In Paul Graham’s famous essay Cities and Ambition, there’s this idea that some cities are centers for some type of ambition, and when you come to one of those cities, you can feel the message the city is sending to you. For example, the message that you can feel in New York is “You should be richer,” while Berkeley’s is “You should live better,” Pa... See more

It is a truth universally acknowledged that other people’s reactions often say more about them than they do about us.

Ambition often comes with discontent; focus with rigidity; contentment with complacency.

“The sooner you hit bottom,” Joseph Brodsky once wrote, “the faster you surface.”