Nat Chat

Happy Monday! Glad to have you back for another episode of Nat Chat, an audio version of my newsletter Monday Medley. Join me in recapping my best finds from across the Internet with topics ranging from nutrition, finding good business partners, and sleep tech. Make sure to subscribe to my newsletter if you prefer a readable copy of this podcast! Resources mentioned: 6 Big Nutrition Lessons (0:18) How to Migrate from Notion to Roam (0:26) The Almanack of Naval Ravikant (0:31) The Brain (0:41) White Oak Pastures (0:48) Their Most Popular Items (1:12) Cat Lavery (1:21) BestSelf (1:23) In one extensive article (1:37) Sleep Tech video (2:05) Youtube Masterclass(2:19) How Ali balances his double life (2:37) The Hero's Journey(2:45) Intermittent Fasting (2:55) Make Chicken Great Again (3:30) Ethical Meat Eating Article (3:38) Solving Problems by Letting Go (3:52)  If you want to support the Medley and my other writing, there are many ways you can do that here. And should you come across anything interest

Happy Monday! Glad to have you back for another episode of Nat Chat, an audio version of my newsletter Monday Medley. Join me in recapping my best finds from across the Internet with topics ranging from empires, fruit and vegetable classification, and mediocrity. Make sure to subscribe to my newsletter if you prefer a readable copy of this podcast! Resources mentioned: The Mental Model Behind Every High-Performer I Know (0:21) Starting a $400,000 Side Business in 1 Month (for Free) (0:30) 5 Life Lessons from a Book too Evil for Prisons (0:35) White Oak Pastures (0:45) Avoid the Fate of Empires (1:15) College as an Incubator or Girardian Terror (3:14) Thread on Bill Grundfest (4:36) The Premium Mediocre Life of Maya Millenial (5:22) Brandon Zhang podcast (5:43) Signaling as a Service (6:28) Confusion around tomatoes (6:40) Ketchup was considered a vegetable (7:40) If you want to support the Medley and my other writing, there are many ways you can do that here. And should you come across anything interest

Happy Monday! On this week's episode of Nat Chat, I'm covering this week's Monday Medley newsletter. Join me in recapping my best finds from across the Internet with topics ranging from energy, wildfires, and privacy. Make sure to subscribe to my newsletter if you prefer a readable copy of this podcast! Resources mentioned: 9 favorite tools I use for better sleep (0:12) Humanity's relationship with energy (0:18) "Student Mindset" podcast (0:31) Making future habits easy (0:45) Alex Tabarrok wildfire article (2:16) Chaos Monkeys (4:31) The Social Dilemma (4:34) Previous piece for Wired (5:45) Hedge funds (6:12) Protein poisoning (7:12) Getting sweaty (7:24) Purpose by Sovereignty (7:55) If you want to support the Medley and my other writing, there are many ways you can do that here. And should you come across anything interesting this week, tweet me @nateliason. I'd love to hear your thoughts and neat things you may come across. Thanks for tuning in, I'll see you next Monday!

Happy Monday! On this week's episode of Nat Chat, I'm covering this week's Monday Medley newsletter. Join me in recapping my best finds from across the Internet with topics ranging from airlines, journaling, and limiting beliefs. Make sure to subscribe to my newsletter if you prefer a readable copy of this podcast! I've sent one out every Monday for 230 consecutive weeks now, so don't miss out. Resources mentioned: Why you shouldn't try to read 100 books per year (0:13) Sovereignty (0:28) Purpose product (0:31) Overlooked Variable that's Key to the Pandemic (1:00) Plus Minus Next (4:26) Morning Pages in Roam (5:02) Blue light glasses (5:11) Coinbase is a Mission Focused Company (6:24) Growth Machine (7:37)  Zestful (7:41) Airlines depend on their frequent flier programs (8:20) Limiting beliefs (9:52) Analyze how you can work out of your system (10:05) If you want to support the Medley and my other writing, there are many ways you can do that here. And should you come across anything interesting this wee

