it’s been a year since i wrote my first “stuff i’ve learned”. this is the 2nd installment!
1. ignorance is so bliss. use it to your advantage.
if you have problems that are stressing you out, would you rather have crippling anxiety for the next few days and get the problem solved OR live peacefully and still get the problem solved? you’re gonna get it done anyways, you can just do it with net happiness. this is not condoning forgetting, this is condoning ignoring. overstressing rarely improves work quality if you’re already an ambitious person.
2. magical teams need to be studied.
interesting people, micro-cultures ... how do you form and then sustain a well-oiled team that is low ego, is committed to the bit, and has fun?
continuously fascinated by amazing tiny teams. OK (oozma kappa) from monsters inc movie (yes being serious lol). Xerox PARC. early FB engineering. Some special MIT Labs.
3. pick and choose your games wisely.
you don’t need to play the game all the time, you can leave them. and don’t feel guilty for leaving them if you’ve tried your best to play the game.
4. female friendships are so important.
i would be nowhere if i didn’t meet my elementary group circle of girls. the emotional maturity that is developed silently with a group of women (young and old) over time is insane. you share so much with each other, and learn even more. find the right group of women in college and anything is possible. there are so many wonderful women to look up to!!
5. there’s kinda no substitute for compounding over time.
“you should explore in college” is 70% mid advice. it’s good in the sense that it opens a pandora’s box of questions that are even harder to answer. how do i pick what to work on? for how long? how do i know that i even need 4 years to do “exploration”? how do i know it’s not a mental way-out of jumping from things to things when i find it too hard?
as long as you find an inner fuzzy feeling when you do something, and you set up opportunities for yourself to exercise that fuzzy feeling, that’s A+. doing something for 3 years straight will naturally lead to cool results, and it’s very hard to replace time.
this priviledge of committing to things takes a lot of upfront hard work though.