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Inspired by Tim Ferris, Kevin Kelly, Nabeel Qureshi, and others, here is my list of collected wisdoms and thoughts. I tried to attribute the ideas when I could remember but some of these have been so long with me now I’m not sure if they’re actual quotes or amalgamations that have formed in my head from the books I’ve consumed.

If one of the nuggets doesn’t make sense, attempt to find the situation it’s meant for. Or throw it out wholesale and burn it if that doesn’t work.

One last thing, aphorisms, platitudes, and nuggets are distilled ideas. They are without context. They lack any nuance that would thoroughly address counterpoints to them. Take what you find useful from the following.

In no particular order…

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• Goal: Useful, not true (Derek Sivers)
• You are who you pretend to be¹
• Reframing is the Archimedes lever of the mind
• “It depends” is a useless phrase—it always depends. Does the nuance you’re bringing up make a significant difference?
• Sales is the practical playground for psychology students
• Go into a negotiation ready for at least three NO’s—and know your BATNA
• Essentialism (Greg Mckeown)
  • Most things don’t matter
  • Over-delete, and if it matters, it’ll come back up (10% overshoot, Elon Musk)
  • You can do anything but not everything
• 80/20 on Daily Habits:
  • Minimal sugar
  • workout
  • sleep at least 6 hours
  • create at least one thing
• Strength is a skill. There are two ways to become strong: building more muscle (hypertrophy) and contracting your muscles more effectively (Pavel Tsatsouline)
• That which bothers you the most in others is likely a projection of what bothers you the most about yourself
• Most people just exist. (Henry David Thoreau)
• If everyone’s agreeing with you, there’s a problem
• High expectations, high support: balance the seesaw between knowing when to challenge and knowing when to support
• If you aren’t failing, you aren’t growing as fast as you could be
• The tighter the feedback, the faster you learn.
• Figure out how to use a kettlebell and what a Turkish getup is.
• Don’t aim to be mediocre, aim to be great. Nearly everyone aims to be mediocre because they don’t believe they can be great, so there’s the most competition for that which is average. Counterintuitively, then, it is easier to aim for greatness than mediocrity, but you will need to be willing to pay the social consequences for thinking you can do something great
• Don’t hesitate to invest in yourself
• If you can’t figure it out, inverse it or take it to the logical extremes and see how it breaks
• There are two ways to become rich—have much or want little.
• Your environment—people, place, home—affects you more than you think.
• You should always be updating your beliefs and thoughts. It’s okay to change positions as long as you know why you did
• Don’t fear failure. Fear being average. Fear being less than you could’ve been.
• Strong opinions held loosely
• Don’t underestimate the power of taking breaks and walking outside.
• Accurate self-awareness is the keystone to learning (know thyself, Socrates)
• High-leverage questions for learning
  • How can I use this? Why is this important?
  • How does this relate to ____? Where does it break?
• High-leverage questions for negotiation
  • what would it take to change your mind? What do you mean by [word or term they used]?
  • How did you come to that conclusion?
• Being busy is a form of laziness—lazy thinking and indiscriminate action. Being busy is most often used as a guise for avoiding the few critically important but uncomfortable actions. (Tim Ferriss)
• There is no greater waste of time than to do something well that should have never been done at all
• Fail fast. Fail forward. Fail better.
• If you want to do something great, you must first be the fool.
• Leave people better than you found them. A smile costs you nothing; a laugh goes both ways.
• Don’t get your worth caught up in your economic value to society.
• Be selective in friendship. Have standards.
• Not everyone will like you or your ideas. Don’t defer responsibility by simply going with the decision that was most suggested
• Have opinions. On everything.
• Beware of phrases that short-circuit your thinking: “I’m glad I don’t have to make decisions like that,” “It’s too complicated for me,” “There are some things we just can’t know,” “I’m not smart”
• Understand the simplicity bias, the availability bias, and the affect bias. People aren’t aware of when they’re fooling themselves.
• Curiosity underpins intelligence
• There is some truth in “fake it till you make it”
• Just because you’re having thoughts doesn’t mean they’re yours. Filling your mind with constant stimuli is an effective way to avoid doing your own thinking.
• Reading a book or watching educational content can still be procrastination. If you don’t have an answer to “How can I use this?” by the time you are done, you were procrastinating.
• You negotiate and give better advice in the 3rd person. Negotiate as if you were doing it for a friend; advise yourself as if you were your mentor
• Luck isn’t a constant, it increases with surface area: be in the right places, have lots of conversations, put yourself out there, ask for what you want, and be optimistic and positive—Nabeel Qureshi
• If you want to think originally and differently, seek uncorrelated inputs. Read minor works, older things, and obscure journals—Nabeel Qureshi
• Relentlessly cultivate the 5 people you spend the most time with and the five people whom you choose to reference yourself off of. They may be different.

Here are some more if you’re feeling warmed up!

• “63 principles” by Nabeel S. Qureshi
• “101 Additional Advices” by Kevin Kelly

Add your greatest nuggets of collected wisdom in the comments. Looking forward to seeing them!

1. Kurt Vonnegut with Derek Sivers spin ↩︎