“Basically, when you get to my age, you’ll really measure your success in life by how many of the people you want to have love you actually do love you. I know people who have a lot of money, and they get testimonial dinners and they get hospital wings named after them. But the truth is that nobody in the world loves them. If you get to my age in l... See more

To borrow Tim Urban’s analogy, a startup is a place for chefs. A corporation is a place for cooks. Chefs are in the pursuit of the next great recipe that no one has created yet. Cooks spend almost all their time wondering how to turn an old recipe into a dish quicker, cheaper, better.

One works in a lab, the other in a kitchen. There’s a big differe... See more

Your personal experiences make up maybe 0.00000001% of what’s happened in the world but maybe 80% of how you think the world works.

Every once in a while, I meet a person who radiates joy. These are people who seem to glow with an inner light. They are kind, tranquil, delighted by small pleasures, and grateful for the large ones. These people are not perfect. They get exhausted and stressed. They make errors in judgment. But they live for others, and not for themselves. They’ve... See more

When stumped by a life choice, choose “enlargement” over happiness. I’m indebted to the Jungian therapist James Hollis for the insight that major personal decisions should be made not by asking, “Will this make me happy?”, but “Will this choice enlarge me or diminish me?” We’re terrible at predicting what will make us happy: the question swiftly ge... See more

“In the past, jobs were about muscles. Now they’re about brains, but in the future, they’ll be about the heart.”

Today, this culture is at its fever pitch. But there’s also been a backlash: There’s been innumerable talk about the millennial burnout, the dangers of hustle porn, the warnings about our ever-shortening attention spans, and about the benefits of unplugging. We are all embracing the quiet time.

Our modern world seeks to focus us towards the short term and praises quarterly growth. But in the real world, away from high frequency ledger entries and global capital flows. It takes 100-120 years for an oak tree to grow from seed to full canopy height. It takes three human generations to grow a tree.

“A simple rule for life and work:

Don’t rush, but don’t wait.

Thoughtful action.”