17: Q&A Time! My Thoughts on Escaping the Road to Nowhere

Nat Chat

“When you stop taking college seriously, treat it as a game, and treat everything you do while you’re there as exploring and trying new things. You get so much more out of it.”

In this episode of Nat Chat, I’m joined again by Josh Lilien. As I mentioned last time, Josh reached out with a few questions for me around self-education, entrepreneurship, and breaking out of the traditional college path, and when it became obvious that he was thinking deeply about these issues, I suggested he interview me as another episode.

We covered:

• How to maximize your exposure to positive opportunities and people
• Practical advice on how to take advantage of being a student
• The benefits from majoring in philosophy
• The impact of top tier schools on success and lifestyle
• Why you should prioritize foundational skills instead of trade skills
• Advice on how to reach out to others more effectively

If you enjoyed this episode, be sure to check out my first podcast episode with Josh Lilien where I interviewed him:

Find Josh Online:

• Twitter
• LinkedIn

Mentioned in the show:

• Carnegie Mellon University
• Y Combinator
• LinkedIn
• How to Get Lucky: Maximizing Exposure to Life Changing Serendipity (Nat’s article)
• Yale University
• IBM
• PWC
• Wait But Why
• Stanford University

Books mentioned:

• Traction (Nat’s Notes)

People mentioned:

• Adil Majid (Nat Chat Episode with Adil)
• Neil Soni (Nat Chat Episode with Neil)
• Justin Mares (Nat Chat Episode with Justin)
• Charlie Hoehn (Nat Chat Episode with Charlie)

0:56 - Intro to Josh interviewing Nat and a quick description on Josh.2:08 - How going to Carnegie Mellon affected Nat’s career and work.

4:17 - The value of meeting intelligent people and exposure to them at Carnegie Mellon.

6:20 - Some advice for maximizing your exposure to people and giving yourself these networking opportunities.

8:18 - Why Nat switched from a business major to a philosophy major and some of the benefits he attained.

12:28 - The transition from business to philosophy and Nat’s thoughts on making the switch.

14:23 - Some preparation Nat did for Carnegie Mellon and some thoughts on the education system.

16:53 - Nat’s thoughts on the next shift to the infrastructure of education, thoughts regarding student debt, and the low applicability of degrees in trade.

24:10 - Nat’s advice for those wanting to stay in college and wanting to do something entrepreneurial. Also, Nat speaking on why you should develop more foundational skills.

28:43 - How students can take advantage of their time at college and some useful advice on how to get the most of out that time.

32:11 - Some other things you can take advantage of as a student and some advice for reaching out to people more effectively.

34:53 - Nat’s speaking more on reaching out to people more effectively and efficiently.

38:09 - Nat’s thoughts and experiences on the competitive aspect of college.

40:30 - Wrap up on the interview.

If you enjoyed this episode, don’t forget to subscribe at https://nateliason.com/podcast

“Study the foundational things that are really interesting to you and then in your free time, pursue whatever trade skill you want to work on and get good at.”