A compilation of very valuable lessons that I’ve learned throughout my life—a bunch of useless bullshit that hopefully helps someone! If anything catches your eye, feel free to reach out :)
Inspired by Sam Altman’s How to Be Successful →
Take some, apply it, and if it works for you, work it into your worldview/daily thought process.
1. Life is about minimizing regret
Life is about picturing yourself on your deathbed and thinking… was that shit tight or no? Life is about thinking, in 5/10/50 years from now, will I regret this or will I regret not doing this? Life is about minimizing the possibility of regret when looking back upon it. This is a great mental razor and really serves as my compass to make sure that I live the fullest possible life: one that I’d be proud of on my deathbed.
Live a life you would be proud to show off
2. You are the average of the 5 people you spend most of your time with.
Humans are a function of their inputs, just like any traditional computer. You become an average of the 5 people (or in the digital age, online personalities or books) you surround yourself with. Only surround yourself with the highest quality ones, or you risk being mediocre. If they don’t make you better or inspire you, they don’t belong in your life. You don’t have an infinite social circle or life, only make do with the best.
You can curate your proximate personalities with books, podcasts, videos, real-life friends, mentors, relationships, etc. If you want to be great, your 5 closest personalities must be great. Be very conscious and careful when choosing who your 5 are.
3. Develop a rich information diet.
I got this from Jessica Li. You get good at life by knowing things and then doing things. Develop your consumption habits to mainly consume rich and quality information. If your YouTube suggestions are mainly memes, maybe make a new one that’s less memey. Make one where you follow high-quality sources of information so that the act of constantly consuming high-quality information is almost automatic.
But never stop improving. i.e. move from YouTube tech videos → TechCrunch articles → textbooks → field expert’s video → cutting-edge research i.e. TED talks → Gary Vee → Freakonomics → Tim Ferriss
Be conscious of how much rich experience a source of information has and how effectively it can impart that upon you. YouTube videos can be more helpful than books :)
4. Intentionally do things that make you uncomfortable.
This is an important skill because uncomfortable opportunities tend to be the most rewarding experiences in life.
When you are faced with a reality that you reactively flinch from or second guess, these are the times you grow and learn the MOST. People are not willing to do the uncomfortable, so you will have less competition here. Extreme progress and growth are found in reaching through to discomfort. Conversely, progress and growth are limited and diminished if you only reach for the comfortable risks. Routinely forcing discomfort makes sure that when you face your life’s hardest, most worthwhile challenges, you’ll have the muscle built up to take it on the chin.
This Tim Ferriss podcast elaborates on this better than I can.
5. Learn about Daoism and Stoicism. Learn to be happy + egoless.
Being happy is a learned skill. It’s a skill everyone can learn. And only a happy life is worth living. Being happy makes you a better friend, lover, and member of this human experience. It took me years, but I learned how to be extremely rational, intensely happy, and grateful with the help of these two frameworks. They protect you from negative emotions and deep emotional stress. I’d attribute all my success and lack of negative emotions to this. Not only is it near impossible to make me sad, I’m still really fucking happy. And that’s the beauty with these, you can choose what to be sad or intensely happy about. Really. I’ve learned that I can’t convince people of this, but check them out. Maybe read The Tao of Pooh.
6. Always seek fundamental causes, reason from first principles.
Reasoning from the ground up allows for branches of knowledge to share common stumps (roots) of knowledge that are robust and best aligned with objective truth. When you build a cohesive, well-reinforced view of reality, you will be correct much more often. You gain the superpower to see when convention, popular opinion, status quo, or even your overthinking no longer (or never have) made sense.
We fall victim to a lot of these things in the name of convenience. If you’re always conscious of this fact, you will avoid being wrong and avoid wasteful mental labor, stress, effort, or careers optimizing for the wrong things or in the wrong ways. Challenge all assumptions. In the beginning, it’s active and annoying work. But with time, you build a worldview, thought process, and domains of robust knowledge that allow you to reason about the world and be right often, learn new things quickly (as analogy is much easier to apply to solid fundamentals), and accomplish anything.
A good exercise that leads to this is just practicing asking why/how 3 levels deep to everything. i.e. “I’m hungry” → Why am I hungry? → Why does Ghrelin exist? → Why would that sustenance mechanism of human biology be useful in this modern age of abundance? i.e. “What should I do this gap year?” → Why am I taking a gap year? → Why do I do anything? (What’s important to me?) → How do I achieve what’s important to me (goals)?
