Advice
Miscellaneous advice
Advice
Nailing the basics: How to deliver high-quality work products
open.substack.com
Do It Scared
I believe many young people struggle with the insecurity of being intelligent. They often feel the need to prove their intelligence by overthinking, excessively planning, and acquiring knowledge before taking action. However, this approach is a waste of time. The more you research, the more you realize how little you actually know. In... See more
When I discussed quitting Google to do a Phd, my manager, Steve Cheng, gave me the advice of "6 shots": Doing something meaningful usually takes about 5 years and we are productive for roughly 30 years. That gives you 6 attempts. So pick each one carefully and give it your best.
You get ~350k waking hours every year to do things.
You get 8 shots to do big/meaningful things in your life.
Wonderful.
God, grant me the clarity to recognize when I need Advice,
The humility to seek Information when I lack understanding,
The courage to ask others to help me Do what I cannot alone,
The frankness to connect in hard times and good,
And the confidence to invite advocates to speak on my behalf.
May each request for aid be an offering of trust,
And each accept
... See more
Recently I’ve gotten a lot of inbound from new grads asking for career advice, so I wrote down a list of things I wish I’d internalized sooner.
The key thing: being precocious has an expiration date. Threading the note in its entirety: https://t.co/dW7DAcmyng
Timeless advice:
You need to be good, not good for your age
Be wary of personal mission creep, both IRL and online
Prioritize finding friends and collaborators you'd like to have in your life for a long time
Avoid chasing the red herrings of success
Interesting life paths are generally non-repeatable
Keep your standards everything—but especially for your own conduct—high
Own your mistakes
Forgive your parents, and get to know them. Especially if you are the child of immigrants
Embrace commitment in work and personal matters
Mutual obligations are a gift—cherish them and run towards them
Take your work seriously, but yourself less so
Albert Einstein said, "It's not that I'm so smart; it's just that I stay with problems longer."
It's a good reminder that the most successful people in any field play the long game.
Obsession / stick-to-it-iveness / persistence / relentlessness
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