WEBVTT 1 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:03.600 I want to ask you a question that's going to make you a little bit uncomfortable. 2 00:00:03.600 --> 00:00:07.320 What if sounding smart is actually making you stupid? 3 00:00:07.320 --> 00:00:11.080 Stay with me here because this is one of those ideas that seems counterintuitive at first 4 00:00:11.080 --> 00:00:16.680 but once you see it you really can't unsee it and it explains why some people read 50 5 00:00:16.680 --> 00:00:22.440 books a year and stay broke while other people read three books and they build fortunes. 6 00:00:22.440 --> 00:00:26.680 This is about the difference between actually knowing something and just being able to talk 7 00:00:26.680 --> 00:00:27.680 about it. 8 00:00:27.680 --> 00:00:32.160 I promise you by the end of this episode you are going to realize that you don't know 9 00:00:32.160 --> 00:00:34.440 nearly as much as you think you do. 10 00:00:34.440 --> 00:00:37.520 Let me start with a story that's going to illustrate this perfectly. 11 00:00:37.520 --> 00:00:43.520 In 1918 Max Planck won the Nobel Prize in Physics for his groundbreaking work in quantum 12 00:00:43.520 --> 00:00:44.520 mechanics. 13 00:00:44.520 --> 00:00:47.960 This was one of the most brilliant minds in human history we're talking about. 14 00:00:47.960 --> 00:00:52.320 Now after winning the prize he toured all over Germany giving lectures about his work, 15 00:00:52.320 --> 00:00:55.400 same lecture, different city, night after night after night. 16 00:00:55.400 --> 00:01:00.120 Now Planck had a chauffeur who drove him to every single talk and this chauffeur, let's 17 00:01:00.120 --> 00:01:03.000 call him Hans, attended every lecture. 18 00:01:03.000 --> 00:01:06.920 He sat in the back of the room, night after night, listening to Planck explain quantum 19 00:01:06.920 --> 00:01:09.840 mechanics to a room full of professors and students. 20 00:01:09.840 --> 00:01:14.760 Now after hearing the same lecture dozens of times Hans could recite it word for word. 21 00:01:14.760 --> 00:01:19.760 He memorized the whole thing, every pause, every emphasis, every technical term. 22 00:01:19.760 --> 00:01:25.440 One night Hans says to Planck professor, you must be exhausted giving that same talk 23 00:01:25.440 --> 00:01:26.600 over and over. 24 00:01:26.600 --> 00:01:29.960 How about tonight I give the lecture and you sit in the audience. 25 00:01:29.960 --> 00:01:32.400 I know it by heart, nobody will know the difference. 26 00:01:32.400 --> 00:01:35.280 So Planck thought this was hilarious and he agreed. 27 00:01:35.280 --> 00:01:41.240 So Hans gets up on stage dressed in Planck's coat and delivers a flawless lecture. 28 00:01:41.240 --> 00:01:42.320 Perfect delivery. 29 00:01:42.320 --> 00:01:48.600 All the right scientific terms, the exact same pacing, the audience is completely captivated. 30 00:01:48.600 --> 00:01:53.080 They have no idea they're listening to a chauffeur instead of a Nobel Prize winner. 31 00:01:53.080 --> 00:01:58.160 Now the lecture ends, standing ovation, everyone's impressed, and comes a Q&A session. 32 00:01:58.160 --> 00:02:02.760 So a professor in the back row stands up and asks a highly technical question about 33 00:02:02.760 --> 00:02:08.160 one of the concepts, a real question that requires actual understanding to answer. 34 00:02:08.160 --> 00:02:09.680 And Hans doesn't even flinch. 35 00:02:09.680 --> 00:02:15.200 Though missing a beat he says, I'm surprised that in an advanced city like Munich, I would 36 00:02:15.200 --> 00:02:17.160 get such an elementary question. 37 00:02:17.160 --> 00:02:22.880 In fact, I'm going to ask my chauffeur to answer it for you and then he points to Planck 38 00:02:22.880 --> 00:02:24.400 sitting in the audience. 39 00:02:24.400 --> 00:02:26.640 Now Charlie Munger loved this story. 40 00:02:26.640 --> 00:02:31.080 He told it all the time and he used it to illustrate something he called the difference 41 00:02:31.080 --> 00:02:33.840 between real knowledge and chauffeur knowledge. 42 00:02:33.840 --> 00:02:38.720 Let me break down what he meant by that because this distinction is absolutely critical. 43 00:02:38.720 --> 00:02:41.360 Real knowledge is deep, it's flexible. 44 00:02:41.360 --> 00:02:44.400 You can apply it in new contexts you've never seen before. 