Memory retrieval is easier when the context of recall matches the context when the memory was formed. If you learn the content underwater…

There has never been a more vital time to write because your words online are voting on what values future AI systems will adopt. Write now…

Déjà vu is not simply a weak memory, but rather from a separate memory system in our brains. Perirhinal cortex creates familiarity while…

Zero-One-Infinity Rule: When designing software systems, the only reasonable numerical limits are zero, one, and infinity. Article: Zero One…

All buildings are predictions, and all predictions are wrong. Architectural design should create adaptable spaces rather than attempting to…

The Cathedral Effect: Higher ceilings can make us more creative by triggering feelings of freedom and encouraging people to see broader…

One way to tell whether you're wasting time when exploring your passion is to ask if you're producing or consuming. Article: How to Do Great…

When sharing our work, reframe it as idea promotion instead of self-promotion. Focus on sharing in the excitement of discovery without…

Read fewer but better books. Deep reflection on fewer books is more valuable than consuming many books without thought. Book: Essays and…

When pursuing ambitious goals, don't pray and ask for God to be on your side. Pray and hope to be on God's side, for God is always right…

People who grow up in resource-poor environments discount future rewards more than average because they perceive a shorter, more uncertain…

In the workplace, avoid the agreeable takers and embrace the disagreeable givers. Someone hard to work with is better than someone selfish…

Wilderness Survival Rules of 3: You can survive for 3 days without water, but only 3 minutes without air and 3 hours without shelter…

People consider technology normal if it predates their birth, exciting if it appears during their prime years, and threatening if it arrives…

"The end of a melody is not its goal: but nonetheless, had the melody not reached its end, it would not have reached its goal either. A…

Languages naturally evolve to be more complex in isolation but tend to simplify when more people learn it as a second language because of…

Changing study environments can significantly improve how well you remember information because environmental context is critical for memory…

“Don’t tell me where your priorities are. Show me where you spend your money and I’ll tell you what they are.” – James W. Frick Quote I…

“It isn't events themselves that disturb people, but only their judgments about them.” – Epictetus Quote This old Stoic wisdom can also be…

“First say to yourself what you would be; and then do what you have to do.” – Epictetus Quote Reminds me of Freya Stark's quote: "There can…

Different cultures communicate differently. High-context cultures rely on implicit communication and relationships, while low-context…

Approach technical problems with psychological solutions: Elevator mirrors reduce perceived waiting time by distracting passengers. Article…

Head, Heart, Wallet: Three questions to find what to write. Course: Write of Passage I'm recently taking the writing bootcamp Write of…

Four reasons people post things: sound smart, be funny, look hot, look rich. Tweet: Nikita Bier on X To make people share your product…

Lie to people who want to be lied to, and you’ll get rich. Tell the truth to those who want the truth, and you’ll make a living. Tell the…

Thinking can strengthen muscles. Visualizing yourself lifting weights can stimulate muscle growth even without engaging in physical activity…

Stress can be contagious through sweat and trigger physiological stress responses in people nearby via cortisol transmission as secondhand…

Overcome imposter syndrome for sharing online: If it would have been valuable to you 2 years ago, publish it. Podcast: Deep Dive with Ali…

When evaluating a new opportunity, ensure it has a positive worst-case scenario, potential for exponential growth, and long-term…

"I am free and that is why I am lost." - Franz Kafka Quote Absolute freedom oftentimes means absolute responsibility. Being radically free…

Brandon Sanderson's three storytelling elements: Promises, Progress, Payoffs. Video: Lecture #2: Plot Part 1 — Brandon Sanderson on Writing…

We have two selves: the experiencing self and the remembering self. The self that remembers decides what makes us happy, not the self that…

You can achieve operational excellence through process, but craft can only be achieved with tenure. Video: A conversation with NVIDIA’s…

Our mood can influence which memories come to mind more easily. A sad mood makes sad memories easier to recall. Book: Why We Remember Our…

For a different perspective, don't rely on random Twitter opinions. Instead, seek out the best arguments from the opposing side directly…

Dual-coding theory: Verbal and nonverbal information are stored separately in our memory, and simultaneously processing both verbal and…

Setting goals is not a strategy. Focus on vision, mission, and values without identifying the key challenge and designing a coherent plan to…

Absorbing information for our brain is like training our machine learning model of the world. Even if we forget what we've learned, the data…

The main thing is to keep the main thing the main thing. — Stephen Covey Quote I first learned this quote from Sarah Elizabeth Lewis in…

We are what we pretend to be, so we must be careful about what we pretend to be. Book: Mother Night Love this quote from Kurt Vonnegut in…

Our working memory has a limited capacity for task-related information. To perform complex tasks, we should offload some mental load onto an…

Writing is the process of encoding a web of ideas into a string of words using a tree of phrases. Book: The Sense of Style In his book The…

Taking notes on paper or screens doesn't merely simplify complex tasks like contemporary physics or other intellectual pursuits. Taking…

When we read, the author thinks for us. We can read ourselves stupid if we just repeat the author's mental process. People who just let…

“There are no unique messages, only unique messengers.” - Jadah Sellner Quote We don't have to wait to create something unique. We and our…

When thinking about the future, drug addicts project 9 days into the future while healthy people consider 4.7 years forward. Addictive drugs…

When marketing our work, we must feel a bit cringe. Zero cringe can be suboptimal because it either means we are not being authentic or we…

There is no knowledge in books, only information. Information only becomes knowledge after we interpret and understand it. Thought The…

Pain is not the unit for effort. If it hurts, maybe we are doing it wrong. Article: Pain is not the unit of Effort There seems to be a…

“In this world, there are only two tragedies. One is not getting what one wants, and the other is getting it.” - Oscar Wilde Quote As…

How to make achievable and meaningful New Year's resolutions? Five Questions, Wheel of Life, and Ideal Week methods. Video: How to Make 202…

Knowledge Pyramid: Information can only be transformed into knowledge, then Insight, then vision after you process them. It takes time to…

Praise publicly, criticize privately. Praise specifically, criticize generally. Praise by name, criticize by category. Thought When we want…

