Tribe of Mentors

Who are you really? What do you really want? Get out there and fail and find out.

The Beginning of Infinity by David Deutsch greatly expanded my sense of the potential power of human knowledge, while Nick Bostrom’s Superintelligence made me worry that machine knowledge could ruin everything. I strongly recommend both books. But if you just want to forget about the future and lose yourself in the book that forever changed how narrative nonfiction is written, read In Cold Blood by Truman Capote.

This is super important.
Everybody’s impatient at a macro, and just so patient at a micro, wasting your days worrying about years. I’m not worried about my years, because I’m squeezing the fuck out of my seconds, let alone my days. It’s going to work out.

I think most recommendations are bad because they’re one-size-fits-all. “Take more risks.” “Don’t be so hard on yourself.” “Work harder.” The problem is that some people need to take more risks, while others need to take fewer risks. Some people need to ease up on themselves, while others are already too self-forgiving. Some people need to work harder, while others are already skating on the edge of burnout. And so on.

“BE HERE NOW” (something I am constantly trying to do, though not always successfully).
Because life is short, and we only have the current moment. Our memories are precious but they are the past, and the future is not here now.

The Top Five Regrets of the Dying by Bronnie Ware

Jonathan Livingston Seagull by Richard Bach

Hope for the Flowers by Trina Paulus

Living Forward by Michael Hyatt and Daniel Harkavy

How Will You Measure Your Life? by Clayton M. Christensen

Like everything else meaningful in life, it takes training to get good at job hunting. You don’t just find and get a great job. You find and win a great job against a pool of very competitive candidates who may want that job as much, if not more, than you do. Finding and winning a great job is a competitive sport that requires as much career athleticism and perseverance as making it to the Olympics. You must be in the finest career shape possible in order to win.

There is very little luck involved. Winning your great job is about hard work, stamina, grit, ingenuity, and timing. What might look like luck to you is simply hard work paying off.

I don’t think failure is sometimes part of the process—it always is. When you feel you can’t go on, know that you’re just getting started.

Not Dead, Can’t Quit

Jack used to say it’s okay to take a day off from working out. But on that day, you’re not allowed to eat.