One of my (many) contrarian beliefs is that we do not have strong enough preferences. We often blame social media or the speed of information as the reason why we’re easily distracted, but the real reason behind our inability to focus has less to do with the sheer quantity of media and more to do with our laziness when it comes to distinguishing wh... See more

Best practices are rarely the best — they're mostly just cargo cult common practices.

And as more people adopt them, the more mediocre they become.

The best is usually what most people aren't willing to do.

As we are fed more content, we are pushed deeper into algorithmic niches. In return, we are encouraged to engage with more extreme and polarizing identifiers because it is more labelable, more indexable by the machine — the creation of the “Island". On this island, the slang, in-jokes, and archetypes which emerge as a community develops in isolatio... See more

“Being good in business is the most fascinating kind of art. Making money is art and working is art and good business is the best art.”

Writing increases your rate of revelation. This is true irrespective of the subject because writing is a process of reflection, assertion, and iteration.

Writing clarifies your own ideas. Writing begets new ideas too. Writing lets you explore ideas in depth even if you won’t have time to act on them all. Writing shows people how you think and lets ... See more

Books you read are sending you input. Your friends modeling behaviors for you. Newspapers. Tools. People you follow on Twitter. The architecture of a Gothic church beaming serenity into you—that is input too.

At the same time, you are also sending output to other nodes. Now, I am sending these ideas into my pocket notebook, which will send them to m... See more

However, Kafka clearly cared about what other people thought of his work because he believed it was terrible and feared that others would also think so. This is why he destroyed 90% of everything he ever wrote (imagine how much "select all + backspace" he would have used on Google Docs).

He did not necessarily seek fame, but he wanted his writing to... See more

“What matters today is not the difference between those who believe and those who do not believe, but the difference between those who care and those who don’t.”

This new attitude toward life can be expressed more specifically in the following principles: Man’s development requires his capacity to transcend the narrow prison of his ego, his greed hi

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My fear is singular.

We will continue to satiate a lesser version of ourselves, rather than strive for who we can become.