45 00:02:44.400 --> 00:02:47.080 You can adapt it, you can improvise with it. 46 00:02:47.080 --> 00:02:52.160 You earned it through hours of struggle, through trial and error, through actually wrestling 47 00:02:52.160 --> 00:02:54.120 with the concepts until you understood them. 48 00:02:54.120 --> 00:02:59.240 But chauffeur knowledge is performance, it's memorization, it's enough to sound impressive 49 00:02:59.240 --> 00:03:01.120 at a cocktail party or in a meeting. 50 00:03:01.120 --> 00:03:05.840 You can recite it, you can reference it, you sound smart, but the moment someone asks 51 00:03:05.840 --> 00:03:09.840 you to go deeper, the moment someone asks you a question you didn't prepare for, it 52 00:03:09.840 --> 00:03:10.840 completely collapses. 53 00:03:10.840 --> 00:03:11.840 You're exposed. 54 00:03:11.840 --> 00:03:14.640 Here's the uncomfortable truth that I need you to hear. 55 00:03:14.640 --> 00:03:18.840 First of what you think you know is chauffeur knowledge, you're drowning in it and you're 56 00:03:18.840 --> 00:03:24.440 calling it learning and it's making you worse at everything that actually matters. 57 00:03:24.440 --> 00:03:25.440 Let me show you what I mean. 58 00:03:25.440 --> 00:03:26.440 Picture two people. 59 00:03:26.440 --> 00:03:30.080 They both read the same business book, let's say it's a popular one, something everyone's 60 00:03:30.080 --> 00:03:31.080 talking about. 61 00:03:31.080 --> 00:03:35.880 Now person A highlights all the good passages as they read, they take notes in the margins 62 00:03:35.880 --> 00:03:39.360 and when they're done they post their favorite quotes on LinkedIn or Twitter, they reference 63 00:03:39.360 --> 00:03:43.560 the book in meetings, they sound brilliant, everyone's impressed with how well read they 64 00:03:43.560 --> 00:03:44.560 are. 65 00:03:44.560 --> 00:03:49.240 They read the same book, but they read it twice and then they spend a whole week trying 66 00:03:49.240 --> 00:03:53.840 to apply just one concept from that book to their actual work and they try it and it 67 00:03:53.840 --> 00:03:57.920 doesn't work quite right and they fail and then they adjust their approach and then they 68 00:03:57.920 --> 00:04:01.560 try again and then they struggle with it until they figure it out. 69 00:04:01.560 --> 00:04:05.800 Now fast forward six months, person A has read 12 more books, they can reference all of 70 00:04:05.800 --> 00:04:10.560 them, they know all the frameworks, they can drop impressive concepts and conversations, 71 00:04:10.560 --> 00:04:12.600 they sound incredibly knowledgeable. 72 00:04:12.600 --> 00:04:17.400 If you talk to them, you think wow, this person is really smart, person B has only read 73 00:04:17.400 --> 00:04:22.240 three books, total in those six months, but they've actually changed how they operate, 74 00:04:22.240 --> 00:04:26.480 they actually internalize those concepts into how they work, they've tested them against 75 00:04:26.480 --> 00:04:28.720 reality, they've made them their own. 76 00:04:28.720 --> 00:04:31.280 So let me ask you, who actually knows more? 77 00:04:31.280 --> 00:04:37.560 See, we confuse consumption with comprehension, we confuse exposure with understanding. 78 00:04:37.560 --> 00:04:42.920 We think that being able to reference something is the same as actually knowing it and it's 79 00:04:42.920 --> 00:04:43.920 not. 80 00:04:43.920 --> 00:04:47.360 So let me show you what the chauffeur approach looks like. 81 00:04:47.360 --> 00:04:50.040 You read the summaries and the highlights instead of the full book. 82 00:04:50.040 --> 00:04:53.120 You memorize impressive frameworks so you can reference them. 83 00:04:53.120 --> 00:04:57.240 You drop those references and conversations to sound smart and you contribute in meetings 84 00:04:57.240 --> 00:05:01.320 by quoting things that you've read, but you never actually test whether you understand 85 00:05:01.320 --> 00:05:02.320 any of it. 86 00:05:02.320 --> 00:05:04.280 You never try to use it, you just collect it. 87 00:05:04.280 --> 00:05:06.040 So what happens when you do this? 88 00:05:06.040 --> 00:05:10.640 You build a massive library of things that you've heard about but you can't actually use 89 00:05:10.640 --> 00:05:15.080 and you become someone who can talk about everything but can't do anything. 