Tom Schmidt
@neverbeneedy
Tom Schmidt
"Arrange whatever pieces come your way."
3-2-1: On finding your desired lifestyle, a simple rule for life, and working with what you have
You should attempt things that are difficult enough to guarantee some early embarrassment, but important enough that long-term regret is unlikely.
Trying something difficult will usually make you look foolish or inexperienced. That’s fine. That's the cost of learning.
But if it's important to you, then you'll work through the early failures and —... See more
Trying something difficult will usually make you look foolish or inexperienced. That’s fine. That's the cost of learning.
But if it's important to you, then you'll work through the early failures and —... See more
3-2-1: On finding your desired lifestyle, a simple rule for life, and working with what you have
Author Jonathan Safran Foer on happiness:
“I think and think and think, I've thought myself out of happiness one million times, but never once into it.”
“I think and think and think, I've thought myself out of happiness one million times, but never once into it.”
Brain Food: The Reward Comes After
- Chiasmus is a rhetorical device that creates earworms that stick in your brain for decades
- Example: “Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country” – JFK said it in 1963, over 50 years ago, and they could both recite it instantly
- It’s an ABBA structure: first part is about asking (A), then “your country can do for
📝David Perell’s Best Writing Lessons of 2025, The Science of Why Harder Workouts Win, Mark Rober’s Guide for Lazy Creatives, Milo & Tucker on Being Gay, and 2026 Goal Tactics from Sam Parr & Shaan Puri (Premium)
Content that resonates triggers five core emotions: Adventure, humor, negativity, inspiration, or surprise
📝David Perell’s Best Writing Lessons of 2025, The Science of Why Harder Workouts Win, Mark Rober’s Guide for Lazy Creatives, Milo & Tucker on Being Gay, and 2026 Goal Tactics from Sam Parr & Shaan Puri (Premium)
- Embrace failure as discovery, foster insatiable curiosity, and iterate relentlessly
- The core principle: break things, test repeatedly, and view each failure as eliminating one wrong approach
- If you can dream it, you can build it through iterative experimentation.
Naive Optimism + Strategic Execution
- Turn ideas into action by combining an optimistic
📝David Perell’s Best Writing Lessons of 2025, The Science of Why Harder Workouts Win, Mark Rober’s Guide for Lazy Creatives, Milo & Tucker on Being Gay, and 2026 Goal Tactics from Sam Parr & Shaan Puri (Premium)
The key to storytelling is telling the slow parts fast and the fast parts slo
My Top 10 Writing Lessons from 2025 | How I Write with David Perell • Podcast Notes
We experience our moments of purest joy at precisely those moments when we are causing it in others.
It is a truism of life—whatever we give out comes back to us multiplied. Which brings me back to the beginning of this message...
It is a truism of life—whatever we give out comes back to us multiplied. Which brings me back to the beginning of this message...
Gary’s Holiday Message
According to researcher Owen Schaffer of DePaul University, the requirements for achieving flow are: Knowing what to do Knowing how to do it Knowing how well you are doing Knowing where to go (where navigation is involved) Perceiving significant challenges Perceiving significant skills Being free from distractions1