Not Overthinking
The weekly podcast about happiness, creativity, and the human condition. It's us, Ali and Taimur Abdaal, occasionally joined by guests, talking about things to help us think, do, and be better.
Things like social interaction, lifestyle design, mental models... Things that are hard to examine, but important to explore. And hopefully, things that make for a fun and interesting chat every week.
We'd love for you to join us.
- Update frequency
- every 8 days
- Average duration
- 59 minutes
- Episodes
- 158
- Years Active
- 2019 - 2025
68 Bits of Unsolicited Advice
This week, we dig into Kevin Kelly's recent blog post "68 bits of unsolicited advice". We go through the list and talk about a bunch of the advices (?) that resonate with us.
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00:58:23 |
Sun 24 May 2020
Games People Play: The Psychology of Human Relationships
This episode is Part 3 of 3 in our Transactional Analysis series (make sure you listen to the last 2 episodes before this one!). We dig into many of the different social games that people play: "If I…
01:11:07 |
Sun 17 May 2020
Life Positions & Games - Transactional Analysis Part 2
In this episode, we continue our discussion about Transactional Analysis. We recap the Parent, Adult and Child zones of thinking that we mentioned last week, and move on to talking about the 4 differ…
01:08:46 |
Sun 10 May 2020
The Parent, The Adult and The Child - A Discussion of Transactional Analysis
In this episode, we discuss transactional analysis. Taimur talks us through the ideas behind the theory, and how your internal mind can be split up into three parts - the Parent, Adult, and Child wit…
01:06:40 |
Sun 03 May 2020
Money, Stories, and Old People
In this episode, we talk about a few different things — how to think about giving money to those in need, whether it's helpful to view our lives as stories, and how Taimur has been trying to develop …
01:00:33 |
Sun 26 Apr 2020
Vision, Leadership and Winning the Lottery - An open-ended discussion
In this episode we take a ramble through a number of topics from statistics to value propositions to what we'd do if we won the lottery to Animal Crossing. Enjoy!
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00:59:25 |
Sun 19 Apr 2020
The Principles of Productivity
In this episode, we talk about Ali's favourite thing - productivity - much to Taimur's joy! Or, more precisely, we talk through the structure and some of the key points from Ali's upcoming Skillshare…
01:02:23 |
Sun 12 Apr 2020
Taimur Teaches Maths - The Flaw of Averages
In this episode, Taimur gives us a maths lesson. We learn about why it's bad to rely on 'averages' when making plans, and about how we can make better decisions by accounting for uncertainty. Sorry f…
00:49:14 |
Sun 05 Apr 2020
Note-taking and quarantining
In this episode, we mostly talk about note-taking — reasons to do it, and different systems and apps to facilitate it. We also talk about how quarantine life is going so far, and how we're trying to …
01:06:57 |
Sun 29 Mar 2020
Not Overthinking: Coronavirus Edition
This week we talk about the only thing there is to talk about right now — the Coronavirus crisis. We look back over the past few weeks to see how our thinking about the virus has changed, and we try …
00:52:55 |
Sun 22 Mar 2020
How would you spend your time if you knew you'd die in 2 years?
This week we tackle the conundrum of "how would you spend your time if you knew you'd die in 2 years?" We discuss some of the different ways of framing and thinking about this question, and to what e…
00:51:11 |
Sun 15 Mar 2020
Low Optionality and Adult Friendships
This week we talk about a few topics that Taimur's been noticing more and more — low social optionality (applied to adult friendships), the plight of kids in society, and treating your personal life …
00:36:44 |
Sun 08 Mar 2020
40 Concepts for Understanding the World - Tweet Discussion
This week we talk about @G_S_Bhogal's Twitter megathread of "40 powerful concepts for understanding the world". A whirlwind tour of a bunch of mental models that you may or may not have come across b…
00:59:59 |
Sun 01 Mar 2020
Motivation, Complaining and Conversationality - A Critique of the Podcast
This episode features Calum, a junior doctor working in Scotland who spent 6 years in medical school living with Ali. Calum has listened to every episode of the podcast so far, and shares some critiq…
00:57:39 |
Sun 23 Feb 2020
Margin, Dinner Parties and The Art of Gathering
In this episode, we continue to discuss the difficulties with recording a podcast each week, which turns into a conversation about margin & keeping afloat vs optimising for the long term. We then tal…
00:45:46 |
Sun 16 Feb 2020
Book Discussion: The Wright Brothers
In this episode, we summarise "The Wright Brothers" by David McCullough. It's a biography of Wilbur and Orville Wright, best known for inventing the airplane. It contains timeless themes relevant to …
01:09:30 |
Sun 02 Feb 2020
Does travel really broaden our horizons?
In this episode (recorded on a car journey, sorry for the audio quality), we discuss the extent to which travelling, and living in different countries for extended time periods, actually broadens our…
00:45:16 |
Sun 26 Jan 2020
Book Discussion - The Courage to be Disliked
In this episode, we summarise "The Courage to be Disliked" by Fumitake Koga and Ichiro Kishimi. It's one of the very few books that Taimur's actually read, and the concepts it presents are provocativ…
00:54:36 |
Sun 19 Jan 2020
Words that changed our lives
In this episode, we each talk about 3 words/phrases that have changed the way we think about things and see the world. We touch on Taimur's new addiction to David Dobrik's vlogs, and Ali doesn't stop…
00:53:06 |
Sun 12 Jan 2020
"Lad" Culture - An Insider's Perspective
In this episode, we have a guest appearance from Jake, a junior doctor and recovering "lad". We discuss the meaning of being a "lad", the experience from inside the group and the feelings of those of…
01:02:57 |
Sun 05 Jan 2020
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