Loosely held

I need a reading plan. I am not good at reading books without a plan. I get distracted by what’s coming out next and what’s hot to read. Most contain just trite advice that could have been a blog post. I’d instead read the classics and spend less time on non-fiction and more on great works of fiction. Also, I want to go deeper into specific topics and build mini-curricula.

Self-help culture is mostly bullshit. After more than a decade of therapy, I can conclusively state that most of that work is not applicable, or at least not beyond a certain point. I believe that working with a therapist on a traumatic event is crucial. Otherwise, keeping it as a habit can become a costly coping mechanism to justify every behavior and never take accountability.

Cardio is overrated. I have never run well and am slow on long distances. I have always struggled with it and kept at it as a form of exercise conducive to weight loss. But I get way better results from gymnastics, weight lifting, and consistent low-impact movement, as in just walking 10k steps per day. It is just so simple and so effective at the same time.

You can’t fight emotions with logic. Suppose there’s any significant learning from the recent years in liberal politics. In that case, it is that no logical argument can win against the spectrum of emotions of whoever feels like a “victim of the system”. The problem is much more complicated than that, but at the same time, it is very simple. There are some people (and there will always be!) you can’t reason with, and that is ok.

General advice is mostly pointless. Wisdom is mostly earned. It’s not given. Watching inspirational YouTube videos or reading self-help books with trite fortune-cookie wisdom has no point. Corollary: most people who spend a lot of time reading that content do that for ego, to be seen as wisemen, more than to help others genuinely.

Mobility is more important than it seems. A lot of the bodily sensation of “feeling good’ is attributable to mobility. Sure, it prevents injuries and helps with many other things, but importantly it makes you feel good, malleable, flexible, and in tune with yourself. That feeling of self-attunement is important because it drives confidence and strength.

Money matters. I used to believe that hard work was the only thing that mattered and that the score would take care of itself. However, this was a naive view as I realized that asset ownership is equally important. Growing up in Italy, where socialism and anti-capitalist sentiment are ever present, I failed to see the significance of owning assets in building financial stability.

Europe is romanticized and overrated. There’s much to love about Europe, but it’s abundantly not true that lifestyle and opportunities are “different” but “comparable” to the U.S. This has never been the case and won’t be for a long time. To some, this is an obvious truism. But to many, this is still largely unclear. We are largely a continent of consumption instead of production, and it shows.

A plant-based diet is mostly bullshit. Nutrition is a complex topic, and despite having gained substantial knowledge in many areas, others remain largely unclear or unexplored. There’s no conclusive evidence that meat is bad, and the environmental argument is also bullshit. Besides, reaching a good protein intake (which matters a lot) on a plant-based diet is almost impossible. I tried. It’s really hard, and it was a complete failure. Also, most restaurants don’t know what to feed vegetarians and vegans alike, and this can become comical very quickly.

With the algebra of intersectionality, everybody is an oppressor. This one is self-explanatory, but I believe there is an imperative to dismantle any form of belief in an oppressor-oppressed hierarchical system as a sublimation of victim culture. The West needs to stop with that right now, and the so-called oppressors shouldn’t be afraid to impugnate this argument with the weapon of logic. Enough.

Crypto is mostly bullshit. I sold all my cryptocurrency investments over time, breaking even. While I admit I could be wrong, I don't have the time or energy to analyze the market and form a solid opinion. Even when I've done that in the past, it always seemed like there was a point where I had to have faith in the investment rather than relying on fundamental or macro analysis. I don't want to put my resources into something I don't fully understand. Although there might be legitimate projects out there, it's hard to tell them apart from the scams, and I don't want to get caught up in all of that.

Conscientiousness is the best predictor. The ability to carry projects forward, pursue interests, and, most importantly, tune out distractions is statistically the best predictor of life outcomes. It is also an extremely interesting and attractive trait in others. Low conscientiousness correlates with high neuroticism, which is visible and easy to spot. So a good litmus test to spot the kind of people I don’t gel with.

