nosce te ipsum

One of my favourite Japanese proverbs: nana korobi ya oki, which translates to ‘fall down seven times, stand up eight’. It expresses the Japanese devotion to working earnestly and persisting – telling us that, to make progress in life, we will inevitably sometimes strive to go beyond what we are currently capable of, which means we may very well fa... See more

There are different types of hard work:

1. Outthinking (a better strategy, a shortcut)

2. Pure Effort (working longer, intensity)

3. Opportunistic (positioning yourself to take advantage of change)

4. Consistency (doing average things for longer)

5. Focus (saying no to distractions)

Each of these requires a different type of hard work.

“Trust your obsessions. This is one I learned more or less accidentally. People sometimes ask whether the research or the idea for the story comes first for me. And I tell them, normally the first thing that turns up is the obsession: for example, all of a sudden I notice that I’m reading nothing but English 17th century metaphysical verse. And I k... See more

"If an opinion contrary to your own makes you angry, that is a sign that you are subconsciously aware of having no good reason for thinking as you do. If some one maintains that two and two are five, or that Iceland is on the equator, you feel pity rather than anger, unless you know so little of arithmetic or geography that his opinion shakes your ... See more

"Clarity isn't about knowing what you want to do with your life, it's about knowing what you want to do this week.

You don't need to have it all figured out. You just need to know your next step."

“The most difficult subjects can be explained to the most slow-witted man if he has not formed any idea of them already; but the simplest thing cannot be made clear to the most intelligent man if he is firmly persuaded that he knows already.”

— Tolstoy

"Without courage we cannot practice any other virtue with consistency. We can't be kind, true, merciful, generous, or honest."

— Maya Angelou