Life depends on learning. We spend decades in school acquiring an education. We take pride in mastering a craft, or a sport, or a game. The things we do in our careers or even just for fun are enjoyed to a large extent because we feel we are capable of getting better at them.

We yearn for mastery.

But learning can be elusive. We may spend hours studying and still not do well on an exam. Improvement can be fickle - if it comes at all. Sometimes we improve effortlessly, and other times it can be a slog. Many of us can spend years hitting a tennis ball, playing chess, or working at our jobs, and not reliably get better at any of them. Why is that and more importantly, what can be done?

In Scott Young’s new book, Get Better at Anything: 12 Maxims for Mastery, he explores the science of skill acquisition, illustrating the basic principles that can help us get better at the things that matter most.

Scott was a prior guest on the show in episode 37 when we discussed his Wall Street Journal bestseller Ultralearning. He is also a podcast host and, a computer programmer. Since 2006, he has published weekly essays to help people learn and think better. His work has been featured in the New York Times, Pocket, and Business Insider, on the BBC, and at TEDx.

While he doesn’t promise to have all the answers, he does give us a good place to start.

Scott is a wellspring of knowledge about learning and provides a way for us all to be able to live our lives more fully.

It seems that almost everywhere in the world, there is conflict, distrust, and unrest – Gaza, Ukraine, Syria, and even here in the US. Oftentimes, any kind of diplomacy, cooperation, agreement, detente or finding a common ground seems impossible. But what if there was a different way? What if there was an organization that holds as its mission, “to transform the way the world deals with conflict, away from adversarial approaches and toward cooperative solutions?” What if those tactics included dialogue training, joint development projects, public art projects, sports leagues, and social impact entertainment via radio, TV, film, and print?

Well, these are all accomplishments that John Marks has achieved in his work as President of Search for Common Ground, a peacebuilding NGO he founded in 1982 and built with his wife Susan Collin Marks, predicated on social entrepreneurship.

He is the coauthor of the controversial New York Times best-seller The CIA and the Cult of Intelligence, the award-winning Search for the “Manchurian Candidate,” and we’ll be doing a deep dive into his latest book, From Vision to Action: Remaking the World Through Social Entrepreneurship, just recently published by Columbia University Press.

John is also a Skoll Awardee in Social Entrepreneurship and an Ashoka Senior Fellow. The UN’s University of Peace awarded him an honorary doctorate for is work, and in 2018, Search for Common Ground was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize.

I found From Vision to Action to be both a memoir and somewhat of a practitioner’s guide to the underlying principles of social entrepreneurship. It offers a master class in effective negotiation and conflict resolution. It builds on a core strategy of understanding differences and acting on commonalities. John uses his own experiences of creating real-life breakthroughs during his time leading Search for Common Ground.

John’s pioneering work has genuinely made the world a safer and better place for us all – he is an inspiration.

We are not as smart as we think we are.

We're busy and distracted in a world that is incentivized to continually make us more of both. The only things that work, the only messages that cut through the noise, are sharp, clear, and direct.

We’ve all been advised to “not judge a book by its cover,” to “not count your chickens before they hatch,” and that “Rome wasn’t built in a day.” Maybe for you, what comes to mind is something political, like Patrick Henry’s revolutionary “Give me liberty, or give me death!” or more recently, Barack Obama’s “Yes We Can.”

Now think for a second about the other few thousand messages you heard in the past 24 hours –things told to you, like ads, warnings, instructions, or even things you’ve sought out, like articles, social media posts, or stories.

How many of them do you actually remember? How many of the things that you’ve said, do other people remember? Do they actually even hear what you’re saying?

The answer is simple. Literally. Simple. Regardless if these messages are trying to get your dollars, your votes, or just your thoughts, the most effective messages all share one thing. They-are-simple.

Ben Guttmann is interested in the things and ideas that move people - why we make the decisions we make; why we vote for who we vote for; why we buy the products we buy, and ultimately, why we do what we do.

We did a deep dive into his new book, Simply Put: Why Clear Messages Win-and How to Design Them. It emphasizes the importance of clear communication, and we discussed why he believes clarity is such a critical skill, both personally and professionally. Simply Put offers strategies for simplifying complex ideas and messages. Ben stepped me through the key principles and techniques listeners can use to streamline their communication effectively.

It was a fun and informative conversation with one of the best. Ben’s work is a gift to not only his students, but to all of us who want to communicate more clearly, and simply.