im 30 now and it doesnt really matter that much to me, nothing much has changed, but I learned some stuff in my 20s that might help some people, who knows - family is important and you should always make time for it. it’s pretty simple. they’ll always be there for you, and I wouldn’t be here without mine, literally and figuratively. - its never really over till its over. I failed at poker (ty government), I failed at graduate school, I failed at being a scientist (or at least a good one), and was probably a transient ‘failure’ up until ~27, depending on who you asked. I regrouped, I made a tentative plan and adjusted it as I went along, tried to learn from mistakes, tried to learn from people smarter than me, and tried till something stuck. - be aware; be conscious; always remain curious. ever spent time around kids? they’re curious about everything and approach with a fresh perspective cause they don’t know anything about anything. if it’s outside of your domain expertise (and even if it is inside!), maintain that perspective. There’s no way that I, as a budding scientist at 22, would have been able to nurture my curiosity in the way things and people work into a rewarding career designing consumer health, life science, and enterprise technology, without remaining humble and remembering that on a daily basis, I really know very few things. - love what you do. this is purposely inverted from the form most people are used seeing it in. you can’t always do what you love, for a variety of reasons, but you can take pride in everything that you do. I held some shitty jobs in my 20s, like seriously shitty ones, but I was never above them. As soon as you think you’re above any given job, you’re done. It’s a death sentence. You’ll never get better, and I believe this to be true for ANY job. You may think it’s “just a job” and that when you get a real job that’s when you’ll show up, but you’re mistaken. If you stop showing up now, you’ll never show up. And in that vein… - It all counts. Whether you’re tutoring a 4 year old and a 6 year old even though you hold an MS in Physics from one of the top schools in the world, or whether you’re making 5 figure bets on a virtual poker table against some degenerate in Lithuania, it all counts. Just cause you’re now tutoring for a living, doesn’t mean you can’t work on something else that will pay off going forward. Work on your work ethic, work on your patience (kids will try it!), and realize that all circumstances come with opportunities. You can learn from and apply things in and from almost any domain to another, if you remain curious and hungry, and constantly aware of how things hang together. this becomes more and more difficult the more sure you are in everything you know. - everyone has to earn the right to do what they love by actually being good at what they do. also, there are a lot of people who really truly suck at what they do, so if you’re even just a little bit curious, thoughtful, and self-reflective, you’ll eventually be good. or you won’t, and you’ll have to try something else. that’s life. - mentors are worth more than any amount of gold. if you’re not good at anything yet, find a way to be useful to someone who is very good, and do nothing but provide value to them, without anything in return. many people smarter and better at it than me have written about this, just read ramit sethi or something if you don’t know where to start. - read some damn books and be comfortable with your thoughts and solitude. read some philosophy. learning how things hang together and how we as a species have codified frameworks for ethics, epistemology, metaphysics, aesthetics, and logic will pay off in so many ways going forward, it’s hard to enumerate. definitely read philosophy if you’re a scientist, so you don’t make obvious errors in thinking. don’t be sam harris. - find people who love you for who you are, sure, but also be lucky enough to find people who love you enough to not let you be less than the best you can be, and don’t mince words when you are. Bianca is one of those people, my claire underwood. Kenny Davis is another one of those people. If i message you regularly or text you, you’re probably one of them too. thanks for being my friend and for being you. - remain hungry and incredulous. I still don’t really believe people when they compliment my work, and there’s always a bit of doubt in everything I do. This doubt keeps me on my toes, doesn’t let me mail it in, and allows me to accept criticism without feeling. This works exceptionally well if you have mentors who can provide you with bitterly critical (but fantastically correct!) feedback. that’s about it for now and I want to go to sleep, hth
Posted on: Wed, 05 Nov 2014 06:47:44 +0000
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