You’ll get another version of an answer you already received. That’s the advice from Tyler Cowen in an interview on the 1% Better Podcast. I also recently realized that not asking follow-up questions is a signature of Cowen’s podcast recently and stopped asking so many follow-up questions in my research interviews.

Here are a few takeaways:

• Find a method and then study broadly using that method.

  • Sidenote: I wish I knew Tyler’s method. He refers to having a method in the interview but describes the method. I know that he collects broadly and shares his learning on his blog and podcast. He says that he reads in clusters (a bunch of books on the same topic). Tyler asks excellent questions. He’s dynamically curious. And, as mentioned, he documents that curiosity publicly through several online arenas. Perhaps, his methods are right in front of me?

• Don’t always teach to motivate your students/audience. Do the things that motivate you. If you’re not motivated, they won’t be motivated. That's a great heuristic of what to do and not do in teaching and life.

• Look at your work-life more like training (like an athlete trains).

• Food in Northern Virginia (NOVA) is better than eating in Manhattan, according to Tyler. Manhattan is expensive, and there are more eclectic options in NOVA. That thinking lines up with my thoughts on food in Cincinnati. The food in the burbs is much better than (most of) the food downtown. I'm not nearly as interested in Over-The-Rhine dining as I am in driving 30 minutes away for Chinese hot pot.

• Read Boswell’s Life of Samuel Johnson.