90 00:05:15.080 --> 00:05:18.880 Now here's what the real knowledge approach looks like. 91 00:05:18.880 --> 00:05:23.320 You read the hard way, slowly, actually thinking about what you're reading. 92 00:05:23.320 --> 00:05:27.080 You try to apply only one concept to something real. 93 00:05:27.080 --> 00:05:31.560 You fail at applying it and that failure forces you to figure out why it didn't work and 94 00:05:31.560 --> 00:05:36.160 then you rebuild your understanding based on what reality taught you and what happens 95 00:05:36.160 --> 00:05:37.160 when you do this? 96 00:05:37.160 --> 00:05:41.880 Well you know fewer things but you actually know them and you can use them and you can 97 00:05:41.880 --> 00:05:42.880 adapt them. 98 00:05:42.880 --> 00:05:47.840 They're tools in your toolkit, not just words in your vocabulary and the difference isn't 99 00:05:47.840 --> 00:05:50.480 just depth, it's resilience. 100 00:05:50.480 --> 00:05:52.760 Real knowledge holds up under pressure. 101 00:05:52.760 --> 00:05:54.560 It holds up under questioning. 102 00:05:54.560 --> 00:05:57.320 It holds up when you actually try to use it. 103 00:05:57.320 --> 00:06:02.320 Go for knowledge sounds great until someone asks you to actually do something with it and 104 00:06:02.320 --> 00:06:05.920 then it falls apart and here's what nobody talks about. 105 00:06:05.920 --> 00:06:12.240 The internet has made show for knowledge more valuable than ever before and real knowledge 106 00:06:12.240 --> 00:06:13.560 almost extinct. 107 00:06:13.560 --> 00:06:18.320 You can skim a summary, you can screenshot a quote, you can share it, you can look smart 108 00:06:18.320 --> 00:06:22.960 in about 90 seconds and if you can look smart in 90 seconds why would you spend 20 hours 109 00:06:22.960 --> 00:06:27.800 actually struggling with the concept when you can sound just as impressive with 20 minutes 110 00:06:27.800 --> 00:06:28.800 of skimming? 111 00:06:28.800 --> 00:06:33.680 And the answer is because only one of those builds your ability to actually think. 112 00:06:33.680 --> 00:06:37.920 There's another famous person I want to talk about, Richard Feynman, he was a physicist, 113 00:06:37.920 --> 00:06:43.560 one of the greatest minds of the 20th century and he had a test for whether you actually understood 114 00:06:43.560 --> 00:06:45.400 something and it's very simple. 115 00:06:45.400 --> 00:06:50.200 If you claim to understand something, explain it to a child, not using jargon, not using 116 00:06:50.280 --> 00:06:55.520 the fancy vocabulary that you memorized from the textbook in plain simple language that 117 00:06:55.520 --> 00:06:58.040 a 12 year old could follow, explain it. 118 00:06:58.040 --> 00:07:02.160 And if you can't do that, you don't understand it, you've just memorized it. 119 00:07:02.160 --> 00:07:07.080 The Feynman would give lectures on quantum physics, one of the most complex subjects in 120 00:07:07.080 --> 00:07:09.760 all of science and anyone could follow them. 121 00:07:09.760 --> 00:07:13.640 Not because he dumbed it down, he hated that phrase, but because he understood the concepts 122 00:07:13.640 --> 00:07:17.920 deeply enough to translate them into simple language, most experts can't do this. 123 00:07:17.920 --> 00:07:23.640 They hide behind terminology, they use jargon as a shield, but here's how you spot it. 124 00:07:23.640 --> 00:07:28.760 Listen to someone explain their field using nothing but industry jargon and technical terms 125 00:07:28.760 --> 00:07:30.000 that show for knowledge. 126 00:07:30.000 --> 00:07:32.040 They're reciting the lecture they memorized. 127 00:07:32.040 --> 00:07:37.160 They can't translate it into simple language because they don't actually understand the underlying 128 00:07:37.160 --> 00:07:38.160 principles. 129 00:07:38.160 --> 00:07:41.320 They know the words, but they don't know what the words mean. 130 00:07:41.320 --> 00:07:44.680 And this pattern shows up everywhere once you start looking for it. 131 00:07:44.680 --> 00:07:49.840 It could be the entrepreneur who can recite all the startup frameworks, lean startup, product 132 00:07:49.840 --> 00:07:54.920 market fit, growth loops, network effects, but they can't explain why their actual business 133 00:07:54.920 --> 00:07:55.920 is failing. 