On attempting to build extraordinary things
Packy McCormick • Pace Yourself
Gena Gorlin • The Psychological Needs of the Extremely Ambitious
While we’re doing it, it’s easy to imagine that those around us are completely sure of themselves, moving forward in a well-lit space.
In fact, if you visit a growing company, a useful school or anywhere that growth is happening, you’ll quickly see that everyone is stumbling forward in the shadows.
That’s part of the deal.
Stumbling in the dark

The truth is that if we stop doing chores, we have to do real work instead. The things that aren’t repeatable or proven. The things that are emotionally difficult, creatively challenging or simply requiring exploration and guts to pursue. If we succeed at this work, there will be plenty of money to pay to get the chores done.
Doing chores cheerfully and with skill is a fine hobby. But it might not be what you need to do right now.

For me, 'big' means having the ability to take a chance on an idea that others may not understand or even see as valuable. My team was excited about the idea of using artificial intelligence to help us develop web content and make it more engaging for users. Others in the company were skeptical, but we took a chance on it."
They have to preregister their plans on a public site, and, in articles they publish later, they are obligated to focus on the results that they... See more
Daniel Kahneman • Adversarial Collaboration: An EDGE Lecture by Daniel Kahneman
The reason we’re so increasingly intolerant of long articles and why we skim them, why we skip forward even in a short video that reduces a 300-page book into a three-minute animation — is that we’ve been infected with this kind of pathological impatience that makes us want to have the knowledge but... See more
James Clear • 3-2-1: On Endless Pursuits, the Value of Courage, and How to Buy Back Your Time
Ethnobotanist and mystic Terence McKenna on courage.