In this special edition of Forcing Function Hour, Chris Sparks is interviewed by Justin Peters of The Struggle is Real. Chris shares the key inflection points of his poker career, illustrating how to install systems for continuous improvement.By listening to this episode, you’ll learn how to recognize a good bet, be more decisive, and unlock the compounding returns of a process-oriented life.For the video, transcript, and show notes, visit https://forcingfunctionhour.com/the-struggle-is-real.

This is the “Best of 2022” episode, highlighting five of our favorite moments from the past year. Lots of stellar guests on Forcing Function Hour this year so it was really tough to limit down to just five. Listen for insights from a World Champion Gymnast, the author of Kindle’s Most-Highlighted book, one of the foremost experts on nonverbal communication, an Emmy-Nominated director of Chef’s Table, and the Artist Manager for one of the highest-paid hip-hop artists in the world.

Eric Lewis, known as ELEW, is a multi-talented artist with a career that spans the worlds of music performance, composition, and film production. Eric started his music career as a jazz and concert pianist playing with Wynton Marsalis and the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra and winning the prestigious Thelonious Monk International Piano Competition. Reinventing himself as ELEW, he pioneered the crossover musical techniques Rockjazz, Counterbop, and Piano Turntablism. Among many other accolades, Eric has opened for Josh Groban, produced tracks for Lil’ Wayne, appeared on America’s Got Talent, spoken at TED, and performed at the White House for the Obamas.In this conversation, Chris Sparks takes you inside the mind of a musical genius as ELEW shares the strategy, mindset, and principles required to put on an epic performance. You’ll learn how to reverse-engineer a creative vision, the keys to reinvention as an artist, why preparation seeds adaptability, how to overcome perfectionism, career lessons from the world of blitz chess, and much more.For the video, transcript, and show notes, visit https://forcingfunctionhour.com/elew.

Blake Eastman is the founder of The Nonverbal Group, a long-time professional poker player, and the creator of "Beyond Tells," the largest behavioral study ever conducted on poker players. Blake’s passion is using visual feedback to teach leaders and teams how to better interpret nonverbal signals and monitor the information that their body gives off. In this conversation, Blake and Chris demonstrate how to master your communication, on and off the poker table. You will learn how to read the nuances of human emotion, have deeper awareness in social situations, and create greater alignment between your presentation and your intended message. For the video, transcript, and show notes, visit https://forcingfunctionhour.com/blake-eastman.

Frank Lantz is a game designer, writer, and educator. Frank co-founded the experimental game studio Area/Code which was acquired by Zynga. His games span genres and include favorites such as Hey Robot, Drop7, Babble Royale, and Universal Paperclips. Frank has taught game design for over two decades at New York University where he helped to create the NYU Game Center. His new book, The Beauty of Games, is coming out from MIT Press in 2023.In this conversation, Frank joins Chris Sparks to share how a leading game designer sees the world. What do games have to teach us? Can studying game theory and game principles make us better humans? Learn how to make sure you play the right games and become aware of the games you are playing without even realizing it.For the video, transcript, and show notes, visit https://forcingfunctionhour.com/frank-lantz.

Eric Jorgenson is the author of The Almanack of Naval Ravikant and an early-stage investor as a GP in Rolling Fun. Currently, Eric teaches the Life of Leverage course, hosts his podcast, Jorgenson's Soundbox, and is writing his second book, The Almanack of Balaji Srinivasan.In this conversation, Eric Jorgenson and Chris Sparks share how to recognize and amplify leverage points in your life and career. You’ll learn how to set your aspirational hourly rate, discover previously underutilized assets, and start reclaiming your time by doing the work only you can do.For the video, transcript, and show notes, visit https://forcingfunctionhour.com/eric-jorgenson.

Cameron Schiller is an award-winning content & brand marketer, Founder of RYOT Media, co-chair of the Young Leadership Council of the Brooklyn Museum, and an elite skydiver and wingsuit flyer. Cameron recently became a competitive triathlete, going from zero experience to making Team USA in just one year, and will represent the US at the World Championships in 2023.In this conversation, Cameron Schiller and Chris Sparks discuss the training methods of elite athletes, overcoming mental barriers, and leveraging data to reveal hidden dimensions of performance. You will also receive a crash course on elite skydiving including techniques to heighten your proprioception, confront your fears, and stay calm in the face of unforeseen challenges.For the video, transcript, and show notes, visit https://forcingfunctionhour.com/cameron-schiller.