From Elon’s AMA: “One bit of advice: it is important to view knowledge as sort of a semantic tree — make sure you understand the fundamental principles, ie the trunk and big branches, before you get into the leaves/details or there is nothing for them to hang on to.”
7. Start with Distribution.
First-time founders focus on product and consumer, second-time founders focus on distribution and B2B. At the end of the day, the business that wins is the one that can generate more revenue and can spend more on advertising. Your competitor won because it 4xed revenue and hired your product person. Your competitor’s personal brand reached more people and convinced them to buy. This translates to finding people and dating as well. Harry Styles has way better options for friends and girlfriends than I do :(
8. Become the Broker.
Oftentimes, when you can’t reach the people you need, just build the community they’d want to be in. If you can’t reach your real estate investors, be the marketplace that connects all real estate investors. If you can’t get into Harvard, just make a community with Harvard-caliber people. If you can’t get around the world’s best tech investors and founders, just make HustleCon or start a newsletter or podcast surrounding them. If you can’t find enough independent and successful young startup founders, make Verci.
Naming comes from this post.
9. Get good at asking the right questions.
Elon said, the answer is usually the easy part. The hard part is asking the right questions. Questions are the only tool we have to inquire about this reality. It is our pickaxe to inspect the world we live in. It also happens to be the backbone of our cognition; we literally think in questions. Getting good at questions means getting good at thinking, the very essence of the human experience. This importance is why I like Tim Ferriss’ Podcast. He is really good at asking questions.
10. Use a note app profusely as a digital extension of your brain: it clears mental baggage, increases mental capacity.
This is probably my most important productivity lesson. The brain is good for creative, constructive thought and really bad for memorization and menial maintenance (something digital brains/computers are really good at). Let the silicon work for you, clear your mind of todos, tasks, reminders, thoughts, and learnings so that it can do what it really excels at. “Clearing your mind” in this sense does really open up bandwidth for your brain to do more interesting work. Brain computation is a limited resource.
11. What you work on matters more than how hard you work.
20% is actually doing the work, doing it is doing it, and there’s no substitute to doing it. BUT it’s magnitudes more important exactly what you work on and why vs actually working. If you are not careful about this you join the rat race of prescribed and conventional options that don’t matter if you’re good at them anyway. I call these small games. Don’t play small games. Ever.
12. Time will always be the fundamental asset/resource.
Life is the never-ending struggle to spend it most effectively. Everybody has the same 24 hours. Begin to think about everything in terms of either time cost or happiness/fulfillment gain. How you spend it dictates your life, happiness, achievement, or whatever else you care about. Get good at being hyper-conscious of it and allocating it really well.
13. Have a very strong bias toward action.
People tend to bias toward overthinking and inaction. What separates you from the successful people is maybe 5% intellect, talent, and utter luck, but most of the time it is the disparity in amounts of action. X person got famous because he got to work and created X Y Z opportunities for himself—because he put the work in, because he filmed 100 videos before you filmed one, because he shipped 10 versions before you finished designing your app, because they had the dumb confidence to do before you had your full conviction and over analysis. This is a very common story. A genius thinks about their brilliant idea for years and years, never allowing their genius to meet the opportunity halfway by means of action.
The winners in business, life, etc. are the ones that think about something and do it now instead of the ones who plan their course well. Iteration speed and feedback cycle speed are the highest determinants of success and excellence. Iterating fast gets you more moments of exposure to how the world works and what you need to do differently.
Do everything now. Never “I’ll do it later”. Get into the habit of doing things now. Have laundry? Just do it now. Think of a brilliant email to send? Fuck it, send it now. I’ve found the best strategy to adopt this is: You think of something you ought to do and you say fuck it, don’t think about it and block out the outside, just do the action that starts the progression, don’t let your brain think too hard about it, don’t let the procrastination weigh in. Block it out. This is stupid, but what it looks like for me is this: I decide, hey I need to work on being a better programmer today. I then define a task in my head, say an online course. And before I can think ehhh or I’m too lazy, I just repeat those words/motive in my head. Online course, online course, and not even allow my mind to be distracted. I let up off this… mental short circuit after I’m already in the act of doing. At this point, it’s just easier to keep going. The inertia sustains it. Or, I put my feet on the ground, stand up, and all of a sudden we’re doing laundry. Don’t give yourself a chance to decide otherwise. Just do. Or, fuck it, we’re emailing 4 schools to start this non-profit, and shutting out our urge to write it down and do it later. If you shun this feeling long enough, brainlessly just start doing whatever it is, you’ll eventually snap out of it and discover that you’re already mid-act. Too late to procrastinate now.
