Conserve energy now

At certain times in your life, there are going to be subtle, hidden, external forces conspiring against you—pulling you further away from your desired destination. In these moments, your instincts will tell you to fight back against those forces. You'll breathe faster, push harder, and strain against them. Perhaps the best course of action is to conserve energy now and deploy it more effectively later.

The time you spend comparing yourself

The time you spend comparing yourself to others is much better spent investing in yourself. The only comparison worth making is to you from yesterday.

Waiting for perfect conditions

Waiting for perfect conditions is how otherwise intelligent people keep themselves stuck. Two entrepreneurs spot the same opportunity. One builds elaborate plans; the other tests crude prototypes. The planner is still planning when the tester sells their company. While you wait for perfect conditions, others are creating them.

It’s probably too late to easily undo it

There’s a delay between the time something goes wrong and when we notice it. Sometimes, it can take years. It helps to acknowledge that by the time we notice something, it’s probably too late to easily undo it, and our work involves ameliorating the damage instead.

All of it, all at once

The smartphone is the most expensive device most people own, and the one they use the most. Here’s everything you can’t have, can’t afford and won’t get, right here. Here’s everyone you want to argue with, one click away. Here is every piece of bad news we can imagine, much of it imagined instead of real. Connection is powerful and magical. It’s also enervating, subject to manipulation and addictive.

Everything you are given is material for the next move

People can sometimes be held hostage by their expectations. They have a dream of something they would like to achieve or a path they intend to follow, but their mindset falls apart when things don't work out how they had hoped. The key is to reach for an extremely high bar but to be adaptable enough to reframe the failures, disappointments, and defeats into fuel for the next thing. Give your best effort, but no matter how it works out, trust that life will be good for you. Focus on how the world is working with you, not against you. Everything you are given is material for the next move. Everything.

When you get into a tight place

When you get into a tight place, and everything goes against you till it seems you can't hold on a minute longer, never give up then, for that's just the place and time that the tide'll turn.

Industries are small

The world is big, but industries are small. After a few years, everyone comes to know the quality of your work. Reputation matters.

On funerals, loss, grief, friendship, and support

It's not about knowing what to say. It's about being there when nobody knows what to say. People only need to hear, "You are not alone." And that doesn't require words. It just requires your presence.

The only thing that matters now

A surefire way to make a bad situation worse is to continue replaying it in your mind. The damage is done. The only thing that matters now is making the best choice given your current position.

Adaptability is the way of consistency.

Consistency is about being adaptable. Don't have much time? Scale it down. Don't have much energy? Do the easy version. Find different ways to show up depending on the circumstances. Let your habits change shape to meet the demands of the day.

You should continuously have mentors

In any aspect of life, if you can pull it off, you should continuously have mentors and offer mentorship. This can be as formal or informal as you want.

I know how to spot real confidence

I know how to spot real confidence. Look for people who are fluid with status—who allow themselves to be the butt of a joke, or accept criticism, but also avoid false modesty, and inhabit the spotlight when it falls on them. One might call this a balance between dignity and humility. Pro tip: people who always cling to high status aren’t confident in the normal sense, they are cult leader types, which is a different animal.

Radically change your environment

Environmental influence is the most effective form of behavioral control. Accordingly, if you want radical change, radically change your environment. Being in the wrong city will cancel out years of self-improvement.

Talent doesn’t feel like you’re amazing

Talent doesn’t feel like you’re amazing. It feels like the difficulties that trouble others are mysteriously absent in your case. Don’t ask yourself where your true gifts lie. Ask what other people seem weirdly bad at.

People really and truly cannot read your mind

People really and truly cannot read your mind. It’s easy to think that people are ignoring your wants or emotions because they don’t care about you. But they likely have no idea what those are. If you’ve told them, they’ve likely forgotten, and may need a reminder — they have their own whole crowded bubble of consciousness going on!

To have relationships with both kinds

The people who will make you feel warm and fuzzy when you’re sad, and the people who will give you brutally honest feedback, are usually different people. Ideally, you want to have relationships with both kinds, and reward them for their strengths, rather than getting mad at them for failing to do what they’re bad at.

Be soft in your practice

Be soft in your practice. Think of the method as a fine silvery stream, not a raging waterfall. Follow the stream, and have faith in its course. It will go its own way, meandering here, trickling there. It will find the grooves, the cracks, the crevices. Just follow it. Never let it out of your sight. It will take you.

You simply need to chill the fock out

You don't need to sit in a dark room conjuring up clever stories to rewire your brain so you become some wizard overnight. You simply need to chill the fock out. The secret isn't in a new story. It's in letting go of the need to be clever. The smartest thing you need to do is to get back to your present life.

Broken systems need your help

If your intention is to make things better, organizing the disorganized, connecting the disconnected and building community, you shouldn’t wait until the conditions are ideal. Broken systems need your help precisely because they’re broken.

Perfect days don't compound

Great outcomes aren't built on great days but on consistent ones. You can't just count the days when it's easy. Each day moves you closer to the goal. No day is a hero; no day is a villain. Perfect days don't compound. Consistent ones do.

No one hears you

No one hears you if you sneeze in the middle of Dhaka. But if you sneeze in a library, everyone does. The same concept applies to work. It's better to dominate a small pond than drown in an ocean.

Being brilliant won't save you

Being brilliant won't save you if no one can count on you. It can be hard to appreciate just how much reliability impacts opportunity. It's fun to outperform people who are way smarter than you by being more reliable than they are. Reliability isn't just a virtue - it's a competitive advantage that compounds over time.

There is no single magic bullet

People are always looking for a single magic bullet that will completely change everything. There is no single magic bullet. Progress is about bridging the gap between what we observe and what we can imagine — one careful step at a time.

The source of healthy boundaries

Caring about everything is a disaster. Caring about nothing is also a disaster. Nurture the small pocket of things that truly matter to you. The source of healthy boundaries is self-love and self-respect. When you learn to love yourself, you are less likely to put up with people who don't love you back.

Savor the little victories

Savor the little victories as much as you criticize the little mistakes. At any moment, you are one good choice away from a meaningfully better life.

What good things have you done quietly today?

Bad things are always happening loudly: the injury, the flat tire, the mistake that gets you criticized. Everybody talks about the moments that make things a hassle. Good things always happen quietly: the completed workout, the healthy meal, the ten minutes of writing. Nobody talks about the little moments that add up.

There are many ways to prioritize our time

There are many ways to prioritize our time and focus, but the easiest and most vivid way is to do the urgent things first. We thrive when we do things when we have the most leverage, not when everyone else does. Waiting for trouble means you’ll spend your days dealing with trouble.