The best of Paul Graham | My Random Rants. Paul Graham is a startup incubator. He also happens to write essays which are really really good. In general I wish I had them read them a lot earlier. I have been reading his essays for a while now. Here are some extracts which I liked and so it begins. Addictive things have to be treated as if they were sentient adversaries—as if there were a little man in your head always cooking up the most plausible arguments for doing whatever you're trying to stop doing.
And my main computer is now freed for work. How do you avoid copying the wrong things? It can be hard to separate the things you like from the things you're impressed with. Another way to figure out what you like is to look at what you enjoy as guilty pleasures. What you should not do, I think, is worry about the opinion of anyone beyond your friends. Similarly, if you admire two kinds of work equally, but one is more prestigious, you should probably choose the other. Another test you can use is: always produce. Why? Why not? The 20 Mistakes You Don’t Want To Make In Your 20s. Your 20s compose undoubtedly the most pivotal time in your life.
While there are plenty of temptations and distractions, the decisions you make here are truly what dictate your future, as the weak fail and only the strong survive. Do you have what it takes to become a monumental success? Or will you live out a life of mediocrity? The choice is up to you. This is the time for you to hustle, scrap and fight for the life that you want for yourself. Every move you make is a test. 20.
Never do anything just because it’s convenient for you. Always look to the future and never for immediate compensation. 19. While all of your friends might be doing it, don’t fall into the trap of a relationship. Not only does it make you complacent with where you are in life, but it makes you boring. Get out there, meet new people, test the limits and have fun. 18. A real man is willing to make sacrifices. 17. If you ever want people to take you seriously, then you have to take them seriously. 16. 15. 14. 13. 5 Ways Entrepreneurs Make the Most of Their Days. Mastering productivity is a challenge even for the best of us. After all, there are only so many hours in the day and exercising, responding to emails, getting work done and catching up on sleep don't seem to fit so nicely within that time frame.
Yet, excuses aside, making the most of any given 24 hours is not only doable, but those who manage to do so consistently often become the most successful of the bunch. Consistent productivity, though, takes drive, grit, determination and a lot of focus. Plus, like any habit, experience is key to perfecting the learned behavior. These days, when looking for expertise in time management, it is founders and entrepreneurs who are getting a crash course in the skill. 1. Founders face a lot of pull and tug for different ideas, projects and new initiatives, but not everything can be tackled head on, especially in one given day. "Try to 'touch it once,' said Chase Jarvis, cofounder of creativeLIVE, the world’s largest live video education company. 2. How to Nail a Group Presentation. Most people suck at presenting to big groups. It’s a shame because the ability to nail these presentations at key conferences can be once-in-a-lifetime opportunities to influence journalists, business partners, potential employees, customers and VCs.
So I thought I’d write a piece on how not to suck when you give a presentation. 1. Show some energy! – No great presentation can be delivered like a conversation. People are sitting in their chairs for too long – most of them squirming. Project your voice. If this isn’t naturally you then you need to learn it. Monotony. 2. Be human. I always tell people that if you’re not creative in how you tell stories the simplest way to do so is by telling “a day in the life” of your potential user. NEVER lead with features. 3. If you’re not naturally talented at good, logical structures you may consider purchasing The Pyramid Principle by Barbara Minto. 3.
How many people will be in the audience? 4. 5. 6. 7. One strategy I sometimes employ. 8. 9. 1o. 8 Ways You’re Wasting Your Life. Email One of the hardest challenges we face in life is to simply live in our own skin – to just be right here, right now, regardless of where we are. Too often we needlessly distract ourselves with anything and everything: food, booze, shopping, television, tabloid news, online social networks, video games, cell phones, iPods, etc. – basically anything to keep us from being fully present in the current moment.
We use compulsive work, compulsive exercise, compulsive love affairs, and the like, to escape from ourselves and the realities of living. In fact, many of us will go to great lengths to avoid the feeling of being alone in an undistracted environment. And it doesn’t really matter if our feelings are positive or negative – they are overwhelming and exhausting, and so we prefer to numb ourselves to them. Here are eight reasons so many of us miss out on life as it’s happening. Photo by: Eliot If you enjoyed this article, check out our new best-selling book. Sacha chua :: living an awesome life. The Visionary and The Pivoter. Last month, my startup of 4.5 years, Circle of Moms, was acquired by Sugar. I’m proud of what my team created over that time: the product behind a large and strong community of moms, a set of technologies that allowed us to move quickly and make sound data-driven decisions, and a positive team culture conducive to both good work and employee happiness.
