Life Advice Q&A with my Brother

2019-09-06 · Q&A video · Ali, Taimur Abdaal · recording, 23:14 · watch on YouTube

Topic: Mindset, motivation and happiness (also: Productivity and time, Learning and studying, Business and entrepreneurship, Books and reading, Health, sleep and habits, Work and career, Tools, apps and tech) · mode: Answering questions · tags: Family, His own products discussed, His medical past, Aimed at students

Ali and his brother Taimur answer viewers' life-advice questions: they disagree over whether starting an online business needs coding, Ali advises diversifying your identity against failure and seeing a doctor first for mental health, and Taimur explains how to get into data science.

What is said

The parts of the video and what is said in each (★ — how much it matters to the video).

00:00:00 — Cold open; Ali and Taimur introduce themselves

★★ Taimur Abdaal: Taimur studied maths at university, graduated a couple of years ago and is now working on his own startup. — 00:00:00 · Taimur Abdaal

00:00:52 — How to deal with procrastination

★★ Taimur Abdaal: Taimur says the point is to guide your procrastination the right way: many things he is glad he did in recent years began as procrastination from something important and turned out valuable. — 00:00:52 · Taimur Abdaal
★★ Taimur Abdaal: Taimur says that as long as your whole stack of responsibilities is roughly valuable, procrastinating hardly matters, and doing what you feel like doing beats forcing yourself. — 00:01:21 · Taimur Abdaal

00:01:45 — How to motivate yourself to study more; the Not Overthinking podcast

★★ Taimur Abdaal: Taimur says environment helps with studying: it took him about four years to realise he does not work best in his distracting bedroom, and about three to see that going to lectures was more productive than reading the notes at home. — 00:01:45 · Taimur Abdaal
★★ Ali and Taimur have released about 18 episodes of their podcast Not Overthinking, one every week for the last 18 weeks. — 00:02:26 · Not Overthinking, Taimur Abdaal

00:02:47 — Pulling yourself up after a failure: diversifying your identity

★★ Taimur Abdaal: Taimur doubts anyone can advise on pulling yourself up when things go wrong: he sees it as an internal battle everyone faces. — 00:02:55 · Taimur Abdaal
★★★ Ali agrees that recovering from a setback is an internal battle, but one of diversifying your identity: we feel down because our hopes, expectations and identity are tied up in the thing that went wrong. — 00:03:25
★★ Hanging his identity on various things rather than only on being the one with good grades at school has really helped Ali: if one thing goes wrong, he has others to feel good about. — 00:04:15
★★★ Ali's first point for starting an online business is to learn to code, and also the basics of web design. — 00:04:15
★★ Ali says he will make a video breaking down properly and in depth how to start an online business. — 00:04:15

00:04:31 — Starting an online business: learn to code or not

★★ Taimur Abdaal: Taimur disagrees about coding: an e-commerce business needs no code thanks to tools like Shopify, and even custom products can now be built without writing code. — 00:04:45 · Taimur Abdaal
★★ Taimur Abdaal: Taimur says developing design taste is really valuable for a new online business: it gives high production value and an immediate boost when getting started. — 00:05:14 · Taimur Abdaal
★★★ Ali says the way to get business ideas is to identify problems in your own life that you can solve with technology, and knowing the basics of code opens your mind to what can be made on the internet. — 00:05:43

00:06:07 — Balancing books and podcasts; how reading books has helped

★★ Taimur Abdaal: Taimur sorts podcasts into two kinds: comedy such as Conan O'Brien Needs a Friend, which he listens to for fun, and business and tech podcasts for information, which he plays at 2x speed, skipping pauses. — 00:06:12 · Taimur Abdaal
★★ When listening to a podcast while driving, Ali taps his AirPods and has Siri record a voice note; for a really big point he stops the car and makes notes in Evernote or Notion, whichever app he is using that week. — 00:06:41 · AirPods, Evernote, Notion
★★ Ali reads one fiction book at a time but about six non-fiction books at once; each night before sleep he picks on his Kindle whichever he most feels like reading. — 00:07:11 · Kindle
★★ Taimur Abdaal: What helped Taimur read more was no longer thinking he must read a book cover to cover: a non-fiction business book he often just skims. — 00:07:11 · Taimur Abdaal
★★ Taimur Abdaal: Taimur has not read many books but constantly reads online, and thinks that in the long run you become very clued up on what you read about. — 00:08:05 · Taimur Abdaal
★★ Ali finds it helpful to read books with no sense of prestige in finishing them cover to cover: skim, take the lessons you want, highlight some bits and leave it. — 00:08:34
★★ As starting points for book recommendations, Ali names the three books of his video Three Books That Changed My Life: The 4-Hour Workweek by Tim Ferriss, Anything You Want by Derek Sivers and Show Your Work by Austin Kleon. — 00:08:34 · The 4-Hour Workweek, Tim Ferriss, Derek Sivers
★★ Taimur Abdaal: Taimur adds one book recommendation, The Courage to Be Disliked. — 00:08:34 · Taimur Abdaal
★★ Taimur Abdaal: To earn money at school or university, Taimur says use the summers: most people do internships or summer jobs, but he highly recommends setting up an online business that brings in some passive income. — 00:09:02 · passive income, Taimur Abdaal

