Podcast #65: Elizabeth Ricker on Personalizing Your Creative Process
Sep 21, 2021
Elizabeth Ricker, a neuroscience and education researcher with degrees from MIT and Harvard, dives into the transformative power of personalized neurohacking. She explores the concept of radical individualization, emphasizing that productivity strategies must cater to one's unique needs. Elizabeth shares her journey from academic aspirations to self-experimentation, challenging conventional advice. She highlights the importance of tracking personal data and the surprising efficacy of the placebo effect in boosting learning and creativity.
01:21:52
Horse Obsession Shaped Her Learning
- Elizabeth Ricker was obsessed with horses as a child and taught herself by reading and visualizing lessons nightly.
- That early self-driven learning taught her how to learn and motivated later scientific interests.
Institutions Favor A Mythical Average
- Institutions often optimize for a mythical average person and leave many people behind.
- Radical individualization is necessary to create opportunities that let diverse minds thrive.
A Horse As Academic Motivation
- A promise of a horse motivated Elizabeth to dramatically improve her school performance at age 11.
- Her father's suggestion of MIT and a horse became the turning point for focused study.
Get the Snipd Podcast app to discover more snips from this episode
Get the app 1 chevron_right 2 chevron_right 3 chevron_right 4 chevron_right 5 chevron_right 6 chevron_right 7 chevron_right 8 chevron_right 9 chevron_right 10 chevron_right 11 chevron_right 12 chevron_right 13 chevron_right 14 chevron_right 15 chevron_right 16 chevron_right 17 chevron_right 18 chevron_right 19 chevron_right 20 chevron_right 21 chevron_right
Intro
00:00 • 4min
Growing Up in Cambridge and Boarding School
04:29 • 5min
Early Passion for Horses and Self-Learning
09:09 • 6min
Discovering Neuroscience and Lab Experience
15:27 • 4min
Influential Books and Humanistic Psychology
19:05 • 6min
Career Choices: Academia vs. Startups
24:40 • 4min
A Personal Mission to Help Learners
28:37 • 4min
Shifting the Book's Focus to Self-Experimentation
32:52 • 6min
Why Self-Experimentation Solves Personalization
38:54 • 2min
Practical Self-Tracking: Tools and Metrics
41:01 • 5min
Which Neurohacks She Keeps
45:35 • 4min
Radical Individualization in Productivity
49:44 • 5min
Learning Stages and Changing Needs
55:10 • 3min
Surprising Efficacy of the Placebo Effect
58:20 • 4min
Measuring Benefits: Tests and Biological Markers
01:02:06 • 2min
Organizing Work: Pomodoro, Timers, and Flow Tracking
01:04:35 • 3min
Why Neurohacking Supports Purposeful Living
01:07:25 • 3min
Guest's Goals: Understanding People Different From You
01:10:12 • 4min
Proposed Experiment: Treat Travel as an Intervention
01:13:49 • 5min
Potential Downsides and Future Conversations
01:18:20 • 3min
Outro
01:21:06 • 34sec
#524
• Mentioned in 43 episodes
The art of learning
An Inner Journey to Optimal Performance
Josh Waitzkin
The Art of Learning takes readers through Josh Waitzkin’s unique journey to excellence in both chess and Tai Chi Chuan.
The book explains how a well-thought-out, principled approach to learning separates success from failure.
Waitzkin discusses how achievement is a function of a lifestyle that fuels a creative, resilient growth process.
He shares his methods for systematically triggering intuitive breakthroughs, honing techniques, and mastering performance psychology.
The book also emphasizes the importance of embracing defeat, making mistakes work for you, and turning weaknesses into strengths.
It is divided into sections that cover his rise in chess, his transition to Tai Chi, and the similarities in preparation and execution between the two disciplines.
#12
• Mentioned in 340 episodes
The 4 Hour Workweek
Tim Ferriss
In 'The 4-Hour Workweek', Timothy Ferriss presents a step-by-step guide to 'lifestyle design', encouraging readers to question the traditional notion of retirement and instead create a lifestyle that prioritizes freedom, adventure, and personal growth.
The book teaches how to outsource life tasks, automate income, and eliminate unnecessary work using principles like the 80/20 rule and Parkinson’s Law. Ferriss shares his personal journey from a corporate workaholic to a location-independent entrepreneur and provides practical tips and case studies to help readers achieve similar results.
The book emphasizes the importance of focusing on high-value activities, taking 'mini-retirements', and living life to the fullest in the present rather than deferring enjoyment until retirement.
#71
• Mentioned in 159 episodes
The Power of Habit
Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business
Charles Duhigg
In this book, Charles Duhigg explores the science of habit formation and change.
He explains the 'habit loop' consisting of a cue, a routine, and a reward, and how understanding this loop can help in changing bad habits or forming good ones.
The book includes numerous examples from various fields, such as how Procter & Gamble successfully marketed Febreze, how Alcoa transformed its business by focusing on safety, and how individuals like Olympic swimmer Michael Phelps and civil-rights hero Martin Luther King, Jr. benefited from specific habits.
