Learning to Learn with Jonathan Levi

June 8, 2017

Jonathan Levi is an experienced entrepreneur and angel investor from Silicon Valley.

After successfully selling his Inc 5,000 rated startup in April of 2011, Jonathan enlisted the help of speed-reading expert and university professor Anna Goldentouch, who tutored him in speed-reading, advanced memorization, and more. He saw incredible results while earning his MBA from INSEAD, and later went on to teach a best-selling online course on the subject. With this unique skill, Jonathan has become a proficient life hacker, optimising and “hacking” such processes as travel, sleep, language learning, and fitness.

I recently had the privilege of featuring as a guest on Jonathan’s Becoming Superhuman podcast where we talk about an engineering approaching to creating health versus the medical approach for episodic illness.

You could listen to this podcast to find out why and how to become a better learner. After all, “learning is the only skill that matters.”--Jonathan Levi.

Here’s the outline of this interview with Jonathan Levi:

[00:00:35] Becoming Superhuman podcast.

[00:00:44] Podcast with Robb Wolf.

[00:01:24] Problems learning in an academic setting.

[00:01:55] ADD.

[00:02:34] Unhappy adolescence.

[00:02:49] Methylphenidate hydrochloride (Ritalin).

[00:03:51] MBA program.

[00:04:46] Professor Anna and Dr Lev Goldentouch.

[00:06:15] Ted Talk: What If Schools Taught Us How To Learn?

[00:07:12] Humans have a heavy preference for visual learning.

[00:07:32] Newtonian physics.

[00:09:10] Dr Ben Lynch, ND.

[00:09:25] Organic acids testing, dopamine and tyrosine.

[00:10:11] Learning is the only skill that matters.

[00:10:26] Book: Becoming a Supple Leopard by Kelly Starrett.

[00:10:42] Book: The Game by Neil Strauss.

[00:11:12] Keto for brain health, fasting.

[00:11:42] Magnesium deficiency.

[00:12:09] Movement & exercise, norepinephrine.

[00:13:19] Machine learning.

[00:14:08] Book: Surely You're Joking, Mr Feynman!

[00:14:56] Harry Lorayne.

[00:15:07] Steve Jobs.

[00:16:18] Debating.

[00:19:18] Udemy.

[00:22:31] Book: Moonwalking with Einstein by Joshua Foer.

[00:25:37] Method of loci.

[00:26:04] Neurons & synapses.

[00:27:20] Hippocampus.

[00:28:59] 5-HT4 serotonin receptor.

[00:30:00] Book: The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain.

[00:30:32] Ron White memory champion.

[00:31:34] Anki flashcard software.

[00:33:16] PageRank.

[00:34:02] Clarke, Robert, et al. "Effects of homocysteine lowering with B vitamins on cognitive aging: meta-analysis of 11 trials with cognitive data on 22,000 individuals." The American journal of clinical nutrition 100.2 (2014): 657-666.

[00:34:24] Spritzlet.

[00:35:25] Evelyn Wood speed reading technique.

[00:35:52] Pre-reading.

[00:37:08] “Give me six hours to chop down a tree and I will spend the first four sharpening the axe.”--Abraham Lincoln.

[00:38:39] The visual abstract.

[00:40:27] Caring about the thing that you're trying to remember.

[00:40:50] AcroYoga.

[00:43:21] Malcolm Knowles.

[00:43:58] Book: The China Study by T. Colin Campbell and Denise Minger rebuttal.

[00:46:17] Become a SuperHuman: Naturally & Safely Boost Testosterone.

[00:47:12] jle.vi/drugs

[00:47:37] Sam Harris.

[00:47:50] jle.vi/kombucha

[00:48:13] Book: Stealing Fire by Steven Kotler.

[00:49:39] Funktion-One sound system.

[00:50:55] Meditation.

[00:51:54] Modulating cortisol response.

[00:53:17] becomeasuperlearner.com

[00:53:42] becomingasuperhuman.com

[00:54:49] Wim Hof.

[00:55:38] Dr Bryan Walsh, ND.