I’ve been collecting wisdom using digital notes since 2015. I’ve dumped them all here for the public good. Most have no citations as I cut and pasted while on the go. (Updated 3 June 2024.)

Self-Awareness

Remember Rule Number 6!
(Don’t take yourself so goddamned seriously.)

– Benjamin Zander

What you pay attention to – expands.

-Brandon Stanton

Most people don’t lead their own lives—they accept their lives.

– John Kotter

The greatest gap in life is the one between knowing and doing.

– Dick Biggs

Don’t get caught up in what you have to do, but get caught up in what you want to do.

– Clement Chow

Care about what other people think and you will always be their prisoner.

– Lao Tzu

I have learned that what I have not drawn I have never really seen, and that when I start drawing an ordinary thing, I realize how extraordinary it is, sheer miracle.

-Frederick Franck

If you absolutely can’t tolerate critics, then don’t do anything new or interesting.

– Jeff Bezos

Autobiography is only to be trusted when it reveals something disgraceful. A man who gives a good account of himself is probably lying, since any life when viewed from the inside is simply a series of defeats.

– George Orwell

Risk is about being beholden to someone or something.

– Chris Davis. (Eg. being completely beholden to one job or employer is high risk)

The only way to keep your health is to eat what you don’t want, drink what you don’t like, and do what you’d rather not.

– Mark Twain

It’s easier to hold your principles 100 percent of the time than it is to hold them 98 percent of the time.

– Clayton Christensen

Clarity isn’t about knowing what you want to do with your life, it’s about knowing what you want to do this week.

You don’t need to have it all figured out. You just need to know your next step.

– James Clear

Look, the fire’s coming. Are you ready for the fire? We’re firemen. Okay. We are firemen! The heat doesn’t bother us. We live in the heat. We train in the heat! It tells us that we’re ready. We’re at home. We’re where we’re supposed to be. Flames don’t intimidate us. What do we do? We control the flames. That’s right. We control them! We move the flames where we want to. Let’s go, let’s go!

– Teddy Atlas, boxing coach to Tim Bradley. YouTube video at time 28:41min

This is the true joy in life, the being used for a purpose recognized by yourself as a mighty one; the being thoroughly worn out before you are thrown on the scrap heap; the being a force of Nature instead of a feverish selfish little clod of ailments and grievances complaining that the world will not devote itself to making you happy.

– George Bernard Shaw

Who can say if the thoughts you have in your mind as you read these words are the same thoughts I had in my mind as I typed them? We are different, you and I, and the qualia of our consciousnesses are as divergent as two stars at the ends of the universe.

And yet, whatever has been lost in translation in the long journey of my thoughts through the maze of civilization to your mind, I think you do understand me, and you think you do understand me.

Our minds managed to touch, if but briefly and imperfectly.

Does the thought not make the universe seem just a bit kinder, a bit brighter, a bit warmer and more human? We live for such miracles.”​

– Ken Liu, The Paper Menagerie

Clear Writing

No Dumping

-Roy Peter Clarke

Whoever tells the best story wins.

– John Quincy Adams?

If you can’t read and write, you can’t think. Your thoughts are dispersed if you don’t know how to read and write. You’ve got to be able to look at your thoughts on paper and discover what a fool you were.

– Ray Bradbury

“When you write a story, you’re telling yourself the story,” he said. “When you rewrite, your main job is taking out all the things that are not the story.

– Stephen King, sharing what his editor John Gould told him.

A writer—and, I believe, generally all persons—must think that whatever happens to him or her is a resource. All things have been given to us for a purpose, and an artist must feel this more intensely. All that happens to us, including our humiliations, our misfortunes, our embarrassments, all is given to us as raw material, as clay, so that we may shape our art.

– Jorge Luis Borges

What? So What? Now What?

– Matt Abrahams on how to communicate clearly and precisely to audiences.

You never get in trouble for what you don’t say.

