I wrote previously about the concept of having a personal bible, a collection of text that has changed your life and will continue doing so the more you read and review it. A sort of wisdom manual for your life. One that grows and changes as you do.
Maybe there’s a better word than “bible” but I suppose it communicates my point. The idea of a personal bible is like the actual Bible, something you read and re-read and discuss and share with others because its contents are that important, that powerful.
And along with a personal bible of just text, it makes sense to do the same for audio. So I’m starting to collect and save my favorite podcast episodes and TED talks and YouTube speeches. Below are 12 such examples.
Still not sure what the final format will be. Ideally I’d launch a podcast to publish all of them in one place. A podcast is a great format: you can listen at your own pace, access the archives on your own time, and share with others. But publishing rights prevent me from doing so. There isn’t a way to create a curated podcast episodes playlist like you can create a YouTube videos playlist, a user created list of episodes that people can subscribe to and listen to at their pleasure. But maybe someday.
So here are 12 of my favorites for the audio bible collection (please note, this doesn’t include specific podcast episodes, because I’m still collecting them, and will publish a future update):
1. Richard Hamming, You and Your Research
“Given two people with exactly the same ability, the one person who manages day in and day out to get in one more hour of thinking will be tremendously more productive over a lifetime.”
2. George Saunders’ commencement speech at Syracuse University
“they cause us to prioritize our own needs over the needs of others, even though what we really want, in our hearts, is to be less selfish, more aware of what’s actually happening in the present moment, more open, and more loving.”
3. Jeff Bezos on using regret minimization to make decisions
4. David Foster Wallace’s commencement speech at Kenyon College
“In the day-to-day trenches of adult life, there is actually no such thing as atheism. There is no such thing as not worshipping. Everybody worships. The only choice we get is what to worship.”
5. Robert McKee on writing and writers
“Many years ago the worst thing that could happen was you’d die. So stories were about how to survive. There are far worse things today. People in living hells. People could understand the plague. Who today can understand banking? Parenting?”
6. Jack Ma on startups, technology, and changing the world (wrote about it here)
“I don’t understand technology, I’m afraid of it, as long as it works I’m happy”
7. David Brooks’s commencement speech at Dartmouth College (wrote about it here)
“In the realm of action, they have commitments to projects that can’t be completed in a lifetime.”
8. A discussion between Harvard Divinity School and Harvard Business School (wrote about it here)
“The third thing about juggling, though, is you’ve got to catch the falling ball. The most important ball is the one that’s about to hit the ground.” – Howard Stevenson
9. Glenn Greenwald’s TED talk on privacy
“he who does not move, does not notice his chains” — Rosa Luxemburg
10. Rupert Sheldrake’s banned TED talk on the science delusion
“Terrence McKenna likes to say modern science is based on the principle, give us one free miracle and we’ll explain all the rest”
11. Tim Keller’s sermon on faith and work (wrote about a related sermon here)
12. Jim Carrey’s commencement speech at Maharishi University (wrote about it here)
“So many of us choose our path out of fear disguised as practicality.”
