Many of us spend our lives pursuing private acceptance through external success. But no matter the award or honor, our inner doubts will remain. True acceptance comes from inside us. It takes asking ourselves challenging questions like: What do I want from my work? What’s most important about it to me ? How would I create my work differently if I p... See more

The difference between seriousness and sincerity is not how involved you are in the activities of your life, but in how tightly you grip. In fact, I would go even further still: Gripping less tightly can unlock better performance and with much less effort, as I’ve written about before. Simple activities, like playing catch, floating in a pool, or b... See more

Good character is not about maximizing virtues but moderating them: to be sensitive without being fragile, confident without being cocky, steadfast without being stubborn, driven without being reckless, focused without being obsessed.

Thinly veiled insults (“Really?”/“That’s weird”/“…interesting”) are often compliments delivered by people who are at odds with themselves. Take them in stride.

Take a chance! Trust someone! Fall in love! Feel something! Build something meaningful and scary and try your best not to blow it up

Everyone is making it up as they go along. Even and especially the people who seem like they’re not.

In our society, the spaces for adults to play are mostly constrained, for example, to sports, or going to the pub. And opportunities to live a life of imagination are reserved for exceptionally privileged people, like designers, actors, artists and film directors. This lack of imagination in our lives is an existential risk for society and humanity... See more

If you think someone is normal, you don’t know them very well. Normalcy is a fiction. Your job is to discover their weird genius.