I don’t like being on my devices. Despite working in tech, I am a worse person when I spend too much time on my devices. Something about dealers not consuming their drugs. But seriously, I get sucked into a vortex of distractions and stupid stuff, mostly YouTube videos and snarky tweets—such a waste of time.

I am wired to work hard. I like to take vacations, and I enjoy my downtime as well, but my happiest state is when I am adequately challenged and emotionally involved in a specific problem set, preferably with wicked smart people around me. Work-life balance is important but in waves only (or at least for me!). There are times when there’s no substitute for hard work, which is completely ok.

Nutrition is ~70% of well-being. Sleep and exercise are extremely important but can only get you so far if you have a poor diet. I noticed that on myself, as that is the domain I had the least discipline on. I resorted to counting calories (which is not optimal and very annoying!) hoping that someday the mechanism will become almost natural to me. Still, that is the only system helping me for now.

On many things, I have to listen to my gut. There is a shortage of real experts or data in many domains, and I don’t have immediate access to them. Regardless, I have developed enough of an internal compass to call the right shots at the right time. I should lean into those insights a lot more.

I prefer to think in systems. Whenever I approach a new field or am trying to learn something new, it is impossible for me to ramp up quickly without a mental framework of how information is organized. This is also something that I do quite well, and I believe it’s one of my strengths, so I shouldn’t be shy about creating my scaffolding to read reality, and it’s ok if others don’t need that.

Reading the news is (almost) pointless. Most mainstream media content must be more informative and provide the illusion of being connected to what is happening around me. It ends up being a waste of time, pure and simple. I do not need to know much about all of these strangers and what they are doing, and I am genuinely uninterested in gossip or celebrity culture. I have to develop an understanding of the world through books or articles. Luckily, I know many talented writers who provide that clarity. I need to organize my time better to learn methodically.

I acknowledge my fascination for the stories of conmen. I have always hated bullies, and then recently, that passion evolved into a fascination for SBF-shaped conmen a la Billy McFarland. I become obsessed because I can’t fathom how someone can simultaneously be so detached from society and effectively Machiavellian. I must admit this makes me quite naive about power dynamics, and I must accept darker, more controversial sides of the world.

I don’t need productivity tools. Turns out I don’t need fancy note-taking apps or planners. I take notes and schedule the tasks I need to accomplish in my calendar. That’s about it. I also try to review and audit my calendar as much as possible to understand how I have allocated my time, but I need to improve that.

I can’t do it without art. I am by no means an expert, but I have always had at least a primal curiosity about visual arts and music. I enjoy time in museums, and it rejuvenates my soul. I also greatly appreciate classical music, which comes from playing an instrument. This is not something I should let go of as I develop forward.

There’s no point in freaking out, ever. Nobody at the top of their game loses their composure, and this is something I should work on. It is never justified, and rightly so. I have made good progress on that front, but my mood and temperament could be easily swayed by extreme events sometimes. That leads me to bad decisions.

Remote work is a mirage. It is impossible to make a real impact in sweatpants. There are many arguments about it online, but it is safe to say that being in the same physical space is invaluable for most senior roles and those close to leadership. Work is more than deliverables, and if you can’t play the game of politics, you’ll stall mid-career.

Self-education is the real education. Schooling means very little, especially in non-technical fields. The real stuff comes from reading books, asking people, and putting individual effort into learning new things independently, especially because nobody asks you to do that. That’s also likely where most of the rewards come from.

Discomfort is healthy. A culture that allows the concept of “safety” to creep so far that it equates emotional discomfort with physical danger is a culture that encourages people to systematically protect one another from the very experiences they need to become battle-ready and healthy.

I prefer to disappoint others. Whenever I choose between disappointing someone else and disappointing myself, it’s my duty to disappoint that person. My job is to disappoint as many people as possible to avoid disappointing myself.

Jargon is a telltale of insecurity. When people feel insecure about their social standing in a group, they are likelier to use jargon to be admired and respected. An example is Power Talk in corporate meetings. If you have no idea what I am talking about, read “The Gervais Principle”.