^ I wrote this in 2018 but have since found a better person to explain these exact thoughts: Tiffany Matthe →
14. Do the hardest task first each day.
Learn to “swallow the frog”, this productivity hack (along with planning my day) has accounted for 60-70% of my productivity over the past few years.
15. Live like you could die at any moment.
Because, via the random, uncontrollable nature of life, you very well could. Could you die tomorrow and be content with the life you lived? If not, you’re probably sad and disillusioned with life. Make sure you live the life you’d die for.
How? Be a little thoughtful. Define what makes a meaningful life for you. At the very least, you should know that you’re trying your hardest to achieve your dreams. Be proud of yourself and work on things that matter to you. It could be over tomorrow.
16. Read Zero to One by Peter Thiel.
It illustrates a key purpose of life: to create the maximum amount of value for humanity, and how to accomplish that. Some people think that this book is a bit too ego driven on Peter’s part. Peter’s politics are also a bit extreme, but the man does think well. Just know that, see past it, and always draw your own conclusions.
The books that changed my life are here
17. Smile always.
Happiness is underrated. Life is easier when you smile. More opportunities open, people like being around you more, the more you smile. The world is a bit dark, so it richly rewards those who serve as a refreshing contrast. Being happy counts for 40 IQ points. Scientifically, dopamine is actually released upon smiling which allows you to be in a more happy, risk-tolerant, creative, and fulfilled. Personally, smiling all the time is how I made most of my friends. People want to talk to happy people!
18. Give, give, give without expecting.
Give because it is the right thing. If that doesn’t appeal to you, give because it is empirically better for your career and eventually to be selfless. Again, the world is selfish. The world rewards those that are refreshingly generous. Being stingy will increase your job prospects by 10%. Being helpful to everyone you can will increase your success rate by many more magnitudes. They always come back to you 10x over. It comes back to you many many many times over. Give give give, expect nothing. You won’t ever get let down, and you will build extremely valuable relationships.
19. Depend on systems and environment rather than willpower.
Want to do work? Take off your bedsheets so you can’t lay down.
Want to lose weight? Make working out easy and frictionless. Find a gym on your way home from work. Schedule an Uber to the gym so you can’t back out. Find a workout partner you won’t let down.
Want to eat healthy food? Make eating unhealthy food impossible by not buying bad food. Now, each time you want to indulge, you’ve gotta get in your car, drive, buy the shitty food, and then indulge. It’ll never be worth it and you won’t spend hardly any time resisting and depleting your willpower.
Remove all the possible avenues for bad outcomes, avenues for not doing the right thing.
To do cool things: Make it impossible to do uncool things.
Being productive is doing highly valuable work. Doing valuable work is really just not allowing yourself to waste time on stupid shit. If you want to do cool stuff, don’t even give yourself the possibility to do stupid stuff, throw away your gaming PC, An. Applied to dieting: don’t depend on your willpower to diet. That’s stupid, counter to biology and psychology, and hard as fuck. Just throw out those chocolate pretzels. You no longer spend the marginal willpower (a finite resource) resisting that decision and can use it for better things.
A nice productivity “hack” by Tiffany Matthe →
20. Do things no one else is doing. Never compete in a rat race.
For one, to do what everyone else is doing is hyper competitive. Two, people often act on convention or social norm and can often be disillusioned. Think about all the people making mediocre lives because they were told to follow a certain path. That is the harder path. Either you get good at the race (hard) or you find a better one (easy).
For example, DM the manager or the friend of the manager of the act you want to shoot for. Sneak in a camera for the show you wanna shoot for but didn’t get a pass. Fake that you’re on a music publication and get that press pass. Shit like that. Don’t just grind the ranks and go through the usual progression at 120% effort like everyone else. There’s almost always an easier, less competitive way.
21. In business, friendships, relationships, everything, find and define the path to mutual benefit.
Ask about and figure out the goals of others. Align yourself with them, so that you’re building each other up. Define what a symbiotic relationship would look like and work toward it. And of course, this mutual benefit compounds. This leads to fruitful, progressive, healthy, and happy human connections.
