If you look back at your life on your deathbed at all the interesting things you’ve done, they’re all going to be centered around the sacrifices you’ve made and the hard things that you did.

To say goodbye is to die a little.

There is nothing so stable as change.

It is in changing that we find purpose. =

In a gentle way, you can shake the world.

We are overexposed to everything. The way to survive in modern society is to be an ascetic, it is to retreat from society. There’s too much society everywhere you go. You have society in your phone, society in your pocket, society in your ears… It’s socializing you and programming everyone. The only solution is turn it off.

Humans are basically habit machines […] I think learning how to break habits is actually a very important meta skill and can serve you in life almost better than anything else.

When building habits, choose consistency over content. The best book is the one you can’t put down. The best exercise is the one you enjoy doing every day. The best health food is the one you find tasty. The best work is the work you’d do for free.

Don’t do things that you know are morally wrong. Not because someone is watching, but because you are. Self-esteem is just the reputation that you have with yourself.

When looking for a purpose to life, notice that most things are stepping stones, done for ulterior motives. True art, love, and play stand apart, as they are done for their own sakes.

The more you judge people and things, the more you’re going to separate yourself. You’ll feel good for an instant… but then you’re gonna feel lonely and then you’re just going to see negativity everywhere. The world just reflects your own feelings back at you.

All humans are meant to do something different every day. The idea that we repeat ourselves and we specialize and we pigeon hole ourselves is a modern invention created through specialization of labor in the industrial revolution.

A great goal in life would be to not have to be in a given place at a given time… Being accountable for your output rather than your input. I would love to be paid purely for my judgment.

On the meaning of life: You get to make up your own answer and that’s the beauty of it. If there was a single answer, we wouldn’t be free. We’d be trapped because we’d all have to live to that answer. We’d be robots competing with each other trying to fulfill that meaning more than the next person.

If you’re going to pick 3 cards in the hand you’re dealt, take intelligence, drive, and most importantly, emotional self-discipline.

Our only security is our ability to change.

Change your thoughts and you change your world.

Intelligence is the ability to adapt to change.

No map is possible because life goes on changing.

A personal metric: how much of the day is spent doing things out of obligation rather than out of interest?

Stop caring about the impact and just be the best version of you possible – then you’ll naturally have an impact. 

I think happiness is a skill, nutrition is a skill, diet is a skill, investing is a skill, self awareness is a skill. And skills get built up over decades with feedback loops and you just have to constantly keep working on it.

There’s no certainty in life. You can put in the hours, you can put in the time, but you can’t really expect the outcome.

You have to be pretty ruthless about saying no to things, about turning people down, and about leaving room in your life for serendipity.

If you don’t make time for people when they’re requesting time for you, yes it’s a little painful, it’s a little socially awkward, but the people aren’t going to disrespect you. If anything they want to hang out with you even more, because they realize you’re very discriminating with your time.

On his morning routines: 1 hour meditation + 1 hour workout/yoga.

It’s easier to change yourself than to change the world.

We’re genetically wired to be pessimists, but modern society is far, far safer.

It made sense to be pessimistic in the past, but it makes sense to be an optimist today.

It is never too late to be what you might have been.

Change is not merely necessary to life – it is life.

We just play games in life. You grow up, you’re playing the school game, you’re playing the social game. Then you’re playing the money game; then you’re playing the status game. These games just have longer and longer and longer-lived horizons. At some point, at least I believe that these are all just games. There are games where the outcome really stops mattering once you see through a game.

Your closest friends are the ones you can have a relationship with about nothing.

Everything you’re a winner at now in your life, you were a once a loser at.

I wish I had done all of the same things but with less emotion and less anger.

I don’t think life is that hard. I think we make it hard.

Knowledge workers train, sprint, rest, and re-assess. Inspiration is perishable – act on it immediately. Be impatient with actions but patient with results.

Specific knowledge can’t be taught, but can be learned.

Giving your kids everything prevents them from finding themselves.

If you’re struggling through a subject, unless you need it for graduation, drop it. Go learn something that you want to learn.

Basically the library was my after school center.

If you want to make enemies, try to change something.

You affect your subconscious mind by verbal repetition.

When you blame others, you give up your power to change.

Study microeconomics, game theory, psychology, persuasion, ethics, mathematics, and computers.

I don’t [try to stay focused]. I follow my interest.

The only way to truly learn something is by doing it. Yes, listen to guidance. But don’t wait.

On learning anything (happiness, losing weight, etc.): You decide it’s important to you. You prioritize it above everything else. You read everything on the topic.

If you learn how to learn, it’s the ultimate meta skill and I believe you can learn how to be healthy, you can learn how to be fit, you can learn how to be happy, you can learn how to have good relationships, you can learn how to be successful.

When you’re memorizing something, it’s an indication that you don’t understand it. You should be able to re-derive anything on the spot and if you can’t, you don’t know it.