With Joe Wehbe

Welcome back to our mini-series on Peter Thiel's thoughts on education, career and learning. Today we begin one of two episodes unpacking his phenomenal 2014 book Zero to One which again, funnily enough, is about innovation and business rather than education. So why are we unpacking it? Because this is the real world outcome that education should drive, not education for education's sake. Thiel has some golden ideas about business that go against the typical things you hear, and they really opened my mind a whole lot. I also really recommend the actual book itself but the ideas are also unpacked in this corresponding blog post: https://withjoewehbe.com/2022/01/14/11-big-takeaways-from-peter-thiels-book-zero-to-one/ Sign up to The Doorman. One email a week with the top five insights from all podcast episodes, links to the best episodes, and giveaways exclusive to subscribers valued at $100+ Sign up at https://withjoewehbe.com/everything-joe/

A bit of a tangent today but building on themes central to Peter Thiel, especially the concept of a monopoly – why a pernicious one now exists in education and how it constrains thinking, especially self-directed/independent thinking and the ability for people to think about alternatives. Luke and Joe also talk about homeschooling models and why they're so often handicapped by the accreditation system, and why The Constant Student targets people who have already finished high school as a pose to younger children. There is more specific unpacking of Peter Thiel again in tomorrow's episode. Sign up to The Doorman. One email a week with the top five insights from all podcast episodes, links to the best episodes, and giveaways exclusive to subscribers valued at $100+ Sign up at https://withjoewehbe.com/everything-joe/

Welcome to our third of eight episode on Peter Thiel's thoughts applied to learning, career and education. Quite a controversial one today linking college to an atheistic church... what's he getting at?  There’s a priestly/professorial class that doesn’t do much You have to get a degree or you ‘go to hell’ — it’s your saving grace in this society. My thoughts: Religion fills the huge void in secular society for values, ethics, spiritual and existential questions, how and why to live. Our social governance systems seem more concerned with economics and comfort. Sign up to The Doorman. One email a week with the top five insights from all podcast episodes, links to the best episodes, and giveaways exclusive to subscribers valued at $100+ Sign up at https://withjoewehbe.com/everything-joe/

This mini-series on Peter Thiel's thinking on education, career and learning began at episode 195 and continues to 202! This episode has a corresponding blog post below with the 5 reasons to explain our 'education bubble' and the risks we face as a society. You can also sign up down the bottom for the newsletter which links to all episodes released that week and the biggest takeaway from the podcast. Corresponding Blog Post: https://withjoewehbe.com/2022/01/09/peter-thiels-thoughts-on-the-education-bubble/ Sign up to The Doorman. One email a week with the top five insights from all podcast episodes, links to the best episodes, and giveaways exclusive to subscribers valued at $100+ Sign up at https://withjoewehbe.com/everything-joe/

Our next thought leader to review is Peter Thiel. Following on from our episodes on Nassim Taleb (181-194) the next modern thinker we're unpacking is PayPal Co-Founder Peter Thiel, the remarkable thinker, investor and contrarian. He has some fascinating thoughts about education and innovation – in this first of eight episodes on Thiel (195-202) we unpack his ideas on 'what sort of product is education?' Thiel asks, is it an investment product? A consumption good? (Four year party)... an inflated insurance policy? OR... a crazy tournament. Here Luke and Joe unpack it, and then be sure to come back again for tomorrow's next short, bite-sized episode on Thiel.  https://withjoewehbe.com/2022/01/09/peter-thiels-thoughts-on-the-education-bubble/ Sign up to The Doorman. One email a week with the top five insights from all podcast episodes, links to the best episodes, and giveaways exclusive to subscribers valued at $100+ Sign up at https://withjoewehbe.com/everything-joe/

