Principles

A list of principles, organized into categories, in no particular order. Very few of these are originally mine, but I haven’t tracked attribution.

Epistemology & Cognition

• The map is not the territory.
• Curiosity is the First Virtue
• Everything that can be destroyed by truth, shall be
• Context is that which is scarce
  • Keep building deeper and longer context by focusing on the same topics
• Plain text is more conducive to deep reasoning than rich media
• You can get more mileage from thinking than just being smart
• Scrolling and reading too much drowns out your inner voice.
• Have Will to Think
  • Eg: put energy into thinking deeply
• Do your homework - be the most prepared person in the room
• Profound insight come from focusing intently on the smallest details
  • e.g.: go deeper, narrower, or simpler with all ideas, projects, etc
• Minimize number of areas where to specialize
• It’s possible to know more than anyone else on a topic
• It’s possible to become a world expert in a niche topic in months or years
• The most interesting people are the most interested
• Go back to the future: use past predictions to understand the future
• Introspection promotes Inaction
  • Introspection is important, but during times of high agency it can be counter-productive. Introspective people already have contemplated many scenarios and should be able to trust their gut during a critical period.

Agency & Optimization

• Solve for freedom: complete autonomy of one’s schedule
• Take responsibility so agency is within
• Action precedes motivation.
• Vision without execution is hallucination, Edison
• [[Speed is THE primary business strategy]]
• Relentless force applied consistently
• Uncomfortable activity leads to growth.
  • Comfort leads to stagnation.
• Use world entanglement as a forcing functions to accomplish things
  • e.g.: commit to public speaking, workshops/conferences, exercise with friends
• Pursue visions
• “Make no little plans; they have no magic to stir men’s blood.” Daniel Burnham
• “Do not go where the path may lead, go instead where there is no path and leave a trail.” Ralph Waldo Emerson
  • An agentic individual is someone who takes an active role in shaping their life, making choices, and pursuing goals rather than passively reacting to circumstances.
• Run your own race
• Be comfortable with low status - avoid status games
• Keep your identity small
• Put yourself in environments where you have to perform to your utmost
• Maximize your amplitude
  • Double down when you feel energized and intentionally rest when drained
• Do hard things, do your thing, do it for decades
  • [[Live an Asymmetric life]]
• Try new things regularly
  • “You won’t conquer the oceans if you stay within sight of the shore.”
• Relentless is really hard to compete with.
• Build a life. Don’t run away from it.
• You don’t do anyone any favors by lurking, put yourself out there!

Decision Theory & Strategy

• Conditional probabilities are not in your favor
  • e.g.: if selecting for wealth, parenting quality will go down
• Luck Is What Happens When Preparation Meets Opportunity, Seneca
• Increase surface area of luck
• Skill is knowing when you’ve gotten lucky
• Outcomes are correlated to luck inversely to its dependence on skill
  • Eg: beating you at a game of chess is probably skill, beating you at a hand of poker is luck
• The efficient market hypothesis is a lie
• Never ever ever lose at the finish line. Win all deals.
• Cutting losses quickly is the foremost rule of speculating
  • Set a stop‑loss at e.g. -5% but wait a month to avoid wash rule
• Folding (as in poker) is only a small mistake
• What can go right: avoid cynicism and focus on the positives.
• Look under every rock: have obsessive exhaustive behavior to find opportunities.
• A hurt ego can lead to greatness
• Some people do well during struggle
• When you first feel like quitting, go a bit longer, and then re‑evaluate
• If you’re split on a difficult decision take the path more difficult in the short term
• Fear is almost always a reason to lean in

Social Dynamics & Coordination

• Trust is the greatest economic force
• Culture is the worst behavior that you tolerate
• Culture is what happens on the margins
• Find your people: only talk to 10s and the occasional 9
  • Work with people you really respect
  • There are some people who, after you talk to them, you feel more energized and you want to conquer the world or climb a mountain.
• Good relationships require high expectations and high support
• Trust is consistency over time
• Your network is your net‑worth
• Be the person called when others are in the thick of it
• Authentic self‑promotion through education
• Move up the quality curve
• Benefiting others from my surplus
• Give people a good “user experience” when they interact with you.
• Show up. Go to where the action is.
  • E.g.: sign up for random events and conferences even if you have to travel
• Find people you love. Then do life with them
• Most important thing is winning and winning requires leadership
• Best advice givers only give advice when asked
• The calling of a leader is to put themselves out of a job
• Invade an institution and take over from within
  • How people amassed incredible power
• Destroy your enemy, Totally
• Build enduring institutions

