ML172: Eric Jorgenson on The Principles of Leverage, Curating the Best Online Courses and Lessons from Naval Ravikant
Learn about the core principles of leverage and the limiting beliefs that prevent people from applying it, how to curate the best online courses in an ocean of available learning materials, and how the best way to become a unique specialist is to start as a generalist.
Eric Jorgenson is an entrepreneur, author and educator. He is the author of the Navalmanack, a distillation of the best insights from Angel List Founder Naval Ravikant and the Founder of Course Correctly, a site that curates the best online courses for knowledge workers.
I don’t say this about many ideas, but if you’re not familiar with the idea of leverage, then you need to be. The Greek mathematician, scientist and philosopher Archimedes once famously said “give me a lever long enough and a fulcrum on which to place it and I will move the world.”
While Archimedes was referring to the forces of physics, the point he made about leverage is universal. Leverage is all about using levers (tools, capital or people) to do more with less. It’s how some people can accomplish 10, 100x, or 1,000,000x what others can.
Why is this so important? Because we are living in an age of leverage... There are already (many) million-dollar 1-person companies. Now, we are seeing billion-dollar 10-person companies. Those who focus on building, growing, and re-investing leverage are playing a different game and the gap between the levered and the unlevered is going to keep growing.
Eric is in the process of creating a course about leverage and has learned from one of the best thinkers on the subject, Naval Ravikant, founder of Angel List and one of the world’s best known technologists.
In this episode we discuss:
- The core principles of leverage & the limiting beliefs that prevent people from applying it
- How to curate the best online courses in an ocean of available learning materials
- How the best way to become a unique specialist is to start as a generalist
This was a really insightful conversation that will give you some great ideas on how to apply leverage to your own life and business, as well as some powerful insights into the future of online education.
Show Notes
- Introducing Eric [00:32]
- What was school like for Eric? [3:09]
- What is the significance of the statement “Your real resume is a catalogue of your suffering”? for Eric [5:57]
- Who are the authors and teachers that made an impact on Eric’s life? [7:20]
- What gave Eric the motivation and inspiration to write the Navalmanack? [9:44]
- What stage is Eric’s course on leverage at? How does he feel about his first experience building a course? [12:35]
- What are some of the common misconceptions about leverage? How do they impede our progress? [14:58]
- What are some of the main ideas in Eric's course on leverage? [18:36]
- Leverage is great when applied properly but what are the risks and downsides to it? [20:10]
- Why is it so important to know when to apply leverage? How do we know when it's most effective to apply it in our lives? [24:47]
- What are the different types of leverage in the toolbox? Why do some types of leverage feel easier to use than others? [27:55]
- Why is education the most important form of leverage? How is the availability of online courses changing the world of education? [33:30]
- What is Course Correctly and how does it help those taking and making online courses? [37:59]
- What is the difference between a specialist and a generalist? How does being a generalist eventually allow you to specialise? [40:33]
- Closing remarks [44:59]
Resources
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