinds of information they’re best suited to organize. They also talk about some recent travels to the Cliffs of Moher, England, and Italy, cheap plane tickets, the cold of Ireland, and the heat of Miami.

Jess and Jon discuss daylight savings time, how tracking their time has surprised them and dig deep into Language learning with a conversation about how to think about learning pronunciation, vocabulary, and grammar and the differences between these. They also talk about a Net Impact conference Jess attended and how to connect with interesting and like minded people after moving to a new city.

Jess and Jon discuss routines, building habits, sleep schedules, attention spans, pomodoro timers, GTD, and measuring the success of plans. They then dive into time tracking, misconceptions around how we spend our time, and the power of collecting data on yourself and generating your own feedback. They wrap up with a run down of the technology they use to stay organized and lay down some challenges for themselves for the week.

Jess and Jon talk about their backgrounds living and working on four different continents and how they came to work on self improvement so much together. They discuss what the NTL podcast will cover and delve into what it’s like to move to a new country or city you’ve never been to before with no network or job. Touching on how to deal with banking, housing, bills, and visas in new places. Then they talk about their shared goal of fluency in Spanish and some of the learning techniques they’ve used to rapidly learn the language.