50 Things I Know

I know that you cannot skip to the punchline of the cosmic joke. If you’re ambitious, it will be hard to believe that achievement won’t make you completely happy until you accumulate some achievements, and notice the gaps in your happiness. Legend has it that the Buddha woke up at 35, and this seems about right — by your mid-thirties, you have prob... See more

I know that environmental influence is the most effective form of behavioral control. Accordingly, if you want radical change, radically change your environment.

I know what makes people grow more reliably than anything else. It is: taking on a difficult project with some amount of public accountability. This can be large or small: a lecture series, a business, a blog, a house, a child, etc.

Conflict avoidance slowly rots your whole life, and many people are about eight awkward discussions from a much-improved existence.