22. At the beginning of your career, say yes to everything.
Early in your career, you don’t have the all the luxury to be picky, but you do have some. When you are young and early in life, say yes to everything. Try everything. This increases your luck surface area and opens roads for much cooler opportunities to come to you.
However, when you finally find your passions, and start to notice you are oversubscribed too often, or when you know what makes you happy:
23. No “yes.” Either “HELL YEAH!” or “no.” →
Proper exploration is done by saying yes to all randomness. Excellence is achieved after you discover the right game and are able to say no to everything else.
24. Only pick new projects that will make the rest of your life look like a footnote.
Got this from Sam Altman. Read some more →
25. Every day, plan your day on Google Calendar.
It’s a good exercise. Be ruthless about explicitly recording and cutting away inefficiencies in your time spend. Don’t only cut time away, but also replace it with a positive habit. If you just cut out bad time spend and don’t replace it, you’re left with emptiness and misery to contemplate on what you’re missing out on. At the very least be ruthlessly aware of how it is being spent.
26. If you’re scared to chase your dreams or worry too much about other people’s opinions, follow Gary Vee’s content.
He’s a good influence against these psychological flaws. His content is tiring after a while. Consume until you’ve got what you needed.
27. Learn and then practice being self-aware.
Learn how to judge yourself objectively. Self-regulate yourself. You are flawed and you are just as bad as those you shame and look down upon. Realizing this is key and is the only way to better yourself. Humble yourself. Realize you are a body with a thinking brain. We are all imperfect humans trying to better ourselves—all imperfect but still beautiful.
28. When faced with a problem, only offer solutions or improvements.
Never present a problem to someone else without solutions, just making it their problem to worry about it.
29. Make your own path.
Why do you have to go to college? Why do you need to major in this or get a job in that? Why are these jobs my only set of options? In life, you have to be conscious that the menu of options laid before you is often prescribed by someone else. Challenge all assumptions always. A lot of convention is done because it is easy or without the need for extra thought. Why are kids paying 80k a year to go to college that raises its tuition 3X the rate of inflation each year? Because their parents did and that seemed normal. Because past assumptions took the place of fundamental thinking in the reality of today.
30. Always reevaluate. Be intensely introspective.
Never get caught up on a path in life based on information and conclusions you’ve come to a year ago. You learn things, grow, develop in separate ways, don’t expect your past conclusions to still hold true. I do monthly reflections to make sure I’m always on track for my mission to improve the human condition by the maximum amount possible by the time I die and afterward. Working on stale assumptions is not optimal. Continuously rediscover the goal and beauty of life.
Always question what you’re doing, where you’re headed, and why you are doing what you’re doing or thinking what you’re thinking. Is it because of convention? Does it make basic, fundamental sense? Have you deconstructed and then rationally reconstructed this decision, path, or worldview from the ground up?
Be painfully self-aware. Seriously.
31. There is an opportune time and place (among many other external factors) for everything, and for anything to succeed or fail.
Know that you are not in control of all the factors that decide this re: Stoicism. But work on recognizing when you do have these factors on your side. Instagram could’ve only happened once and it was at the point in time where cameras were being added to smartphones and smartphones and wireless connections could handle sharing of photo-based media on a massive and social scale. 5 years earlier or cameras not being all that good wouldn’t have allowed their founders to build that empire at that exact time with those exact circumstances. But you need to constantly reevaluate to see: is this the ideal moment to work on X, with all factors considered.
32. Always seek the other point of view.
Being an ignorant radical trumper or elitist liberal (for example) depends on your genuine openness to opposing ideas. The way you find truth is by pitting 2 views against each other until one wins. Faithfully try to understand each other person’s perspective or opinion, how they might have reached that conclusion, how you might have reached your conclusion (and possible flaws along this pathway), and then define a new one based on as least bias as possible and on the most evidence, reasoning, and impartial thought as possible. This is how you form good opinions. Non-intuitively, the strongest opinions and realizations are by assuming the opposite is true and trying to reason out of that.
Read about Steelmen →
33. The key to continually becoming cooler or better as a person is the constant redefinition of yourself.
You can’t hold on to anything about yourself or how people that know you now think about you. My most formative moments have always been when I’ve surrounded myself with total strangers, and redefined who I am, who I wanted to be all along. Build yourself so that you can do this with the same people. Constant redefinition and radical change/adjustment is how anything grows the fastest. Don’t be simply comfortable being uncomfortable, learn to seek and desire discomfort. As that is the only sign of growth.