00:09:05 — Making money during school and university

★★ Asked by Taimur, Ali says he has no videos yet on setting up an online business for passive income, but they are coming soon. — 00:09:32 · Taimur Abdaal, passive income
★★ At school Ali worked for a tutoring agency for six pounds an hour, four hours a week, which made 96 pounds a month and left him feeling super loaded. — 00:09:32
★★ For students starting out without extra skills, Ali recommends tutoring: it is very easy to do and uses your academic skills. — 00:10:01
★★ Soon after teaching himself to code, Ali did freelance work online, making a few websites and earning a few hundred pounds. — 00:10:01
★★ Taimur Abdaal: As a teenager Taimur did psychic readings on Fiverr for five dollars each and made about a hundred dollars. (hedged) — 00:10:01 · Taimur Abdaal
★ Ali says that if viewers comment that they are interested, they will make another video in which Taimur shares his technique for psychic readings. (playful) — 00:10:35 · Taimur Abdaal
★★★ Ali calls getting a Kindle the single most worthwhile investment of his life, except maybe getting a camera, with which he started his YouTube channel. — 00:10:35 · Kindle

00:10:49 — Most worthwhile investment for personal development: the Kindle and learning to code

★★ With a Kindle, Ali says, you can buy a book the moment you hear it recommended and read in bed, on the toilet or anywhere, without the notifications of the Kindle app on a phone. — 00:11:04 · Kindle
★★ Ali says studies show that people who use e-readers read about 50% more books than people who do not. (hedged) — 00:11:04
★★ Taimur Abdaal: Taimur says exploring his own interests at school, such as design and making websites, has been very valuable: he did not know tech was a career, and it led somewhere quite good. — 00:11:30 · Taimur Abdaal
★★ Taimur Abdaal: Taimur thinks most of the valuable things he has learned came not from school or university but from things he did on the side for fun. — 00:11:59 · Taimur Abdaal

00:12:10 — Struggling with mental health and how to cope

★★ Taimur Abdaal: Taimur recalls one particularly dark week when, by his account, he was really depressed with no clear cause: he did not leave his room and ate cereal for every meal. — 00:12:21 · Mental health, Taimur Abdaal
★★ Taimur Abdaal: Taimur credits really good friends who loved him unconditionally with getting him out of that dark phase. — 00:12:50 · Taimur Abdaal
★★ Ali says he has never struggled with his mental health, thankfully. — 00:12:50 · Mental health
★★ Ali says mental health problems are said to affect one in four people at some point. — 00:12:50 · Mental health
★★★ If you are struggling with mental health, Ali says the first step is to see a doctor, because it is a medical matter that can be treated; second, a support network is really important. — 00:12:50 · Mental health

00:13:17 — The most valuable thing learned so far: everyone is making it up, and the value of cliches

★★ One thing Ali has been appreciating a lot is that everyone is making it up as they go along and no one has all the answers. — 00:13:29
★★ Taimur Abdaal: Taimur argues that no one hears a life lesson on a YouTube video and immediately gets it, so he sees no value in saying such things. — 00:13:59 · Taimur Abdaal
★★★ Ali sees value in saying cliches: the aim is not to change a life in 30 seconds but to be one more voice hammering them home, because the secrets of life are hidden behind the word cliche. — 00:13:59
★★ Ali gives "money doesn't buy happiness" as a cliche that helps: for some people it clicks early that chasing money has not helped them. — 00:14:37
★ Taimur Abdaal: Taimur's order of six months' worth of finasteride for hair loss has just arrived. — 00:14:37 · Taimur Abdaal

00:15:02 — Finasteride for hair loss

★★ Ali has been taking finasteride for a few months, but says rules on doctors recommending off-licence drugs stop him from saying anything about it. — 00:15:11
★★ Taimur Abdaal: Taimur says finasteride is backed by research and apparently works for about 70% of men. (hedged) — 00:15:11 · Taimur Abdaal
★★ Taimur Abdaal: Taimur tells viewers not to take the brothers' word on finasteride but to look into it and talk to a doctor. — 00:15:11 · Taimur Abdaal

00:15:51 — Does hard work always lead to success

★★ Asked whether hard work always leads to success, Ali says it depends on how success and hard work are defined: if you do what you like and the work is fun, you are inherently successful. — 00:16:00

