Patricia Mou

First principles are the Lego building blocks for thinking. These Lego blocks, once carefully assembled with forethought, are reusable. With the right set of first-principles, you can start mixing them in ways you couldn't before allowing you to think better and faster. 

Choosing the right set of Lego blocks for your thinking is the key, and it's harder than it may seem. There is so much knowledge out there – how are you supposed to decide whether something goes into a "first-principles thinking tool-chest".

The key to finding the right mission is finding something that is hard, like genuinely hard, because learning to love the struggle and the person it chisels you into is part of the magic that happens over time.

Remember, if you won’t quit, then the worst thing that happens is you die, so you can now enjoy the process of being on mission, all the highs and lows as they were meant to be experienced - at the pinnacle of life.

While you can start a business at any time, starting when you’re young is always best. Think of your life as a growing ship. At age 20 you’re a jet ski that can move fast and change directions if needed. By the time you’re in your 30s you’re more of a small nimble boat. By the time you’re 60 you’re effectively a tanker ship that can change courses... See more

The apparent happiness of Africans, against all horror, seems to derive from a sense of connectedness, or as the Zulu put it, "ubunto." This word is often translated to mean community, but one of them gave me what I think is a more accurate definition: "I am because we are; we are because I am."

A habit of finding pleasure in thought rather than action is a safeguard against unwisdom and excessive love of power, a means of preserving serenity in misfortune and peace of mind among worries. A life confined to what is personal is likely, sooner or later, to become unbearably painful; it is only by windows into a larger and less fretful cosmos... See more