be as specific as possible. “agi takeoff fast”: define “agi” “takeoff” “fast”
there’s no such thing as a coincidence
for decisions: autoresolve (1) on specific date (2) to the scary one
let people tell you no. don’t make the decision for them.
if you’re ever confused about what to do, just do the right thing
expectation of progress towards a goal is key to motivation. we are not motivated if we don’t know next step. we are not motivated if we don’t know what the goal is
when sending/receiving important email, snooze it for the date when you want to follow up
set 1 hour timers to surface thoughts in a google doc and 3m timers to write down next steps.
the more you know, the more easily you can see the next steps.
if you don’t have consistent scheduled time for your top goals, you don’t have top goals
what are you being a coward about? be specific
what are you ashamed of? be specific
what makes you angry? be specific
everything has an MVP & final version. MVP can usually be done in 10% of the time with a timer for 5-10-15 minutes & ensures you don’t get stuck. what’s the mvp of your current top goal?
don’t be ashamed to ask “what do you do?” as the first question at parties.
seek out weirdest people at parties.
working on the hardest problems requires incredible amount of courage. acknowledge & embrace fear.
strong intuition doesn’t mean intuition is right.
even if high level intuition is right, without grounding actionable implications likely completely wrong.
seek ground truth and poke reality. don’t settle for proxies or for winning arguments.
never defer key beliefs. do everything possible to find ppl thinking from first principles rather than from what’s reasonable or what someone else believes
be suspicious if you haven’t felt awkward today
ppl good at thinking think that thinking is everything; people good at doing think that doing is everything. doers dismiss thinkers & thinkers are scared of doers.
if there’s something on your mind, write it down & get it out. maintain full attention on what you’re doing.
if you did a sequence of actions 3 times, make a checklist
if you have a thought and you don’t like it, you can tell your brain that you don’t like it and drop it.
add questions & ideas you want to get back to later to anki, snooze tabs, schedule them in asana.
if you don’t find yourself naturally wanting to work in a location, go somewhere else. don’t even bring your computer to the one with bad vibes.
send cold emails. assume that everyone is a friend.
always have a timer on top & use it to avoid getting stuck
what were you thinking about in the shower?
lots of alpha in low status
a reason why being in the bay area important - standards are high! otherwise easy to forget that there are people who need 10 minutes to blow you away with their energy & insight. lots of important ppl intuitions get fucked.
be sus if you haven’t spent a few years feeling like a loser when everyone else was getting ahead
if you never feel a particular emotion, it’s probably the brain suppressing awareness of it or suppressing the emotion directly
read, don’t listen to books.
people think that others have same motivations as them
people protect themselves by projecting their fears on others
you can decide to pay or not to pay attention to things
what’s the default decision?
be sus whenever you want to read & research instead of figuring something out yourself. it’s usually avoidance caused by fear.
grab a piece of paper and write a feelings diagram asking “why” endlessly
if you told someone in the year 1400 that the earth rotates around the sun, they’d either ridicule or burn you.
poke at whatever your 15-year old self felt & believed in.
you’ll learn 10x more by talking to the paper’s author for 30 minutes versus reading it for 30 minutes
you can’t improve what you can’t measure. if you want to improve on ground-truth, measure ground-truth
never give up
we become the people whose opinion we care about
we become the people we spend the most time (physically and mentally) with
get to the point
who do you want to be more like? write a list
set 5 minute timers and write next steps
set a 5 minute timer and start doing the next step
how do you feel – not think! – about your current top goal?
every document must have a specific goal written at the top of it
get to inbox 0 every day, unless you have a specific reason not to
set 1 minute timers to surface thoughts
close eyes when thinking
take sundays off
if you don’t want to write google docs, best to avoid me at dinner parties
credible commitment not to engage in a certain stimulus is tantamount to removing it entirely.
intelligence != genius
fewer better arguments
what’s the silver bullet?
cherish friends who tell you things that make you angry
sitting around on the floor with eyes closed thinking & having friends call you a coward both remain extremely underrated
easy to replace systems get replaced by difficult to replace systems
do something courageous
be sus if you’re not asking dumb questions
feeling stupid now is better than feeling stupid in 10 years
if someone is successful but there are no specific problems they solved, it’s probably because they’re good at persuading people rather than solving problems.
some people are not your friends
what’s your purpose?
saying things out loud shows inner conflict
put on your favorite song and dance
keep asking why
who are your mentors?
make sure you trust your own word
reasonable priors are an oxymoron bc the world is just fucking weird
if you want people you don’t like to like you you won’t like yourself
at least 30% of the world’s smartest 22 year olds right now are in the bay area hustling to get an o1/j1/h1b
writing makes thought visible.
will you hire your future boss? think
utility monsters are real
luck favors the prepared
most decisions are fake. we are not aware of options, feel like the right thing is impossible, can’t overcome fear.
most decisions have a silver bullet & are autoresolved if set up right.
wear a funny hat
everything is power-law distributed
everything is power-law distributed
if you’re not failing you’re not operating at the edge. if you’re not operating at the edge, you’re not learning as much as you can
ask for help. especially when you’re scared of asking for help
keep asking why
you haven’t failed until you’ve given up
write google docs
meditate
if someone you respect gives you dumb advice, think about it instead of discarding it immediately.
let the world tell you no
go to a rave get drunk & dance
have a concrete positive vision of the future
seek people who see the future
seek people who don’t get angry at you for saying what you think, being yourself, and doing what you believe is right
love
if you think you’re introverted, find better friends
you decide whether to live in the past or in the future with your every action
what will you regret tomorrow?
in 1 year?
in 10 years?
when a prisoner at auschwitz was trying to escape the gas chamber, other prisoners alerted the guards
never make decisions on the basis of tax rates or rent prices
if you have more than a few months of runway, start spending more
spend 10-20% of your time reorienting
ask the girl you like out
brain is a wet sausage
be kind
if you’re 20, you’re probably underestimating yourself
update all the way
if you weren’t at Los Alamos in 1943, you probably thought nuclear weapons were 20 years away
know what you want
if you feel bad, low energy, depressed, demotivated, there’s probably a reason & there’s probably a solution
the smarter someone is the more they can afford to have terrible epistemics and still be successful
you are permitted to do what you believe is right
autistic visionaries are not natural-born leaders
risks are less risky than you think. take as many as you can.
be loyal to your friends
the richest people lose the most money, the most connected people get rejected the most, the most successful people fail the most
go do something that can fail
reflect on your day at the end of it and write down what you learned