– Dick Cheney’s favorite rule, attributed to Sam Rayburn

I CLOSE WITH THE ONE THOUGHT: LOOK AT THE SCENE AND ASK YOURSELF “IS IT DRAMATIC? IS IT ESSENTIAL? DOES IT ADVANCE THE PLOT? ANSWER TRUTHFULLY.

IF THE ANSWER IS “NO” WRITE IT AGAIN OR THROW IT OUT. IF YOU’VE GOT ANY QUESTIONS, CALL ME UP.

– John Mamet, in his memo to the writers of “The Unit” TV series.

Monks, a statement endowed with five factors is well-spoken, not ill-spoken. It is blameless & unfaulted by knowledgeable people. Which five?

It is spoken at the right time. It is spoken in truth. It is spoken affectionately. It is spoken beneficially. It is spoken with a mind of good-will.

A statement endowed with these five factors is well-spoken, not ill-spoken. It is blameless & unfaulted by knowledgeable people.

– Aṅguttara Nikāya, Book of the Fives, 5.198

I never allow myself to have an opinion on anything unless I know the other side’s argument better than they do.

– Charlie Munger

Memory is the residue of thought. (In other words, we remember what we spend a little time thinking about. Prediction provides an excellent spur for thought).

– Daniel Willingham

Remember that two elements divide the world, inviting you to compare and contrast them. Three elements encompass the world, offering a sense of the whole.

– Roy Peter Clarke

True words are not fine; fine words are not true

– Lao Tzu

I just look at some things and go, “Why is that? Why does it work that way?” Oftentimes, the people most entrenched in a system have no idea why.

– Nick Kokonas

I imagine one of the reasons people cling to their hates so stubbornly is because they sense, once hate is gone, they will be forced to deal with pain.

– James Baldwin, Notes of a Native Son

The first principle is that you must not fool yourself – and you are the easiest person to fool.

– Richard Feynman

Your network wants to come on your journey, not listen to your wisdom: The natural tendency of most accomplished professionals is to share their lessons, but few of us enjoy listening to smart people sharing wisdom from the mountaintop.

It’s far better to share bits and pieces of your journey, including stumbles and falls as well as victories.

– Bruce Kasanoff

Writing is a dog’s life, but the only life worth living.

The faster the word sticks to the thought, the more beautiful is the effect. (ie. write it down asap, get it done asap). Do not read, as children do, to amuse yourself, or like the ambitious, for the purpose of instruction.

No, read in order to live.

– Gustave Flaubert

The adverb is not your friend.

Adverbs … are words that modify verbs, adjectives, or other adverbs. They’re the ones that usually end in -ly. Adverbs, like the passive voice, seem to have been created with the timid writer in mind. … With adverbs, the writer usually tells us he or she is afraid he/she isn’t expressing himself/herself clearly, that he or she is not getting the point or the picture across.

Consider the sentence: He closed the door firmly.

It’s by no means a terrible sentence (at least it’s got an active verb going for it), but ask yourself if firmly really has to be there. You can argue that it expresses a degree of difference between He closed the door and He slammed the door, and you’ll get no argument from me … but what about context? What about all the enlightening (not to say emotionally moving) prose which came before He closed the door firmly? Shouldn’t this tell us how he closed the door? And if the foregoing prose does tell us, isn’t firmly an extra word? Isn’t it redundant?

Someone out there is now accusing me of being tiresome and anal-retentive. I deny it. I believe the road to hell is paved with adverbs, and I will shout it from the rooftops. To put it another way, they’re like dandelions. If you have one on your lawn, it looks pretty and unique. If you fail to root it out, however, you find five the next day . . . fifty the day after that . . . and then, my brothers and sisters, your lawn is totally, completely, and profligately covered with dandelions. By then you see them for the weeds they really are, but by then it’s — GASP!! — too late.

‘Put it down!’ she shouted.
‘Give it back,’ he pleaded, ‘it’s mine.’
‘Don’t be such a fool, Jekyll,’ Utterson said.

