Such a great episode. Not only because @MentavaInc is an incredible education product for really young kids to learn to read. But also the format of the podcast was great. A real time consulting with very tactical business advice from @tferriss. I'd live to watch more practical content like that.

"If you allow kids to learn at their own pace, you can pack the entire school day into a very small amount of time. When my own son was in third grade, after a lot of back and forth, we finally got permission from one amazing teacher for him to do independent study during math class from an app during the school day. And he finished eighth grade math while he was in third grade." — @NielsHoven

"If you allow kids to learn at their own pace, you can pack the entire school day into a very small amount of time. When my own son was in third grade, after a lot of back and forth, we finally got permission from one amazing teacher for him to do independent study during math class from an app during the school day. And he finished eighth grade math while he was in third grade." — @NielsHoven

7 Films I Love: 1. Perfect Days. Can you find enlightenment from cleaning toilets? After watching this Tokyo-based film, you might well think so. Perfect Days is beautifully shot and earned lead actor Kōji Yakusho (Shall We Dance) the Best Actor Award at the 76th Cannes Film Festival. 2. The Wild Robot. This is a family-friendly, “This is so cheesy! Why am I crying?!” type of feel-good watch. This film was adapted from the #1# New York Times bestselling illustrated middle-grade novel The Wild Robot by Peter Brown. 3. ​Argentina, 1985. I absolutely loved this film. It explains the brutal story—and vindication—of Argentina’s “desaparecidos” or “the disappeared,” which I heard mentioned a lot when I lived in Buenos Aires in 2004. 4. ​Wild Tales. This was recommended to me by a Colombian friend, as I wanted to resurrect my Spanish prior to a trip to South America. It’s gorgeously shot, impeccably directed, and it will make you laugh and cringe in equal measure.

7 Films I Love: 1. Perfect Days. Can you find enlightenment from cleaning toilets? After watching this Tokyo-based film, you might well think so. Perfect Days is beautifully shot and earned lead actor Kōji Yakusho (Shall We Dance) the Best Actor Award at the 76th Cannes Film Festival. 2. The Wild Robot. This is a family-friendly, “This is so cheesy! Why am I crying?!” type of feel-good watch. This film was adapted from the #1# New York Times bestselling illustrated middle-grade novel The Wild Robot by Peter Brown. 3. ​Argentina, 1985. I absolutely loved this film. It explains the brutal story—and vindication—of Argentina’s “desaparecidos” or “the disappeared,” which I heard mentioned a lot when I lived in Buenos Aires in 2004. 4. ​Wild Tales. This was recommended to me by a Colombian friend, as I wanted to resurrect my Spanish prior to a trip to South America. It’s gorgeously shot, impeccably directed, and it will make you laugh and cringe in equal measure.

Few of us consider ourselves philosophers. “Philosophy” usually conjures images of dense textbooks and academic quibbling with no application to real life. It’s fun for professors, perhaps, but a waste of time for the rest of us. I felt this way for decades. Then, in 2004, I found the work of Lucius Annaeus Seneca, better known as Seneca the Younger or simply “Seneca.” Born circa 4 BC in present day Spain and raised in Rome, Seneca was simultaneously an esteemed playwright, one of the wealthiest people in Rome, a famous statesman, and an advisor to the emperor. He had to negotiate, persuade, and strategize his way through life. Far from spouting philosophy from the safety of an ivory tower, he had to constantly deal with uncooperative, powerful human beings and faced disaster, exile, and death head on. Seneca took risks and did big things. His primary philosophy, Stoicism, was founded around 300 BC in Athens and can be thought of as an operating system for thriving in high-stress environments. At its core, it teaches you how to separate what you can control from what you cannot, and it trains you to focus exclusively on the former. Seneca’s Moral Letters to Lucilius—a distillation of his lessons learned—changed my life and continues to do so today.

“If you allow kids to learn at their own pace, you can pack the entire school day into a very small amount of time.” — Niels Hoven (@NielsHoven) Listen to my conversation with Niels Hoven:

“If you allow kids to learn at their own pace, you can pack the entire school day into a very small amount of time.” — Niels Hoven (@NielsHoven) Listen to my conversation with Niels Hoven:

Tim Ferriss' strongest advice on the podcast was to make our website better, so I spent all night cranking away on it It's still a work in progress (actively cleaning up placeholder text and images) but let me know what you think! Before/after pictures are below. Biggest changes: - we now have a 2-minute "is your child ready to learn to read" quiz - trying to lean into both "acceleration" and "quality time" - more prominent quotes from our customers - more videos (and more coming) - moved to Cloudflare Pages! (And if you really want to see the site that Tim said was awful, I left it up at New site is at for comparison.)

@NielsHoven @tferriss @tferriss this was a very unique and exquisite podcast. You left your normal boundaries of theory and focused, but general tips to explore one company and founder's immediate problems. I could listen to you work through founder's problems all day!

The #1# most-clicked link in the latest 5-Bullet Friday edition: ​ “How to turn your AI into a world-class designer” by @anshuc on @lennysan's blog. Anshu led software engineering and design teams at Apple for 12 years.

Good way to start your week with this latest @tferriss compilation pod on folks overcoming the odds. Listening to the @bjmillermd interview excerpt on achieving his difficult dream of riding a motorcycle. Why difficult? Well he's had 3 limbs amputated. Tim's comment after hearing about all the pain and trials that BJ went through to finally ride that motorcycle was a pretty good slap of reality to start your day. "I just have to pause here for a second and just ask everyone listening, what bullshit excuses do you have for not going after whatever it is that you want. Like, please, write in, tell us on social media why these are real excuses."

A great compilation of life lessons on seeing “problems” as opportunities. One of my favorites is from @JannaLevin “I used to resent obstacles along the path, thinking if only that hadn’t happened, life would be so good. Then I suddenly realized, life is the obstacles. There is no underlying path. Our goal here is to get better at navigating those obstacles. I strive to find calm, measured responses, to see hindrances as a chance to problem solve. Often I fall back into old frustrations, but if I remind myself this is a chance to step, I can reframe conflicts as a chance to experiment with solutions.”