This is the (new) monthly series where I update this public journal about the various goals I'm working towards.

A safety net that’s there to catch you can also restrain you. It can make you believe that you’re safe only above the net.

One of the most useful and flexible models of human interaction that I've encountered is Richard Francisco's Five Levels of Communication (which comprises Chapter 2.6 of the Reading Book for Human Relations Training, 8th edition.) Francisco, a Lecturer at the...

We typically don't think of being an asshole as a good thing, but there's a difference between "good" assholes and "bad" assholes.

Hunter S. Thompson's letter to his friend, Hume Logan, on finding your purpose and living a meaningful life. The most profound advice I've ever come across.

The Common Denominator of Success is as valuable today as when it was first delivered by Albert E.N. Gray in 1940 at the annual convention for insurance underwriters.

So for the past year I've been exploring what interests me. Cooking with my wife. Long walks. Writing on a blog that no one will find. Figuring out different ways to learn. Taking online courses. Teaching my wife how to snowboard. Doing things that I think are important, not things other people tell me are important. Things that I enjoy intrinsically. Things that I think improve me or that I can improve in the world.

Naval Ravikant and Sahil Lavingia discuss making money, becoming successful, being happy, and much more.

There's a lot to like about stoicism, but it falls short in some key areas for me. Here's my take on it and the other influences on my personal philosophy.

A great “Life Hack” is to simply combine these two into one basic approach to living your life: “Go positive and go first, and be constant in doing it.”

关于长大

F. Scott Fitzgerald pens a beautiful 1933 letter to his daughter, which offers a timeless list of things to worry about and things not to worry about.

Background This speech was originally given by Charlie Munger at USC Business School in 1994. The full title of the talk is “”A Lesson on Elementary, Worldly Wisdom As It Relates To Investment Management & Business”. Speech Transcript I'm going to play a minor trick on you today because the subject of my talk is […]

In The Psychology of Human Misjudgment, Charlie Munger explains why we behave the way we do. This is a transcript of the fully updated talk.

What can you do to lift someone up?

By: Stephen Hanselman [1] If You Want a Smooth Flow of Life, Live According to Nature At the core of Stoic teaching is the founder Zeno’s idea that a smooth flow of life (euroia biou) comes from “living in agreement with nature.” It was the second leader of the Stoics, Zeno’s student Cleanthes, who added the last part, “with nature” (te phusei; or […]

Don't control the spike. Control the duration of the long tail.

Don’t reserve your best business thinking for your career.

In this letter, Richard Feynman argues the worthwhile problems are the ones you can really contribute something meaningful to or help solve.

Charlie Munger says that “developing the habit of mastering the multiple (mental) models which underlie reality is the best thing you can do.” Here's how.

I’ve been a graduate student in physics for almost three years, but I only recently figured out why. I had to tackle a simple question do so: Why does this matter? I realized that I’d never forced myself to answer this honestly. As Paul Graham has pointed out, these systematic gaps in conversation should raise suspicion — they often indicate when you’re wrong about something important. I was wrong in thinking that my work mattered to me, and I avoided asking myself this question because I knew the answer would be painful.

There are two tragedies in life, Oscar Wilde once said: not getting what you want and getting everything you want. The last, he lamented, is much worse. I wanted to be a writer. I don’t know when that dream started, but for a very long time, I craved accomplishment in this creative calling that very few are lucky enough to make a living in, let alone find success in. Of course, like most people, I also fantasized about what it would be like to have money, or more specifically, to have lots of it. It’d be cool to be a little famous too, while I was at it. To be connected with or have influen...

The smartest people in the world use mental models to make intelligent decisions, avoid stupidity, and increase productivity. Let's take a look at how ...