Resource Allocation & Capital

• “Market is a voting machine in the short term and a weighing machine in the long term”, Ben Graham
• The more you know the less you diversify
  • Most people are ignorant and don’t diversify enough
  • Build wealth by owning a lot of a great asset
• Losers average losers
  • On dollar cost averaging stocks on the way down
• It’s not just what you buy, what you pay counts.
• Good investing doesn’t come from buying good things, but from buying things well.
• There’s no asset so good that it can’t become overpriced and thus dangerous, and there are few assets so bad that they can’t get cheap enough to be a bargain.
• Time is the denominator: a week is 2% of the year
• Stock compensation is a way to “borrow” from employees.
• A lot of wealth is made through deal‑making between private parties
  • Private is better than public (mark to market is distracting)
• For new tech invest early, for mature tech invest late
• A lot of wealth is generated during periods of multiple expansion (1999, 2021)
• Feeling sadness after a bad trade trains emotional resilience and deeper learning through the limbic system.
• Venture capital is an access (not asset) class
• Self-made wealth signals competence
• Life begins with more time than money; and ends with more money than time.
• Invest time with purpose and meaning
• Pay attention to your production/consumption balance. If you’re only consuming and not producing, fix that.
• Do a review of your year
  • Every year, write it out, figure out what was good and what was bad, use this to make your goals for the next year.
• Doing as much as you can every day is a form of life extension.
• Talent is the best asset class
• Own companies and hold them forever
• Invest early in people you know and where you share values

Systems Thinking & Emergence

• The purpose of a system is what it does
  • (there was a debate about this on ACX, but it still resonates with me)
• Technological advancements that enhance resource use efficiency often lead to higher, not lower, consumption.- Jevons’ Paradox.
  • demand for compute, like energy, can be infinitely high at low enough prices
• Software was a layer below humans; now software will be in the same layer as humans
• “The future is already here, it’s just not evenly distributed”. William Gibson
• Move to where the action is. Agglomeration effects are powerful.
• The best way to predict the future is to invent it
• Consider problems that don’t have a clear cost function (e.g. generative AI)
• Productivity as measured by GDP ignores important factors.
  • Phone/elevator operators added no value. Less wasted time everywhere.
• “I just don’t change jobs” - Jensen Huang
  • I think there is an idea here where one continues to expand instead of quitting and having to restart. I don’t think this means to stay on the same job forever. But perhaps is about waiting for an inbound opportunity instead of looking to leave.
• Customers want fewer vendors

Personal Philosophy & Meaning

• Pursue radical work‑life integration
• Be in flow by doing things for their own sake.
• Find your duty and do it without fretting about the outcome
• “The meaning of life is to find your gift and the purpose is to give it away”, Picasso
• It’s much easier to work on things that are exciting to you.
  • Follow your compulsion
• Desire is a contract you make with yourself to be unhappy until you succeed.
• Happiness means to be content. Success requires dissatisfaction. Pick one.
• Hedonistic freedom won’t bring you happiness.
• Amor Fati: love one’s destiny / fate.
• Find the bottomless well within.
• I’m the main character of my own life, and that’s okay.
• Life is an adventure of self‑discovery.
• Get the most out of getting the most of.
• “I am not done”, John Maeda
• “Divine discontent with our performance”, Ogilvy
• We live in an age of infinite leverage, so you have to strive to be the best.
• The world is a museum of passion projects.
  • How much tenacity everything requires. That hotel, that park, that railway.
• Your dream has to be externally focused – service, rather than self serving
• Your attitude determines your attitude.
• Make familiar things strange
  • Avoid daily life becoming uninteresting. Make the usual salient.

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