In these sentences, shouted, pleaded, and said are verbs of dialogue attribution. Now look at these dubious revisions:

‘Put it down! she shouted menacingly.
‘Give it back,’ he pleaded abjectly, ‘it’s mine.’
‘Don’t be such a fool, Jekyll,’ Utterson said contemptuously.

The three latter sentences are all weaker than the three former ones, and most readers will see why immediately.

– Stephen King (On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft)

Contentment

Health lies in action, and so it graces youth. To be busy is the secret of grace, and half the secret of content. Let us ask the gods not for possessions, but for things to do; happiness is in making things rather than in consuming them

– Will Durant

If we can forgive what’s been done to us… If we can forgive what we’ve done to others… If we can leave our stories behind. Our being victims and villains. Only then can we maybe rescue the world.

– Chuck Palahniuk

A person cannot live a full life under the shadow of bitterness.

– Ben Zander.

There is no such thing as bad weather, only inappropriate clothing.

– Ben Zander’s dad.

No one in the world leads a smooth life.
– JD Rockefeller

A man is about as big as the things that make him angry.
– Winston Churchill

Quiet.
Focus on the now.
Find beauty in simplicity.
Harmony.

– 4 Japanese principles in making tea.

This is a way of life for a man of virtue: to cultivate his character by keeping a peaceful mind, and nourish his morality by a frugal living.

Only freedom from vanity can show one’s lofty goal of life; and only peace of mind can help him to achieve something really lasting.

To be talented, one must learn; and to learn, one must have a peaceful mind. One cannot develop his talent without learning, and one cannot accomplish his learning without peace of mind.

Frivolity will prevent one from going deep into learning, and impetuousness will prevent one from moulding a noble character. One’s age will flee with the time, and one’s ambition will wane with each passing day.

If he does not exert himself in time, his mind would wither away like flowers and he would become a good-for-nothing in the world. And in the end, he could only perch in his humbling dwelling, lamenting for his lost prime that will never come back to him again.

诫子书（诸葛亮）: 夫君子之行，静以修身，俭以养德。非淡泊无以明志，非宁静无以致远。夫学须静也，才须学也。非学无以广才，非志无以成学。淫慢则不能励精，险躁则不能治性。年与时驰，意与岁去，遂成枯落，多不接世。悲守穷庐，将复何及

-Zhuge Liang, An Admonition to My Son

Success

Replace “Why is this happening to me?” with “What is this trying to teach me?”

– Nate Kawasaki

Life is struggle

– Karl Marx.

You can’t TRY to do things. You must simply DO them.

– Ray Bradbury

Success is peace of mind, which is the direct result of self-satisfaction in knowing you did your best to become the best you are capable of becoming.

– John Wooden, from the book Today Matters by John Maxwell.

The measure of success is not whether you have a tough problem to deal with, but whether it is the same problem you had last year.

– John Foster Dulles, Former US Secretary of State

One today is worth two tomorrows; what I am to be, I am now becoming.

– Benjamin Franklin

The secret of getting ahead is getting started.

– Mark Twain

Do the thing you fear most and the death of fear is certain.

– Mark Twain

The secret to doing good research is always to be a little underemployed. You waste years by not being able to waste hours.

– Amos Tversky

Make each day your masterpiece.

– John Wooden

Some of you guys will come out here and you won’t be serious. You’ll get here and start shooting the shit, talking shit, bullshitting, not doing shit and just want to look good in your football shit. Turn your shit in.

– Coach Mendoza

If you’re going to eat shit, don’t nibble. We might as well take all the pain now.

– Unknown

People think focus means saying yes to the thing you’ve got to focus on. But that’s not what it means at all. It means saying no to the hundred other good ideas that there are.

– Steve Jobs

In order to get the results we desire, we must do two things. We must first create the space to reason in our thoughts, feelings, and actions; and second, we must deliberately use that space to think clearly.

Once you have mastered this skill, you will find you have an unstoppable advantage. Decisions made through clear thinking will put you in increasingly better positons, and success will only compound from there.