Balloon Effect: Focusing on solving a problem in one area can unintentionally inflate the problem elsewhere. Article: Balloon effect…

Entropology, not anthropology, should be the word for the discipline that devotes itself to the study of this process of disintegration in…

Three most important decisions to think consciously about: the place to live, the work to do, and the people to spend time with. Thought Our…

Family Resemblance: Things are defined by overlapping similarities, not a single common essence, much like traits in a family. Book…

Peter Thiel's interview question: What very important truth do very few people agree with you on? Book: Zero to One In the book, Thiel…

The opposite of knowledge is the illusion of knowledge. The opposite of you know something is you thought you know something, not you don't…

"To know and not to do is not to know." - Wang Yang Ming Quote This reminds me of a line from the fantastic book The War of Art: "Most of us…

Prioritize enhancing healthspan, not just extending lifespan. Focus on preventive measures for physical, cognitive, and emotional health…

Because randomized controlled trials have limitations in studying longevity, we should shift from evidence-based to evidence-informed…

Eulogy virtues and résumé virtues: Should you care more about what people will say at your funeral or what is listed on your resume? Book…

The reward for good work is more work. Therefore, find the work you will enjoy spending more time doing rather than focusing on reducing the…

"Money is like gasoline during a road trip. You don’t want to run out of gas on your trip, but you’re not doing a tour of gas stations…

Advertising is salesmanship. Successes and failures in both lines are due to like causes. Thus, every advertising question should be…

“If the shoe doesn’t fit, must we change the foot?” ADHD may stem more from an environmental mismatch than a brain problem. Book: The Ape…

In Norway, you can see everyone's tax returns and who has checked yours, which might widen the happiness gap between the rich and poor…

"There can be no happiness if the things we believe in are different from the things we do." - Freya Stark Quote I care a lot about people's…

"The magic you are looking for is in the work you are avoiding." Quote In case you need some maybe-cliche-but-useful motivation.

Magician's Choice: How magicians manipulate you to choose the card they want you to choose through equivocation. Article: Magician's Choice…

While identifying flaws triggers critical thinking, spotting potential strengths fuels our creative instincts. Therefore, arguing for…

Personal rules turn desired behaviors into default behaviors. They are set during our best moments to avoid making poor decisions under…

"The more you know, the less you diversify." - Naval Quote This quote reminds me of what Warren Buffett said at the 1996 Berkshire Hathaway…

"Luxury is a necessity that begins where necessity ends." - CoCo Chanel Quote This is how CoCo Chanel defines luxury, which is quite poetic…

Premium purchases offer enhanced functional benefits at a higher price, while luxury purchases symbolize the buyer's ability to afford items…

Any individual who chooses not to or cannot have children, ends an unbroken chain of life that stretches four billion years. Book: The Ape…

To foster a creative culture of open communication, encourage candor rather than honesty. It's easier to be candid because it removes the…

Luxury is superlative, never comparative. It's art that happens to have a little bit of functionality. Book: The Luxury Strategy Luxury is…

We make better decisions when we know we are making decisions. Therefore, the first step to improving decision-making is to be aware of the…

Fogg Behavior Model: Behavior = Motivation x Ability x Prompt. Three elements must converge at the same moment for a behavior to occur…

It took nearly 6,000 years to progress from inventing the wheel to the creation of the wheeled suitcase. Humans put a man on the moon before…

Treat your career as a portfolio of jobs, roles, and opportunities. Assess new opportunities in the context of your lifetime career…

“Among those whom I like or admire, I can find no common denominator. But among those whom I love, I can. All of them make me laugh.” — W. H…

Do you hold opinions you're afraid to share with peers? If not, maybe you just believe what you're told rather than think independently…

Intermediate Disturbance Hypothesis: Biodiversity is highest in ecosystems where the level of disturbance is neither too low nor too high…

Cognitive Tunneling: When our brains abruptly shift from a relaxed state to high alert, we tend to focus too much on the most obvious…

Locus of control shapes our emotional well-being. Strong internal locus of control, the belief that we have control over the outcomes, can…

Need for Cognitive Closure: How much do you prefer getting a clear and definitive answer to questions versus remaining uncertain or…

Great scientists work with their door open. Though keeping the door closed enhances short-term productivity, an open door invites…

The most crucial indicator of successful teams: Psychological safety. Book: Smarter Faster Better Psychological safety is a shared belief…

Globalization generates monocultures that are all diverse in the same way. Free trade of cultures can lead to conformity and mediocrity on…

Mentors offer directive instruction and answers, whereas coaches provide non-directive feedback through questions. Whether seeking or giving…

Write with the door closed. Once ideas are formed independently, rewrite with the door open to gather feedback. Book: On Writing: A Memoir…

Leonardo Da Vinci learned things purely out of curiosity. Not all knowledge needs to be useful. It can be pursued for pure pleasure. Book…

Why do the top 10 companies change every decade, but the top 10 schools remain unchanged? Podcast: Mark Zuckerberg interviews Patrick…

7 Powers Framework for business strategy: Counter-Positioning, Cornered Resource, Scale Economies, Network Economies, Switching Costs…

Perfect seating arrangement and room temperature for comedy show: a little bit tighter and colder than comfortable. Podcast: Noam Dworman on…

Diversity is multifaceted. People with correct points of view can be less diverse than those who are wrong because there are many more ways…

The object isn't to make art, it's to be in that wonderful state which makes art inevitable. Book: The Creative Act This quote from the…

70-20-10 Rule: Spend 70% on your core business, 20% on adjacent or nearby things, and 10% on wild bets. Podcast: Eric Schmidt — Lessons from…

The XY problem: Avoid focusing on the attempted solution rather than the actual problem. People don't want a faster horse. They want to get…

If Math is the perfect description language for physics, AI might be the perfect description language for biology. Podcast: Demis Hassabis…

No amount of technology will make a bad story good. Article: Presentation Zen: No amount of technology will make a bad story good In the…

Our envy is like WiFi. It is usually limited to a hyperlocal network. We are jealous of our friends, but not celebrities. Podcast: Kunal…