It’s all about emotional management. Execution is so hard because life gets in the way. Or, better, because emotions get in the way. Controlling and taming my reactions to surprising life events is key to getting to the bottom of the plan. It sounds a lot easier than it is.

Traditions are experiments that worked. Fighting back the system is often immature and childish. Dogmas and constructs are there for a reason. That doesn’t mean I don’t have to question them, but it does mean that I don’t have to take a default posture of rejection to feel rebellious and cool.

My generation received loads of bad advice. From “be yourself” to “have fun in your 20s”, lots of short-term wisdom and useless narcissistic crap. It’s my responsibility to build for the long term and avoid falling into these traps.

It’s ok to call something immoral. Progressive trends often push boundaries in ways that can feel extreme, like over-sexualization of youth or leniency towards drug use and crime. There's a kind of moral blackmail involved — if I speak out against these issues, I risk being labeled intolerant or old-fashioned. But it's important to stand up against this. It's not about endorsing these trends but expressing valid concern for eroding moral standards and order. Speaking up is not just permissible. It's necessary.

Most tech of the past 15 years was vaporware. Turns out that zero distribution cost is a good recipe for zero moats and replicability. Over the past 10-15 years of bull run, we have seen a plethora of bad business models but importantly, of nonconsequential companies whose sole preoccupation was living in a world where someone else makes the world a better place than they do.

Everything soulful is inefficient. I like efficiency, but I am also culturally Italian, and my people taught me the importance of contemplation, beauty, and soulfulness. There’s no way to achieve artistic perfection or spiritual elevation by optimizing your work and life with productivity tools. And I should remember to bake in the time to savor life's soulful pleasures and experiences.

Write as I speak. When I started to write, I wanted to sound smart and refined. I used long sentences and sophisticated wording. That’s a recipe for failure and a stupid way to believe I’m writing anything of sense. Writing as I speak is not only liberating but also useful for the reader and helpful to acquiring clarity of thought. (I bet you can tell this piece is very lightly edited)

London is overrated. The more I spend time there, the less I understand the appeal. London is incredibly old money, embarrassingly woke, with a high cost of living, high taxes, and low salaries. It is dirty and dangerous like all major metropolitan cities, and these days, progressively less is invented, created, or produced there. It’s mostly still finance. The food is good on the higher end, but everybody can feed you well for 200 GBP. Not to mention the weather.

It’s better to double & triple down on strengths instead of developing range. Developing range might have been good at the beginning of my career, but now it’s the time to double-triple down on a few key things. This is the concept of Ikigai, and the intersection of different disciplines it where I can thrive. I am still working on that.

Measuring matters. I can only stick to my diet plans, sleep schedules, and other similar protocols when I track them. It’s painful and not for everybody, but it works for me and helps me have a sense of direction. Besides, everything that I don’t measure becomes vastly overestimated. I tend to be more optimistic than not.

Building a network starts with helping others without asking for anything in return. Instead of asking people for help, I want to start becoming more intentional and more generous with my time and resources, and I am sure something will come out of it eventually. But I want to lead first by showing uninterested generosity.

Newer generations are mostly directionless. Lack of trust and community derives from a lack of shared belief systems and purpose. Living aimlessly without believing in anything is the easy route.

Book knowledge is easy to acquire. Know-how is necessary for success, and practical knowledge can only be acquired through trial and error, effort, and pain. Most people don’t acquire any useful knowledge most of the time. But sometimes reading books makes you less likely to succeed.

Hard physical activity matters. I try to do this daily, and I feel significantly worse when I cannot do it. It’s also not just about moving my body but about strenuous physical exertion. Sitting all day in front of a laptop can’t be good, and I don’t want to deal with the compounding effects of that.

Atoms over bits. There is something significantly better about transforming the physical world, building things, and seeing materially the product of your work in front of your eyes. Matthew Crawford breathed life into that idea better than I ever could. Besides, I couldn’t give two damn about accounting software.

Taking notes is a superpower. When I had no skills in my first job, I took minutes during meetings and shared them with participants. It opened a lot of doors and formed relationships. Now, I take notes from meetings, conversations, and content I read. Doing this systematically, especially for my writing. It makes such a big difference.