– Shane Parrish, Clear Thinking

“Do as little as needed, not as much as possible.”

– Henk Kraaijenhof, coach of Merlene Joyce “Queen of the Track” Ottey, who won 23 combined medals at the Olympic games and world championships.

Reframe things – when you feel discomfort, reframe it as growth.

– Angela Duckworth

Good iron does not fear being struck 好铁不怕锤敲

– I found this online somewhere.

Life punishes the vague wish and rewards the specific ask. After all, conscious thinking is largely asking and answering questions in your own head. If you want confusion and heartache, ask vague questions. If you want uncommon clarity and results, ask uncommonly clear questions.

– Tim Ferriss

Talk does not cook rice.

– Chinese proverb

Closed mouths do not get fed.

– Chinese proverb

Remarkable People have GRIT, GRACE, and GROWTH.

– Guy Kawasaki

Get the main trend right. Study the trends. Simplify your formula. Be flexible like music.

– Chris Davis?

“Anybody who has gotten braces or who has lifted weights understands this concept,” he says. “If the amount of money you’re saving each month doesn’t hurt a little, you’re not saving enough.”

– Dogen?

Who knows useful things, not many things, is wise.

– Aeschylus

Be regular and orderly in your life so that you may be violent and original in your work.

– Gustave Flaubert

The most glorious moments in your life are not the so-called days of success, but rather those days when out of dejection and despair you feel rise in you a challenge to life, and the promise of future accomplishments.

– Gustave Flaubert

Don’t let planning get in the way of doing, in business and in life. Predicting the future’s impossible. Enhance your skills, put in the time, and make tactical plans for the next few steps. Then, based on what happens, look one more move ahead and adjust the plans.

– Michael Bloomberg

Until you make the effort to get to get to know someone or something, you don’t know anything. There are no shortcuts to knowledge, especially knowledge gained from personal experience. Following conventional wisdom and relying on shortcuts can be worse than knowing nothing at all.

– Ben Horowitz, The Hard Things About Hard Things

Nothing in this world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent.

– Calvin Coolidge

Money is multiplied in practical value depending on the number of W’s you control in your life: what you do, when you do it, where you do it, and with whom you do it.

Just because something has been a lot of work or consumed a lot of time doesn’t make it productive or worthwhile. Just because you are embarrassed to admit that you’re still living the consequences of bad decisions made 5, 10, or 20 years ago shouldn’t stop you from making good decisions now.

– Tim Ferris

And to make a long story short, after lots of statistical tests, there’s only one explanation for that, that really, the way we scientists work is that every single paper we write, every project we do, has exactly the same chance of being our personal best.

That is, discovery is like a lottery ticket. And the more lottery tickets we buy, the higher our chances. And it happens to be so that most scientists buy most of their lottery tickets in the first 10, 15 years of their career, and after that, their productivity decreases. They’re not buying any more lottery tickets. So it looks as if they would not be creative.

In reality, they stopped trying. So when we actually put the data together, the conclusion is very simple: success can come at any time. It could be your very first or very last paper of your career. It’s totally random in the space of the projects. It is the productivity that changes.

– Albert-László Barabási

There are two types of mistakes: mistakes of ambition and mistakes of sloth.

The first is the result of a decision to act—to do something. This type of mistake is made with incomplete information, as it’s impossible to have all the facts beforehand. This is to be encouraged. Fortune favors the bold.

The second is the result of a decision of sloth—to not do something—wherein we refuse to change a bad situation out of fear despite having all the facts.

This is how learning experiences become terminal punishments, bad relationships become bad marriages, and poor job choices become lifelong prison sentences.

– Tim Ferriss

Vocational skills can be taught: You’re not born knowing engineering or copywriting or even graphic design, therefore they must be something we can teach.

But we let ourselves off the hook when it comes to decision-making, eager participation, dancing with fear, speaking with authority, working in teams, seeing the truth, speaking the truth, inspiring others, doing more than we’re asked, caring and being willing to change things.