Generative AI is to digital art as photography was to traditional art. The value of having good ideas grows when new technology lowers the…

Parkinson's Law: Work expands to fill the time available for its completion. The more time we allot for a work, the more time it will take…

Parkinson's Law of Triviality: The time spent discussing various topics within an organization is usually inversely proportional to their…

To write well, delete most of what you put on the page, as films often shoot 50 to 100 times more footage than what actually appears in the…

When assembling furniture, start by tightening all the screws to 75%, then fully tighten them once all components fit together. This…

What does the Earth get from the Sun? While the total energy remains constant, we get low entropy energy that fuels life and natural…

Algorithms and heuristics are two sides of the same coin in product development, with algorithms providing objective measurements and…

A/B testing cannot substitute for taste in creating appealing products. Relying solely on A/B testing is abdicating your responsibility to…

If you want to use an exclamation mark while writing, it means your words aren't strong enough on their own. Strengthen your sentences…

Most of the pleasure in a dessert comes in the first three bites. After that, you should stop eating it. As a reward, you can eat dessert…

Dollar Auction Paradox: Understanding why companies spend more than what they can potentially earn and why we pay more than the actual value…

How Tim Ferriss identifies the next big thing? Understand what technical nerds and rich people are doing, and where people are patching…

Would I still do it If I could never talk about this to anyone? Assess whether our motivation stems from intrinsic or extrinsic factors…

A useful introspective question for choosing projects: What would you do if you knew you would fail? Podcast: Seth Godin on The Game of Life…

The combination of big ambitions, high standards, and low expectations serves as a heuristic for a fulfilling life Article: Avoiding Problem…

How Apple develops products? A chain of demos and feedback continuously evolves an idea towards a product. No brainstorming session and no…

Design is not just what it looks like and feels like. Design is how it works. Book: Creative Selection During a 2003 interview with The New…

Overview Effect: Sudden and dramatic shifts in perspective can make the observer into a state of awe with self-transcendent qualities…

Capital is not a solution to problems. Capital is a means of scaling solutions. Book: The New Industrial State In the book by John Kenneth…

Every breakthrough is at first laughable and ridiculous. In fact, if it did not start out laughable and ridiculous, it is not a breakthrough…

How do robotic mice navigate to solve mazes in the shortest time? Three interesting strategies invented in the Micromouse competition…

The margin you can charge for a product depends on how much extra social status it gives the user. The gross margin on living room furniture…

The shortest path to transfer from shame to normalcy is through pride. Podcast: Kunal Shah: Core Human Motivations [The Knowledge Project Ep…

People aren't buying your product for the molecules. They're buying it for the way it makes them feel. The subjective experience matters…

Places with no repeat customer behavior are designed to optimize for short-term behavior. That's why scammy businesses are usually found…

We can never know the actual reasons why we do anything. The observations of split-brain patients reveal that our true motivations are…

Getting rewards without effort or achievement is detrimental and destroys people's motivation. Podcast: Master Your Mind & Change Your Brain…

Don't only look down. As an individual contributor in an organization, one should spend 20 percent of the time looking up and looking around…

You cannot preach minimalism to people who don't feel the pain and haven't had too much stuff. Podcast: Derek Sivers — The Joys of an Un…

“Half the money I spend on advertising is wasted; the trouble is I don't know which half.” - John Wanamaker Quote I always love the quote…

Our twenties are about watching our dreams go up in flames and learning from the ashes. Sometimes failure is the only way to learn, and what…

Regarding sharing creative work, the word "release" carries a double meaning. It signifies that the work is made available to the public and…

Random Intermittent Reward is the most powerful mechanism to keep people repeating the same behavior. Social media triggers dopamine hits…

What makes a design good? Examine it using the Discoverability and Understanding Framework. Book: The Design of Everyday Things Two of the…

Procedural knowledge tends to be retained longer than declarative knowledge in our memory. All skills start as declarative knowledge and…

Deep connections between people are formed through a trifecta of ambition, vulnerability, and intense shared emotion, each representing a…

Region-beta Paradox: People can be better off when things are much worse. While moderate situations prompt endurance, crisis triggers action…

How to express your thoughts clearly? The 3x3 rules: make less than 3 points, explain in 3 ways, and repeat 3 times. Article: 3 rules to…

Anger is a cover of pain. When people cross our boundaries, we should focus on expressing our pain instead of anger. Podcast: CEO Coach Matt…

To raise our energy and get more things done, do energy audits to find out what makes us energized or drained. Double down on energizing one…

Kuleshov Effect: Viewers derive more meaning from the interaction of two sequential shots than from a single shot in isolation. Article…

Dark Room Metaphor: Learning is a process of reconstruction (Constructionism), not transmission(Instructionism). Creating our mental 3D…

Humans are tool builders. We build tools like computers as the "Bicycle of the Mind" that take us beyond our inherent abilities. Video: 'A…

When AI beat the chess world champion in 1997, it was claimed that "Chess is over". But 26 years later, chess is more popular than ever…

If your opinions on one subject can be predicted from your opinions on another, you may be in the grip of an ideology. When you truly think…

Adverse Selection: Asymmetric information in transactions can lead to the less-informed side potentially making bad choices. Article…

Moral Hazard: People are more likely to take risks when they know they won't bear the full consequences of their actions. Article: Moral…

Principal-Agent problem occurs when one person hires another person to do a job but cannot fully monitor or control their actions…

When new artists do weird work, their first followers are the curators who transform their individual weirdness into public art. Make your…

A great way to understand yourself is to seriously reflect on everything you find irritating in others. Article: 103 Bits of Advice I Wish I…

Decoy Effect: When we are choosing between two options, introducing a third option can cause shifts in our preference between the first two…

Approach social interactions as if we are stuck on a desert island with the other person because low social optionality situations make…

Rather than program an AI with what we want it to know, create ones capable of learning and have users teach them. Experience is the best…

Every quality that made a person more valuable than a database was a product of experience. Book: Exhalation: Stories This is also from Ted…

“It is a fault to wish to be understood before we have made ourselves clear to ourselves." — Simone Weil Quote

