#028: Highest Leverage Skills to Learn, Two-Year-Olds Reading, Newest Writer on Persuasion

Hi All!

We are pleased to welcome you to this week's edition of Undiscovered, a newsletter with exclusive resources and insights expanding from the material found on our main site - becketu.com.

This edition is helped in part by the support of Boot.dev. Be sure to check them out in the P.S. for a special signup offer and more information. Let's jump into this week's finds:

The Latest Beautiful Coding Resource

​Max Bittker recently tweeted, "reading the first few chapters of this book, 10 years ago, got me so excited about creative exploration through simulation that my life changed and I never finished the book". The book in question? Nature of Code by Daniel Shiffman.

​Daniel Shiffman describes it as a 'resource to explore the world of creative programming'. It covers the basics all the way to neuroevolution and is one of the most approachable guides I have come across. Shiffman is also the creator of The Coding Train, which has helpful guides on learning more general programming.

'What is the highest leverage thing a young person can do?'

We are big fans of Naval Ravikant and his new social media app, Airchat. It's a platform that allows you to have asynchronous conversations with some of the most interesting people in the world, and labels itself as 'a dinner party in your pocket'.

One of the best things to come out of it so far, is @flougo asking the general question: What's the highest leverage thing a young (person) can do?

Naval's response is below. (also, we have the most comprehensive resource library for all these subjects and more)

floguo @floguo i asked @naval: what’s the highest leverage thing a young people can do? 9:46 AM • Apr 19, 2024 165 Retweets 1588 Likes Read 62 replies

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'When will I ever need to use this?'

The above question is probably one you have either thought yourself, or had said to you depending on if you've spent time in the current education system. But it's a valid point. Why do we need to learn things that won't directly translate into our life?

On Twitter, Maheshwer Peri provided us with an excellent answer from Stanford alumni, Hamza Alsamraee. His response is as follows:

Two-year-old can read?

​Niels Hoven is the Founder and CEO at Mentava, a software-based daily tutor designed to introduce advanced education to young kids. One of their core efforts is to teach young kids to read. How young?

​Matt Quinn recently tweeted out how his 2-year-old is now starting to read with the help of the app. Hoven's response after seeing the real world application of his product: "education is about to change forever".

An Exciting New Voice on Persuasion Tactics

​BowTiedLobster is one of our favorite new follows on Twitter. Lobster was originally a voice that intrigued me in regards to finance, but the root of their philosophy is within positivity and persuasion.

We highly recommend subscribing to Lobster's Substack, and two articles that are great places to start are the Introductions to Persuasion, Part 1 and Part 2.
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One thing that is important to note in today's social media world, is how often we are being 'persuaded' subconsciously. This is done through subliminal messaging, playing off our fears and insecurities, and manipulating our primal emotions against ourselves towards certain actions.

Lobster breaks this down tremendously in both essays and has opinions worth reading.

P.S. Have you heard of Boot.dev? One of my friends showed me this recently and when I started to demo it, it blew me away! It's a site that teaches you back-end development in a fun, gamified way. It's helped over 70,000 students learn in-demand technologies like Python, SQL, Go, and a bunch of other advanced topics.

If you're interested in a membership, use the code BECKET at checkout for 25% off your first payment (either first month or yearly depending on the plan you like).

P.P.S We also have an URGENT request to ask of you (especially if you are reading this from a Gmail account). Can you please respond to this email and bring it into your 'primary' inbox? You can say 'Hi!', tell us the last book you read recently, or what your favorite resource was from below.
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Always wishing you the best,

J.B.