I’ve written before how I avoid lecturing. Instead of trying to give students the answers, which lecturing does, I try to give them experiences that will lead them to discover the answers for themselves. Instead of organizing a syllabus around the how to order presenting information, I organize it around exercises and projects. I find that when students discovers an answer, they remember it longer, know how to apply it,[…] Keep reading →
Extra words water down what you say. “Go ahead and…” for example. People with lower status use more words to say the same thing. People who feel insecure keep talking and explaining more than they need. I think people are afraid of implying they’re equal to people they see above them. Is that what you want for yourself? Speak more succinctly and see if weathering the challenge leads you to[…] Keep reading →
My Inc. article today “Want to Succeed as an Entrepreneur? Learn This One Lesson From ‘The Martian’,” begins Want to Succeed as an Entrepreneur? Learn This One Lesson From ‘The Martian’ Think The Martian was about solving technology problems? Those were the details. You missed the big picture that ties it all together. Though engineers and space aficionados probably loved The Martian, entrepreneurs had the most to love and learn. We got the[…] Keep reading →
I loved university. Studying physics, universities are about the only places to learn it. I value university for many things. They do a lot of valuable things better than any other institution or alternatives—the hard sciences, for example. It’s not right for everyone and it does some things terribly. Places other than universities do some non-academic activities so much better than school. Experiential learning—how I teach leadership, entrepreneurship, sales, and[…] Keep reading →
School Doing a gratitude exercise recently, writing my undergraduate advisor who helped me figure out how to major in physics starting my second semester junior year. Physics is intense so most of my classmates were younger, having known their major since high school. So academically, I was catching up with classmates from when I chose my major. I just finished the major in my last semester and got into Penn[…] Keep reading →
How does a course get student reviews like these? “This is one of the greatest classes I have ever taken. It was engaging, thought provoking, challenging, and fun. Josh is an incredible teacher, mentor, and friend to everyone in the class who is passionate about the subject matter. If I could take this class all over again, I would†— “10/10 would take again! I loved every second of this[…] Keep reading →
This week’s New Yorker’s article reviewing a book on personal and professional development was annoying and snarky, but revealed the problem with books on professional and personal development. The book the article reviews, whose name doesn’t matter for this post, has a format that’s familiar in contemporary nonfiction: exemplary tales interpolated with a little social and cognitive science. The purpose of the tales is to create entertaining human-interest narratives; the[…] Keep reading →