Author: The Knowledge Project with Shane Parrish

  • #177 Shane Parrish: A Glimpse Into Clear Thinking

    Ever wondered why the world’s most successful individuals seem to have an uncanny ability to be in the right place at the right time? It’s not luck; it’s positioning. They are rarely backed into a corner by circumstances, and you don’t have to be either. On this special episode of The Knowledge Project, host and Farnam Street founder Shane Parrish offers a sneak peek into his upcoming book, Clear Thinking: Turning Ordinary Moments into Extraordinary Results, by sharing five essential insights from the book you can use for success in life and decision-making.

    Clear Thinking is not just another self-help book — it’s a transformative guide that hands you the tools to master your fate, sharpen your decision-making, and set yourself up for unparalleled success. To learn more about the book, visit fs.blog/clear

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  • #176: Dr. Leah Lagos and Joe Mazzulla: Control Your Heart, Conquer Your Stress

    Internationally renowned health and performance psychologist Dr. Leah Lagos discusses the concept of Heart Rate Variability (HRV) and how you can improve your mental and physical health by using signals from your body to gain control over stress. She’s also joined on this episode by Head Coach of Boston Celtics, Joe Mazzulla, who has worked with Dr. Lagos on HRV training. He discusses how he uses techniques taught by Dr. Lagos to help him manage his HRV and lower stress levels during his first season as an NBA head coach in 2022.

    Dr. Lagos has served as a Clinical and Performance Psychologist in private practice for the past 14 years. She consults a global hedge fund as well as elite performers in entertainment, business, and sport. Dr. Lagos is the author of Heart Breath Mind: Conquer Stress, Build Resilience, and Perform at Your Peak.

    Mazzulla took over as the interim head coach of the Boston Celtics in September 2022 and was officially named the team’s head coach in February 2023. In his first full season on the job, he led the Celtics to the Eastern Conference semifinals and was named one of three finalists for the NBA Coach of the Year.

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  • #175: Shreyas Doshi: Better Teams, Better Products

    Calling on more than two decades of experience working with some of the biggest companies in tech, Shreyas Doshi joins The Knowledge Project for a deep dive into the connection between building a solid team and building a better product. He also discusses the three levels of product work, the origins of conflict on your team, the difference between measurement and evaluation, the benefits and drawbacks of a writing culture, decision-making, growing your competence, and the agency/talent matrix.

    Doshi is best known as the leader of some of the most successful products from Stripe, where he was one of the company’s first product managers. He also led and grew several products at Twitter, Google, and Yahoo. He currently advises fast-growing startups on strategy, scaling, and product management. Doshi is also a frequent angel investor and has privately coached product managers from Amazon, Meta, Salesforce, Uber, and LinkedIn.

    Want even more? Members get early access, hand-edited transcripts, member-only episodes, and so much more. Learn more here: https://fs.blog/membership/

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  • #174 Rey Flemings: A Different Definition of Success

    Dubbed during his career as “The Man Who Knows What the World’s Richest People Want (and How To Get It),” Rey Flemings has years of experience dealing with success. He sees it every day as the co-founder and CEO of Myria, a company that provides concierge services to fewer than 100 elite clients with a combined wealth of over $400 billion. On this episode, Flemings discusses what he’s learned about wealth, money, success and happiness while on the job, how he makes impossible tasks possible, and what it was like to try and smuggle ventilators into New York City during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.
     
    Flemings founded Myria in 2021 and has worked in the luxury services industry since 2017. He also served as the founder and CEO of Stripple, a web imagery monetization company, and CEO of Particle, an Internet services company acquired by Apple.

    Want even more? Members get early access, hand-edited transcripts, member-only episodes, and so much more. Learn more here: https://fs.blog/membership/

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    Follow Shane on Twitter at: https://twitter.com/ShaneAParrish

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  • #173 Frank Slootman: Doing Less, Doing Better

    Frank Slootman doesn’t start companies. But no CEO has a better track record for turning the ideas of others into jackpots. On this episode of the Knowledge Project, Slootman dives deep into the no-nonsense, results-based strategies that have made him a leading executive, including how to approach the first 90 days after taking over a company, doing less and doing better, the difference between a good sales organization and a great one, how to get the best out of people, positioning yourself for future success,  and so much more.
     
    Slootman is the Chairman and CEO at Snowflake, a cloud computing–based data company which currently boasts a market capitalization of $81 billion. Prior to taking over at Snowflake im April 2019, Slootman served as the Chairman and CEO of cloud computing company ServiceNow, and he also spent six years as the President and CEO of Data Domain Inc., a venture-backed storage company.

    Want even more? Members get early access, hand-edited transcripts, member-only episodes, and so much more. Learn more here: https://fs.blog/membership/

    Every Sunday our Brain Food newsletter shares timeless insights and ideas that you can use at work and home. Add it to your inbox: https://fs.blog/newsletter/

    Follow Shane on Twitter at: https://twitter.com/ShaneAParrish

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  • #172 Dr. Julie Gurner (Part 2): Caring Deeply, Challenging Directly

    On the second of two special episodes, acclaimed executive performance coach and doctor of psychology Dr. Julie Gurner goes in-depth on a variety of strategies and actionable advice that will help you perform up to your potential. During this portion of her interview, Dr. Gurner discusses the standards we set for ourselves and others, cognitive ruts, curating friends and relationships, fighting up front, what success means, and much more.
     
    Dr. Gurner has spent the past 14 years working with top percentile executives, talent, and teams operating in fast-paced, competitive environments. She specializes in improving personal productivity, focus, and decision-making strategies, as well as developing high performance cultures, teams, and executives emphasizing ownership and leadership. 
     