Social organization theory matters. I am fascinated by soft power because I have always been quite naive about it. I am not naturally good at politics, and I have observed many situations where I thought the world was unjust. The world is unfair enough; I might learn how social organization works.

A love for obstacles. I should wish for smooth sailing rather than a life full of obstacles and difficulties so I can rise to the level of the challenge every time. Importantly, I aim to learn from each of those and love the moment of distress without panicking or getting anxious. That’s a special catalysis in the act, and I don’t want to miss that.

Self-sufficiency is inherently attractive. That’s the reason why many (including my past self) are attracted to narcissists. Narcissists are attractive to non-narcissists because and not despite the very few damns they give. Indifference > beauty

Everything in Europe is downstream of San Francisco. If you think you are liberal and don’t live in SF, you are not. SF is the Shelling point of emerging and frontier culture, clashing and evolving in novel ideology. Technology and economic progress are the vehicle of culture. Europe is asleep at the wheel and on the receiving end. Much of the social debates going on in Europe, from climate to race to immigration to women’s rights, all originated in SF 5-7 years ago.

Dating apps are solutionism at its finest. They distorted the dating markets in ways that are almost too obvious already. Sure, your friend might have found love, but by and large, they leave men depressed, women alienated, and children alone.

Traveling a lot is not glamorous. Nothing is appealing about traveling often for work. I feel the best when I am in my routine. The food on the go sucks. Everything is overpriced and super crowded. Besides, traveling door-to-door almost always takes at least half a day and often messes up my sleep schedule.

The central ideological debate of progressivism is what to do with oppression. Whether to eradicate or reverse it, it’s all about a power dynamic in the guise of tolerance, virtue, and morality. It’s important to remind myself that. It all traces back to power.

Religion is not only about god. Religion is a value system that governs social behaviors before it is a belief in God. Like in the first law of thermodynamics, religion is never created nor destroyed in any given society but merely transformed from one form to another.

All of my failures were experiments with serendipity. It sounds too romantic to resist, but serendipity is more of a mirage than a force of nature. Even when dealing with indirect effects, there is a level of intentionality you can’t avoid if you want to achieve things or make them happen. Things don’t just happen.

The West has a crisis of seriousness. We are profoundly uncomfortable taking things seriously and anything related to commitment (long-term projects, the institution of marriage, …). On social media, the rewarded behaviors are performative snark, and people with high work ethics are frowned upon. Nothing good can come out of that.

Trent Reznor is the most consequential musician of my generation. And you might have yet to hear about him. Between “Quake” and “The Social Network,” he captured the sentiment of anxiety and fueled the drive of an entire generation.

Everyone in my life I deeply admire found their freedom in commitments. Whether it’s community service, building a company, a family, or many other pursuits, I naturally admire people who have found their lanes and refuse to wander relentlessly to pursue their vocation.

Virtually everything is power-law distributed. Most successes and failures have a single root cause that might not initially be as evident. This means that I do a whole range of things that have absolutely zero effect on the outcome, even when I am convinced otherwise.

Being universally liked is a red flag. Disagreeable people can distinguish between disagreeable and rude, but most agreeable people mix the two. The key is that disagreeable people do not engage in low-stakes disagreements. Rude people do.

Eating alone is amazing. Especially at nice restaurants, sitting at the bar in front of the kitchen. I don’t understand why more people don’t do it, but there’s something great about enjoying food alone, sitting with my thoughts (no phone!), and taking a night for myself.

Cooking is a survival skill. It is virtually inconceivable to be a fully grown adult unable to prepare your food. There are levels, but everything should know their way around the kitchen.

Food delivery is my generation marshmallow test, and we failed. The big battle my peers and I are facing is the ability to resist the impulse to take advantage of convenience all the time and get lazy, fat, and poor while at it. We are getting softer because we can’t resist delaying our reward mechanism.

Uncertainty theory of conflict. No one engages in a conflict that has a clear winner. Consequently, if someone IS engaging in a dispute, they either have an edge or are overestimating what they have.