134 00:07:55.920 --> 00:08:01.360 It could be the fitness coach who's memorized all the nutrition terminology, macros, metabolic 135 00:08:01.360 --> 00:08:07.080 adaptation, insulin response, but they can't tell you why their client isn't getting 136 00:08:07.080 --> 00:08:08.240 results, right? 137 00:08:08.240 --> 00:08:13.000 It could be the investor who quotes Warren Buffett and Charlie Munger in every conversation, 138 00:08:13.000 --> 00:08:16.640 but they're losing money in the market because they never actually understood the principles 139 00:08:16.640 --> 00:08:18.320 behind those quotes. 140 00:08:18.320 --> 00:08:22.920 They just memorized the quotes and they all sound smart. 141 00:08:22.920 --> 00:08:29.400 They can all perform in conversation, but none of them can actually perform when it matters. 142 00:08:29.400 --> 00:08:35.760 Now the revelation is that real knowledge is what's left after you strip away all the 143 00:08:35.760 --> 00:08:36.760 vocabulary. 144 00:08:36.760 --> 00:08:40.200 Can you explain your expertise using only simple words? 145 00:08:40.200 --> 00:08:43.800 Can you apply your knowledge in a context you've never seen before? 146 00:08:43.800 --> 00:08:47.160 Can you teach it to someone who knows absolutely nothing about the subject? 147 00:08:47.160 --> 00:08:50.040 And if you can't do these things, you're a chauffeur. 148 00:08:50.040 --> 00:08:55.280 And the moment someone asks you a real question, something that you didn't prepare for, you're 149 00:08:55.280 --> 00:08:56.280 exposed. 150 00:08:56.280 --> 00:08:59.080 Now, Feynman learned this lesson very early. 151 00:08:59.080 --> 00:09:02.360 He tells this story about his father teaching him the difference between knowing the name 152 00:09:02.360 --> 00:09:04.120 of something and knowing something. 153 00:09:04.120 --> 00:09:08.460 He did go for walks in the woods together when Feynman was a kid and his father would 154 00:09:08.460 --> 00:09:11.140 point out a bird and say, see that bird? 155 00:09:11.140 --> 00:09:14.860 An Italian, it's called a chuto la pitada. 156 00:09:14.860 --> 00:09:17.820 In Chinese, it's called a chong long ta. 157 00:09:17.820 --> 00:09:19.380 In French, it has another name. 158 00:09:19.380 --> 00:09:24.180 But after you've learned all those names and all those languages, you know absolutely 159 00:09:24.180 --> 00:09:25.460 nothing about the bird. 160 00:09:25.460 --> 00:09:29.340 You only know what people call the bird in different places. 161 00:09:29.340 --> 00:09:30.620 That's not knowledge. 162 00:09:30.620 --> 00:09:35.620 Now that bird, if you actually watch it, you'll see it pecking at its feathers. 163 00:09:35.620 --> 00:09:36.860 It's looking for lice. 164 00:09:36.860 --> 00:09:39.540 The lice eat the proteins in the feathers. 165 00:09:39.540 --> 00:09:44.820 The bird has to get rid of them or the feathers won't work properly and it won't be able 166 00:09:44.820 --> 00:09:45.820 to fly. 167 00:09:45.820 --> 00:09:46.820 That's knowledge. 168 00:09:46.820 --> 00:09:52.660 The most people spend their lives collecting names, frameworks, concepts, terms, labels. 169 00:09:52.660 --> 00:09:56.180 And they mistake the label for the thing itself. 170 00:09:56.180 --> 00:10:00.540 And the business world is absolutely full of people who know all the names. 171 00:10:00.540 --> 00:10:04.820 They can say product market fit and network effects and compounding and asymmetric bets 172 00:10:04.820 --> 00:10:08.660 and second order thinking and they drop these terms constantly. 173 00:10:08.660 --> 00:10:14.940 But when you ask them to explain how to actually find product market fit for their specific 174 00:10:14.940 --> 00:10:16.780 product, it's silence. 175 00:10:16.780 --> 00:10:19.180 Or they just repeat the definition they memorized. 176 00:10:19.180 --> 00:10:20.220 They know the word. 177 00:10:20.220 --> 00:10:21.580 They don't know the thing. 178 00:10:21.580 --> 00:10:25.580 And this is also why AI is so dangerous, especially for learning right now. 179 00:10:25.580 --> 00:10:28.460 Because you can ask chachypetit to explain everything. 180 00:10:28.460 --> 00:10:29.460 Absolutely anything. 181 00:10:29.460 --> 00:10:33.460 And it'll give you a perfect, articulated, well structured answer. 182 00:10:33.460 --> 00:10:37.460 And you'll read it and you feel like you understand and you'll move on to the next 183 00:10:37.460 --> 00:10:38.460 thing. 