Life Lessons

What Kind of Game are You Playing

In the 1999 tennis book, Extraordinary Tennis for the Ordinary Tennis Player, author Simon Ramo broke down the difference between amateur and professional tennis, writing that they were two different types of games:

• Amateur tennis is a Loser's Game: 80% of points are lost on unforced errors. You win by avoiding error

Nobody tells a better story than a person wanting to borrow money.

The person who carefully designs their daily routine goes further than the person who negotiates with themselves every day.

—Farnham Street

The first principle is that you must not fool yourself — and you are the easiest person to fool.

— Richard Feynman

In my whole life I’ve never been good at something I wasn’t very interested in. It just doesn’t work. There’s no substitute for strong interest.

— Charlie Munger

Mastery is the best goal because the rich can't buy it, the impatient can't rush it, the privileged can't inherit it, and nobody can steal it. You can only earn it through hard work. Mastery is the ultimate status.

—Derek Sivers

The Loudest Alarm is Probably False

A curious thing I've noticed: among the friends whose inner monologues I get to hear, the most self-sacrificing ones are frequently worried they are being too selfish, the loudest ones are constantly afraid they are not being heard, the most introverted ones are regularly terrified that they're claiming more than