Armen

I’ve hosted 465+ episodes of The Armen Show since 2017, including 250+ long-form interviews with scientists, authors, scholars, researchers, and other thinkers.

Conversations span human behavior, science, technology, culture, learning, decision-making, and ideas.

Guests have included Temple Grandin, David Sinclair, Nicholas Christakis, Steven Strogatz, James Nestor, Derek Sivers, Rebecca Newberger Goldstein, Robin Hanson, and many others.

Explore the show:
youtube.com/thearmenshow/

Looking back, resist making every interest a stepping stone toward your current work. Some experiments taught you something; others mattered while they lasted. Ask what remains useful now. You can carry that forward without continuing the whole project.

Before judging your progress, account for the work your goals leave out: earning money, helping family, maintaining a household, and caring for your health. Those demands use real capacity. A plan that ignores them will keep producing misleading evidence about your discipline.

When designing a project, ask what will supply the second and third pieces. A conversation, a reader’s question, or something learned while making the first can create a path forward. Small units help you finish; a source for the next unit helps you continue.

When a project stalls, locate the difficulty: choosing a direction, finishing a piece, continuing the practice, reaching people, or getting a worthwhile return. Each calls for a different response. “I need more discipline” is often too broad to help.