Self-help culture is mostly bullshit. After more than a decade of therapy, I can conclusively state that most of that work is not applicable, Write as I speak. When I started to write, I wanted to sound smart and refined. I used long sentences and sophisticated wording. That’s a recipe for failure and a stupid way to believe I’m writing anything of sense. Writing as I speak is not only liberating but also useful for the reader and helpful to acquiring clarity of thought. (I bet you can tell this piece is very lightly edited)or at least not beyond a certain point. I believe that working with a therapist on a traumatic event is crucial. Otherwise, keeping it as a habit can become a costly coping mechanism to justify every behavior and never take accountability.

Cardio is overrated. I have never run well and am slow on long distances. I have always struggled with it and kept at it as a form of exercise conducive to weight loss. But I get way better results from gymnastics, weight lifting, and consistent low-impact movement, as in just walking 10k steps per day. It is just so simple and so effective at the same time.

You can’t fight emotions with logic. Suppose there’s any significant learning from the recent years in liberal politics. In that case, it is that no logical argument can win against the spectrum of emotions of whoever feels like a “victim of the system”. The problem is much more complicated than that, but at the same time, it is very simple. There are some people (and there will always be!) you can’t reason with, and that is ok.

General advice is mostly pointless. Wisdom is mostly earned. It’s not given. Watching inspirational YouTube videos or reading self-help books with trite fortune-cookie wisdom has no point. Corollary: most people who spend a lot of time reading that content do that for ego, to be seen as wisemen, more than to help others genuinely.

Mobility is more important than it seems. A lot of the bodily sensation of “feeling good’ is attributable to mobility. Sure, it prevents injuries and helps with many other things, but importantly it makes you feel good, malleable, flexible, and in tune with yourself. That feeling of self-attunement is important because it drives confidence and strength.

Money matters. I used to believe that hard work was the only thing that mattered and that the score would take care of itself. However, this was a naive view as I realized that asset ownership is equally important. Growing up in Italy, where socialism and anti-capitalist sentiment are ever present, I failed to see the significance of owning assets in building financial stability.

Europe is romanticized and overrated. There’s much to love about Europe, but it’s abundantly not true that lifestyle and opportunities are “different” but “comparable” to the U.S. This has never been the case and won’t be for a long time. To some, this is an obvious truism. But to many, this is still largely unclear. We are largely a continent of consumption instead of production, and it shows.

A plant-based diet is mostly bullshit. Nutrition is a complex topic, and despite having gained substantial knowledge in many areas, others remain largely unclear or unexplored. There’s no conclusive evidence that meat is bad, and the environmental argument is also bullshit. Besides, reaching a good protein intake (which matters a lot) on a plant-based diet is almost impossible. I tried. It’s really hard, and it was a complete failure. Also, most restaurants don’t know what to feed vegetarians and vegans alike, and this can become comical very quickly.

With the algebra of intersectionality, everybody is an oppressor. This one is self-explanatory, but I believe there is an imperative to dismantle any form of belief in an oppressor-oppressed hierarchical system as a sublimation of victim culture. The West needs to stop with that right now, and the so-called oppressors shouldn’t be afraid to impugnate this argument with the weapon of logic. Enough.

Crypto is mostly bullshit. I sold all my cryptocurrency investments over time, breaking even. While I admit I could be wrong, I don't have the time or energy to analyze the market and form a solid opinion. Even when I've done that in the past, it always seemed like there was a point where I had to have faith in the investment rather than relying on fundamental or macro analysis. I don't want to put my resources into something I don't fully understand. Although there might be legitimate projects out there, it's hard to tell them apart from the scams, and I don't want to get caught up in all of that.

Conscientiousness is the best predictor. The ability to carry projects forward, pursue interests, and, most importantly, tune out distractions is statistically the best predictor of life outcomes. It is also an extremely interesting and attractive trait in others. Low conscientiousness correlates with high neuroticism, which is visible and easy to spot. So a good litmus test to spot the kind of people I don’t gel with.

