353 - Maria Konnikova: How to Look at Life Like a Game and Make Better Choices Because of It

When Elon Musk tweets a one-character reply to your article and 2.3 million people view it, you've hit viral gold.That's what happened with Trung Phan's article about the worst tech predictions ever on the Sat Post substack; a retrospective look at some of the most inaccurate predictions in the technology industry. Some of the predictions discussed include the belief that the internet would be a passing fad, that smartphones would never catch on, and that social media would never be profitable. Trung also reflects on the reasons WHY these predictions were so far off the mark and the impact that these inaccuracies had on the industry. In today's episode, James and Trung discuss the predictors' motivations behind their statements, James talks about how his past predictions have affected his current life, and the two give some of their current predictions for the hotly debated topics of cryptocurrencies and AI. SatPost by Trung Phan | SubstackTrung Phan (@TrungTPhan) / TwitterBearly.ai | The world's best Ai at your fingertips.------------Visit Notepd.com to read our idea lists & sign up to create your own!My new book Skip the Line is out! Make sure you get a copy wherever books are sold!Join the You Should Run for President 2.0 Facebook Group, where we discuss why you should run for President.I write about all my podcasts! Check out the full post and learn what I learned at jamesaltucher.com/podcast.------------Thank you so much for listening! If you like this episode, please rate, review, and subscribe  to "The James Altucher Show" wherever you get your podcasts: Apple PodcastsStitcheriHeart RadioSpotifyFollow me on Social Media:YouTubeTwitterFacebook  ------------What do YOU think of the show? Head to JamesAltucherShow.com/listeners and fill out a short survey that will help us better tailor the podcast to our audience!Are you interested in getting direct answers from James about your question on a podcast? Go to JamesAltucherShow.com/AskAltucher and send in your questions to be answered on the air!------------Visit Notepd.com to read our idea lists & sign up to create your own!My new book, Skip the Line, is out! Make sure you get a copy wherever books are sold!Join the You Should Run for President 2.0 Facebook Group, where we discuss why you should run for President.I write about all my podcasts! Check out the full post and learn what I learned at jamesaltuchershow.com------------Thank you so much for listening! If you like this episode, please rate, review, and subscribe to "The James Altucher Show" wherever you get your podcasts: Apple PodcastsiHeart RadioSpotifyFollow me on social media:YouTubeTwitterFacebookLinkedIn See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

26 Jan 20231h 11min

In this episode, James sits down with Mike Baker - a former CIA agent and author of the bestselling book Company Rules. With years of experience in covert operations and leadership, Mike shares his unique insights on strategy, corporate culture, and the importance of breaking the rules. Whether you're a startup founder or a seasoned CEO, this episode is a must-listen for anyone looking to gain a competitive edge.The book offers a candid look at the challenges and successes of the CIA, and how these can be applied to the corporate world. It also covers the importance of fostering a culture of innovation and risk-taking, as well as the need to adapt to changing circumstances. Tune in as James and Mike delve deep into the inner workings of the CIA and the lessons that can be applied to the business world. Don't miss out on this exciting and informative conversation.Get the audiobook, narrated by the author: Company Rules by Mike Baker - Audiobook | ScribdThis episode was also brought to you by Wondrium!  https://Wondrium.com/james------------Visit Notepd.com to read our idea lists & sign up to create your own!My new book Skip the Line is out! Make sure you get a copy wherever books are sold!Join the You Should Run for President 2.0 Facebook Group, where we discuss why you should run for President.I write about all my podcasts! Check out the full post and learn what I learned at jamesaltucher.com/podcast.------------Thank you so much for listening! If you like this episode, please rate, review, and subscribe  to "The James Altucher Show" wherever you get your podcasts: Apple PodcastsStitcheriHeart RadioSpotifyFollow me on Social Media:YouTubeTwitterFacebook ------------What do YOU think of the show? Head to JamesAltucherShow.com/listeners and fill out a short survey that will help us better tailor the podcast to our audience!Are you interested in getting direct answers from James about your question on a podcast? Go to JamesAltucherShow.com/AskAltucher and send in your questions to be answered on the air!------------Visit Notepd.com to read our idea lists & sign up to create your own!My new book, Skip the Line, is out! Make sure you get a copy wherever books are sold!Join the You Should Run for President 2.0 Facebook Group, where we discuss why you should run for President.I write about all my podcasts! Check out the full post and learn what I learned at jamesaltuchershow.com------------Thank you so much for listening! If you like this episode, please rate, review, and subscribe to "The James Altucher Show" wherever you get your podcasts: Apple PodcastsiHeart RadioSpotifyFollow me on social media:YouTubeTwitterFacebookLinkedIn See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

