Adam Jones & Adam Ashton on Their Book 'The Sh*t They Never Taught You'

The Genesis of 'What You Will Learn'

• 💡 Adam Ashton and Adam Jones met working in a pub and bonded over their shared love for the book 'How to Win Friends and Influence People'.
• 🚀 Their podcast, 'What You Will Learn', began as recordings of their own book discussions, initially with no expectation of an audience.
• 📚 Both hosts have maintained a commitment to reading over a book a week since starting the podcast, accumulating insights from hundreds of books.

Personal Transformations Through Reading

• 🌱 Adam Ashton initially pursued physiotherapy but found direction and answers to life questions through reading books like 'Crush It!' and 'The Rules of the Game'.
• ⚠️ Adam Jones, who described himself as a party animal, found a life-changing habit in reading, starting with 'Allen Carr's Easy Way to Stop Smoking' and swapping destructive habits for a passion for learning.
• 🎯 They emphasize that books provided critical life lessons that traditional academic education often missed, offering practical guidance for jobs, relationships, and personal growth.

Key Lessons from 'The Sh*t They Never Taught You'

• 🧠 The book, inspired by Daniel Kahneman's 'Thinking, Fast and Slow', explores heuristics and biases like the planning fallacy, anchoring, and sunk cost fallacy to help readers make more rational decisions.
• 💡 The halo effect is discussed as a cognitive bias where one positive trait (like public speaking) leads to assumptions of other positive qualities, impacting how we perceive others.
• 🚀 In business and marketing, the principle of 'better to be first than better' from Al Ries and Jack Trout's '22 Immutable Laws of Marketing' is highlighted, suggesting category creation over direct competition.

The Power of Expanding Your Circle of 'They'

• 🎓 Traditional education often focuses on complex, rarely used information, neglecting crucial life skills.
• 💬 By actively expanding their 'circle of they' – inviting new mentors and learning from diverse sources – individuals can gain lightbulb moments and discover alternative life paths.
• ⏳ The hosts stress the importance of realizing these possibilities before the end of one's career to avoid regret and live a more fulfilling life.

Reading vs. Listening and Future Endeavors

• 🎧 While acknowledging the utility of audiobooks and podcasts, Adam Jones prefers physical reading for better retention, often using a pencil for notes and highlights.
• 🎤 The duo has interviewed notable figures like Robert Greene and Simon Sinek, with Sinek's interview during the early pandemic emphasizing long-term thinking.
• 🌐 Their website, whatyouwilllearn.com, serves as a hub for their podcast episodes, book reviews, and author interviews, while theneyertaughtyou.com is dedicated to their book.