Childhood Strengths, Social Media, and Illegible Metrics with Alysson Costa
Alysson Costa is the professor I wish he had. He’s currently teaching Engineering at the University of Melbourne.
In this podcast, we explore:
- Understanding Yourself
- How to use Social Media well
- Academia’s obsession with grades
- And much more
Full Episode
Guest Links
Show Notes
00:00 Intro
00:23 Alysson’s Background
04:16 Childhood traits stick with you
06:09 Clifton’s Strengths
07:51 Knowing what makes you happy is like another level of happiness
10:09 Pandemic has accelerated Alysson’s understanding of himself
13:07 Working and resting based on mood, not time of day
16:03 Pomodoro technique feels too artificial
18:27 It’s part of the deal to get bored
19:45 If you realize you don’t want to do a masters before you do a masters, you already did a masters
20:11 The need for context when giving advice
23:44 Taking Building a Second Brain again, not about the apps, but how someone with the same tools as you can do something completely different
25:14 Sharing workflows online
26:11 Building an amazing twitter experience
28:09 You’re the sum of 500 people you follow
28:46 Possible solution to algorithms: make them transparent?
31:28 “Everybody needs to quit social media” is not a good solution
32:50 Over-focus on measurable metrics
33:38 Student’s obsession with marks/grades is systemic
39:06 The one thing marks/grades don’t measure
41:47 Looking for lost keys under the lamppost
43:13 Questioning whether or not to stay in academia
44:33 The spirit of engineering
45:40 Using multiple metrics rather than one
47:11 Where to find Alysson online