• Optimism & energy are important ingredients in progress
  • You have to believe something else is possible first, or why bother trying
  • Energy entering a room makes new things possible
• Most work is waste
  • It doesn't end up mattering but people need to feel like they're doing something
  • The best line of code is the line that doesn't need to be written. This applies to much more than code.
  • The hardest part of work is figuring out what to do, not the doing itself
• On average people like having a boss more than they realize
  • Being given the todo list means you can (legitimately) be & feel productive without taking equity risk
  • If you knew the exact path success would be as simple as following a syllabus
• Growth & great people solve for everything else
  • If you're growing you have time & resources to solve everything else
  • Great people remove entire universes of problems from your plate.
  • "I never have to think about that again" and "it's better than I would have done" should be your bar in hiring
• Startups & entrepreneurship are underrated sources of personal fulfillment
  • (Almost) nothing has made me feel more alive than when my last company was really, really working
  • Too few people have experienced the joy of putting something out in the world and seeing people use it
  • The best relationships come from working on hard things with great people
• Knowing who you are and what you're about are the best ways to prioritize your time
  • Knowing your values lets you filter the noise of the world
  • You don't have to redecide in each moment what you need to do
  • It's easier to take the next step into the unknown when it's because of who you are
• Courage is the scarce resource
  • Even rich people don't want to fail in public
  • Obvious from startups that money doesn't translate directly to success
  • It's really hard to be the author of the todo list