A month out, I’ve had a little bit of time to reflect, and the lessons I’ve learned from the process are still fresh in my mind. By almost any measure, Circle of Moms was a success, but not a “rocket ship”, either of the quick (YouTube) or slow (Facebook) variety. We did lots of good things and lots of bad things along the way, and this is a great time to write about a few of them. I’m going to recount a few pieces of my experience as honestly as possible, trying not to pretend that we were more clever than we actually were. What is a Pivot? A year ago, I wrote about why I was building technology for moms. The Pivoters Great, right? The High School Experience: What should I be focused on in highschool. How does it feel like to be a 6 pointer from a good IIT in terms of future scope and self satisfaction. (19) Intelligence: Why does it feel like everyone has it better than me.
How to Do What You Love. January 2006 To do something well you have to like it. That idea is not exactly novel. We've got it down to four words: "Do what you love. " But it's not enough just to tell people that. Doing what you love is complicated. The very idea is foreign to what most of us learn as kids. When I was a kid, it seemed as if work and fun were opposites by definition. And it did not seem to be an accident. The world then was divided into two groups, grownups and kids. Teachers in particular all seemed to believe implicitly that work was not fun. I'm not saying we should let little kids do whatever they want. Once, when I was about 9 or 10, my father told me I could be whatever I wanted when I grew up, so long as I enjoyed it.
Jobs By high school, the prospect of an actual job was on the horizon. The main reason they all acted as if they enjoyed their work was presumably the upper-middle class convention that you're supposed to. Why is it conventional to pretend to like what you do? Bounds Sirens Notes. (19) Identity-Based Habits: How to Actually Stick to...
Change is hard. You've probably noticed that. We all want to become better people -- stronger and healthier, more creative and more skilled, a better friend or family member. But even if we get really inspired and start doing things better, it's tough to actually stick to new behaviors. It's more likely that this time next year you'll be doing the same thing than performing a new habit with ease. Why is that? And is there anything you can do to make change easier? How to Be Good at Remembering People’s Names My girlfriend is great at remembering people’s names. Recently, she told me a story that happened when she was in high school. My girlfriend raised her hand and proceeded to go around the room and accurately name all 30 or so people.
She said that moment was an affirming experience for her. Even today, she's great at remembering the names of anyone we come across. Here's what I learned from that story: In order to believe in a new identity, we have to prove it to ourselves. 1. 2. How to Do What You Love. (19) Life Advice: How can one make the most of one's youth. (19) The Cult of Done Manifesto > Dear Members of ... - Best of the Web - Quora. (19) Life Advice: How can one make the most of one's youth. How To Raise A Superstar | Wired Science.
The 10,000 hour rule has become a cliche. This is the idea, first espoused by K. Anders Ericsson, a pyschologist at Florida State University, that it takes about 10,000 hours of practice before any individual can become an expert. The corollary of this rule is that that differences in talent reflect differences in the amount and style of practice, and not differences in innate ability. As Ericsson wrote in his influential review article “The Role of Deliberate Practice in the Acquisition of Expert Performance”: “The differences between expert performers and normal adults are not immutable, that is, due to genetically prescribed talent. Instead, these differences reflect a life-long period of deliberate effort to improve performance.” On the one hand, this is a deeply counter-intuitive idea. (It’s best articulated in Gladwell’s excellent Outliers and Daniel Coyle’s The Talent Code.)
And yet, the 10,000 hour rule also echoes a long-standing belief about how talent happens. 50 Things. Dear Class of 2010, This will be my last entry written specifically for you; beginning with the launch of our new site in early September, I'll begin focusing on the future class of 2011. I hope that you guys won't be strangers; stay in touch either in person (come visit us!) Or online (please drop by the blogs from time to time and say hi). As you begin your college experience, and I prepare for my 10-year college reunion, I thought I'd leave you with the things that, in retrospect, I think are important as you navigate the next four years. I hope that some of them are helpful. Here goes... Your friends will change a lot over the next four years. Be yourself. Welcome to some of the best years of your lives. (19) Why Do Anything In Life? I don't know. I don't want to do anything.
Everyone says things like: "I'm feeling stuck" Or, "I wish I knew what my purpose was" OR "I have lot's of ideas, what do I do next? ". Do nothing. Why do you have to do anything? I was at a conference this past week. I was very intimidated by the other attendees. I felt very lazy. It suddenly hit me while I was there - all I want to do is lie in a big field and stare at the sky.
All day long. I felt like a big fake. I like to submerge myself completely in water and just float for as long as I can hold my breath. Sometimes I like to eavesdrop on conversations about relationships or sex. At the conference someone showed a 3D printing machine. So check that off my list. I read a book recently about people trying to get salt out of water. I'm really impressed. I'm not one of them. I'd even want to be a standup comedian but it's past my bedtime. I get it - we have to pay the bills. Income is going down versus inflation. But now it does.