00:16:08 — What to do with a spare thousand pounds: a working cruise

★★ With a spare thousand pounds Ali would take himself and Taimur on a two-week cruise, having read that a cruise ship is the best place to get work done because everything is sorted for you. — 00:16:22 · Taimur Abdaal
★★ Ali says that with a good deal, living on a cruise ship costs maybe 50 pounds a day. (hedged) — 00:16:22
★★ Taimur Abdaal: Taimur's first job after university was as a data scientist. — 00:16:51 · Taimur Abdaal

00:16:58 — Tips for getting into data science

★★ Taimur Abdaal: At Taimur's former company, in the property sector, they tried to use data to value a house automatically, without anyone visiting it. — 00:17:15 · Taimur Abdaal
★★ Taimur Abdaal: Taimur says getting into data science as a graduate is hard: the field is less developed than software engineering and has few graduate schemes. — 00:17:44 · Taimur Abdaal
★★★ Taimur Abdaal: For data science Taimur advises learning Python, its lingua franca, and foundational statistics, so you understand the pitfalls of working with data. — 00:18:13 · Taimur Abdaal
★★ Taimur Abdaal: Taimur says he got a bit lucky: he reached out to a London startup that seemed really cool and whose needs aligned with his. — 00:18:13 · London, Taimur Abdaal
★★ Taimur Abdaal: Taimur says a small startup is probably more willing to take a bet on a recent graduate than an established company with set hiring protocols. (hedged) — 00:18:52 · Taimur Abdaal
★★ Taimur Abdaal: Taimur suggests doing data science challenges on Kaggle to get up to speed and practise your skills. (hedged) — 00:19:21 · Taimur Abdaal
★★ Taimur Abdaal: Taimur says he does not know how he would advise someone to study statistics. (unsure) — 00:19:51 · Taimur Abdaal
★★ To learn the basics of Python, Ali says start by googling it and following an online course. — 00:19:51 · Google

00:20:26 — Dealing with imposter syndrome

★★ Taimur Abdaal: Taimur had imposter syndrome for a while in tech; hearing enough people say that everyone is making it up eventually sank in. — 00:20:41 · Taimur Abdaal
★★ Ali had imposter syndrome badly in his fifth year at university, co-directing the clinical school pantomime with Will, an experienced actor and singer, while he had no theatre experience at all. — 00:20:41 · Addenbrooke's Hospital Pantomime
★★★ Ali's imposter syndrome vanished once he internalised that no one was thinking about him: as long as he was friendly and did a reasonably okay job, people were tied up in themselves. — 00:21:17

00:21:42 — Favourite tech of 2019; sign-off

★ Taimur Abdaal: Taimur's favourite tech of 2019 is the new LG 4K monitor, which he finds very nice though not groundbreaking. — 00:21:46 · Taimur Abdaal
★★ Among his favourite tech of 2019 Ali names a shiatsu back massager that plugs into the wall, which he plans to mention in his next Monthly Favourites video. — 00:21:46