On this week's episode of Nat Chat, I'm talking about a wide range of topics featured in my Monday Medley. From supersonic speed to a good night's sleep, join me in recapping my best finds from across the Internet this week.  Make sure to subscribe to the newsletter here if you prefer a readable copy of this podcast! And don't forget to subscribe to my Youtube channel. Resources Mentioned: My YouTube channel (0:23) Helping David Perell migrate from Evernote into Roam (0:30) Highlighting important notes in podcasts.(0:35) A marathon 2+ hour interview of me (0:44) Nick Maggiulli (1:10) Retire in Progress (1:12) Sovereignty (1:17) Dream (1:24) Medley 210 (1:50) Boom Supersonic (1:53) The first XB-1 Supersonic Jet (1:58) Article by Patrick Collison (2:16) Fear caused by bicycles (4:31) Lost opportunity to lead Airbnb's seed round (5:40) What makes Y Combinator so special (6:28) My favorite sleep tech this week (6:48) BluBLOX (6:56) Blue Light Filtering Test (7:00) Fascinating Visualization (7:16) It's Decora

Today's episode of Nat Chat features an audio version of my September 21st edition of the Monday Medley, an email newsletter where I provide interesting finds from around the Internet. Make sure to subscribe to the newsletter if you prefer a readable copy of this podcast! Resources mentioned: The Brain (0:44) Infinite Jest (1:02) Sovereignty (1:24) Purpose (1:33) Why I Stopped Angel Investing (2:11) Exercising your options at an early stage company (3:28) Best income producing assets for growing wealth (3:47) Great tweets and lessons from Startup L Jackson (4:10) Invest $7mm in Shopify (4:22) Ali Abdaal (4:55) Thomas Frank (4:56) Final Cut Pro X for YouTubing (5:07) First day practicing archery (5:25) Centenarian Olympics (6:08) Faking the language (7:21) Babbling (2:23) Improving Idea Flow (2:24) Calling Joe Rogan out(8:03) Keep housing prices reasonable (8:44) If you want to support the Medley and my other writing, there are many ways you can do that here. And should you come across anything intere

Nat Chat is back! I am excited to bring you an audio version of my Monday Medley, an email newsletter where I provide interesting finds from around the Internet, spanning as broad of topics as the rest of my website. Resources mentioned: 75% Rule (1:04) Scale by Geoffrey West (1:52) The Brain (2:09) I sent the authors a couple questions (2:36) Sovereignty (2:51) Their "Dream" product (3:19) Original animated movies and the live action remakes (4:46) Why the "Karen" meme naming is so accurate (5:13) Terry (5:50) Supercharge Your Productivity with Notion (6:02) Effortless Output course (7:17) what my setup looks like now (7:23) The Way of Zen (9:04) Is economic growth over? (10:16) What happened in 1971 (11:11) The Sovereign Individual (11:35) interesting interview of Andy Mant (14:08) Unconventional Medicine by Chris Kresser (14:52) Wearing sunglasses might mess with the signals our body needs (16:02)      If you want to support the Medley and my other writing, there are many ways you can do that here. And

It’s the consistency over a long period of time where you really start to see the breakthrough. In this episode of Nat Chat, I’m joined by Nasos Papadopoulos. Nasos attended Oxford University, where after a while, realized that being on the path with finance and economics just wasn’t for him. He took a long break to travel and explore new opportunities, eventually getting into meta-learning and the science of learning. He started the site Metalearn.net where he educates other people on learning more effectively and efficiently. He also has a popular podcast and a course on the topic, all focused on helping people get better at learning. Nasos is an excellent guy to learn from for those wanting to learn more effectively and efficiently, stay motivated, and getting to know their learning strengths and weaknesses. We cover a wide range of topics, including: What Nasos has learned by focusing on learning how to learn The niche and lesser-known aspects of learning The fixed and growth mindsets and their impact on

When you understand what people are trying to do with a college degree, which is buying a signal that says ‘I’m worth hiring’, you realize that signal is really not that strong. And if you set your mind to it, you can create a better, more powerful signal in a much shorter amount of time and for much less money. In this episode of Nat Chat, I’m joined by Isaac Morehouse. Isaac’s the founder of Praxis, an alternative education system, which focuses on giving participants a lot of applicable skills and a broader understanding of subject knowledge at a self-paced rate. It also pairs participants with startups and gives them more hands-on experience with 6-month apprenticeships. Two previous Nat Chat guests, Hannah Phillips and Zak Slayback, have both had experiences with the system. We cover a wide range of topics, including: Problems with the current education system and how it negatively impacts students. Why going to college is a riskier choice for most people. Why you don’t need a degree to get jobs and car