Episode #194 of the With Joe Wehbe Podcast wraps up the series on Nassim Taleb (181-194). Don’t be overwhelmed — fine to go over it, I spent a month studying his book and I still had to leave stuff out of this mini-series! Big takeaway, think like an investor, not an academic. Risk-taking is more important than knowledge, will help you learn more, life is random and people overestimate their control and try to sound smart by making all sorts of predictions. No one knows anyting on a specific level, but we can be sure of overarching things — if you have good principles you do well. Investors also are more about their judgement (remember the Green Lumber Fallacy) Everyone should be entrepreneurial, but not everyone should be an entrepreneur You’re taught things because they’re easy not because they’re the best things to learn, you go with the current of society because it’s easier than creating your own path, you go with the predictions of the interventionists because it’s easier than standing up for what you believe in and having your own opinion. There are a lot of things that can make up for a ‘lack of intelligence’ Coming Up Series on Peter Thiel, Then Alan Watts and Naval Ravikant Check out the summaries on the Taleb episodes below at the Doorman! https://thedoorman.substack.com/p/5-reasons-risk-taking-is-more-important https://thedoorman.substack.com/p/how-can-idiots-beat-experts-5-ways 

Never heard of the term ‘optionality’? Don’t worry, few people have, but I argue it’s one of the most applicable of Nassim Taleb’s ideas to career, especially unconventional careers. We do a full deconstruction in this episode and I give Luke examples on how to implement it. It’s particularly powerful because, as Taleb says, it overcomes the need for intelligence, smarts, cognitive ability ‘and all these other things happening in our brains cells’. Starting from episode 181, we’re doing a series on Nassim Nicholas Taleb, his book Antifragile and the application of his ideas to learning, education and careers. Full blog post summarsing the ideas in this podcast series. https://withjoewehbe.com/2022/01/02/applying-antifragile-and-nassim-talebs-ideas-to-education-learning-and-career/ Sign up to The Doorman. One email a week with the top five insights from all podcast episodes, links to the best episodes, and giveaways exclusive to subscribers valued at $100+ Sign up at https://withjoewehbe.com/everything-joe/

Why might knowledge be over-valued? Starting from episode 181, we’re doing a series on Nassim Nicholas Taleb, his book Antifragile and the application of his ideas to learning, education and careers. Full blog post summarsing the ideas in this podcast series. https://withjoewehbe.com/2022/01/02/applying-antifragile-and-nassim-talebs-ideas-to-education-learning-and-career/ Sign up to The Doorman. One email a week with the top five insights from all podcast episodes, links to the best episodes, and giveaways exclusive to subscribers valued at $100+ Sign up at https://withjoewehbe.com/everything-joe/

Taleb argues that medicine took more lives than it saved up until Penicillin was invented! He also thinks that the Bill Gates Foundation is repeating mistakes made by Mao Zedong! How can you avoid the mistakes typically made by the super intelligent experts!? Starting from episode 181, we’re doing a series on Nassim Nicholas Taleb, his book Antifragile and the application of his ideas to learning, education and careers. Full blog post summarsing the ideas in this podcast series. https://withjoewehbe.com/2022/01/02/applying-antifragile-and-nassim-talebs-ideas-to-education-learning-and-career/ Sign up to The Doorman. One email a week with the top five insights from all podcast episodes, links to the best episodes, and giveaways exclusive to subscribers valued at $100+ Sign up at https://withjoewehbe.com/everything-joe/

What’s a loser? Are you one? Well, according to Taleb I’m a loser most days of the year. In this episode, we talk about overcoming the inclination to whinge and blame others for our failings, as well as the concept of ethics and why it is an ingredient that is missing from everyday life. Starting from episode 181, we’re doing a series on Nassim Nicholas Taleb, his book Antifragile and the application of his ideas to learning, education and careers. Full blog post summarsing the ideas in this podcast series. https://withjoewehbe.com/2022/01/02/applying-antifragile-and-nassim-talebs-ideas-to-education-learning-and-career/ Sign up to The Doorman. One email a week with the top five insights from all podcast episodes, links to the best episodes, and giveaways exclusive to subscribers valued at $100+ Sign up at https://withjoewehbe.com/everything-joe/