I don’t like being on my devices. Despite working in tech, I am a worse person when I spend too much time on my devices. Something about dealers not consuming their drugs. But seriously, I get sucked into a vortex of distractions and stupid stuff, mostly YouTube videos and snarky tweets—such a waste of time.

I am wired to work hard. I like to take vacations, and I enjoy my downtime as well, but my happiest state is when I am adequately challenged and emotionally involved in a specific problem set, preferably with wicked smart people around me. Work-life balance is important but in waves only (or at least for me!). There are times when there’s no substitute for hard work, which is completely ok.

Nutrition is ~70% of well-being. Sleep and exercise are extremely important but can only get you so far if you have a poor diet. I noticed that on myself, as that is the domain I had the least discipline on. I resorted to counting calories (which is not optimal and very annoying!) hoping that someday the mechanism will become almost natural to me. Still, that is the only system helping me for now.

On many things, I have to listen to my gut. There is a shortage of real experts or data in many domains, and I don’t have immediate access to them. Regardless, I have developed enough of an internal compass to call the right shots at the right time. I should lean into those insights a lot more.

I prefer to think in systems. Whenever I approach a new field or am trying to learn something new, it is impossible for me to ramp up quickly without a mental framework of how information is organized. This is also something that I do quite well, and I believe it’s one of my strengths, so I shouldn’t be shy about creating my scaffolding to read reality, and it’s ok if others don’t need that.

Reading the news is (almost) pointless. Most mainstream media content must be more informative and provide the illusion of being connected to what is happening around me. It ends up being a waste of time, pure and simple. I do not need to know much about all of these strangers and what they are doing, and I am genuinely uninterested in gossip or celebrity culture. I have to develop an understanding of the world through books or articles. Luckily, I know many talented writers who provide that clarity. I need to organize my time better to learn methodically.

I acknowledge my fascination for the stories of conmen. I have always hated bullies, and then recently, that passion evolved into a fascination for SBF-shaped conmen a la Billy McFarland. I become obsessed because I can’t fathom how someone can simultaneously be so detached from society and effectively Machiavellian. I must admit this makes me quite naive about power dynamics, and I must accept darker, more controversial sides of the world.

I don’t need productivity tools. Turns out I don’t need fancy note-taking apps or planners. I take notes and schedule the tasks I need to accomplish in my calendar. That’s about it. I also try to review and audit my calendar as much as possible to understand how I have allocated my time, but I need to improve that.

I can’t do it without art. I am by no means an expert, but I have always had at least a primal curiosity about visual arts and music. I enjoy time in museums, and it rejuvenates my soul. I also greatly appreciate classical music, which comes from playing an instrument. This is not something I should let go of as I develop forward.

There’s no point in freaking out, ever. Nobody at the top of their game loses their composure, and this is something I should work on. It is never justified, and rightly so. I have made good progress on that front, but my mood and temperament could be easily swayed by extreme events sometimes. That leads me to bad decisions.

Remote work is a mirage. It is impossible to make a real impact in sweatpants. There are many arguments about it online, but it is safe to say that being in the same physical space is invaluable for most senior roles and those close to leadership. Work is more than deliverables, and if you can’t play the game of politics, you’ll stall mid-career.

Self-education is the real education. Schooling means very little, especially in non-technical fields. The real stuff comes from reading books, asking people, and putting individual effort into learning new things independently, especially because nobody asks you to do that. That’s also likely where most of the rewards come from.

Discomfort is healthy. A culture that allows the concept of “safety” to creep so far that it equates emotional discomfort with physical danger is a culture that encourages people to systematically protect one another from the very experiences they need to become battle-ready and healthy.

I prefer to disappoint others. Whenever I choose between disappointing someone else and disappointing myself, it’s my duty to disappoint that person. My job is to disappoint as many people as possible to avoid disappointing myself.

Jargon is a telltale of insecurity. When people feel insecure about their social standing in a group, they are likelier to use jargon to be admired and respected. An example is Power Talk in corporate meetings. If you have no idea what I am talking about, read “The Gervais Principle”.