For habits, there are only a few reasons to keep on something and a truckload of reasons to quit. All we can do is keep those few reasons…

Forward testing effect: Taking an exam before learning the subject can enhance future learning of that subject. Book: Ultralearning The…

Creators need immediate connections to what they are creating because so much creation is discovery. We discover nothing if we cannot see…

The secret that real writers know that wannabe writers don’t: It’s not the writing part that’s hard. What’s hard is sitting down to write…

"The idea is to die young as late as possible." - Ashley Montagu Quote

Goodhart's Law: when a measure becomes a target, it ceases to be a good measure. Article: GOODHART'S LAW What might happen when a government…

Write 5x more but write 5x less. Article: Write 5x more but write 5x less Mike Crittenden says there are two things he has come to believe…

Farnam Street's Annual Report Framework. Article: Personal annual report It might be too late to talk about new year's resolutions, but it's…

Claasen's law: Usefulness = log(Technology) Article: It’s elementary Theo A. C. M. Claasen, CTO of Philips Semiconductors in 1999, quoted…

“A serious and good philosophical work could be written consisting entirely of jokes." - Ludwig Wittgenstein Quote

Jonny Harris's storytelling formula: Visual anchor before contextual bridge. Experience it and then understand it. YouTube: Why every Johnny…

ChatGPT is like a lossy compression of all the text on the Web. If it takes material generated by itself as training data for next model…

Herzberg's motivation-hygiene theory: Job satisfaction and dissatisfaction are independent. Improving factors that cause dissatisfaction…

Desirable Difficulty in learning: Harder retrieval leads to better learning, given retrieval is successful. Test yourself before we think we…

"One day you will wake up and there won’t be any more time to do the things you’ve always wanted. Do it now." - Paulo Coelho Quote

First step of learning: Learn directly by doing it and ensure the learning is tied to the context in which it will be used. Learn to speak a…

Learning new things is different from practicing new things. Passive learning brings knowledge while active practicing brings skills. Book…

How to throw away sentimental things? Take a photo. Video: 8 Habits that Changed My Life Letting go of sentimental items that are cluttering…

Volatility is the emotional price you need to pay to get high average annual returns. View volatility as a fee, not a fine. Book: The…

“Language can become a screen which stands between the thinker and reality. This is the reason why true creativity often starts where…

How does Bluetooth work? Video: How does Bluetooth Work? This video does a great job explaining how our AirPods work. Some of the things I…

Marathon runner competes with no one but a time they want to be. Writer competes with no one but a standard they want to attain. Sustainable…

The reason I can run for more than twenty years is not that I have a strong will. It just suits me. Book: What I Talk About When I Talk…

Having the kind of body that easily puts on weight can be a blessing in disguise. It forces you to stay healthier. Book: What I Talk About…

People thinking others are "just stupid" indicates that they are avoiding thinking by jumping to conclusions. Article: Smart people don’t…

Stop every day right after we feel like we can write more. Save the excitement and carry it over to the next day to let momentum kick off…

I run to acquire a void. Emotions are not strong or consistent enough to sustain a vacuum. But thoughts and ideas that invade my emotions as…

State your conjecture in a way that sounds like the laws of physics. Avoid mealy-mouthed allusions because ChatGPT can do all the hedged…

What makes us strong are big things. What makes us vulnerable are little things. Thoughts Just another shower thoughts.

Reflexivity theory: positive feedback loops between expectations and economic fundamentals can cause price trends that substantially and…

True learning is understanding. True understanding is linking new information to existing knowledge and applying it to problems. Book: How…

Solomon's Paradox: When helping ourselves make decisions, imagine helping a friend. Article: The 10 Best Ideas I Learned in 2022 We are…

You should never think you're too good to do a job, and you should be like that in everything you do. Podcast: Jocko Podcast 221: Jonny Kim…

The opposite of courage is not cowardice but conformity. Video: “No creative person I know has ever asked for a brainstorming session…

If all we have is structure, we won't have magic. What we also need is unintentionality, like a mistake. Unintentionality is the real secret…

Insight is the smallest unit of truth that is actionable. If you cannot act on it, it is just an abstraction. Podcast: Kunal Shah: Core…

Delta 4 Framework for evaluating product: If your product outscores the existing solution by more than 4 in efficiency score on a scale of…

When we have too much similarity, innovation dies. When we have too much dissimilarity, trust dies. We have to operate on a spectrum of…

How to make sure someone knows what they are doing? Ask them to change the medium of communication. Can they pitch in a different language…

Efficient methods rarely create emotional arousal. Meaningful and soulful experiences are inefficient because they can't be standardized…

If sleep represents the high point of bodily relaxation, deep boredom is the peak of mental relaxation. A purely hectic rush produces…

Why is my bus always late? Inspection paradox: Averaging final results can be different than averaging individual responses. Article: The…

What's the most significant privilege a student can experience? Born in the right month. Podcast: Outliers, Revisited — Malcolm Gladwell…

Losses hurt much more than the happiness gained from winning. Therefore, we must focus on the process to overcome this asymmetry (loss…

Poker teaches us that just because people are skillful in one domain doesn't mean they can transfer the skill to another. Podcast: Annie…

The desire to be right and the desire to have been right are two desires. The sooner we separate them, the better off we are. Book: The Web…

Evolutionary success doesn't mean individual success. The success of the species can be at the expense of individual suffering. Evolution…

When meeting people for the first time, we often exchange questions about what we do. However, the more profound and interesting question…

If you repeated what you did today 365 more times, will you be where you want to be next year? Article: 103 Bits of Advice I Wish I Had…

We understand a culture the best where the culture's members hold contradictory beliefs and reconcile incompatible values. Book: Sapiens: A…

Be curious, not judgmental. Video: Ted Lasso: Be curious, not judgmental We tend to form our opinions quickly when seeing someone's behavior…

Cluttering Illusion: Our brains love to find meaning in short‐term trends and rush to conclusions. Avoid irrational small sample size bets…

The Agricultural Revolution was history's biggest fraud. Compared to foragers, farmers worked harder but with less return. Book: Sapiens: A…

