#148 Kenneth Stanley: Set The Right Objectives

The Knowledge Project with Shane Parrish

Shane Parrish

Business, Investing, Entrepreneurship

4.7 • 2.9K Ratings

🗓️ 4 October 2022

⏱️ 55 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Artificial intelligence researcher and author Kenneth Stanley has argued that “as soon as you create an objective, you ruin your ability to reach it.” So what should you consider when thinking about your objectives, and what will set you up for success? On this episode Stanley discusses how to set the right objectives for your life, why we’re too tied to accomplishments, what role accountability plays in our education system, the value of peer review, why transformative innovations are always counter intuitive, and so much more.

Stanley is the co–author of Why Greatness Cannot Be Planned: The Myth of the Objective, as well as the former Head of Core AI Research at Uber AI and the Open-Endedness Team Leader at OpenAI. He has also served as the Charles Millican Professor in Computer Science at University of Central Florida.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	You might like assessment and accountability and objectives and metrics because they
0:04.9	make you feel better because it feels like we're making sure that nothing bad will happen.
0:09.0	But you have to recognize it's just a security blanket.
0:11.6	It doesn't work.
0:12.6	It take off the straight jacket, get rid of the security blanket, and just acknowledge
0:16.1	how reality works.
0:17.1	And it'd be better.
0:18.1	I prefer a reality work if I set an objective like I could just get to it as long as I'm
0:22.1	sufficiently determined to do it.
0:23.8	And that would be really convenient, but it's just not the way reality works.
0:43.6	Welcome to the Knowledge Project podcast.
0:45.6	I'm your host Shane Parish.
0:48.1	This podcast is about mastering the best what other people have already figured out so
0:52.2	that you can apply their insights in life and business.
0:56.5	If you're listening to this, you're missing out.
0:58.9	If you'd like special member only episodes, access before anyone else, hand edited transcripts,
1:04.6	including my personal highlights and other member only content, you can join at fs.blog
1:10.2	slash membership.
1:11.5	Check with the show notes for a link.
1:14.0	Today I'm speaking with Ken Stanley.
1:16.6	Ken is the author of Why Greatness Cannopy Planned, The Myth of the Objective.
1:21.4	A book I read and loved so I reached out and wanted to chat with him.
	...

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