34. Be decisive but leave options open.
The best option is usually the one that leaves the most other options open. Somewhat counter to that, you must be decisive and bias toward action. Pick something and do it as long as it mostly won’t impede your future optionality. Very few decisions in modern day do. You can go to med school at 45 or get an undergrad degree in philosophy at age 25 or 50 or 80 or get an unpaid internship at your dream studio decades after school, if you wanted. Decisions aren’t final but beware of when they can limit others. Retain optionality. This way, if you are wrong or don’t like it, you can just switch. But only do so after you’ve given one thing your full commitment and due diligence. Task switching is expensive, don’t get caught switching on everything just 2 steps before the big reward.
35. Realize that humans are merely computers.
Human bodies are a product of their long biological evolution and their worldview is a product of their social environment, inputs, and upbringing. The food you eat are inputs that chemically alter and build your body. The data you consume are inputs that chemically alter your mind.
36. When thinking about what projects to take on, think about what you will be the best at, things you will love.
Why do you have a unique advantage here? Why is it the most opportune time to do this now? You’re given a hand, how do you maximize the value of that hand? For me, this tends to be a matter of passion, curiosity, and an examination of predetermined factors/assets. You are 10x better (over time) than any other person at any task if you are passionate and curious about it. That “enthusiasm advantage” is worth 80 IQ points. Do things you love because you will automatically be better than a vast majority of people you will be competing against.
37. Learn and play Poker.
Poker is an accurate analogy to how life works. It teaches you how to think about life—in probabilities. Life is a large probabilistic model with incomplete information, independent and uncontrollable actors (also with incomplete information), with forces beyond your control and one single perspective of agency: you + your hand. It teaches you how to think about decisions, risk, probability, and how other players/humans think. In Poker, much like life, you are given a hand, an incomplete idea of what you should do, and a set of probabilistic choices/paths. It’s up to you to combine your fuzzy facts, approximations of the outcome, and how your actions affect everyone else in a way that increases your odds of winning.
Given your hand, your upbringing, and what odds you give yourself, what do you pick?
From Freakonomics ep. #424: “Life is a game of incomplete information, you never know everything and you are able to control a good amount of decisions leading up to the end because you can control how you present yourself, whether or not you play, how you play, but ultimately you cannot control the cards. You can control a lot of what you do, but the ultimate outcome is not entirely up to you. And you have to be okay with that.”
38. Realize that you control your life.
This is a cliché. But it is actually true. You are born with only a small set of limitations on your life or opportunity. Outside, of schooling and upbringing and its limited and immediate benefits, the rest is really up to you. Under-resourced kids grow up to be presidents of the US. Rich kids also go on to become hopeless druggies. The world is really up to you. It’s up to your will and the strength of such to bend the outcomes of life and the world itself in obedience.
It’s just hard to internalize and believe this. I think the key lies within Stoicism, Daoism, and gratitude. If you want to be Elon Musk. Be Elon Musk. The universe is not conspiring against you, but it’s actually usually a tailwind in your sails. It’s conspiring to make you the most successful version of yourself.
Also, this Steve Jobs mantra is central to realize. There are no adults out there. No one knows what they’re doing. Do your best, it is often times more than enough.
39. Take initiative.
Most people don’t have the guts or the muscle to do things, start things, take risks. Most people are not taught to act but to follow predefined processes, convention, and tradition. Being able to take initiative without the usual flinch is worth 50 IQ points. Bias toward action, and you will win more often than not. Starting is the hardest part, so do that and you’ll be in good shape.
40. Everything is a lot scarier and impossible(r) in your head.
In relationships and in taking initiative to do scary things, the thoughts of problems are much more negative, disproportionately scarier and risky in your head. Once you take the scary step to realize the thought or vocalize your relationship (or any) problem, it will look like an impending deep dark cloud of fucking failure and shit. But, once you put it out into the world, all of a sudden, it’s not so big.
Until you get that first step done and do it. Founding a non-profit is scary until that first organizing email is sent. Until that first tutor signs up. Seriously, looking up at the whole project/goal before you do seems impossible every single time. Taking that first step is everything, as corny as it sounds. If you can help it, just do it without thinking about it, once you’re done with the first step, the rest will fall into place.
This is also key advice in communication. Just start saying how you actually feel to people you’re intimate with. The perceived negative effect and also result/effect of your thoughts are always 10x worse in your head. It’s always more damaging to hold that thought and never does its perceived cost ever be as bad as you believe.