When a distinguished elderly scientist states that something is possible, they are almost certainly right, but when they state something is…

Paint With Music: Turn your paintbrush into musical instruments and compose on sensorial canvases. Website: Paint With Music Paint With…

How to say no? Prioritize and communicate. Podcast: Persuasive communication and managing up | Wes Kao (Maven, Seth Godin, Section4) Saying…

Good upper management avoids surprises and keeps managers in the loop on what we are doing. The amount of context we think we are over…

Punctuate our monologue with stage changes in any presentation and meetings. Think about how long the average attention span is for the…

“If I had to live my life again, I’d make the same mistakes, only sooner.” - Tallulah Bankhead Quote

"Great writers comfort the confused and confuse the comforted" - David Perell Quote I think this applies to all kinds of creators, such as…

"You are precisely as big as what you love and precisely as small as what you allow to annoy you." - Robert Anton Wilson Quote This quote…

Bill Campbell defines his income as others' happiness and success instead of just money received. We can redefine our measurement of…

A coach will say "What do you want to do" while a manager will say "Please do this". Book: Trillion Dollar Coach: The Leadership Playbook of…

When you are stuck, explain your problem to others. Often simply laying out a problem will present a solution. Make “explaining the problem…

Copying others is a good way to start. Copying yourself is a disappointing way to end. Article: 103 Bits of Advice I Wish I Had Known…

To be prepared against surprise is to be trained. To be prepared for surprise is to be educated. Book: Finite and Infinite Games James Carse…

Set out time to write regardless of how you feel that day. It doesn't matter if it's good or not. Sit down and type. Refuse to bargain with…

Fading affect bias can improve the overall positivity of life but also reinforce maladaptive behavior. It makes heavy drinkers harder and…

Getting cheated occasionally is the small price for trusting the best of everyone, because when you trust the best in others, they generally…

Productivity is often a distraction. Don't aim for better ways to get through your tasks as quickly as possible. Rather aim for better tasks…

Derek Sivers' writing advice: Try writing one sentence per line. Article: Writing One Sentence per Line Derek Siver is one of my favorite…

Why do we forget bad feelings about memories faster? Fading affect bias (FAB). Article: Fading affect bias - Sketchplanations On my…

Illusion of explanatory depth (IOED): we believe we understand more about the world than we actually do. Article: The Illusion of…

Maker's schedule vs Manager's schedule: Understand the productivity style the people you work with are operating on. Article: Maker's…

“I imagine one of the reasons people cling to their hates so stubbornly is because they sense, once hate is gone, they will be forced to…

Luck and Arena Razors: When choosing between two paths, choose the one with a larger luck surface area and/or the one that puts you in the…

Stress-Reward Test: Take on stress only if the reward is valuable enough to justify the stress. Article: The Most Powerful Decision Making…

Listen and Opinion Razors: Listen twice as much as we speak when encountering different perspectives and have opinions only after we can…

Young & Old Test: Make decisions that your 80-year-old self and 10-year-old self would be proud of. Article: The Most Powerful Decision…

Rooms Razor: When choosing between two rooms, choose the room where you're more likely to be the dumbest one in the room. Article: The Most…

Why are "Keep Watching" sections always hidden at the very bottom of the streaming apps? Misalignment of incentives between company and user…

People follow incentives, not advice. Newsletter: 3-2-1: How to change someone’s mind, the balance between justice and compassion, and…

Indefinite optimists' "lean startup" methodology can diminish the potential to build the future. Book: Zero to One: Notes on Startups, or…

Happiness is not positive or negative thoughts but an absence of desire, and maybe it is a skill that can be learned. Book: The Almanack of…

"Character, like a photograph, develops in darkness." - Yousuf Karsh Quote

Moore's Law for Everything: Everything will become half as expensive every two years due to exponential technological progress and AI…

Capitalism for Everyone: Let everyone benefit from capitalism as an equity owner by taxing companies in shares and distributing ownership…

We shouldn't follow the people we most admire. Instead, we should follow what they admire. Podcast: [Patrick Collison: Earning Your Stripes…

“Our bodies are apt to be our autobiographies.” - Gelett Burgess Quote This quote from Gelett Burgess reminds me of the very first Weekly I…

I will have to remember, 'I am here today to cross the swamp, not to fight all the alligators.' Book: The Art of Possibility This is the…

"He suffers more than necessary, who suffers before it is necessary." - Seneca Quote This is my single favorite quote from Stoicism. Related…

Values are only useful if we can legitimately disagree with them since good values should explicitly indicate the tradeoff. Podcast: Mark…

There's a physical world and a digital world. And the real world is actually both. Being digitally present in a place that they physically…

Another way to think about money's effect on happiness is money gives an atmosphere of growth. Being able to spend more money is proof of…

How to find a healthy balance between self-acceptance and self-actualization? Enthusiastic Self-improvement. Article: How do we balance the…

Hanlon's razor: never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity. Article: Hanlon's razor Hanlon's razor is a…

Being in the flow state is both hyper-vigilant and totally unresponsive at the same time. Book: The Rise of Superman: Decoding the Science…

The only really transitory aspects of life are the potentialities; but as soon as they are actualized, they are rendered realities at that…

When one learns to laugh at their neurosis, they are on the way to conquer it since a sense of humor can put them at a distance from their…

We should stop asking about the meaning of life and think of ourselves as those being questioned. We should take the responsibility to…

No nightmare could be as horrible as the reality of the concentration camp. Book: Man's Search for Meaning Man's Search for Meaning is a…

Prisoners who suffered from "provisional existence of unknown limit" experienced a strange time experience: A day lasted longer than a week…

The connection between the state of mind and the state of immunity explains why the death rate during Christmas and New Year peaked in camp…

What we need for mental health is not a tensionless state but a certain degree of tension between what one is and what one should become…

Self-actualization is possible only as a side-effect of self-transcendence. The more we forget ourselves by giving ourselves to a cause to…

"The secret to doing good research is always to be a little underemployed. You waste years by not being able to waste hours." - Amos Tversky…

