what stanford taught me. you need unreasonable amounts of self-belief to do most things that matter.
writing
i write to figure out what i think. sometimes it's useful to others too.
on coffee shops as the modern third place — proximity to productivity, weak ties, and inhabited solitude.
everyone wants the beginning and the end. almost everything that matters happens in between.
skip curiosity, avoid experiments, replace discovery with performance. a reliable recipe.
vanity metrics are byproducts of boring metrics. it can never be the other way around.
readiness is a state you create by moving, not by waiting.
how to talk vc2026
a playbook for aspiring vcs, after practicing deliberate listening.
eudaimonia, a life of flourishing, purpose, and integrity.
on people2025
people are textbooks and mirrors.
the best way to understand change is to write it down.
asking is harder than answering.
the raison d'etre of every letter has evolved. so have i.
thinking about values in a hands-on, practical sense.
navigating complementary, opposing forces.
more than a year's work went into this. the essay forces you to think.
the question that changes how you learn.
how michelangelo transformed a lifeless block into david.
all insight is knowledge distilled into its purest form.
to hit your target, be close to it.
context-independent qualities that amplify performance.
reality has a surprising amount of detail.
inductive goals2023
on better goal-setting and goal-finishing.
mood vector2023
on the direction of feelings.
despite all odds, 2022 was an unexpectedly successful year.
we are all wondrously capable of engineering our own failures.
as we grow older, our open loops increase.
how negative and positive feedback are received.
memory spans2022
there are short attention spans and short memory spans.
on asking the right counterfactual.
what do you want2022
the only question you need to answer.
decision space, intuition, convictions.
the work-life balance.
permanence in ephemerality.
novelty and continuance.
the context of goals.
the loss of generalizability, nuance, and micro-insights.
peripheral blur2021
the proximal side-effects of focus.
how moderation and entropy define things.
how to find your own desires and work toward them.
lessons from youtube and the podcast.
why finishing things is better than setting goals.
self-knowledge2021
the difficult art of knowing yourself.
time dilation, content, and evergreen-ness.
insights for the real world.
issues with the productivity cult and self-improvement.
the guide of thoughts i wish i had.
passive resistance, reflection, and gonda.
the art of using deliberate procrastination.
how to solve the right problems.
anything v everything.
what matters2021
how to work on what matters.
the excuse moat2021
the purpose of an excuse.
the inability to sit quietly in a room.
compound interest.
the 2021 goals document.
lessons from 2 weeks.
the uniqueness gradient.
the mistakes i made and how to correct them.
letter to the shareholders 2020.
calisthenics, stabilizers, and simplicity.
keyhole-peepers, fomo, and decisions.
chess v poker.
how we can manage risk and uncertainty.
thoughts on deliberate conversations.
how lightweight lifestyle makes us happy.
how we can 'keep in touch' effortlessly.
status roles2020
the status game, why we play it, and what to do about it.
why we should invest in seemingly unimportant things.
our 'narrative reality'.
on having long-term goals with many interests.
the daily account of fulfilment v regrets.
why stuff is more about mind space than time.
why a lens of humor allows you to understand most things.
mediocrity, infinite games, and randomness.
on productive procrastination and understanding.
the few big bets2020
on concentration over diversification.
on clayton christensen and life measurement.
on rethinking conventional wisdom.
on writing as thinking.
on mastery and presence.
on bridging practice and academia.
a deep conversation about life optimization.
on choosing what not to know.
on the conviction that things happen for the best.
on meaningful engagement.
on satisficing over maximizing.
a nuanced perspective on life's rhythm.
on stepping back to see clearly.
on leadership and play.
notes on an unexpectedly unproductive week.
on the uncertainty in goal-setting.
on movement and health.
on maximizing our productivity.
a new concept for building habits.
on making the most of our time.
it's never real, until it is.
on striving for objectivity.
how we can manage risk and uncertainty.
on subtraction over addition.
some food for thought.
the types of fun2020
on different kinds of enjoyment.
on overcoming inertia.
on friendships2020
some thoughts on friendships.
the first-ever weekly newsletter.
welcome to weekly insights.
how the internet's infinity stones created new rules of media.
on setting goals, deliberate practice, and the pursuit of mastery.
bundle economics2020
the economics of bundling and unbundling, from barksdale to the internet.
deconstructing internal memos to learn business strategy.
how masterclass solved the catch-22 of premium content.