24 Jan 20231h

Is it possible to time the crypto market? I  talked to Tascha from @TashaLabs, one of the smartest people I know in the crypto space. You definitely have to check out her website, Tasha Labs, and sign up for her newsletter.  We talk in great detail, not only about how you value a cryptocurrency, not only how you can time the crypto market, but about what really are some of the future use cases of crypto that will lead to ultimately a billion users, and why this is not just a fad.Back in 1999, 2000, and 2001, everyone was still saying the internet was a fad. Well, it wasn't. Crypto's going to follow the same path and Tasha has the details.Tascha (@TaschaLabs) / TwitterTascha Labs - YouTubeTascha Labs - FREEDOM | CREATIVITY | WEALTH | CONSCIOUSNESS------------Visit Notepd.com to read our idea lists & sign up to create your own!My new book Skip the Line is out! Make sure you get a copy wherever books are sold!Join the You Should Run for President 2.0 Facebook Group, where we discuss why you should run for President.I write about all my podcasts! Check out the full post and learn what I learned at jamesaltucher.com/podcast.------------Thank you so much for listening! If you like this episode, please rate, review, and subscribe  to "The James Altucher Show" wherever you get your podcasts: Apple PodcastsStitcheriHeart RadioSpotifyFollow me on Social Media:YouTubeTwitterFacebook ------------What do YOU think of the show? Head to JamesAltucherShow.com/listeners and fill out a short survey that will help us better tailor the podcast to our audience!Are you interested in getting direct answers from James about your question on a podcast? Go to JamesAltucherShow.com/AskAltucher and send in your questions to be answered on the air!------------Visit Notepd.com to read our idea lists & sign up to create your own!My new book, Skip the Line, is out! Make sure you get a copy wherever books are sold!Join the You Should Run for President 2.0 Facebook Group, where we discuss why you should run for President.I write about all my podcasts! Check out the full post and learn what I learned at jamesaltuchershow.com------------Thank you so much for listening! If you like this episode, please rate, review, and subscribe to "The James Altucher Show" wherever you get your podcasts: Apple PodcastsiHeart RadioSpotifyFollow me on social media:YouTubeTwitterFacebookLinkedIn See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

20 Jan 20231h 2min

Uri Levine was frustrated by traffic jams on his commute and found validation that the problem was widespread. His solution was to co-found Waze, the crowd-sourced GPS navigation platform which became a major competitor to Google Maps before being acquired by Google for $1.4 billion.But Uri's new book,  Fall in Love with the Problem, Not the Solution: A Handbook for Entrepreneurs is not the story of Waze. It's not one story about entrepreneurship. It's completely an A-to-Z handbook for entrepreneurs with so many specific sections, like:How to do a demo,How to build a slide deckHow to make an effective presentationHow do you evaluate a term sheet?What metrics do you use to measure the growth of your company?How do you manage investors, fire people, and hire people?What deal terms need to be negotiated for the exit?This is such a valuable guide, it really is, and today's conversation builds upon these principles. Listen on as Uri & James discuss all of these topics and more, including:Waze built its maps using user GPS data, why did the first 1000 users download Waze? (00:11:22)The 4 Stages of Users: Innovators -> Early Adopters -> Early Majority -> Late Majority (00:13:14)What percentage of successes are problem-based vs innovation-based? (00:15:46)How do you distinguish between your users and your customers? (00:16:50)Did Waze ever consider charging subscriptions to the users? (00:18:37)What metrics do you look at to see if a business is on the right path? (00:39:25)Did Waze ever consider licensing navigation data? (00:47:39)Why is it more valuable to talk to customers who don't like you? (00:48:27)What are some techniques to cement a good first impression? (00:53:30)------------Visit Notepd.com to read our idea lists & sign up to create your own!My new book Skip the Line is out! Make sure you get a copy wherever books are sold!Join the You Should Run for President 2.0 Facebook Group, where we discuss why you should run for President.I write about all my podcasts! Check out the full post and learn what I learned at jamesaltucher.com/podcast.------------Thank you so much for listening! If you like this episode, please rate, review, and subscribe  to "The James Altucher Show" wherever you get your podcasts: Apple PodcastsStitcheriHeart RadioSpotifyFollow me on Social Media:YouTubeTwitterFacebook  ------------What do YOU think of the show? Head to JamesAltucherShow.com/listeners and fill out a short survey that will help us better tailor the podcast to our audience!Are you interested in getting direct answers from James about your question on a podcast? Go to JamesAltucherShow.com/AskAltucher and send in your questions to be answered on the air!------------Visit Notepd.com to read our idea lists & sign up to create your own!My new book, Skip the Line, is out! Make sure you get a copy wherever books are sold!Join the You Should Run for President 2.0 Facebook Group, where we discuss why you should run for President.I write about all my podcasts! Check out the full post and learn what I learned at jamesaltuchershow.com------------Thank you so much for listening! If you like this episode, please rate, review, and subscribe to "The James Altucher Show" wherever you get your podcasts: Apple PodcastsiHeart RadioSpotifyFollow me on social media:YouTubeTwitterFacebookLinkedIn See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