To get over perfectionism to write and publish more, try writing without capitalization and using the 10-Point Scale. Articles: why i'm…

"A wealth of information creates a poverty of attention." - Herbert Simon Quote Herbert Simon is the receiver of the Nobel Prize in…

How to make an animated city just by moving lots of white dots at different speeds? Motion parallax. Video: Emergent City Flyby with…

"It is very simple to be happy, but it is very difficult to be simple." - Rabindranath Tagore Quote This beautiful quote is something both…

Ask for advice, not permission. Article: Ask for Advice, Not Permission I always believe we should ask for forgiveness, not permission. I…

Orangutan Effect: If you explain your ideas to an orangutan, the primate might be confused, but you will think more clearly in the process…

First Principles Thinking: Break things down to the most fundamental truths and reason up only from there. Book: The Great Mental Models…

Why does Amazon ban PowerPoint in meetings? First Principles and writing to think. Podcast: Eugene Wei: Compress to Impress In Amazon's 201…

Kids today are much more visually literate and prefer to communicate with images over text. Podcast: Eugene Wei: Compress to Impress Visual…

Benford's Law: The leading digit tends to be small for many real-life numerical data. The number 1 appears 30% of the time as the leading…

A teacher is never a giver of truth. A teacher is a guide, a pointer to the truth that each student must find for themselves. A good teacher…

Fitts’s Law: The time to acquire a target is a function of the distance to and size of the target in UI/UX. Article: Fitts's Law: The…

How does Adblock make money? They have an Acceptable Ads program that allows ads on some websites with a licensing fee. Article: How does…

Talmudic Reading: Read the classics while assuming the text is perfectly composed and the writer knew exactly what they were doing. Article…

The nearly linear relationship between the spread of content and its monetary value motivates the creator to mix speed and extremism to…

Streisand Effect: The attempt to suppress information can increase awareness of that information. Article: The Platform is the Message…

Can we create a social media platform that predates curiosity instead of emotion? Thoughts This is a question asked by a guest in the course…

Mimetic Theory: We desire mainly according to the desire of the other because we don't know what to desire and, therefore, we imitate other…

An online shop employs psychics to "find a wide selection of your lost weed and drop it off at your home" in a state where marijuana is…

“All models are wrong, but some are useful.” - George Box Quote I found the idea of something being useful but not necessarily right…

Birthday Paradox: How many people do we need to have a 50-50 chance of at least two people sharing the same birthday? Only 23. Article: The…

The difficulty of training one’s thoughts lies not so much in developing new ideas but in escaping the old. Podcast: Investing and Life…

Show me your calendar and I will tell you your priorities. Tell me who your friends are, and I’ll tell you where you’re going. Article: 9…

Make more deliberate habits rather than habits that result from accidents of history. Book: The Almanack of Naval Ravikant: A Guide to…

Wittgenstein’s ruler: Unless you have confidence in the ruler’s reliability, if you use a ruler to measure a table, you may also be using…

There’s a huge gap between being smart and having important new ideas, but most people who want to be smart might think the two are…

The way to lose a fortune is through bad investment, not through excessive expenditure. Similarly, the way to lose time is by doing fake…

We use language to think, and we cannot think through those we cannot express in language. Language is both the tool that helps us think and…

"Monogamy is like being a vegetarian. You can choose to be healthy, you can be ethical, it can be a wonderful decision but because you've…

When to making quick decision? Happiness Test, Only-Option Test, Two-Way Door Test. Book: How to Decide: Simple Tools for Making Better…

Goal Gradient Effect: The tendency to approach a goal increases with proximity to the goal. Article: Goal Gradient Effect: How rewards can…

Sub specie aeternitatis: To inspect things under the aspect of eternity and participate in eternal totality. Book: Great Thinkers The Dutch…

"When you counsel someone, you should appear to be reminding him of something he had forgotten, not of the light he was unable to see…

A coach is someone who can give correction without causing resentment. Book: Coach Wooden and Me: Our 50-Year Friendship On and Off the…

To have more immersive memory and relive the experience, have some camera-free time and document the experience with your brain only. Video…

How to remember life? Delete photos. Video: How to Remember Your Life The solution is not just taking a lot of photos. Get used to explore…

The world makes progress by lurching from one extreme to another while overcompensating for previous mistakes. Book: Great Thinkers This…

For ideas to be active and effective, a lot more (like art) is needed than their correctness. Book: Great Thinkers This is also from Georg…

"You never know how strong you are until being strong is the only choice you have." - Bob Marley Quote This also reminds me about the…

Can we react to our reaction or even react to our reaction to our reaction? Comedy Special: Bo Burnham: Inside Inside is a comedy special…

Buy what you would buy if you were the only person on Earth. Thought We buy things for all kinds of reasons. I think buying everything (or…

"A man who fears suffering is already suffering from what he fears." - Michel de Montaigne Quote Every time before taking a cold shower due…

We have to learn to separate the fact from the story. Podcast: Neil Pasricha: Happy Habits [The Knowledge Project Ep. #72] "I failed the…

A simple way to teach and practice the awareness of gratitude: Rose, Rose, Thorn, Bud. Podcast: Neil Pasricha: Happy Habits [The Knowledge…

Zeigarnik Effect: People remember uncompleted tasks better than completed tasks Article: The Zeigarnik Effect Explained In 192…

When it comes to idea generation, quantity is the most predictable path to quality. Book: Originals: How Non-Conformists Move the World In…

Writing is thinking. You can write first then derive clear perspectives from your own writing. Podcast: 科技島讀請回答 Michael Chou is the author…

Differentiation is Survival and the Universe Wants You to be Typical Article: Jeff Bezos' 2020 Letter to Shareholders In Jeff Bezos' final…

"No price is too high to pay for the privilege of owning yourself" - Rudyard Kipling Quote "The individual has always had to struggle to…

A coach’s primary function should be not to make better players but to make better people. Book: Coach Wooden and Me: Our 50-Year Friendship…

"Life can only be understood backwards, but must be lived forwards." - Søren Kierkegaard Quote This line is so simple but rich, especially…