Oh! WRONG. Get Career Advice from Penelope Trunk. (19) Intelligence: Why am I a slow learner and not confident about my intelligence. (19) Leading a better life - Quora. (19) Life Advice: What would you advise your (hypothetical) 22-year-old college graduate to do with their life. Deliberate Practice: The 10,000 Hour Rule | Passive Productive | Achieving Success Through Productivity. (12) How to Stop Procrastinating by Using The "2-Min... Recently, I’ve been following a simple rule that is helping me crush procrastination and making it easier for me to stick to good habits at the same time.
I want to share it with you today so that you can try it out and see how it works in your life. The best part? It’s a simple strategy that couldn’t be easier to use. Here’s what you need to know… How to Stop Procrastinating With “The 2–Minute Rule” I call this little strategy “The 2–Minute Rule” and the goal is to make it easier for you to get started on the things you should be doing.
Here’s the deal… Most of the tasks that you procrastinate on aren’t actually difficult to do — you have the talent and skills to accomplish them — you just avoid starting them for one reason or another. The 2–Minute Rule overcomes procrastination and laziness by making it so easy to start taking action that you can’t say no. There are two parts to The 2–Minute Rule… Part 1 — If it takes less than two minutes, then do it now. The Physics of Real Life Try It Now. Life: What are the top 10 things that we should be informed about in life. (2) Career Advice: What are some of the best examples of general career advice. What Separates World-Class Performers from Everybody Else. The Power of 'I Don't Know' Draft is a series about the art and craft of writing. My friend Alicia likes to mock me by mimicking the tone of online comments on my writing, affecting the snarky hauteur that is the Internet’s default: “Kreider makes the audacious claim that his cat is more attractive than all other living cats,” she’ll say.
“According to Kreider, pie is a perfectly acceptable breakfast,” or “Kreider would have it that pants are purely optional.” She’s making mild fun of my sporadic blips of Internet celebrity, but I think she’s more heavily amused to hear commenters citing her feckless goofball friend as though I were some eminent authority, solemnly parsing my passing opinions as though they were official policy statements. Alicia’s an artist, too, and understands how audiences tend to ascribe magisterial intention and control to artists, when more often we’re just making it up as we go, doing the best we can by deadline. Jim Stoten Thucydides says: “Ignorance is bold, knowledge reserved.” Notes Essays—Peter Thiel’s CS183: Startup—Stanford, Spring 2012. Peter Thiel's CS183: Startup - Class 10 Notes Essay Here is an essay version of my class notes from Class 10 of CS183: Startup. Errors and omissions are mine. Marc Andreessen, co-founder and general partner of the venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz, joined this class as a guest speaker.
Credit for good stuff goes to him and Peter. I have tried to be accurate. But note that this is not a transcript of the conversation. Class 10 Notes Essay—After Web 2.0 I. It all started about 40 years ago with ARPANET. The Mosaic browser launched in 1993. “Web 1.0” and “2.0” are terms of art that can be sort of hard to pin down. Relative usage patterns have shifted quite a bit too. II. The Internet has felt a lot like the Wild West for last 20 years or so. Over the last 40 years, the world of stuff has been heavily regulated. Some big-picture Internet developments are on everyone’s radar. III. No one knows for sure when the future will arrive.
Sometimes bad predictions were just too optimistic. IV. How to Make Wealth. May 2004 (This essay was originally published in Hackers & Painters.) If you wanted to get rich, how would you do it? I think your best bet would be to start or join a startup. That's been a reliable way to get rich for hundreds of years. Startups usually involve technology, so much so that the phrase "high-tech startup" is almost redundant.
Lots of people get rich knowing nothing more than that. The Proposition Economically, you can think of a startup as a way to compress your whole working life into a few years. Here is a brief sketch of the economic proposition. Like all back-of-the-envelope calculations, this one has a lot of wiggle room. If $3 million a year seems high, remember that we're talking about the limit case: the case where you not only have zero leisure time but indeed work so hard that you endanger your health.
Startups are not magic. Millions, not Billions If $3 million a year seems high to some people, it will seem low to others. Money Is Not Wealth The Pie Fallacy Notes. The Buffett Formula — How To Get Smarter. (62) "How should a 22 year old invest time?" and Mor... - Quora Spotlight - Quora. 50 Things. (54) "How do I become a better thinker?" and More Le... - Quora Spotlight - Quora. (37) Life Advice: What can I start doing now that will help me a lot in about five years.
Crucial Conversations Tools for Talking When Stakes Are High, Second Edition: Kerry Patterson, Joseph Grenny, Ron McMillan, Al Switzler: 9780071771320: Amazon.com. Welcome To The Grind (Motivation) (30) Leading a better life - Quora. (30) How to Focus and Concentrate Better: Lessons Fr... Tony Robbins: Why we do what we do. Simon Sinek: How great leaders inspire action. 40 Ways to Feel More Alive.