The fastest decisions I’ve ever made are ones where I was confident in my taste; the slowest decisions I’ve made (or have yet to make) are ones where I question it. (And the latter tends to be a symptom of trying to overintellectualize my taste, to compare it to others’ taste, to judge my own taste — which defeats its purpose.)

• What’s one word on your mind right now?

• What’s an idea that jumped out at you from what you just heard?

• What did this remind you of?

• Share one way you might make this better. 

• On a scale of 1 to 5, how confident/excited/clear are you on what you just heard?

• Raise your hand if you felt ____ about this. Raise your hand if you felt _____ about this. (

Don’t do any task in order to get it over with. Resolve to do each job in a relaxed way, with all your attention. Enjoy and be one with your work.

—Thích Nhất Hạnh, The Miracle of Mindfulness: An Introduction to the Practice of Meditation

“Confidence is belief in yourself. Certainty is belief in your beliefs. Confidence is a bridge. Certainty is a barricade.”

-Kevin Ashton

The antidote to envy is one's own work. Always one's own work. Not the thinking about it. Not the assessing of it. But the doing of it… [T]he work itself. It drives the spooks away.

-Bonnie Friedman

When it comes to business and careers, the more interesting people will succeed and capture more upside than ever before.

Because the uninteresting ones will get commoditized (hello 🤖).

And by interesting I mean being capable of analyzing, deciding, and executing in a way few others can.

Generating more unique ideas, understanding complex things fast