41. Outside opinions don’t matter.
We spend our first 2-3 decades (often entire lives) dictating our life based on what looks good to others—what looks like success or happiness to others. This puts you squarely in the unfulfilling and more difficult rat race. But doing this is hard. Every day after convincing yourself of this further proves its truth.
Here’s how I did it: “Fuck yeah you’re cool as shit, everyone else is lame as fuck and you’re the god damn best in the world. No one knows what the fuck they’re doing.” Or that’s what I told myself anyway lol. If you can’t think this, work until you can. Just repeat it in your mind until day-to-day small factors start to build up and confirm your belief. Just think it over and over for a month. Repeat it in your head over and over. It was probably meaningless for me for the first 28 days. Over time, see how much your mind opens and your future and happiness open up.
You become more comfortable in your own skin, in your own wills + opinions, and unbeholden to the grasp of others that society or other slimy institutions have placed upon you. Then decide whether your Instagram-like accounting or professional accolades or career path or recreation activities is bullshitting yourself.
42. Productivity is not a trait, it is a system and snowball you set in motion at some point in the day.
Being productive is a matter of making your environment void of unproductive tasks while doing small productive things in the morning to start the snowball. Doing a productive task in the morning makes it way easier to do productive tasks later in the day. If you wake up on the first alarm and take a cold shower and then make your bed, you’ll probably accomplish 100 units of work that day. If you snooze or lay in bed for an hour first, the productive tasks of that day will be harder to do. You get the idea.
WARNING PSEUDO SCIENCE: On a more meta level, I think it might come from the mental constraints that early positive mental direction impose. If you say I must do X productive task first thing in the morning, it automatically takes up space in our limited early morning mental sphere, which “attracts” more productive thoughts (via related mental pathways) and resists unproductive thinking (via not having as much mental capacity for it and distance of unrelated pathways). The power of inertia is also strong here: if you spent your first 2 hours working out and doing good work in a paced manner (to prevent burnout), you’re likely to continue. This makes you more resistant to unproductive perturbations. Unproductive thoughts breed more unproductive thoughts and vice versa.
43. Everything does happen for a reason, don’t question the bad shit.
Almost every opportunity was a consequence of what could have been seen as a negative outcome. Roll with the punches, you can only focus on up.
44. Think of all the shit you could’ve accomplished if you started a year ago, now do that this year.
People are amazed to shit by how much the greatest in the world can achieve in a year. But try also thinking in the inverse temporal framework. like damn. If I start now, think of the compounding benefits that’ll accumulate in a year if I work on this a bit each day. A year from now you will be good or great at anything you set your mind to. Just stay busy. Stay smart busy.
45. If you’ve got it, you’ll get there.
Sometimes people stress about their timelines not matching up with expectations or a “normal” timeline. Just know this: if you’ve got it, you’ve got it. Success timelines are a bit hard to bound. If you count the seconds you will give up before you get there. If you just keep going, you’ll be there before you thought possible. You’ll see your success 100% within your life. If someone’s got it, they got it. It’s just a matter of time for luck to hit. No reason to fret the past 3 setbacks. The goal is to get there, when we get there rarely matters.
46. You’re cool.
Really… you’re fucking the coolest person in the room at all times. You can learn something from anyone, but you’re the coolest person in the room. Realize that.
47. You don’t have to do anything in life.
In other words, the path before you, the menu of options laid in front of you, the normal progression of life has all been put in front of you for no apparent reason. If your business fails or if you failed the SAT or whatever, no one dies, no one’s gonna eat you. Suit up and get on with it. We often get caught up in false identity and existence It’s not the end of the world.
48. Actionable tactic: work on something meaningfully for just 5 minutes a day, bump up the time gradually.
If 5 minutes is too much, start with 30 seconds a day. Doing this work compounds. Showing up consistently on anything puts you ahead of 90% of the pack because everyone is so allergic to action. 99% of my non-profit was just showing up. It took like daily 20 minutes of pretty easy work that compounded over months. It worked because people are so allergic to action, it wasn’t hard.
49. Don’t ever judge. Open your mind to all the “weirdo” shit in life.
If you think a certain way instantly about something, that’s probably a bad sign. Take everything without judgment. It keeps things colorful, it makes your life more worth living. Cheesy, but it gets you to a deeper understanding of the human experience and a richer one at that. Embrace everything that comes your way without judgment. Decide reactions for yourself, never based on convention.
