Now

Last Updated: 

25 September 2024

Current Location: 

Tbilisi, Georgia

Priorities:

• Chess. You can see my current rating here.
• Reading. You can see what I’m reading here on Goodreads.
• Physical health. You can see my workouts here on Strava.

Quotes I Am Thinking About:

• “Don’t be good, be great.” – Billy Fitzgerald, baseball coach.
• “Fac, si facis.” – Latin: “Do it if you’re going to do it.” Don’t do things half-arsed.
• “Think of yourself as dead. You have lived your life. Now take what’s left and live it properly.” – Remembering we must die is a good reminder that we don’t have anything to lose – therefore, take bigger risks. Steve Jobs said something similar.
• “No!” – Oliver Sacks, scientist & author. He hung a sign saying “No!” above his desk as a reminder to turn down requests, so that he could do more important work. Be prepared to both SAY “no” (rejecting unimportant demands) and HEAR “no” (attempting things, without being concerned about rejection). This manifests in the 80/20 principle – 80% of results comes from 20% of effort, which is why to *be uncompromisingly selective*.
• “Today, as always, men fall into two groups: slaves and free men. Whoever does not have two-thirds of his day for himself, is a slave, whatever he may be: a statesman, a businessman, an official, or a scholar.” – Friedrich Nietzsche
• “If you wish to make Pythocles rich, do not add to his store of money, but subtract from his desires.” – Epicurus
• “The difficulty lies not so much in developing new ideas as in escaping from old ones.” – John Maynard Keynes, economist. A reminder that being “open-minded” means being capable of ERASING existing beliefs, not merely accepting new information to fit around what you already believe.
• “The most limiting thing in life is the story we’ve been telling ourselves—that narrative we’ve been holding onto over and over. What if it’s all an illusion in our head?  We want change, we want growth, but we keep carrying our old identities with us. Every moment is an opportunity to tell a brand new story. Create your future from the future. Not from your past.” – Tal Gur. Just because things have been a certain way doesn’t mean they have to keep being that way. Your future does not need to be the same as your past.
• “Everything is your responsibility.” – Noah Kagan, in this interview. If you hire someone to help you, deciding who to hire is still your responsibility.
• “Mens sana in corpore sano.” – Latin: “A healthy mind in a healthy body.” Top intellectual performers undertake rigorous physical exercise. Magnus Carlsen (world chess champion) runs, hikes, and plays sports. Neil Strauss (author) surfs. Nassim Taleb (author) lifts weights. This might be surprising because we think of people like these as thinkers, not athletes – but to do their best thinking, they know they must take care of their health.
• “The people who really get far in life, who really achieve something – it’s not that they are so ‘goal-driven’ … they are actually people who enjoy the process of their work. … If all I thought about was the end, and getting money and attention and being on television, it wouldn’t work.” – Robert Greene. It’s about enjoying the process, and (to a degree) letting go of the outcome. Austin Kleon said something similar: “To be the noun, you have to do the verb.” 
• “Be regular and orderly in your life, so that you may be violent and original in your work.” – Gustave Flaubert. Hand over small details of life to habit and automation, to allow the mind to focus on higher-level tasks.
• “Action isn’t just the effect of motivation, it’s also the cause of it.” – Mark Manson. Don’t wait for inspiration to strike. Instead, just get started. He calls it the “Do Something Principle”. If you’re not sure what to do, do something – not nothing! Then course-correct as you take action.
• “Watch your thoughts, they become your words; watch your words, they become your actions; watch your actions, they become your habits; watch your habits, they become your character; watch your character, it becomes your destiny.” – Tao Te Ching (Chinese classic text).