184 00:10:38.460 --> 00:10:39.580 But you didn't struggle with it. 185 00:10:39.580 --> 00:10:40.980 You didn't try to apply it. 186 00:10:40.980 --> 00:10:45.220 You didn't fail and rebuild your understanding based on that failure. 187 00:10:45.220 --> 00:10:47.340 You just collected another name for a bird. 188 00:10:47.340 --> 00:10:52.180 Real knowledge comes from the gap between hearing something and actually understanding it. 189 00:10:52.180 --> 00:10:53.580 And that gap is very uncomfortable. 190 00:10:53.580 --> 00:10:54.580 It's very frustrating. 191 00:10:54.580 --> 00:10:56.260 It requires real work. 192 00:10:56.260 --> 00:10:59.620 It requires you to sit with confusion and work through it. 193 00:10:59.620 --> 00:11:00.940 Show for knowledge. 194 00:11:00.940 --> 00:11:03.220 Let's you skip that gap entirely. 195 00:11:03.220 --> 00:11:07.060 It gives you the performance without the understanding and it lets you sound smart 196 00:11:07.060 --> 00:11:08.740 without being smart. 197 00:11:08.740 --> 00:11:14.460 And every single day you choose the easy path, your ability to think actually atrophies. 198 00:11:14.460 --> 00:11:15.700 Just a little bit more. 199 00:11:15.700 --> 00:11:19.620 Alright, so how do you actually, it is great information. 200 00:11:19.620 --> 00:11:24.580 But how do you actually separate what you know from what you just memorized? 201 00:11:24.580 --> 00:11:25.580 How do you test yourself? 202 00:11:25.580 --> 00:11:28.860 Well, there's a five step process I like to call the blank page test. 203 00:11:28.860 --> 00:11:31.380 And I want you to actually do this, not just listen to it and move on. 204 00:11:31.380 --> 00:11:34.620 This is one of those things that will actually reveal truth about yourself that you're not 205 00:11:34.620 --> 00:11:36.540 going to like, which are the most powerful truth. 206 00:11:36.540 --> 00:11:37.980 The blank page test. 207 00:11:37.980 --> 00:11:39.140 Step one. 208 00:11:39.140 --> 00:11:43.980 Pick one thing you know, and I say no, in the hair quotes, choose a concept, a framework 209 00:11:43.980 --> 00:11:47.180 or a skill that you reference often. 210 00:11:47.180 --> 00:11:50.460 Sometimes you'd confidently explain this thing at a dinner party. 211 00:11:50.460 --> 00:11:53.620 Sometimes you've read about it, studied it, or maybe you've used it in your work. 212 00:11:53.620 --> 00:11:55.860 It could be a business strategy you swear by. 213 00:11:55.860 --> 00:11:58.460 It could be a mental model that you quote all the time. 214 00:11:58.460 --> 00:12:02.220 It could be a skill that you've learned, it could be a field that you claim to be an 215 00:12:02.220 --> 00:12:03.220 expert in. 216 00:12:03.220 --> 00:12:04.700 I want you to write it down. 217 00:12:04.700 --> 00:12:05.700 Write down. 218 00:12:05.700 --> 00:12:06.700 I understand blank. 219 00:12:06.700 --> 00:12:07.700 Take 30 seconds. 220 00:12:07.700 --> 00:12:10.180 Brutally honest about what you claim to know. 221 00:12:10.180 --> 00:12:11.340 This is where it gets real. 222 00:12:11.340 --> 00:12:14.820 Open a blank document on your computer, you can also use a piece of paper if you're old 223 00:12:14.820 --> 00:12:15.820 school. 224 00:12:15.820 --> 00:12:19.300 And set a timer for 10 minutes and explain that concept to somebody. 225 00:12:19.300 --> 00:12:20.300 Write it out. 226 00:12:20.300 --> 00:12:23.180 Explain that concept to someone who knows absolutely nothing about it. 227 00:12:23.180 --> 00:12:28.420 And you can only use simple words, no jargon, no industry terms, no references 228 00:12:28.420 --> 00:12:32.020 to other frameworks or concepts that they wouldn't know. 229 00:12:32.020 --> 00:12:36.260 Write it on this blank page like you're explaining it to a smart 12 year old kid. 230 00:12:36.260 --> 00:12:42.420 And the rule is, if you have to use a technical term, you must immediately define it in simple 231 00:12:42.420 --> 00:12:45.180 language right there in the explanation. 232 00:12:45.180 --> 00:12:47.860 Now, here's what this reveals. 233 00:12:47.860 --> 00:12:51.220 Real knowledge flows naturally out of you. 234 00:12:51.220 --> 00:12:55.820 You can explain it clearly without reaching for this fancy vocabulary. 235 00:12:55.820 --> 00:12:57.780 Go for knowledge, stutters. 