It’s all about emotional management. Execution is so hard because life gets in the way. Or, better, because emotions get in the way. Controlling and taming my reactions to surprising life events is key to getting to the bottom of the plan. It sounds a lot easier than it is.

Traditions are experiments that worked. Fighting back the system is often immature and childish. Dogmas and constructs are there for a reason. That doesn’t mean I don’t have to question them, but it does mean that I don’t have to take a default posture of rejection to feel rebellious and cool.

My generation received loads of bad advice. From “be yourself” to “have fun in your 20s”, lots of short-term wisdom and useless narcissistic crap. It’s my responsibility to build for the long term and avoid falling into these traps.

It’s ok to call something immoral. Progressive trends often push boundaries in ways that can feel extreme, like over-sexualization of youth or leniency towards drug use and crime. There's a kind of moral blackmail involved — if I speak out against these issues, I risk being labeled intolerant or old-fashioned. But it's important to stand up against this. It's not about endorsing these trends but expressing valid concern for eroding moral standards and order. Speaking up is not just permissible. It's necessary.

Most tech of the past 15 years was vaporware. Turns out that zero distribution cost is a good recipe for zero moats and replicability. Over the past 10-15 years of bull run, we have seen a plethora of bad business models but importantly, of nonconsequential companies whose sole preoccupation was living in a world where someone else makes the world a better place than they do.

Everything soulful is inefficient. I like efficiency, but I am also culturally Italian, and my people taught me the importance of contemplation, beauty, and soulfulness. There’s no way to achieve artistic perfection or spiritual elevation by optimizing your work and life with productivity tools. And I should remember to bake in the time to savor life's soulful pleasures and experiences.

Write as I speak. When I started to write, I wanted to sound smart and refined. I used long sentences and sophisticated wording. That’s a recipe for failure and a stupid way to believe I’m writing anything of sense. Writing as I speak is not only liberating but also useful for the reader and helpful to acquiring clarity of thought. (I bet you can tell this piece is very lightly edited)

London is overrated. The more I spend time there, the less I understand the appeal. London is incredibly old money, embarrassingly woke, with a high cost of living, high taxes, and low salaries. It is dirty and dangerous like all major metropolitan cities, and these days, progressively less is invented, created, or produced there. It’s mostly still finance. The food is good on the higher end, but everybody can feed you well for 200 GBP. Not to mention the weather.

It’s better to double & triple down on strengths instead of developing range. Developing range might have been good at the beginning of my career, but now it’s the time to double-triple down on a few key things. This is the concept of Ikigai, and the intersection of different disciplines it where I can thrive. I am still working on that.

Measuring matters. I can only stick to my diet plans, sleep schedules, and other similar protocols when I track them. It’s painful and not for everybody, but it works for me and helps me have a sense of direction. Besides, everything that I don’t measure becomes vastly overestimated. I tend to be more optimistic than not.

Building a network starts with helping others without asking for anything in return. Instead of asking people for help, I want to start becoming more intentional and more generous with my time and resources, and I am sure something will come out of it eventually. But I want to lead first by showing uninterested generosity.

Newer generations are mostly directionless. Lack of trust and community derives from a lack of shared belief systems and purpose. Living aimlessly without believing in anything is the easy route.

Book knowledge is easy to acquire. Know-how is necessary for success, and practical knowledge can only be acquired through trial and error, effort, and pain. Most people don’t acquire any useful knowledge most of the time. But sometimes reading books makes you less likely to succeed.

Hard physical activity matters. I try to do this daily, and I feel significantly worse when I cannot do it. It’s also not just about moving my body but about strenuous physical exertion. Sitting all day in front of a laptop can’t be good, and I don’t want to deal with the compounding effects of that.

Atoms over bits. There is something significantly better about transforming the physical world, building things, and seeing materially the product of your work in front of your eyes. Matthew Crawford breathed life into that idea better than I ever could. Besides, I couldn’t give two damn about accounting software.

Taking notes is a superpower. When I had no skills in my first job, I took minutes during meetings and shared them with participants. It opened a lot of doors and formed relationships. Now, I take notes from meetings, conversations, and content I read. Doing this systematically, especially for my writing. It makes such a big difference.

