29

I turned 29 today! I wrote down a few things I’ve found to be true so far.

Almost all problems stem from a lack of courage.

Anything that isn’t impossible according to the laws of physics is possible with sufficient knowledge.

There is at least one person out there who wants this specific version of you – your current state of mind, feelings, and interests. Creation helps you find that person. It is tapping a tuning fork and seeing who resonates. Creation is the risk, resonance is the reward.

It is not true until you feel it in your body. Real knowledge is imprinted in your body, like knowing not to touch a hot stove. 

Values that are underappreciated because of current moral fashions are often what people crave. Today, it is underrated to be loyal – sticking by someone you deeply trust irrespective of the circumstance.

If a close family member or friend has a serious personal issue, show up at their doorstep. Close people want you to be around even if they say they don’t.

Endurance matters: it is worth doing something you like for a very long time. Action generates information, longevity creates meaning.

After pleasure, there is pain. After pain, there is pleasure.

When you are starting something new, just do it a 100 times without worrying about how good it is. What matters most is creating the social conditions for you to continue. It takes a village to persist.

Conversation is a form of thinking, often the best form of thinking.

Our responses to early, exploratory ideas should be improvisational rather than argumentative.

Ideas are living things with a sense of agency. They get distributed through people, the vessels, but they are independent of people. They live even after people die.

The goal of any technology is that it becomes so widespread, abundant, and cheap that you don’t even notice it. You forget who created it, you don’t think of it as technology, and it significantly improves your life. The goal is to build something as useful and unobtrusive as paper, electricity, or a chair.