Duhigg argues that by harnessing this science, individuals and organizations can transform their lives and businesses.
#2921
• Mentioned in 12 episodes
The willpower instinct
How Self-Control Works, Why It Matters, and What You Can Do to Get More of It
Kelly McGonigal
In 'The Willpower Instinct,' Kelly McGonigal explains the science behind self-control and provides practical strategies to enhance willpower.
The book is based on her 10-week course at Stanford University and covers topics such as the physiology of self-control, the role of stress and dopamine, and techniques like meditation and breathing exercises to improve willpower.
McGonigal breaks down willpower into three categories: 'I will' (doing things that improve your life), 'I won’t' (avoiding things that undermine your health and happiness), and 'I want' (focusing on long-term goals).
The book offers experiments and challenges to help readers apply the theories in their daily lives and improve their overall health, happiness, and productivity.
#40502
Smarter Tomorrow
How 15 Minutes of Neurohacking a Day Can Help You Work Better, Think Faster, and Get More Done
Elizabeth Ricker
In 'Smarter Tomorrow', Elizabeth R. Ricker guides readers through the cutting-edge world of neuroscience and biohacking.
The book offers a rigorous system to evaluate and implement various brain hacks, including 20 customizable self-experiments and a 12-week schedule.
Ricker shares insights from her decade-long research, interviews with experts, and personal experiments with tools like nicotine, video games, meditation, and more.
The book aims to help readers improve their cognitive and emotional abilities, sharpen memory, increase attention span, boost mood, and clear brain fog, all within a daily 15-minute routine.
#1854
• Mentioned in 17 episodes
The how of happiness
Sonja Lyubomirsky
In *The How of Happiness*, Sonja Lyubomirsky offers a detailed yet easy-to-follow plan to increase happiness.
Drawing on her extensive research, Lyubomirsky explains that while 50% of happiness is determined by genetics and 10% by life circumstances, 40% can be controlled through intentional thoughts and behaviors.
The book provides over a dozen uniquely formulated happiness-increasing strategies, including practicing optimism, savoring life's pleasures, and staying active.
It also includes diagnostic quizzes to help readers understand their 'happiness set point' and select activities that best fit their personality, resources, and goals.
Lyubomirsky emphasizes the importance of personalizing these strategies to achieve long-term happiness.
#4
• Mentioned in 501 episodes
Man's Search for Meaning
Viktor Frankl
The book is divided into two parts.
The first part recounts Frankl's harrowing experiences as a prisoner in Nazi concentration camps, including Auschwitz, between 1942 and 1945.
He describes the inhumane conditions and the psychological and emotional struggles of the prisoners.
The second part introduces Frankl's theory of logotherapy, which posits that the primary human drive is the search for meaning, rather than pleasure.
Frankl argues that meaning can be found through three main avenues: work (doing something significant), love (caring for another), and suffering (finding meaning in one's own suffering).
The book emphasizes the importance of finding purpose and meaning in life, even in the most adverse conditions, as a key factor in survival and personal growth.
#2327
• Mentioned in 14 episodes
The Art of Loving
Erich Fromm
In this classic work, Erich Fromm argues that love is not a sentiment but an art that requires effort, practice, and the development of one's total personality.
He critiques the popular conception of love and asserts that true love involves care, responsibility, respect, and knowledge.
Fromm explores various types of love, including brotherly love, motherly love, erotic love, self-love, and the love of God, emphasizing the importance of humility, courage, faith, and discipline in achieving mature and fulfilling love.
I really enjoyed this conversation with Elizabeth Ricker; it was one of those conversations where I felt as though I'd found a kindred spirit, someone who goes about life in approximately the same way as myself. Elizabeth did her undergraduate in Brain and Cognitive Sciences at MIT and her master's in Mind, Brain, and Education at Harvard. She is a creature of enthusiasm: she is driven by what strikes her as interesting, and she has no time for anything that doesn't. This made for a fun conversation. We covered a lot of ground: moving through her own story to uncover how she developed the ideas presented in her new book, Smarter Tomorrow. At first, I was a bit skeptical of her concept of "Neurohacking" — whether, as her book's subtitle claims, 15 minutes of neurohacking a day can help you work better, think faster, and get more done. But Elizabeth convinced me. Her work runs really deep. And at it's core it's driven by a philosophy of radical individualization: that what is most important in finding the "right" process is finding the process that works for you. This isn't something we fully appreciate in our productivity cultures, which often prescribes to everyone the approaches that have worked only for a few successful individuals. As Elizabeth presents it, neurohacking is all about finding the productivity niche that is idiosyncratically yours.
My newsletter: codykommers.substack.com
Subscribe at codykommers.substack.com
This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit codykommers.substack.com
My newsletter: codykommers.substack.com
Subscribe at codykommers.substack.com
This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit codykommers.substack.com