19 Jan 20231h

Steven Pressfield's newest book, Govt Cheese a memoir, must jump to the top of your reading list.  Both gut-wrenching and laugh-out-loud funny, his brutally honest story is a compelling page-turner. Steven's writing career spans many genres and formats, but it almost never materialized. From US Marine to advertising copywriter, schoolteacher, tractor-trailer driver, bartender, oilfield roustabout, mental hospital attendant, migrant fruit-picker, and hack screenwriter, his debut novel - The Legend of Bagger Vance - was 30 years in the making before it was published (later to become a major motion picture). Never content with one format, his non-fiction book The War of Art has now sold over a million copies globally & his historical fiction novel Gates of Fire is on the required reading list at West Point.James and Steven touch upon all manner of concepts & credos during today's conversation, among them:What role does advertising play in an author's toolkit? (00:06:10)After writing 3 unpublished novels and 9 failed screenplays, what kept Steven motivated? (00:15:17)Did Steven ever consider suicide? (00:16:43)What breakthrough made Steven's books "publishable"? (00:19:13)The 5 stages of creative development: Desire, Craft, Soft Skills, Finishing, and Killing the Ego (00:29:43)The importance of mentorship (00:31:43)What did Steven learn from re-writing a porn script? (00:47:04)James' two classes of humans: "Writers" & "Birdwatchers" (00:56:02)Belief in the other all-knowing dimension (01:02:08)------------Visit Notepd.com to read our idea lists & sign up to create your own!My new book Skip the Line is out! Make sure you get a copy wherever books are sold!Join the You Should Run for President 2.0 Facebook Group, where we discuss why you should run for President.I write about all my podcasts! Check out the full post and learn what I learned at jamesaltucher.com/podcast.------------Thank you so much for listening! If you like this episode, please rate, review, and subscribe  to "The James Altucher Show" wherever you get your podcasts: Apple PodcastsStitcheriHeart RadioSpotifyFollow me on Social Media:YouTubeTwitterFacebook ------------What do YOU think of the show? Head to JamesAltucherShow.com/listeners and fill out a short survey that will help us better tailor the podcast to our audience!Are you interested in getting direct answers from James about your question on a podcast? Go to JamesAltucherShow.com/AskAltucher and send in your questions to be answered on the air!------------Visit Notepd.com to read our idea lists & sign up to create your own!My new book, Skip the Line, is out! Make sure you get a copy wherever books are sold!Join the You Should Run for President 2.0 Facebook Group, where we discuss why you should run for President.I write about all my podcasts! Check out the full post and learn what I learned at jamesaltuchershow.com------------Thank you so much for listening! If you like this episode, please rate, review, and subscribe to "The James Altucher Show" wherever you get your podcasts: Apple PodcastsiHeart RadioSpotifyFollow me on social media:YouTubeTwitterFacebookLinkedIn See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

17 Jan 20231h 15min

Think of this as a step-by-step guide to building literally your own real estate empire! Roy "Rolly" Weaver did his first real estate transaction fresh out of college with ZERO dollars to his name and, leveraging his earnings, built a portfolio including an apartment building, a hotel, and resort-town cabins which continue to earn him hundreds of thousands of dollars in passive income annually!Listen on hear to Rolly describe his business ascent using other people's money and stick around for the details on his ongoing "chess match to the death" with James!https://www.instagram.com/rollyweaver/------------Visit Notepd.com to read our idea lists & sign up to create your own!My new book Skip the Line is out! Make sure you get a copy wherever books are sold!Join the You Should Run for President 2.0 Facebook Group, where we discuss why you should run for President.I write about all my podcasts! Check out the full post and learn what I learned at jamesaltucher.com/podcast.------------Thank you so much for listening! If you like this episode, please rate, review, and subscribe to "The James Altucher Show" wherever you get your podcasts: Apple PodcastsStitcheriHeart RadioSpotifyFollow me on Social Media:YouTubeTwitterFacebook ------------What do YOU think of the show? Head to JamesAltucherShow.com/listeners and fill out a short survey that will help us better tailor the podcast to our audience!Are you interested in getting direct answers from James about your question on a podcast? Go to JamesAltucherShow.com/AskAltucher and send in your questions to be answered on the air!------------Visit Notepd.com to read our idea lists & sign up to create your own!My new book, Skip the Line, is out! Make sure you get a copy wherever books are sold!Join the You Should Run for President 2.0 Facebook Group, where we discuss why you should run for President.I write about all my podcasts! Check out the full post and learn what I learned at jamesaltuchershow.com------------Thank you so much for listening! If you like this episode, please rate, review, and subscribe to "The James Altucher Show" wherever you get your podcasts: Apple PodcastsiHeart RadioSpotifyFollow me on social media:YouTubeTwitterFacebookLinkedIn See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

