Ted Agon has lived a life filled with exploration and adventure! He is an author and speaker who has lived in seven countries and operated on five of the seven continents.
He gained life-altering perspectives from other cultures & languages, and has been heavily influenced by living in the environments of three of the world’s major religions.
Ted learned to observe the simple by being raised with no money, a great community, and a love of nature. His penchant for clear writing, combined with engagement with new technologies, from the sea floor to space robotics, has driven Ted to write ground-breaking books.
Listening to our conversation will change the way you think about thinking. We discuss:
- Everything Ted does is a Ted Talk
- He puts a lot of thought into thinking
- “The Learning Curve” is dedicated to his mother, Isabel Allen
- She was born in 1916; raised three boys as a widow
- His dad died when he and siblings were infants
Thinking and Rationality (4:27):
- Humans are comprised of emotion and reason or emotion and rational
- If we are totally rational, we would not be human; if we are totally emotional, we would not exist
- The rational helps us cope with negative emotions
- Positive emotion aids in decision-making
- Consistency of rational mediates emotions
- Thought distinguishes humans from all creatures on earth; thinking is central to the human experience
Thinking About Thinking (6:47):
- What is thinking?
- The only tool of curiosity is the question
- “Intelligence is not measured by what we know, but what we use when we don’t know”
- The Scientific Method starts with a question
- Knowledge is the accumulation of answers
- Critical thinking is critical questioning
- Everything that is man-made is an answer to someone’s question
- Every word in every language is an answer to the question, “What do I call this?”
- “Our age is not measured in years, but curiosity”
Stumbling on Discoveries (13:57):
- Christopher Columbus stumbled upon America
- Alexander Fleming discovered Penicillin by accident
- Viagra was discovered by accident
- Teachers use Socratic Method to inspire thought
On Writing (14:51):
- A “think piece” is a book written for an audience of one—the author
- Write simply, to be understood
- Everything in life is practice (thinking & writing)
- Writing is re-writing, which is re-thinking
- The best way to process your thought is to write
When you write, you mind your mind, and we discover things that we didn’t know we knew.” – Ted Agon
On Questions (24:35):
- Law of unintended consequences is not asking enough questions
- The brain cannot ignore a question
- Asking a question is taking control
- “Paralysis of Analysis” is asking questions all the time; we exit paralysis with action
- Most basic elements of human existence: thinking, learning, and communicating
To “Google” is to Question (27:34)
- In 1999, a company was started with $100,000 investment
- In their 6th year in business, the company’s market value was $6 billion
- Google provided a path for people’s questions
- Search for knowledge is process of learning
- The only way we learn is to question
- We cannot help ourselves (or our children) to think better; we can help ourselves to ask more and better questions
And Much More:
- The simplest life is deepest life, un-cluttered
- Smart phones are making us dumber—entertaining ourselves without thinking
- Learning how to learn is life’s most important skill
- We can only do our imperfect best
- The greatest gift we can give to ourselves is to help other people
- Sense of humor is a measure of intelligence
- The imperfect life is…perfect
- Negative people are rocks in the stream [of life]
- Creativity requires solitude
- A discussion about our wives
- Ted’s wife, Julie, sang for the USO in Germany, Belgium & France
- Julie’s greatest gift is her personhood
- Loneliness is a desert; solitude is an oasis
Quick Questions (52:37):
- Which country that you’ve visited has had the most impact on how you think?
- What advice would you give your 35-year old self?
- What do you hope to be doing at 85 years old?
- What are you most grateful for?
Connect with Ted:
- On his website
- By email: info@thehumankey.com
Listen here:
Kids ask a million questions; to discourage their questions is an unintended form of child abuse. – Ted Agon
Books mentioned:
This podcast was killer! I’m drinking from the saucer listening.
Thanks!
Thanks man!