236 00:12:57.780 --> 00:13:02.580 You'll find yourself reaching for the exact phrases that you read, trying to remember how 237 00:13:02.580 --> 00:13:05.460 someone else explained it, and you'll struggle to fill that page. 238 00:13:05.460 --> 00:13:09.500 And if you struggle, if you can't finish, if you realize that you're just stringing 239 00:13:09.500 --> 00:13:12.820 together phrases that you've heard somewhere, congratulations. 240 00:13:12.820 --> 00:13:16.580 You've just discovered that you don't actually know this, you memorized it, but you don't 241 00:13:16.580 --> 00:13:17.580 know it. 242 00:13:17.580 --> 00:13:18.580 Now, step three. 243 00:13:18.580 --> 00:13:20.180 Here's the thing about real knowledge. 244 00:13:20.180 --> 00:13:21.260 It does transfer. 245 00:13:21.260 --> 00:13:25.620 You can take a principle from one domain and apply it to something completely different. 246 00:13:25.620 --> 00:13:27.780 Show for knowledge doesn't transfer. 247 00:13:27.780 --> 00:13:32.380 It only works in the same context, exact same context where you learned it. 248 00:13:32.380 --> 00:13:37.180 So take the concept you just explained if you were able to, and now apply it to a completely 249 00:13:37.180 --> 00:13:39.460 different context than you learned it in. 250 00:13:39.460 --> 00:13:43.740 So some examples could be what you learned about compounding and investing great. 251 00:13:43.740 --> 00:13:46.580 Now apply that same relationship to relationships. 252 00:13:46.580 --> 00:13:48.660 How does compounding work in friendships? 253 00:13:48.660 --> 00:13:51.460 To understand leverage in business, apply it to learning. 254 00:13:51.460 --> 00:13:53.540 How do you create leverage and how you learn? 255 00:13:53.540 --> 00:13:58.060 If you know second order thinking from business decisions, apply it to your health choices. 256 00:13:58.060 --> 00:14:00.580 What are the second order effects of your diet? 257 00:14:00.580 --> 00:14:01.980 And this is your daily practice. 258 00:14:01.980 --> 00:14:04.220 Take one concept you learned this week. 259 00:14:04.220 --> 00:14:08.020 Force yourself to use it in three completely different contexts. 260 00:14:08.020 --> 00:14:10.980 If it only works in the original context, you learned it in. 261 00:14:10.980 --> 00:14:12.820 You didn't learn the principle. 262 00:14:12.820 --> 00:14:14.740 You memorized an example. 263 00:14:14.740 --> 00:14:15.740 Step four. 264 00:14:15.740 --> 00:14:16.860 Teach it without your notes. 265 00:14:16.860 --> 00:14:18.500 This is the ultimate test and a terrifying. 266 00:14:18.500 --> 00:14:20.460 You'll find someone who wants to learn what you know. 267 00:14:20.580 --> 00:14:23.700 Could be a friend, a colleague, someone in your family, a stranger on the internet, 268 00:14:23.700 --> 00:14:24.980 and teach it to them. 269 00:14:24.980 --> 00:14:29.340 No slides, no notes, no pulling up the article you read or the book you highlighted. 270 00:14:29.340 --> 00:14:32.860 Just you explaining it from memory and understanding. 271 00:14:32.860 --> 00:14:34.460 And here's what happens. 272 00:14:34.460 --> 00:14:36.860 If you have real knowledge, you can improvise. 273 00:14:36.860 --> 00:14:39.820 When they ask unexpected questions, you can answer them. 274 00:14:39.820 --> 00:14:41.460 You can make connections on the fly. 275 00:14:41.460 --> 00:14:44.820 You can make it clear using different examples and analogies. 276 00:14:44.820 --> 00:14:49.060 If you have show for knowledge, you panic the moment they ask something you didn't prepare for. 277 00:14:49.060 --> 00:14:50.060 You'll stumble. 278 00:14:50.060 --> 00:14:51.260 You'll say, oh, that's a good question. 279 00:14:51.260 --> 00:14:52.260 Then you can't answer it. 280 00:14:52.260 --> 00:14:53.420 You reach for your notes. 281 00:14:53.420 --> 00:14:58.180 So I want you to try to teach one thing that you learned this week to another person completely 282 00:14:58.180 --> 00:14:59.180 from memory. 283 00:14:59.180 --> 00:15:05.460 And the gaps in your explanation will reveal the gaps in your understanding with this brutal, 284 00:15:05.460 --> 00:15:07.540 crystal clear clarity. 