Social organization theory matters. I am fascinated by soft power because I have always been quite naive about it. I am not naturally good at politics, and I have observed many situations where I thought the world was unjust. The world is unfair enough; I might learn how social organization works.

A love for obstacles. I should wish for smooth sailing rather than a life full of obstacles and difficulties so I can rise to the level of the challenge every time. Importantly, I aim to learn from each of those and love the moment of distress without panicking or getting anxious. That’s a special catalysis in the act, and I don’t want to miss that.

Self-sufficiency is inherently attractive. That’s the reason why many (including my past self) are attracted to narcissists. Narcissists are attractive to non-narcissists because and not despite the very few damns they give. Indifference > beauty

Everything in Europe is downstream of San Francisco. If you think you are liberal and don’t live in SF, you are not. SF is the Shelling point of emerging and frontier culture, clashing and evolving in novel ideology. Technology and economic progress are the vehicle of culture. Europe is asleep at the wheel and on the receiving end. Much of the social debates going on in Europe, from climate to race to immigration to women’s rights, all originated in SF 5-7 years ago.

Dating apps are solutionism at its finest. They distorted the dating markets in ways that are almost too obvious already. Sure, your friend might have found love, but by and large, they leave men depressed, women alienated, and children alone.

Traveling a lot is not glamorous. Nothing is appealing about traveling often for work. I feel the best when I am in my routine. The food on the go sucks. Everything is overpriced and super crowded. Besides, traveling door-to-door almost always takes at least half a day and often messes up my sleep schedule.

The central ideological debate of progressivism is what to do with oppression. Whether to eradicate or reverse it, it’s all about a power dynamic in the guise of tolerance, virtue, and morality. It’s important to remind myself that. It all traces back to power.

Religion is not only about god. Religion is a value system that governs social behaviors before it is a belief in God. Like in the first law of thermodynamics, religion is never created nor destroyed in any given society but merely transformed from one form to another.

All of my failures were experiments with serendipity. It sounds too romantic to resist, but serendipity is more of a mirage than a force of nature. Even when dealing with indirect effects, there is a level of intentionality you can’t avoid if you want to achieve things or make them happen. Things don’t just happen.

The West has a crisis of seriousness. We are profoundly uncomfortable taking things seriously and anything related to commitment (long-term projects, the institution of marriage, …). On social media, the rewarded behaviors are performative snark, and people with high work ethics are frowned upon. Nothing good can come out of that.

Trent Reznor is the most consequential musician of my generation. And you might have yet to hear about him. Between “Quake” and “The Social Network,” he captured the sentiment of anxiety and fueled the drive of an entire generation.

Everyone in my life I deeply admire found their freedom in commitments. Whether it’s community service, building a company, a family, or many other pursuits, I naturally admire people who have found their lanes and refuse to wander relentlessly to pursue their vocation.

Virtually everything is power-law distributed. Most successes and failures have a single root cause that might not initially be as evident. This means that I do a whole range of things that have absolutely zero effect on the outcome, even when I am convinced otherwise.

Being universally liked is a red flag. Disagreeable people can distinguish between disagreeable and rude, but most agreeable people mix the two. The key is that disagreeable people do not engage in low-stakes disagreements. Rude people do.

Eating alone is amazing. Especially at nice restaurants, sitting at the bar in front of the kitchen. I don’t understand why more people don’t do it, but there’s something great about enjoying food alone, sitting with my thoughts (no phone!), and taking a night for myself.

Cooking is a survival skill. It is virtually inconceivable to be a fully grown adult unable to prepare your food. There are levels, but everything should know their way around the kitchen.

Food delivery is my generation marshmallow test, and we failed. The big battle my peers and I are facing is the ability to resist the impulse to take advantage of convenience all the time and get lazy, fat, and poor while at it. We are getting softer because we can’t resist delaying our reward mechanism.

Uncertainty theory of conflict. No one engages in a conflict that has a clear winner. Consequently, if someone IS engaging in a dispute, they either have an edge or are overestimating what they have.