- 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. This was already true before AI.
- 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