David Eldar is a real estate investor better known as Australia’s top-ranked Scrabble player, a title he has held since 2014. David was the 2017 Scrabble World Champion and the 2019 World Runner-Up and is consistently rated among the top five Scrabble players in the entire world.In this conversation, we explore the underlying principles of strategy, language, and gameplay through the lens of Scrabble. Pay attention to David’s approach to dominating the meta-skills of Scrabble to discover hidden dimensions in the games you choose to play.For the video, transcript, and show notes, visit https://forcingfunctionhour.com/david-eldar.

Daniel Scrivner is an award-winning designer working with many brands such as Apple, Nike, Square, Disney, and Target, and is the host of the podcast Outlier Academy. Today, Daniel is a design-centric venture capitalist, serving as General Partner at Ligature and an angel investor in over 100 companies.In this conversation, we distill the lessons Daniel learned from his experiences as a designer, operator, and investor. You’ll learn the keys to a successful company turnaround, strategies for getting access to competitive investment deals, and how to unlock the superpower of design for your brand.For the video, transcript, and show notes, visit https://forcingfunctionhour.com/daniel-scrivner.

Kenny Arnold is a multidisciplinary industrial designer exploring the intersection of play and sustainability. Kenny is most known for his award-winning designs of toys, playgrounds, and other educational tools. When he’s not tinkering, Kenny teaches workshops on design principles and creative thinking.In this conversation, Chris and Kenny show how to apply design-thinking principles to day-to-day problem-solving. Listen to improve your ability to adapt on the fly, and transform your ideas from concepts into reality.For the video, transcript, and show notes, visit forcingfunctionhour.com/kenny-arnold.

Kristin Allen is a two-time World Champion in the sport of acrobatic gymnastics and a member of the USA Gymnastics Hall of Fame. After leaving competitive sport, Kristin performed with Pippin on Broadway, Cirque du Soleil, and the Kellogg’s Tour of Champions. Today, Kristin is the founder and president of the Acrobatic Gymnastics Foundation, the Chairwoman of the National Gymnastics Foundation, and an active investor and advisor in early-stage companies.In this conversation, Kristin and Chris dig into the mindset, training, and performance techniques necessary to reach the elite levels of a sport. Kristin shares lesser-known aspects of reaching the top—namely, what comes after World Champion? She shares insightful lessons on disentangling our identities from our profession and designing sustainable practices for mental health and athletic recovery.For the video, transcript, and show notes, visit https://forcingfunctionhour.com/kristin-allen.

Brian Tate spent a decade as a professional high-stakes poker player, competing against poker legends in the largest mixed games in the world. Brian left poker in 2016 to start creating homemade oatmeal. Under Brian’s leadership, Oats Overnight is now a vertically-integrated breakfast brand with tens of millions of meals served.In this conversation, Brian and Chris discuss principles you can apply from gaming and poker to take yourself to the next level in entrepreneurship. Brian shares what it takes to launch a retail brand, strategies for building a high-performing culture, and how to reinvent yourself to create career inflection points.For the video, transcript, and show notes, visit forcingfunctionhour.com/brian-tate.

Scott Norton co-founded the successful condiment brand Sir Kensington's, acquired by Unilever in 2017. Prior to Sir Kensington’s, Scott worked at Lehman Brothers in Tokyo and traveled across Asia on a folding bicycle.Today, Scott is the founder of N+1 Ventures, accelerating businesses cultivating their “onlyness” to make an impact on culture. He serves on boards of purpose-driven companies including MUD\WTR, Smallhold, and Firstleaf.In this conversation, Scott shares valuable lessons learned along the journey from brand conception to strategic exit. You’ll learn the foundational elements of identity for companies and for people so you can leverage your brand, share your story, and build a reputation that resonates with anyone you want to bring into your orbit.For the video, transcript, and show notes, visit forcingfunctionhour.com/scott-norton.

Nick is the author of The 2-Hour Cocktail Party, a step-by-step handbook that teaches you how to build big relationships by hosting small gatherings. Nick started and sold two successful companies and over 75,000 people have watched his TEDx talk about why he hates most museums. He's been featured in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and New York Magazine called him a host of “culturally significant parties."Nick has hosted literally hundreds of cocktail parties all around the world while developing his simple system for being a great host. If you want to expand your network, make deeper connections, and create fun and memorable experiences with interesting people, you’re going to love this conversation.For the video, transcript, and show notes, visit forcingfunctionhour.com/nick-gray.