We underinvest in this training, fearful that these things are innate and can’t be taught. Perhaps they’re talents. And so we downplay them, calling them soft skills, making it easy for us to move on to something seemingly more urgent.

– Seth Godin

A lion is fully capable of capturing, killing, and eating a field mouse. But it turns out that the energy required to do so exceeds the caloric content of the mouse itself. So a lion that spent its day hunting and eating field mice would slowly starve to death. A lion can’t live on field mice. A lion needs antelope. Antelope are big animals. They take more speed and strength to capture and kill, and once killed, they provide a feast for the lion and her pride. A lion can live a long and happy life on a diet of antelope. The distinction is important. Are you spending all your time and exhausting all your energy catching field mice? In the short term it might give you a nice, rewarding feeling. But in the long run you’re going to die. So ask yourself at the end of the day, “Did I spend today chasing mice or hunting antelope?”

– Newt Gingrich, as quoted by James Carville and Paul Begala, Buck Up, Suck Up… and Come Back When You Foul Up: 12 Winning Secrets from the War Room. Newt uses a brilliant illustration to explain the need to focus on the big things and let the little stuff slide: the analogy of the field mice and the antelope.

“If you are allowed one wish for your child, seriously consider wishing him or her optimism. Optimists are normally cheerful and happy, and therefore popular; they are resilient in adapting to failures and hardships, their chances of clinical depression are reduced, their immune system is stronger, they take better care of their health, they feel healthier than others and are in fact likely to live longer.
​
Optimistic individuals play a disproportionate role in shaping our lives. Their decisions make a difference; they are the inventors, the entrepreneurs, the political and military leaders – not average people. They got to where they are by seeking challenges and taking risks. They are talented and they have been lucky, almost certainly luckier than they acknowledge… the people who have the greatest influence on the lives of others are likely to be optimistic and overconfident, and to take more risks than they realize.”

– Psychologist and Nobel Prize winner Daniel Kahneman on optimism. From “Thinking, Fast and Slow”.​

Creativity

Don’t worry about people stealing your ideas. If your ideas are any good, you’ll have to ram them down people’s throats.

– Howard Aiken

Over the years, we’ve noticed from teams we’ve worked with that when people are insecure, they’re not at their best. If they don’t feel like they have the respect of their peers or their boss, they try to boost themselves through self-promotion. Instead of focusing on their work and feeling good about what they produce, they get sidetracked worrying about what other people think.

Teachers, parents, business leaders, and role models of all kinds have the power either to support or suppress creative confidence in those around them. At the right age, a single cutting remark is sometimes enough to bring our creative pursuits to a standstill.

– Tom and David Kelley, IDEO

How does Rick Rubin help artists who feel stuck?

“Usually, I’ll give them homework—a small, doable task. I’ll give you an example. There was an artist I was working with recently who hadn’t made an album in a long time, and he was struggling with finishing anything. He just had this version of a writer’s block. But I would give him very doable homework assignments that almost seemed like a joke. ‘Tonight, I want you to write one word in this song that needs five lines, that you can’t finish. I just want one word that you like by tomorrow. Do you think that you could come up with one word?’”

– Tim Ferriss

Education

The core aim of teaching “is to get students to learn the skills of teaching themselves – to self-regulate their learning”.

– John Hattie

You cannot teach if you give everyone a B, C, D grade when you get disheartened by them. You cannot expect people to learn if they are bored or uninterested. It’s your job to excite and make them joyful about learning.

That comes with creating curiosity and wonder. Students must be in wonder.

– Benjamin Zander

“The hardest thing to teach a student—and the hardest thing to believe consistently—is that there is nothing ‘out there’ to go and get.

There is no part, no career, no opportunity for which you should be searching and scrounging and coveting. All of the preparation is within, and you keep yourself mentally and physically fit; you remain generous with yourself and others; you stay deeply in study about your craft.
Whatever is yours will then arrive.”​

– Marian Seldes

Summarized Wisdom