blog

I’ve tried hard to develop my thinking, taking ideas from random places and remixing them in weird ways. I combine business with creativity, the startup methodology with art, personal growth with a sprinkle of spirituality, portfolio careers and life. I take inspiration from everywhere and everyone, and I think reading broadly has helped me stand o... See more

Bourdain taught me that culture is more than aesthetics. It’s how people survive. It’s what they sing when they’re hurting. It’s the rituals of joy in the middle of chaos. It’s rock shows and battered notebooks, food stalls and high art, leather jackets and hand-me-down wisdom.

When I write, I push myself to make definite positive claims. Ambiguity allows thought to remain fluid on the page, floating into a different meaning when put under pressure. This makes it harder to push your thinking deeper. By making clear and sharp claims, I reveal my understanding so that I—or the person I’m writing to—can see the state of my k... See more

If you cycle through this feedback loop ferociously for ten years, you will end up with a well-designed life. It will not look like you imagined it would. It will have unfolded around you, and you will struggle to wrap your head around how you ended up where you did.

Many good ideas look bad at first. To increase the rate at which you understand the context, you want to develop a certain detachment. When the context thrashes one of your ideas, you want to say, “Oh, that’s interesting.” It takes practice. But it is worth getting better at. Reality is shy—it only reveals itself to those who, like honest scientist... See more

You observe the context (when applying to university, trying to figure out what my career should be, this would have meant, among other things, observing what kind of tasks I liked doing again and again and again; what kind of people I want to surround myself with; how the job market looks; and what I am interested in).

The opposite of an unfolding is a vision. A vision springs, not from a careful understanding of a context, but from a fantasy: if you could just make it into another context your problems will go away.2

Johanna often asks me a question that helps when I’m lost like this. She says, quite simply, “What is the problem you should be working on now?”

It sounds too simple to work. But when I’m in my office and ask myself the question, I nearly always realize I’m working on the wrong thing. And if I ask it again half an hour later, guess if I haven’t drif... See more

Most of the time, I am only loosely connected with my deeper values and so can’t assign things their proper place. I lose myself in whatever comes my way.