Dan Dworkis, MD PhD, is an emergency physician, an assistant professor of emergency medicine at USC’s Keck School of Medicine, and the author of The Emergency Mind: Wiring Your Brain for Performance Under Pressure. Dan’s work at The Emergency Mind Project focuses on human performance under pressure, especially in times of emergency and crisis.In this conversation, we share techniques for improving your decision making and becoming a great leader in critical situations. We explore mental preparation, navigating risk and uncertainty, creating high performing cultures, and much more.For the video, transcript, and show notes, visit forcingfunctionhour.com/dan-dworkis.

Dominic Zijlstra is an edtech entrepreneur and polyglot. He helps professionals learn faster and remember more using science-based learning methods. His obsession with learning better started in 2017, when he’d spent a year studying Mandarin but still couldn’t communicate with his Chinese parents-in-law. He dove deep into the science of learning and developed a learning method that actually worked. He learned Mandarin successfully and then turned this method into an app (Traverse.link). Over 10000 people have used it since to learn things like languages, technical skills, marketing, psychology, and more.In this conversation, we share proven techniques to accelerate your learning. You will learn how to increase your information retention, speed up the acquisition of new skills, and become the person necessary to achieve ambitious goals.For the video, transcript, and show notes, visit forcingfunctionhour.com/dominic-zijlstra.

Milan Ackerman is a serial entrepreneur and investor, best known as the artist manager for rap superstar Russ. Milan discovered Russ on SoundCloud in 2014 and helped propel him to multi-platinum status with several Billboard Top 100 singles. Today, Milan is the CEO of M-Pack Entertainment, one of the most successful independent music management companies.Milan is the definition of persistence. In this conversation, Milan shares how to leverage the internet to build your personal brand, what it means to make it today in music and media, how to reverse engineer your dreams, and a day in the life of the manager of a touring superstar.For the video, transcript, and show notes, visit forcingfunctionhour.com/milan-ackerman.

Bryan Talebi was born in a tiny village with no running water and no electricity in the southeastern desert of Iran. He began his career working as an Aerospace Engineer at NASA at the age of sixteen. Bryan started his first company while in college and then worked at multiple machine learning companies which went on to become unicorns. Today, Bryan is the founder of Ahura AI, an artificial intelligence and biometric data company enabling accelerated education. Bryan also runs AB+ Ventures, an impact fund focused on transformational AI, and Digital Guardians, a non-profit he started with Richard Branson to mitigate existential risk.Bryan has a remarkable ability to connect with people. In this conversation, we share systems and strategies for presenting yourself confidently in social settings, activating your network to maximize your opportunity surface area, and making more authentic connections.For the video, transcript, and show notes, visit forcingfunctionhour.com/bryan-talebi.

Abigail Fuller is an award-winning documentary filmmaker whose work includes five seasons on the Emmy-nominated series Chef’s Table, Dear Oprah for Apple TV+, and the feature documentary Do You Dream in Color? Her work has twice premiered at the Berlin International Film Festival, the Big Sky Documentary Film Festival, Telluride’s MountainFilm, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art to name a few. Abby is dedicated to telling deeply human stories that allow for empathy and sharing new perspectives.Abby joins Chris Sparks to share the elements of telling a great story.What makes a story powerful? How do we become better listeners to reveal the hidden superpowers in the people around us? How can we structure the stories we tell to better connect with an audience?As a director, Abby helps us see ourselves in the people who once seemed different. She has a deep understanding of what makes a character tick, building the rapport and trust necessary to bring their truth out and communicating that truth visually on screen in a way that resonates.For the video recording, resources mentioned, and conversation transcript, visit https://forcingfunction.com/podcast/abby-fuller

Paul Millerd is an independent writer, creator, and consultant.  He has been self-employed for almost five years after spending many years working in consulting.  He recently published a book, The Pathless Path, about his experiments with designing life and improving his relationship with work.Paul joins Chris Sparks to ask the dangerous question: What if we threw out the default scripts of success and carved our own path? How would our relationship with work transform? This is a conversation about living in alignment with our values and doing meaningful work towards a meaningful life.For the video recording, resources mentioned, and conversation transcript, visit https://forcingfunction.com/podcast/paul-millerd