Tom Schmidt

The best way to network is to do something interesting.

When you do interesting work in public, a network will form around you.

"Arrange whatever pieces come your way."

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

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.”

• 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

... See more

Content that resonates triggers five core emotions: Adventure, humor, negativity, inspiration, or surprise

• 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

... See more

The key to storytelling is telling the slow parts fast and the fast parts slo

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...