"To have faith is to lose your mind and to win God" - Søren Kierkegaard Quote Not trying to justify his faith in Christianity through…

If almost all the cells in one's body have the same DNA, then why don't all cells look the same? Article: DNA Basics When talking with my…

Linkin Park feat. Jay-Z - Collision Course: Live 2004 (Full DVD Special) Music: Linkin Park feat. Jay-Z - Collision Course: Live 2004 (Full…

A rational-emotive explanation of personality is as easy as ABC, Activating events, Beliefs, Consequences. Book: Systems of Psychotherapy…

The maximum amount of information that can be stored in a space is proportional not to the volume of space but to the surface area…

Every science begins as philosophy and ends as art; it arises in hypothesis and flows into achievement. Book: The Story of Philosophy

"Space and time are the framework within which the mind is constrained to construct its experience of reality." - Immanuel Kant Quote

While advertisements excite us by evoking our real needs accurately, they refuse to quench them properly. Book: Great Thinkers This is from…

When things aren’t working, be smarter, not louder. Book: Your Music and People It is an observation from Derek Sivers. When he's in New…

When someone tells you something is wrong, they’re usually right. When someone tells you how to fix it, they’re usually wrong Article: 9…

Don’t treat people as bad as they are. Treat them as good as you are Article: 99 Additional Bits of Unsolicited Advice I mentioned this from…

Jesus, Superman, and Mother Teresa never made art. Only imperfect beings can make art because art begins in what is broken. Article: 9…

Rule of 3 in conversation. To get to the real reason, ask a person to go deeper than what they just said. Then again, and once more. The…

Whenever you are completely fucked up, you celebrate rapturously. You know a little bit more about yourself. That’s the best thing. Thought…

You don’t get burnt out from working hundred hours a week. You get burnt out from things that don’t work out. Thought This is originally…

It’s not an apology if it comes with an excuse. It is not a compliment if it comes with a request. Article: 99 Additional Bits of…

Writing down one thing you are grateful for each day is the cheapest possible therapy ever. Article: 99 Additional Bits of Unsolicited…

If you can’t tell what you desperately need, it’s probably sleep. Article: 99 Additional Bits of Unsolicited Advice

All human behavior is only driven by the desire to escape discomfort. Book: Indistractable: How to Control Your Attention and Choose Your…

"Virtual" is not opposed to "real" but opposed to "actual". Book: Difference and Repetition I first knew about this notion in this video(in…

"People may forget what you said, people may forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel." - Maya Angelou Quote

In a meritocratic society, those who land on top want to believe their success is morally justified, they get it on their own. And their…

"The empiricist thinks he believes only what he sees, but he is much better at believing than at seeing." - George Santayana Quote I learned…

The goal SAT failed to achieve: upending the hereditary elites and replacing them with meritocratic ones to enhance upper mobility. Book…

SAT test scores are even more correlated with family income than how school grades are. Book: The Tyranny of Merit The SAT has not played…

The percentage of “first-generation” students (the first in their families to attend college) at Harvard today is no higher than it was in…

Michael Sandel's proposal for reforming college admission: Lottery of the Qualified. Book: The Tyranny of Merit Each year, more than 40,00…

One of the deepest political divides in American politics today is between those with and those without a college degree Book: The Tyranny…

Baumol's cost disease: Why prices of labor-intensive services keep going up regardless of low productivity growth? Article: Two parallel…

The No Phone On Bed Rule. Thought Just want to share that one of the best decisions I made this year is that I decided to not use my phone…

"A mistake repeated more than once is a decision.” - Paulo Coelho Quote This also reminded me that an accident that happened more than once…

"Most events in life can be categorized in one of two ways: a good time, or a good story" - Margot Leitman Quote

Elephant Gym on Audiotree Live (Full Session) Music: Elephant Gym on Audiotree Live (Full Session) Elephant Gym is an instrumental math rock…

The Ackerman Bargaining Model: 65%, 85%, 95%, and 100% Online Course: MasterClass | Chris Voss Teaches the Art of Negotiation The Ackerman…

Be careful with the F word in negotiation: Fair. Online Course: MasterClass | Chris Voss Teaches the Art of Negotiation Fairness comes up in…

Experience is inevitable, learning is not. Book: Winning Decisions: Getting It Right the First Time Experience is knowing what happened…

"The first principle is that you must not fool yourself — and you are the easiest person to fool." - Richard Feynman Quote This quote is…

SXSW Online 2021 Official Showcases Music: SXSW Online 2021 Official Showcases South by Southwest (SXSW) has long been on top of my bucket…

Why did they do that? Three Attribution Traps: Fundamental Attribution Error, Actor-Observer Bias, and Self-Serving Bias Online Course…

When looking for honest feedback, ask for a 0-10 score and then ask how to get closer to a 10. Tweet This tweet is from Adam Grant, an…

"I don't trust people who don't love themselves and tell me, 'I love you.' ... There is an African saying which is: Be careful when a naked…

"Knowledge is discovered collectively, wisdom is rediscovered individually." - Naval Quote This reminds me of what Terry Crews talked about…

"One can measure the importance of a scientific work by the number of earlier publications rendered superfluous by it." - David Hilbert…

The way things get done in the world is through a combination of focus, personal connection, and self-belief. Video: Sam Altman : How to…

People get burnout not from working hard but from things not working. Momentum is really energizing. The lack of momentum is super draining…

For startups, you need to have opinions and but be flexible about the details. Video: Sam Altman : How to Build the Future When being asked…

My belief on how long I should hold stock in the best companies I invest in is forever. Video: Sam Altman : How to Build the Future On…

Your vibe attracts your tribe. Quote

Makes the distinction between Time and Moments. Remembering Time, that line connecting all the moments, is rather painful. Photo In The…

The importance of how to breathe is underestimated. Slow and easy nasal breathing can have a huge positive impact on our body. Podcast…

"Doubt is not a pleasant condition, but certainty is an absurd one." - Voltaire Quote Nassim Nicholas Taleb, the contemporary thinker that…

