Browse all the blog posts here. Hub pages organize posts around certain themes.
Latest blog posts
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Manage your indefinite optimisms
Thiel’s diagnosis of “indefinite optimism” in startups also applies at the personal, life-planning level, and I’ve found it to be a really useful, if scary, tool for that. What are the pleasant future daydreams that you passively hope for?
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Master your sleep cycles
Figure out your sleep cycles. It’s a simple way to optimize your sleep, completely free. Once you know it, you can use your alarm clock in harmony with your natural rhythm, rather than against it.
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Control: The mysterious aura of good outcomes
Some people often fail to show up or follow through on plans, not because they lack ability or care, but because “unexpected” life interruptions seem to follow them around. What’s going on there? What is actually within your control?
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Responsibility: The trait of honorable obligation
The second key trait of productivity is responsibility. Responsibility is a moral reality, unlike agency, but it often increases agency in a person’s life – sometimes tremendously.
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Agency: The “main character” trait
It’s popular to describe high agency as “Main Character Energy,” referring to the fact that the main character in a story is the person who does interesting things and has unusual experiences. The modern world includes so many opportunities to do interesting things, but also presents us with more tempting lifestyle scripts that keep us stagnant.
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Addicted to imperfect conditions
Some people only feel motivated when the circumstances are stacked against them. They need to see themselves as an underdog in order to put sincere, hard effort into something. It’s a twisted mind game that feels necessary from the inside but looks very silly from the outside.
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Addicted to perfect conditions
I’ve been addicted to perfect conditions. Once there’s a “reason” for underperforming, a narrative explanation for it, then my body will take the opportunity to underperform.