Threads in this video

restate · How do you beat procrastination? — Taimur says that as long as your whole stack of responsibilities is roughly valuable, procrastinating hardly matters, and doing what you feel like doing beats forcing yourself. (00:01:21)
restate · How do you make the most of university? — Taimur says environment helps with studying: it took him about four years to realise he does not work best in his distracting bedroom, and about three to see that going to lectures was more productive than reading the notes at home. (00:01:45)
milestone · Not Overthinking, Ali and Taimur's podcast (2019) — Ali and Taimur have released about 18 episodes of their podcast Not Overthinking, one every week for the last 18 weeks. (00:02:26)
restate · How do you deal with rejection and failure? — Taimur doubts anyone can advise on pulling yourself up when things go wrong: he sees it as an internal battle everyone faces. (00:02:55)
refine · How do you deal with rejection and failure? — Ali agrees that recovering from a setback is an internal battle, but one of diversifying your identity: we feel down because our hopes, expectations and identity are tied up in the thing that went wrong. (00:03:25)
refine · Should you learn to code? — Ali's first point for starting an online business is to learn to code, and also the basics of web design. (00:04:15)
promised · Ali promises an in-depth video on how to start an online business (2019) — Ali says he will make a video breaking down properly and in depth how to start an online business. (00:04:15)
tension · Should you learn to code? — Taimur disagrees about coding: an e-commerce business needs no code thanks to tools like Shopify, and even custom products can now be built without writing code. (00:04:45)
first on record · How do you find a business idea? — Ali says the way to get business ideas is to identify problems in your own life that you can solve with technology, and knowing the basics of code opens your mind to what can be made on the internet. (00:05:43)
refine · How do you remember what you read? — When listening to a podcast while driving, Ali taps his AirPods and has Siri record a voice note; for a really big point he stops the car and makes notes in Evernote or Notion, whichever app he is using that week. (00:06:41)
restate · How do you read more books? — What helped Taimur read more was no longer thinking he must read a book cover to cover: a non-fiction business book he often just skims. (00:07:11)
refine · How do you read more books? — Ali finds it helpful to read books with no sense of prestige in finishing them cover to cover: skim, take the lessons you want, highlight some bits and leave it. (00:08:34)
restate · Can you build passive income, and should you aim for it? — To earn money at school or university, Taimur says use the summers: most people do internships or summer jobs, but he highly recommends setting up an online business that brings in some passive income. (00:09:02)
progress update · Ali promises an in-depth video on how to start an online business (2019) — Asked by Taimur, Ali says he has no videos yet on setting up an online business for passive income, but they are coming soon. (00:09:32)
refine · Should you start a side hustle, and which one? — For students starting out without extra skills, Ali recommends tutoring: it is very easy to do and uses your academic skills. (00:10:01)
promised · Ali offers a video in which Taimur shares his psychic-reading technique if viewers ask for it (2019) — Ali says that if viewers comment that they are interested, they will make another video in which Taimur shares his technique for psychic readings. (00:10:35)
restate · Should you read on a Kindle, on paper or by audiobook? — Ali calls getting a Kindle the single most worthwhile investment of his life, except maybe getting a camera, with which he started his YouTube channel. (00:10:35)
restate · How do you read more books? — With a Kindle, Ali says, you can buy a book the moment you hear it recommended and read in bed, on the toilet or anywhere, without the notifications of the Kindle app on a phone. (00:11:04)
first on record · How do you cope with mental health struggles? — If you are struggling with mental health, Ali says the first step is to see a doctor, because it is a medical matter that can be treated; second, a support network is really important. (00:12:50)
restate · Does money buy happiness? — Ali gives "money doesn't buy happiness" as a cliche that helps: for some people it clicks early that chasing money has not helped them. (00:14:37)
refine · Is success a matter of luck or hard work? — Asked whether hard work always leads to success, Ali says it depends on how success and hard work are defined: if you do what you like and the work is fun, you are inherently successful. (00:16:00)
restate · Which skills should you learn now? — For data science Taimur advises learning Python, its lingua franca, and foundational statistics, so you understand the pitfalls of working with data. (00:18:13)
restate · How do you stand out in job applications? — Taimur says a small startup is probably more willing to take a bet on a recent graduate than an established company with set hiring protocols. (00:18:52)
refine · How do you learn a new skill quickly? — To learn the basics of Python, Ali says start by googling it and following an online course. (00:19:51)
restate · How do you beat imposter syndrome? — Taimur had imposter syndrome for a while in tech; hearing enough people say that everyone is making it up eventually sank in. (00:20:41)
refine · How do you beat imposter syndrome? — Ali's imposter syndrome vanished once he internalised that no one was thinking about him: as long as he was friendly and did a reasonably okay job, people were tied up in themselves. (00:21:17)
restate · Which tech is worth buying? — Among his favourite tech of 2019 Ali names a shiatsu back massager that plugs into the wall, which he plans to mention in his next Monthly Favourites video. (00:21:46)
retold · Ali co-directs the Cambridge clinical school pantomime in his fifth year with no theatre experience (2017) — Ali had imposter syndrome badly in his fifth year at university, co-directing the clinical school pantomime with Will, an experienced actor and singer, while he had no theatre experience at all. (00:20:41)

Where the stories that moved here went next

Ali promises an in-depth video on how to start an online business (2019) — open (updates through 2019, not reported done); last: progress update, 2019-09-06
Ali offers a video in which Taimur shares his psychic-reading technique if viewers ask for it (2019) — said in jest (not tracked); last: promised, 2019-09-06
Not Overthinking, Ali and Taimur's podcast (2019) — last documented in 2020; last: milestone, 2020-12-13

Mentioned

Central: Finasteride · Kindle · Mental health · Taimur Abdaal

Also: People: Austin Kleon · Conan O'Brien · Derek Sivers · Tim Ferriss · Will (student, mentioned from 2019)

Projects: Addenbrooke's Hospital Pantomime · Not Overthinking

Works: Anything You Want · Conan O'Brien Needs a Friend · Show Your Work! · The 4-Hour Workweek · The Courage to Be Disliked · The Tim Ferriss Show

Organizations: Fiverr · Google · Kaggle · University of Oxford

Concepts: passive income · stoicism

Places: Cambridge · London

Products: AirPods · Evernote · Notion · Python · shiatsu back massager · Siri

Replies to

refers to · 3 Books that Changed my Life

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Arrogance, Expectations & Inspiration - Personal Q&A with my Brother · Ali & Taimur Abdaal

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