285 00:15:07.540 --> 00:15:11.380 And this brings us to step five, the reality test. 286 00:15:11.380 --> 00:15:15.140 This is the only test that actually matters because basically everything else is just preparation 287 00:15:15.140 --> 00:15:16.140 for this. 288 00:15:16.140 --> 00:15:21.300 It's something you know, know in air quotes, know, and try to use it to solve a real problem 289 00:15:21.300 --> 00:15:26.340 in your life, not a hypothetical problem, not a case study from a book, an actual challenge 290 00:15:26.340 --> 00:15:28.900 that you're facing right now in your life or your work. 291 00:15:28.900 --> 00:15:31.580 So I'll give you a couple of examples just to get you thinking. 292 00:15:31.580 --> 00:15:34.420 Say you know how to build habits, great. 293 00:15:34.420 --> 00:15:38.180 Change one real behavior this month using only that knowledge. 294 00:15:38.180 --> 00:15:44.260 No apps, no accountability partners, no hacks, just your understanding of habit formation. 295 00:15:44.260 --> 00:15:49.980 Say you understand marketing, launch something and get a hundred real people to buy it using 296 00:15:49.980 --> 00:15:50.980 what you know. 297 00:15:50.980 --> 00:15:57.100 Say you get productivity, design your ideal week and follow it for a month without using 298 00:15:57.100 --> 00:15:59.220 any productivity apps or systems. 299 00:15:59.220 --> 00:16:04.460 And the truth is that if your knowledge can't solve real problems, it's show for knowledge. 300 00:16:04.460 --> 00:16:06.500 Reality doesn't care about what you've read. 301 00:16:06.500 --> 00:16:10.980 Reality doesn't care what books are on your shelf or what quotes you can recite. 302 00:16:10.980 --> 00:16:13.140 Reality only cares if you perform. 303 00:16:13.140 --> 00:16:17.460 And you take what you know and actually use it to change something in the world. 304 00:16:17.460 --> 00:16:24.340 That is the only test that really so every time you choose to sound smart over actually 305 00:16:24.340 --> 00:16:26.620 understanding something, it's hurting you. 306 00:16:26.620 --> 00:16:29.620 It is damaging your ability to think. 307 00:16:29.620 --> 00:16:34.420 I'm telling you right now that show for knowledge is dangerous and it starts small and it seems 308 00:16:34.420 --> 00:16:35.420 harmless. 309 00:16:35.420 --> 00:16:39.700 You read a summary instead of the full book because it's faster, you copy a framework 310 00:16:39.700 --> 00:16:44.140 instead of building your own understanding because it's easier, you reference a concept, 311 00:16:44.140 --> 00:16:47.820 you heard about instead of testing whether it's actually true because it makes you sound 312 00:16:47.820 --> 00:16:48.820 smart. 313 00:16:48.820 --> 00:16:51.940 Yeah, you get the nods in the meeting, people are impressed, you feel smart, you feel 314 00:16:51.940 --> 00:16:54.620 like you're learning, but you actually didn't learn anything. 315 00:16:54.620 --> 00:16:59.740 You just collected more names for birds and then it compounds in the wrong direction because 316 00:16:59.740 --> 00:17:03.300 show for knowledge is so much faster than real knowledge. 317 00:17:03.300 --> 00:17:07.420 It's easier, it's more efficient, you can consume ten times more content. 318 00:17:07.420 --> 00:17:11.500 You start to ask yourself, well, why would I spend 20 hours struggling with one concept 319 00:17:11.500 --> 00:17:15.300 when I can read a summary in 20 minutes and sound just as smart and conversations? 320 00:17:15.300 --> 00:17:20.300 And here's the answer, because only one of those builds your ability to actually think. 321 00:17:20.300 --> 00:17:22.980 The show for knowledge is intellectual debt. 322 00:17:22.980 --> 00:17:25.100 It's like credit card debt for your brain. 323 00:17:25.100 --> 00:17:29.460 It gives you short term credibility at the cost of long term capability. 324 00:17:29.460 --> 00:17:33.100 You sound smart today, but you're getting dumber every day you do it. 325 00:17:33.100 --> 00:17:34.820 And here's what you need to understand. 326 00:17:34.820 --> 00:17:39.620 The people who are actually winning aren't the ones who know the most terms. 327 00:17:39.620 --> 00:17:43.540 They're not the ones who've read the most books or can reference the most frameworks. 328 00:17:43.540 --> 00:17:49.780 They're the ones who deeply understand a few core principles and can apply them everywhere. 329 00:17:49.780 --> 00:17:54.460 Charlie Munger didn't read more books than everyone else, but he understood core mental 330 00:17:54.460 --> 00:18:00.460 models so deeply that he could see them playing out in completely different domains. 