13 Jan 20231h 20min

Alex Banayan's story would have made a perfect chapter in Skip the Line: A college student hacks his way onto a game show, uses his wit to win the showcase, sells the prizes, and uses the proceeds to fund his business ambitions!Alex's bestselling book The Third Door takes readers on an unprecedented adventure-from hacking Warren Buffett's shareholders' meeting to chasing Larry King through a grocery store to celebrating in a nightclub with Lady Gaga-as Alex Banayan travels from icon to icon, decoding their success.James and Alex discuss the journey (including the crushing failures along the way), how their strategies and circles have overlapped, and what the next chapter of Alex's journey holds in store.This episode was also brought to you by Wondrium! https://Wondrium.com/james------------Visit Notepd.com to read our idea lists & sign up to create your own!My new book Skip the Line is out! Make sure you get a copy wherever books are sold!Join the You Should Run for President 2.0 Facebook Group, where we discuss why you should run for President.I write about all my podcasts! Check out the full post and learn what I learned at jamesaltucher.com/podcast.------------Thank you so much for listening! If you like this episode, please rate, review, and subscribe to "The James Altucher Show" wherever you get your podcasts: Apple PodcastsStitcheriHeart RadioSpotifyFollow me on Social Media:YouTubeTwitterFacebook ------------What do YOU think of the show? Head to JamesAltucherShow.com/listeners and fill out a short survey that will help us better tailor the podcast to our audience!Are you interested in getting direct answers from James about your question on a podcast? Go to JamesAltucherShow.com/AskAltucher and send in your questions to be answered on the air!------------Visit Notepd.com to read our idea lists & sign up to create your own!My new book, Skip the Line, is out! Make sure you get a copy wherever books are sold!Join the You Should Run for President 2.0 Facebook Group, where we discuss why you should run for President.I write about all my podcasts! Check out the full post and learn what I learned at jamesaltuchershow.com------------Thank you so much for listening! If you like this episode, please rate, review, and subscribe to "The James Altucher Show" wherever you get your podcasts: Apple PodcastsiHeart RadioSpotifyFollow me on social media:YouTubeTwitterFacebookLinkedIn See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

12 Jan 20231h 18min

Nassim Nicholas Taleb, author of Antifragile: Things That Gain from Disorder, joins The James Altucher Show to discuss technology and how different systems handle disorder. As humans evolve, technology is constantly being upgraded and replaced with new concepts and ideas. Today, we use technology in almost every aspect of our lives, but do we really understand the advantages and disadvantages of constantly being computerized?In Nassim's book The Black Swan, he highlighted for readers the unusual and unpredictable events that underlie almost everything about our world.  Now with his book Antifragile, readers are presented with why we should embrace these uncertainties. The ideas and concepts that Nassim presents today for our listeners are beyond anything you have heard before. Nassim and James talk about several ways that disorder in your life will actually make you stronger. As Nassim tells James in the interview, "If you don't have variability in your life, you are not human." The key is to take these shocks and disruptions and become - as Nassim says - antifragile, making you stronger, more creative, and better able to adapt to each new challenge you face.Nothing is certain in this world; this episode will have you questioning everything you thought you knew.------------Visit Notepd.com to read our idea lists & sign up to create your own!My new book Skip the Line is out! Make sure you get a copy wherever books are sold!Join the You Should Run for President 2.0 Facebook Group, where we discuss why you should run for President.I write about all my podcasts! Check out the full post and learn what I learned at jamesaltucher.com/podcast.------------Thank you so much for listening! If you like this episode, please rate, review, and subscribe to "The James Altucher Show" wherever you get your podcasts: Apple PodcastsStitcheriHeart RadioSpotifyFollow me on Social Media:YouTubeTwitterFacebook ------------What do YOU think of the show? Head to JamesAltucherShow.com/listeners and fill out a short survey that will help us better tailor the podcast to our audience!Are you interested in getting direct answers from James about your question on a podcast? Go to JamesAltucherShow.com/AskAltucher and send in your questions to be answered on the air!------------Visit Notepd.com to read our idea lists & sign up to create your own!My new book, Skip the Line, is out! Make sure you get a copy wherever books are sold!Join the You Should Run for President 2.0 Facebook Group, where we discuss why you should run for President.I write about all my podcasts! Check out the full post and learn what I learned at jamesaltuchershow.com------------Thank you so much for listening! If you like this episode, please rate, review, and subscribe to "The James Altucher Show" wherever you get your podcasts: Apple PodcastsiHeart RadioSpotifyFollow me on social media:YouTubeTwitterFacebookLinkedIn See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

10 Jan 20231h 41min