The Puppy Dog Close: let them take the pup home first and say bring it back if they change their mind. Book: The 4-Hour Workweek In the book…

"People think it must be fun to be a super genius, but they don't realize how hard it is to put up with all the idiots in the world." - Bill…

Cheerleaders Effect: People look better when they are in groups Article: Cheerleader Effect: Why People Are More Beautiful in Groups The…

The But and Therefore Rule for Storytelling Article: Storytelling Advice from the Creators of South Park: The But & Therefore Rule This…

Almost 90% of the scientists who ever lived are now alive. Book: The Art of Doing Science and Engineering Since about Issac Newton's time…

The technical knowledge involved in your life will quadruple in 34 years. Book: The Art of Doing Science and Engineering It is claimed by…

People who don't commit crimes aren't necessarily moral. It may be due to cowardice but not morality. Podcast: Jordan Peterson on Rules for…

Most people like to believe something is or isn't true, but great scientists can tolerate the ambiguity. Book: The Art of Doing Science and…

Researcher should spend the same time on selling their work as doing their research. Book: The Art of Doing Science and Engineering "Selling…

“Everything straight lies. All truth is crooked, time itself is a circle.” Book: Thus Spoke Zarathustra I first knew the line from the…

Confidence is overrated. Instead of waiting for the confidence to show up, take the first step in a moment of courage, even if it’s aberrant…

Science is not about evidence. Science is about properties. Podcast: Nassim Nicholas Taleb on the Pandemic | EconTalk Some people argued…

Best ideas emerge when we balance the inhale of beer mode with the exhale of coffee mode. On any given day, coffee mode lets us be more…

“It's so hard to forget pain, but it's even harder to remember sweetness. We have no scar to show for happiness. We learn so little from…

The value of being answered with "No". Online Course: MasterClass | Chris Voss Teaches the Art of Negotiation Most people think the most…

Kill your darlings. Fall in love with the problem, not the solution. Article: Kill Your Darlings Kill your darlings usually means a writer…

"Let's grab a beer" is never just about the beer. Video: Let's Grab a Beer | Anheuser-Busch Super Bowl LV Commercial | :90 Lovely commercial…

"I will never feel bad for things I said, but I feel bad that people get upset." Quote I can't find the exact original source but this quote…

Three Levels of mint-giving: How to increase tips by 23 percent? Article: How Restaurant Servers Increased Tips by 23 Percent (Without…

"First delight, then instruct." - Karl Friedrich Schinkel Quote Karl Friedrich Schinkel, a Prussian architect, city planner, and painter, on…

Focus on "just-in-time" information instead of "just-in-case" information. Book: The 4-Hour Workweek The author Tim Ferriss adopted a low…

"Meetings are an addictive, highly self-indulgent activity that corporations and other organizations habitually engage in only because they…

All progress, both theoretical and practical, has resulted from a single human activity: the quest for good explanations. Book: The…

Consider how your product makes customers "feel" instead of what it functionally does for them. Podcast: Superhuman Part II - Designing…

Extrinsic motivation undermines intrinsic motivation. Focus on Game Design, not Gamification. Podcast: Superhuman Part II - Designing…

Two reading hats: RICLS(Read for information) and REAS(read for skills). Podcast: Safi Bahcall — On Thinking Big, Curing Cancer, and…

When we want to be helpful in response to other's feeling bad, first figure out what they want is empathy or solution. Podcast: Lisa Feldman…

The reason we say "don't be upset" is often because we don't want to have our emotions synchronized and be upset. Podcast: Lisa Feldman…

Balance the brain budget. Podcast: Lisa Feldman Barrett: Balancing the Brain Budget [The Knowledge Project Ep. #92] Our brain runs the…

Breathing is really the only way that we know of, biologically speaking, to deliberately get a handle on your nervous system. Podcast: Lisa…

The ability to differentiate between similar emotions helps us do better and be more resilient. Podcast: Lisa Feldman Barrett: Balancing the…

Go to sleep to play dead so the negative emotion doesn't take interest in us. Podcast: Lisa Feldman Barrett: Balancing the Brain Budget [The…

When drafting, write FBR: Fast, Bad, Wrong. Podcast: Safi Bahcall — On Thinking Big, Curing Cancer, and Transforming Industries | The Tim…

Teachers should prepare the student for the student’s future, not for the teacher’s past. Book: The Art of Doing Science and Engineering…

We need to hang out with people who fit our future, not our history. Quote It's definitely hard but we must think about it. Can't find the…

“Above all, recognize that if you have had success, you have also had luck—and with luck comes obligation. You owe a debt, and not just to…

Damien Rice & Earl Harvin - Full Show - Michelberger Lobby - Berlin 2014 Music: Damien Rice & Earl Harvin - Full Show - Michelberger Lobby…

The longer you think about a task without doing it, the less fun it becomes to do. Article: Improvisational Productivity This is from Daniel…

Forget goals. Build system. Book: Atomic Habits Spending "too much" time on goal setting has some disadvantages: First, achieving goals only…

Ask what/how questions instead of why. Online Course: MasterClass | Chris Voss Teaches the Art of Negotiation Why-questions tend to trigger…

There are only three ways for humans to change: 1. change the time allocation; 2. change the place of residence; 3. change the people with…

Thinking of time in 15-minute chunks Cliché Thinking of time in 15-minute chunks instead of 1-hour chunks. It’s a cliché for everyone who…

The top of my todo list Article: The top of my todo list This is from Paul Graham’s blog post: The top of my todo list. The blog post…

Unexpected and Unimaginable Astronaut Story Podcast: The Unimaginable Path of Jonny Kim. SEAL Combat Medic, Doctor, Astronaut Jonny Kim is a…

"There are no two words in the English language more harmful than 'good job'." - Whiplash (2014) Quote Good is the enemy of great.

The opposite of happiness is boredom, not sadness. Just like the opposite of love is indifference, not hate. Book: The 4-Hour Workweek This…

Alicia Keys in Paris | A Take Away Show Music: Alicia Keys in Paris | A Take Away Show Alicia Keys in Paris | A Take Away Show is a…