Water, food, clothing, housing, transport, communication: most of our lives are spent to acquire these basics, what a shame! If they were a given, we would be free to do anything. Capitalism and free-markets will never achieve this though, they are based on scarcity and survival
While I’m spreading butter on my toast, all I can think of is Bob Ross putting highlights on happy mountains
Is it really possible to understand physics, nature, universe et al without understanding how the brain perceives reality, how it constructs time and order, how memory works and whatever else we don’t yet understand about how the brain works?
Interacting face to face is to using the GUI, while talking via messaging app is to using the CLI
We are all hostages to what we #love. The only way to truly be #free is to love nothing. How meaningless would that be!
Deep technical expertise isn’t sufficient for finding a good startup idea or success. It will lead to a better mouse trap but history shows that’s not enough. Ultimately humans need to be sold, even the best mouse traps..
Stress is what leads to burnout, not working hard or long hours
If someone is bringing up god or religion in a conversation, there is 99% likelihood they are trying to take advantage of you
Some things should be done regardless of whether they are highly profitable, barely profitable or not profitable at all, simply because they are worth it
git stash would be better if it was per branch. It being a global resource is very inconvenient at times
If one is looking for a buy opportunity, crisis is the most likely place to find it. However every crisis is not a buy opportunity
Judge me for how good my good ideas are, not how bad my bad ideas are
The way courage works is, you do the thing you’re scared shitless of, and you get courage after you do it. Not before! That’s ass backwards, it should be the other way! But this is how it works..
When you build one of something, a proof of concept, it’s cool and amazing. When you scale it up to everyone, it usually becomes nefarious
People love (or not) for reasons beyond reason. They often love despite all the flaws and imperfections. The reasons are just the cover story for why they love (or don’t)
We all give what we must, to take what we need: to exist. Real giving (and taking) starts beyond this point. Giving is from the heart, to expand. Taking is out of ego and fear because one has shrunk to just “me”
If you really love something, you’ll find a way to get it done. If you are unable to get something done, then you don’t love it enough. And that’s ok.. in the land of entropy, everything is a matter of priorities
The main woman in a man’s life can be a blessing or his downfall. She will whisper into his ear, fill his head. And he will believe her
At a some level, the human mind is not unlike an LLM. The quality of conversation depends on the prompts you are given, or you give yourself, which determine whether discourse is interesting and novel or not
Timing the market is inevitable because everyone invests at intervals in their 401K, usually once a month. When timing is factored in, the market returns are more like ~5% annually for the past 50 years (i.e. 12X), not the often quoted 8% YoY (or 50X)!
Beauty is in the eyes that see it
“Do what you love” is amateur. “Love what you do” is pro
It is so important and so difficult to keep the person you hate and what they have to say apart. While they might be very nauseating to listen to, they might be very knowledgeable and have value to add to some aspects of your life
A great way to validate an idea is to try to debunk it. If it survives, it might be viable
I came up with a hack where I listen to the author talk about their book on podcasts. If I enjoy it and want to dig deeper, then I read the book. Most of the time, the interview is good enough to get the idea nuggets
Just like there is a requirement for N number of handicapped spots in a parking lot depending on size, there should be a requirement for planting trees there as well
Every product should have a QR code to a webpage, listing everyone and every facility involved in making the product, with pictures, links to socialmedia etc. If info is missing or out of date, company gets fined and their license to sell gets suspended until page is fixed
Effective communication is not to talk the way you talk, but to talk the way they hear
“One of the ways people express their appreciation to humanity is to make something wonderful and put it out there. You never meet the people. You never shake their hands. But the act of making something with a great deal of care and love is a way of expressing our deep appreciation” — Steve Jobs
Tools are great servants, terrible masters
Technology is a great leverage but that’s all it is. Unless we address the deeper issues, it will only amplify who we are
Knowing what can and should be done is the important skill to master in the age of AI. The how can be looked up or delegated
We should consider replacing “ownership” with “belonging”, and attach an expiration date to it. The difference is, belonging is usage/need/presence based. E.g. your house would belong to you (for X years) but you couldn’t own others you don’t live in
“Talent hits a target nobody else can hit. Genius hits a target nobody else can see” — Schopenhauer
Hock Principle: Simple, clear purpose and principles give rise to complex and intelligent behavior. Complex rules and regulations give rise to simple and stupid behavior
Goodhart’s Law: When a measure becomes a target, it ceases to be a good measure.
One hospital took too long to admit patients so a penalty was given for 4+ hour wait times. In response, ambulance drivers were asked to slow down so they could shorten wait times
Inversion: Avoiding stupidity is easier than trying to be brilliant. Identify obvious failure points, and steer clear of them
Competition is stupid. Avoid competition. Stop copying what everybody else is doing
Planck’s Principle: Science doesn’t progress because people change their views. Rather, each new generation of scientists has different views. As old generations pass away, new ideas are accepted and the scientific consensus changes
We are blind to what we cannot measure. Not everything that counts can be measured, and not everything that can be measured counts. But people manage what they can measure, so society repeats the same mistakes
The world is driven not by greed but envy
Creativity is not a talent, it is a way of operating, the ability to play. To play is to experiment: what happens if I do this? Its essence is openness to anything that may happen. While playing, nothing can be wrong. Same with being creative..
Some people are like burgers & fries. Most everybody loves them. Simple, relatable, comforting.. and undifferentiated, interchangeable, forgettable.. Others are more of an acquired taste. Hard to make. Not everyone enjoys them. The ones who do will go to the ends of the Earth to get a bite! They are an experience not soon to be forgotten.
Everybody is excited about quantum computing but quantum storage is even more exciting! Imagine being able to share or copy terabytes of data instantly!
One cannot always control their immediate circumstances but cumulative actions do help to shape their circumstances in the long run
Most everyone you know should either love or hate you. Otherwise you are too undifferentiated
Writing is not a tool to express what you already perfectly know, but rather a tool to find out what you know by writing down what you think you know. It’s not just for communication, it’s also for self-discovery. It’s magical
Beauty fades but character remains and eyes never change
Both ideas and their execution have value and the two together is their true worth