50. Work on projects that, even if they fail, you still gain valuable relationships or knowledge out of it.
Concrete example: my friend is interviewing top talent (Travis Scott, 6lack) as part of a new media venture. If it fails, he still has those contacts, the valuable information, those relationships. Got this tip from Tim.
51. Watch “Productivity tips from Tim Ferriss”
Cheesy clickbait title but effective information.
52. Interview/talk to people cooler than you.
Interviewing is a great way to access people, their knowledge, and mindset that are way higher caliber and experience level than you. Interview or just reach out and say, I love what you do, I wanna learn how to do that. What things can I do to orient myself better or have the opportunity to do your work in the future? Don’t network for selfish means. Network because you are genuinely interested in their work, passion, goals, or achievements. Also, non-profits and volunteering also allow you to punch above your resume weight. Similar to being the broker.
53. DM people on Instagram, Twitter, etc.
I met all my close friends through there. In life, you only have the pool of people in your proximity who happen to have reason to talk and introduce to you. On the internet, you can be selective about who you put in your life. This works better for creative people, as creative people live more and express more on the platform. But find your version if Instagram doesn’t work for you. Find access to high-quality people, hack your way into their life. Be likable.
54. College is really just you cementing what you really are, what’s inside you, then forming and shaping yourself.
The classes aren’t worth shit (you can learn that anywhere). It’s about the network you build with the humans proximate to you who might be on a similar path or mission. The experience of minimal responsibility and intense freedom to try literally anything is rare and more profound than I can explain. You can become literally anyone here. College is the turning point for many people, you are no longer a pure result of your forming factors and social norms and possibilities that were prescribed to you by the small circle you grew up with. Like before college, I’d walk around to pose as if I’m the shit… and that’s kind of who you are for a while. It’s because your world is small, this social game of high school seemed like the most important thing until you opened your circle.
55. If it sounds stupid, it can still be right.
Thinking something is stupid and all gut reactions are usually based on conventions that require deeper, ground-up thinking. But if it’s coming from someone smart , eh it’s probably right. Nothing is certain though.
56. Meditate.
I do this as much as I can. It focuses on your day and your life. It makes sure you work on things intentionally and that you live intentionally. Don’t just wake up and follow the routine, float through life. I do 10 minutes: 5 thinking about where I’m going in life. 5 thinking about what I need to do today to make significant progress on my life goal.
57. Why can’t you achieve your 10-year goals in 6 months? - Peter Thiel
No seriously, why? People don’t ever have a good answer for this. Usually, asking yourself this question gives insights in 2 key areas: It highlights you the most efficient paths to achieve what you want, and it forces you to examine if your constraints are from convention. Also, why can’t you 10x your goals and then go after that? You’ll end up 8x your original goal for free.
58. Be persistent.
Again, most people aren’t. This will make you compete better here. You’ll have less competition, and fewer people will be willing to go as far as you. An example of Tim Ferriss @ SXSW: “give me anything, a corner, a hallway, a cancellation” said this to one of the event organizers. Last minute they had a sponsor showcase fall through, he got to speak on stage, and this resulted in a lucky break that blew him up. This is the kind of persistence and unconventional decision-making you need. Be careful here though, be persistent but respectful. Don’t piss people off too much.
Also, always ask for what you want. The worst thing that they can say is no. 50-60% of the time though, they say yes. And you get to bend the world and your experience towards your goals.
Other versions or influences of this that are super insightful:
- Sam Altman’s “How to be Successful”
- Kevin Kelley’s “68 Bits of Unsolicited Advice”
- Tim Ferriss’ Tribe of Mentors
- Derek Sivers
- Naval Ravikant
- Elon Musk’s AMA
- Elon is a cock sometimes, but he’s one of the smartest people in the world and he’s improving the human experience pound for pound more than any other human living today. Learn the good things, and acknowledge his flaws. No one is 100% perfect, but everyone has something you can learn from. Elon is a flawed human, but his thought process is the most refined I have ever seen. He’s probably a factor of 10 or more smarter than any other incredibly smart person I follow.
Work to go on this piece:
- Cut down 50%. You are fighting against the short human attention span here. Brevity and impact are king.
- Refine thought on the last half. The first half of the list is solid, but the second half is rambling and I’m not even sure how important.
- Bias towards action needs refinement. One of the most important points, but it’s not good enough to put in the top half.