28 short pieces of life advice: 1. Block off 90 minutes in your calendar every morning to work on the most important thing. Wake up early if you need to. Don’t compromise.
2. If you’re writing and feel the need to use an exclamation point, you subconsciously know your words aren’t vivid enough. Don’t compensate. Drop the exclamation point and rewrite the sentence.
3. If you want to explore a new skill, don’t just consume information. Do the thing too. If you want to learn about music, don’t just listen to a lot of music. Play it too. Every activity has indescribable aspects you can only discover in the course of action.
4. When building a piece of IKEA furniture, don’t tighten all the screws to 100% right away. Start by tightening each one to 75%, and only bring them up to 100% once all the screws fit nicely together. This principle applies beyond furniture too.
5. You will rise fast in your career if busy people like working with you. Here’s a tip: when you have a problem to solve, come prepared with a suggested next step. If you have a question, phrase it in a way they can answer yes/no. Ask yourself: "How can I save this person time?"
6. Don’t get offended by what others say. When you do, you’re subconsciously telling other people not to tell you the truth, which leads to bigger problems in the long-term. 7. Top-shelf sunscreen for your face is worth it.
8. Don’t choose what to read based on what was published recently. People have been writing for hundreds of years. Unless you need to for work, why prioritize the past 24 hours?
9. You should know enough about your hometown to keep somebody engaged for a two-hour tour. Don’t do it for others though. Do it for yourself. Learning about your environment makes it come alive.
10. A good Zoom setup is like high-quality business attire. It creates a strong first impression. If you work remotely, invest in a good on-camera aesthetic. Get a decent camera, place it slightly below your eyes, face toward the light, and create an interesting background.
11. Make a 'last resort' playlist, and only listen to it when you need to crank through work you don’t want to do.
12. Remember the Hotel Bathroom Principle: Whenever I’m in a city and I need to use the bathroom, I walk into a fancy hotel. If you’re dressed well and walk confidently, they won’t hassle you for using it. Dress well enough to walk into a 5-star hotel and use their bathroom.
13. Religion is core to the human experience, but the way contemporary elites and academics dismiss it is a major blindspot. Don’t just read about religion. Experience it for yourself, even if you’re a non-believer. Attend religious services from all walks of faith.