Schedule breaks!
Efficiency is highly overrated; Goofing off is highly underrated. Regularly scheduled sabbaths, sabbaticals, vacations, breaks, aimless walks and time off are essential for top performance of any kind. The best work ethic requires a good rest ethic.
Lead with creating more leaders
When you lead, your real job is to create more leaders, not more followers.
The teacher will appear when the studen is ready
Life lessons will be presented to you in the order they are needed. Everything you need to master the lesson is within you. Once you have truly learned a lesson, you will be presented with the next one. If you are alive, that means you still have lessons to learn.
Student vs Teacher
It is the duty of a student to get everything out of a teacher, and the duty of a teacher to get everything out of a student.
Fun is more important than winning
If winning becomes too important in a game, change the rules to make it more fun. Changing rules can become the new game.
When productivity is a distraction
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 that you never want to stop doing.
Daily more than occasionally
The consistency of your endeavors (exercise, companionship, work) is more important than the quantity. Nothing beats small things done every day, which is way more important than what you do occasionally.
Don’t deprive the humanity of your unique output
Making art is not selfish; it’s for the rest of us. If you don’t do your thing, you are cheating us.
Align incentives
You’ll get 10x better results by elevating good behavior rather than punishing bad behavior, especially in children and animals.
Make it easy for them to NOT reply if it is negative
When checking references for a job applicant, employers may be reluctant or prohibited from saying anything negative, so leave or send a message that says, “Get back to me if you highly recommend this applicant as super great.” If they don’t reply take that as a negative.
Big goals
The advantage of a ridiculously ambitious goal is that it sets the bar very high so even in failure it may be a success measured by the ordinary.
What do you find annoying in others?
A great way to understand yourself is to seriously reflect on everything you find irritating in others.
Hotel room hack
Keep all your things visible in a hotel room, not in drawers, and all gathered into one spot. That way you’ll never leave anything behind.
Imposter vs just creating
When you have some success, the feeling of being an imposter can be real. Who am I fooling? But when you create things that only you — with your unique talents and experience — can do, then you are absolutely not an imposter. You are the ordained. It is your duty to work on things that only you can do.
Plan for the most challenging days
What you do on your bad days matters more than what you do on your good days.
Smart people
You cannot get smart people to work extremely hard just for money.
Setting a salary for someone
When you don’t know how much to pay someone for a particular task, ask them “what would be fair” and their answer usually is.
Longterm view
We tend to overestimate what we can do in a day, and underestimate what we can achieve in a decade. Miraculous things can be accomplished if you give it ten years. A long game will compound small gains to overcome even big mistakes.
You will always be unqualified
Your best job will be one that you were unqualified for because it stretches you. In fact only apply to jobs you are unqualified for.
Actual prices 2x
What you actually pay for something is at least twice the listed price because of the energy, time, money needed to set it up, learn, maintain, repair, and dispose of at the end. Not all prices appear on labels. Actual costs are 2x listed prices.
Productivity question
The only productive way to answer “what should I do now?” is to first tackle the question of “who should I become?”
Learn to communicate well
It’s possible that a not-so smart person, who can communicate well, can do much better than a super smart person who can’t communicate well. That is good news because it is much easier to improve your communication skills than your intelligence.
Parenting advice!
For the best results with your children, spend only half the money you think you should, but double the time with them.
The explore-exploit ratio 1:2
The optimal balance for exploring new things vs exploiting them once found is: 1/3. Spend 1/3 of your time on exploring and 2/3 time on deepening. It is harder to devote time to exploring as you age because it seems unproductive, but aim for 1/3.
What makes you angry?
You are as big as the things that make you angry.
You fall to the level of your habits, not inspiration
Habit is far more dependable than inspiration. Make progress by making habits. Dont focus on getting into shape. Focus on becoming the kind of person who never misses a workout.