    Check out Part 1 of this interview in the same feed where you’re listening to this episode, or on the Farnam Street Blog.

    Want even more? Members get early access, hand-edited transcripts, member-only episodes, and so much more. Learn more here: https://fs.blog/membership/

    Every Sunday our Brain Food newsletter shares timeless insights and ideas that you can use at work and home. Add it to your inbox: https://fs.blog/newsletter/

    Follow Shane on Twitter at: https://twitter.com/ShaneAParrish

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  • #171 Naval Ravikant: The Angel Philosopher (2017)

    No episode in the eight-year history of The Knowledge Project has made a bigger impact than when Naval Ravikant appeared on the show in 2017. Be it for longtime listeners who heard Naval when this episode first aired or for newer fans who missed Naval’s incredible insights, this is a must-listen to fans of The Knowledge Project and for those looking to hear from a deep thinker with an incredible wealth of insight. 

    On this episode Naval and Shane dive deep into reading habits, getting the best information from the most reliable sources, mental models for making critical high-stakes decisions, avoiding overcommitting and staying focused on the most important projects, how to facilitate better learning for our children and Naval’s definition for the meaning of life.

    Naval Ravikant is the former CEO and co-founder of AngelList, a platform for startups, investors, and job seekers dedicated to democratizing the investment process. He has also invested in more than 100 companies, including Uber, Twitter, Yammer, and many others.

    Want even more? Members get early access, hand-edited transcripts, member-only episodes, and so much more. Learn more here: https://fs.blog/membership/

    Every Sunday our Brain Food newsletter shares timeless insights and ideas that you can use at work and home. Add it to your inbox: https://fs.blog/newsletter/

    Follow Shane on Twitter at: https://twitter.com/ShaneAParrish

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  • #170: TKP Insights: Philosophy

    In the fourth installment in a series of episodes, The Knowledge Project curates essential segments from six guests revolving around one theme: philosophy. This episode will help you control your anger in heated circumstances, explain how what you focus on makes achieving goals easier, gives you a recipe to increase happiness through gratitude, walk you through the three layers of emotion according to the stoics, teach you the importance of focusing on directives, and will explain how happiness isn’t a rate, but a rate of change.

    The guests on this episode are author Ryan Holiday (Episode 128), Associate Professor of Psychology at New York University Emily Bacletis (Episode 154), author and happiness-expert Neil Pasricha (Episode 72), a Distinguished University Professor and Professor of Philosophy at Georgetown University Nancy Sherman, (Episode 126), “philosopher-king” and author Derek Sivers (Episode 88), and professional heavy-weight boxer, philosopher, and poet Ed Latimore (Episode 22).

     

    Want even more? Members get early access, hand-edited transcripts, member-only episodes, and so much more. Learn more here: https://fs.blog/membership/

    Every Sunday our Brain Food newsletter shares timeless insights and ideas that you can use at work and home. Add it to your inbox: https://fs.blog/newsletter/

     
    Follow Shane on Twitter at: https://twitter.com/ShaneAParrish
     

    Our Sponsors:

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  • #169 Dr. Julie Gurner (Part 1): Caring Deeply, Challenging Directly

    On the first of two special episodes, acclaimed executive performance coach and doctor of psychology Dr. Julie Gurner goes in-depth on a variety of strategies and actionable advice that will help you perform up to your potential. During this portion of her interview, Dr. Gurner discusses discipline, motivation, the imaginary rules we learned as children that hold us back today, setting boundaries, the advantages of caring deeply and challenging directly, and much more.
     
    Dr. Gurner has spent the past 14 years working with top percentile executives, talent, and teams operating in fast-paced, competitive environments. She specializes in improving personal productivity, focus, and decision-making strategies, as well as developing high performance cultures, teams, and executives emphasizing ownership and leadership.

    Check out Dr. Gurner’s lecture on Mental Health for Kids in the Time of Coronovirus for The Kids Are In Charge, and you can sign up Dr. Gurner’s Substack here.

    Want even more? Members get early access, hand-edited transcripts, member-only episodes, and so much more. Learn more here: https://fs.blog/membership/

    Every Sunday our Brain Food newsletter shares timeless insights and ideas that you can use at work and home. Add it to your inbox: https://fs.blog/newsletter/

    Follow Shane on Twitter at: https://twitter.com/ShaneAParrish

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  • #168 Adam Robinson: Positioning Yourself For Success

    What can the strategies of the chessboard teach us about how to succeed in life? Author, educator, entrepreneur, hedge fund advisor and US Chess Federation life master Adam Robinson makes a return appearance to The Knowledge Project to discuss some of the best ways to position yourself for success, including how to steer outcomes in your favor and what it takes to become a learning machine. He also weighs in on the potential uses of ChatGPT, investment strategies, and what it means to truly trust your instincts.
     
    Robinson is the co-founder of The Princeton Review and the author of the only SAT test preparation book to become a New York Times bestseller. He is also a rated chess master with a Life Title who was actually personally mentored by Bobby Fischer, and, as the President of Robinson Global Strategies, a trusted advisor to some of the world’s largest hedge funds. Robinson previously appeared on episodes 47 and 48 of The Knowledge Project.

    Want even more? Members get early access, hand-edited transcripts, member-only episodes, and so much more. Learn more here: https://fs.blog/membership/

    Every Sunday our Brain Food newsletter shares timeless insights and ideas that you can use at work and home. Add it to your inbox: https://fs.blog/newsletter/

    Follow Shane on Twitter at: https://twitter.com/ShaneAParrish

    Our Sponsors:

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    Aeropress: Press your perfect cup, every time. https://aeropress.com