“If you can get into a job that has a really small team where you can work closely with the founders, you learn at a much more accelerated rate than if you were working in a much larger company dealing with managers.” In this episode of Nat Chat, I’m joined by Vincent Nguyen. Early into his college career, he already knew that the traditional college path wasn’t for him. He started a blog on the side called Self Stairway and over the course of seven months, he began posting on publications, connecting with influencers, and eventually got the opportunity to take on an apprenticeship with the company Empire Flippers. He took the apprenticeship, dropped out of college, and moved to the Philippines. After six months of working with them, he was promoted to be their marketing director and after a while, he branched off to start his own company, Growth Ninja. He’s been doing that for over two years now and helps sites grow through Facebook advertising. Vincent’s a good example of the great opportunities that you ca

If you’re spending less than an hour a day on whatever’s most important to you, that’s something you can pretty easily take up to ninety or a hundred and twenty minutes and get more than fifty to a hundred percent more on results. In this episode of Nat Chat, I’m joined by Sebastian Marshall. Sebastian and I delved into a lot about productivity, life and habit tracking, and developing really good systems for achieving your highest output. He’s been writing on his blog for eight years and runs a company now called Ultra Working, where he helps individuals and companies get the most out of their day-to-day systems. Sebastian’s a great person to learn from for those wanting to optimize their systems for high output and productivity, and to become more disciplined with their habits. We do get a bit in the weeds about time tracking in the beginning, so if that’s not as interesting to you feel free to skip ahead. There’s a TON here and we share a lot of interests, so we dove deep on the finer points of productivity

Find one thing that if you did it every day, would ensure that you move forward, and then make sure that it happens every day. In this episode of Nat Chat, I’m joined by Chris Sparks. Chris shares his story with getting heavily involved in poker while still in college. Chris had planned to get into advertising but instead went all in with playing poker. After a year, he was living in a multi-million dollar mansion in Los Angeles up until 2011 when the US shut down online poker, seizing all of the money that he and his friends had in their exchanges. He went to London, continuing to pursue poker and travel, but soon began getting into more entrepreneurial projects. Currently, he’s now a high-end productivity coach. Chris is an excellent person to emulate for those wanting to become highly productive and efficient, as well as successful. We cover a wide range of topics, including: Tons of advice for those looking to be more productive and successful Chris’ story on becoming a worldwide top-twenty online poker

Just work on doing things for you and developing skills while doing it. In this episode of Nat Chat, I’m joined by Hannah Phillips. Hannah started her own media company while still in high school which began with photography. Not long after, it quickly grew into branding and social media management, as well. By the time she was ready to go to college, she was making enough money to support herself and decided to focus on her business instead. She did end up going through Praxis, which was discussed in my episodes with Zak Slayback and Aaron Watson. Through it all, she’s been able to develop her skills in photography, media, and social media marketing, and grow this business that’s supporting her, despite her only being 20 years old. Hannah is an excellent person to learn from for those of you with a creative ability or for those that just want to get into something entrepreneurial. We cover a wide range of topics, including: How Hannah started and grew a successful media company How she primarily learned thr

The most effective way of learning for me was just failing over and over again. Being in a place where you don’t know anything and where you have to force yourself to learn. In this episode of Nat Chat, I’m joined by Bekah Lundy. Bekah started off as a student of The University of Minnesota, where after a year, she started to get into web development and realized normal college just wasn’t for her. She left and went through a coding boot camp called Turing. Seven months later, she started working as a developer for a start-up called Apto in Boulder, Colorado. Bekah’s story is a great example for those who are wanting to leave a traditional career route to pursue things that they’re actually passionate about. We cover a wide range of topics, including: Self-educating yourself Finding the confidence to stray from the traditional career path Learning to program and code Using failure as a way to accelerate learning Being passionate about your work Turing, the effective coding boot camp And much more. Please en

Seeking out experiences where you’re forced to learn, will create so many of these moments, where you’re going to look at things completely differently when you’re done. In this episode of Nat Chat, I’m joined by Cory Ames. Cory was going to college at Gonzaga University where he took on an apprenticeship with a marketing agency. His apprenticeship with that agency quickly earned him bigger and bigger roles, where within a couple of years, he was actually running the whole company while being only 23 years old. He figured everything out on his own through various projects in college and by reaching out to others to learn from them. Currently, Cory’s out of that marketing agency and is working on some of his own projects. Cory’s a great model to follow for those wanting to pursue their goals, those wanting to self-educate themselves, and for those wanting to get into entrepreneurial pursuits. We cover a wide range of topics, including: Deconstructing skills and learning them on your own Self-educating yoursel