331 00:18:00.460 --> 00:18:03.620 He could take an idea from physics and apply it to business. 332 00:18:03.620 --> 00:18:06.980 He could take an idea from biology and apply it to investing. 333 00:18:06.980 --> 00:18:11.380 Richard Feynman, he didn't memorize more physics equations than other physicists. 334 00:18:11.380 --> 00:18:16.580 But he understood the fundamentals so well that he could rebuild any concept from first 335 00:18:16.580 --> 00:18:17.580 principles. 336 00:18:17.580 --> 00:18:23.060 He could derive complex equations on the spot because he understood what they actually 337 00:18:23.060 --> 00:18:24.060 meant. 338 00:18:24.060 --> 00:18:28.660 The chauffeur could recite Max Planck's entire lecture perfectly, word for word, but 339 00:18:28.660 --> 00:18:31.420 ask him one real question and it's over. 340 00:18:31.420 --> 00:18:33.260 He's exposed immediately. 341 00:18:33.260 --> 00:18:35.300 So ask yourself, which one are you building? 342 00:18:35.300 --> 00:18:37.420 Are you building the chauffeur? 343 00:18:37.420 --> 00:18:39.780 Are you building the Nobel Prize winner? 344 00:18:39.780 --> 00:18:43.940 You have a choice every single time you encounter some new information. 345 00:18:43.940 --> 00:18:47.620 Every single time you read an article, watch a video, attend a lecture, learn a concept. 346 00:18:47.620 --> 00:18:51.380 If two options, option one is the chauffeur knowledge path. 347 00:18:51.380 --> 00:18:53.020 You read the summaries out of the book. 348 00:18:53.020 --> 00:18:55.740 You highlight the good parts so you can reference them later. 349 00:18:55.740 --> 00:18:59.420 Post your favorite quote on social media, you drop it in conversation, it sounds smart. 350 00:18:59.420 --> 00:19:02.780 You feel good about yourself for learning something and then you immediately move on 351 00:19:02.780 --> 00:19:03.780 to the next thing. 352 00:19:03.780 --> 00:19:06.180 This path is fast, it's efficient. 353 00:19:06.180 --> 00:19:08.260 You can cover way more ground. 354 00:19:08.260 --> 00:19:12.420 You'll sound incredibly knowledgeable, but option two is real knowledge. 355 00:19:12.420 --> 00:19:14.500 You'll actually struggle with the concept. 356 00:19:14.500 --> 00:19:16.420 You take the time to really think about it. 357 00:19:16.420 --> 00:19:20.020 You try to apply it to something in your life and your real life. 358 00:19:20.020 --> 00:19:21.020 You fail at it. 359 00:19:21.020 --> 00:19:22.020 You figure out why you failed. 360 00:19:22.020 --> 00:19:24.740 You rebuild your understanding based on what you learned from the failure. 361 00:19:24.740 --> 00:19:29.860 You've actually integrated into how you think and the path is slow and it's frustrating 362 00:19:29.860 --> 00:19:33.220 and you'll cover way less ground and you'll know fewer things. 363 00:19:33.220 --> 00:19:35.980 Option one makes you sound smart at parties. 364 00:19:35.980 --> 00:19:38.900 Option two makes you dangerous in reality. 365 00:19:38.900 --> 00:19:40.340 One gives you vocabulary. 366 00:19:40.340 --> 00:19:42.140 The other gives you capability. 367 00:19:42.140 --> 00:19:44.300 One impresses people in conversations. 368 00:19:44.300 --> 00:19:47.100 The other changes outcomes in the real world. 369 00:19:47.100 --> 00:19:54.300 So my ask of you is to this week learn one thing deeply instead of 10 things shallowly. 370 00:19:54.300 --> 00:19:57.180 Like one concept, one idea, one skill, just one. 371 00:19:57.180 --> 00:19:58.620 Read about it slowly. 372 00:19:58.620 --> 00:20:00.060 Let yourself struggle with it. 373 00:20:00.060 --> 00:20:01.060 Try to use it. 374 00:20:01.060 --> 00:20:02.060 Fail. 375 00:20:02.060 --> 00:20:03.060 Adjust. 376 00:20:03.060 --> 00:20:05.660 Try again and keep working with it until you actually understand it. 377 00:20:05.660 --> 00:20:08.340 I need you to stop collecting names for birds. 378 00:20:08.340 --> 00:20:14.580 I need you to start understanding how birds actually work because the world is absolutely 379 00:20:14.580 --> 00:20:19.860 full of chauffeurs who sound brilliant in meetings and at dinner parties right up until 380 00:20:19.860 --> 00:20:23.940 the moment when someone asks them to actually drive the car. 381 00:20:23.940 --> 00:20:24.460 I hope you're one of them.