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Think For Yourself and Create Your Own Future with Juan David Campolargo (Episode #34)

Juan David Campolargo is already speaking at TED Talks at the age of 17, only a few years after immigrating to the United States from his home country of Venezuela.

His personal mission is to spread optimism among his fellow youth and to share ways to remain optimistic despite the challenges they face. Juan David will highlight in this episode that thinking for yourself is not selfish. Rather it’s an easy and simple way to filter the things that you allow to come into your life.

Resources Mentioned:

Affiliate Partner:

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Follow Juan David on TwitterYouTubeLinkedIn, and Instagram

Juan David’s links:

[00:01 – 02:39] Doing Important Work
  • Let’s get to know Juan David Campolargo
    • TED Speaker as a 17-year-old
    • Author
[02:40 – 11:24] Doing Important Work
  • Introduction and what drives Juan David forward: optimism, ambition, and curiosity
  • Why write a newsletter
  • A Richard Hamming essay Juan David reads every week
  • Prepare to do important work
  • Learn to explain yourself clearly
  • “Important problems” are anything you can have control over
  • Richard Feynman and having 12 favorite problems that you are constantly working on
[11:25 – 15:54] Controlling Your Online Life
  • Who we give our attention to matters
  • Having a supercomputer in our pocket
  • Making your phone work for you
  • Checking email only two times per day
  • Try not to be on top of everything
[15:55 – 24:46] Networking
  • Reserve your network for people you actually like to be with
  • The book Give and Take by Adam Grant
  • Making real friends without an agenda
  • How to tune your phone so it does not suck your time and attention
  • The trade-off you get when you leave social media
  • The difference between a job and a business
[24:47 – 36:35] Doing Things That Have Greater Output Than Input
  • Internships and incubators
  • Options for summer during the pandemic
  • Choosing what gets your time during the pandemic
  • Linear work versus work that has an exponential curve
  • Risk versus reward ratio
  • Why parents and friends might influence you away from taking risk
  • Using the pandemic to follow your passions
  • The positive aspect of rabbit holes
  • Knowing what you really want, identifying your values
  • Your “future self” and Steve Jobs story
[36:36 – 42:20] Curiosity and Objective Truth
  • The problem with incentives
  • Finding to get knowledge without agenda
  • Real engineering YouTube channel
  • Wendover productions YouTube channel
  • Agenda
  • Tuning up your algorithms
[42:21- 49:24] Thinking For Yourself
  • Filters
  • Three important questions:
    • What do I want?
    • What am I spending my time on?
    • How do I adapt when new evidence shows up?
  • Thinking deeply about the world
[49:25- 54:11] Closing Segment
  • Connect with Juan David
    • Links below
  • The movie, “Soul”
  • Final announcements

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