Unschooling is more about self-directed learning, finding out what you’re interested in, and going really deep into something. In this episode of Nat Chat, I’m joined by Blake Boles. While in college, Blake stumbled upon a book that really opened his eyes to the world of unschooling, alternative education, and how students could be learning better outside of the traditional systems. Shortly after graduating, he worked in California doing outdoor education and then ran off to South America for three months, where he decided he wanted to work within the alternative education field while also traveling. He then started Unschool Adventures, where he takes students on two-month trips to interesting places around the world. Blake is an excellent guy to follow if you’re into the alternative education and unschooling movement, as well as the digital nomad space. We covered a wide range of topics, including: Alternative educational systems The unschooling movement and its goals Finding the motivation to leave the tra

Taking action in anything is going to have a much better result than doing nothing. In this episode, I’m joined by Tasha Meys. Tasha grew up in New Zealand and studied psychology, which she quickly got out of when she realized it wasn’t for her, going on to study food and nutrition instead. Around her sophomore year of college, she decided that she needed a portfolio for getting jobs post-graduation and got really into Instagram. Shortly after graduating, she began to get solicited by large brands wanting to be promoted on her Instagram page. Now, she consults companies on how to grow their own social media influence and helps others do the same. Tasha is a great example of someone who turned their passion into a fulfilling and successful lifestyle and is a great person to emulate if you want to do something similar. We cover a wide range of topics, including: Reaching out and finding good mentors Improving your confidence with online publicity Growing your social media influence Bringing your skills to the

Get with the people who are a couple steps ahead of where you want to be, and learn from them. In this episode, I’m joined by Aaron Watson. Aaron and I were introduced via Zak Slayback, who came on for episode 25. Like Zak, Aaron is also passionate about the education, self-education, and self-improvement scene. He graduated from the University of Pittsburgh and went straight into an insurance sales job. Pretty soon into it, he realized that it wasn’t for him and left to start a podcast called “Going Deep with Aaron,” where he’s done over 250 episodes. If you’ve ever thought that your job just wasn’t for you and that you wanted to go do something else that’s more exciting and rewarding, Aaron is a perfect model of how you can do that. We cover a wide range of topics, including: Starting struggles with entrepreneurial endeavors Aaron’s lessons from over 250 podcast guests Finding the drive to work harder than your peers Advice for growing your content and growing a podcast Self-educating yourself outside of c

“Different things are going to work for different people, but eating too much is bad for everyone.” In this episode of Nat Chat, I’m joined by Dan Witmer and Brandon Epstein, who together, are Zen Dude Fitness. Zen Dude Fitness is essentially a health, fitness, coaching, and lifestyle brand that’s specifically focused on jumping rope for fat loss and health. They have millions of views on YouTube, have done meetups all over the country, and have a really inspiring story. They both turned their mutual passion and interest of jumping rope, being healthy, and having fun into a really successful business where they’ve helped millions of people live healthier lifestyles. If you’re someone who wants to improve their health or just wanting tips to grow your business, these guys are excellent teachers and have a lot of great advice. We cover a wide range of topics, including: Becoming fit and healthy by jumping rope Debunking common diet and food myths Advice for getting the body that you want Common errors in th

“For a lot of jobs, it’s actually a lot easier to get hired, promoted, and to continue growing in that job without the degree than you think it is. You just need to be creative.” In this episode of Nat Chat, I’m joined by Zak Slayback. Zak dropped out of the University of Pennsylvania when he realized that college just wasn’t for him. Since then, he’s worked on business development, published his own book, become the head of publishing for an online publication called The Mission, and much more. He’s had experience going outside of the school system, learning on your own, developing that reputation and that skill set, and getting to work with some really respected people in his field. He’s a perfect example of how you can be successful without necessarily having a college education. We cover a wide range of topics, including: Flaws with receiving degrees and with the education system Getting great apprenticeships Zak’s top book recommendations Using self-education to your advantage Understanding opportunity