How to increase your surface area for luck

Of course, not all conversations will be helpful. Some meetings will be a waste of time. There’s really no way to know in advance whether someone will be fun to talk to, or helpful, or informative. When I look back on the meetings that have been the most professionally consequential for me, nearly every one of them was one I almost bailed on becaus... See more

If you are withholding your energy for use only in those situations where you know an interaction will benefit you, you are not increasing your surface area for luck at all . You are already failing the assignment.

Some goals have to be approached like gardening. You can’t force plants to grow, you can only engineer the conditions in which they’re likely to flourish, and trust that the results will come.

Making your own luck is like this: As Steve Jobs put it, “you can’t plan to meet the people who will change your life.” However, you can still increase your s... See more

At the beginning of this process, it will feel artificial, like you’re socially flailing and trying too hard. Because you will be socially flailing, and trying too hard. Surely, you might think to yourself, everyone can tell that I don’t belong — sending out a bunch of cold emails, scheduling random meetings, asking a lot of questions. The whole la... See more

In an imaginary world where God dropped me into the life of someone who didn’t have any professional connections, starting a blog is one of the first things I’d do. As it is, my Substack has made it much easier to hire at Astera — I’ve been surprised at how many promising candidates come to us through it, or mention it as a factor in why they took ... See more

There’s only one way to start building this kind of network, which is to act with generosity towards others before you know whether it will be reciprocated. Generosity can be in the form of attention, e.g. being an unusually responsive conversational partner. It can be in the form of time, e.g. going out of your way to meet somebody where it’s conv... See more

The lesson here isn’t that every excess outlay of effort pays dividends immediately; it’s that people really notice when you show up despite it not being a matter of duty or obviously in your self-interest. And people remember it.

Give before you take

I could have easily half-assed it and no one would have blinked. But instead I treated it as important, as if performing less than excellently would be embarrassing, and it led in quick succession to an offer to lead the clinical trial effort, and then to co-found a company.

The winning move here is to start behaving like that chef when you’re just a cook. To assume that you’re aiming for a future that will hold you to a much higher standard, even if you’re not currently held to that standard. People who behave like this — who act as if they are already an admired success in their field — have a funny way of ending up ... See more