Clippings from my Apple Notes (2016-2021)

Since 2016 I’ve logged about 2000 notes into my Notes app and a few nights ago I decided to have a clean up. Most of the notes could obviously be thrown out (shopping lists etc) but I decided about 150 were worth hanging onto! Many of those were clippings and excerpts from reading things online.

From how timeless is timeless advice?

Each dollar of net income should be an investment in yourself with asymmetric upside. And investments don’t always look like investments: books and educational content are low cost but have asymmetric upside. Similarly, investing in your sleep setup or home office has compounding returns.

Why it still resonates: I find myself in a society trying to doing more with less.

From consider the quasi-commune

We spend so much time wishing for dominion over our own spaces and lives and forget just how lonely it can be once we arrive there.

Why it still resonates: I bought a cabin in the woods and it was an exciting but solitary dream to fulfill.

From Joe Rogan Experience #1309​ - Naval Ravikant

We are Communists to our family, Socialists to our friends, Capitalists to strangers

Why it still resonates: I’m still struggling to reconcile the Individualism I witness where I live

From Desperation

There’s a certain type of vulnerability that comes with committing your whole self to something. Our culture has strong social stigmas against people who really unabashedly care about something.

Why it still resonates: I’d rather not be overly cynical or belittling of someone’s obsession or ambition.

From Why do people quit their jobs at dream companies like Facebook or Google?

My guess is that you are operating under a set of assumptions that I’ll call the Big Lie. The Big Lie goes something like this:

  • Work really hard at school,
  • So you can get good grades,
  • So you can go to a good university,
  • So you can get a really good job,
  • At a really good company,
  • Your family, friends, and potential mates will be impressed,
  • And you’ll live happily ever after.

Why it still resonates:

From Washington Post Op-Ed on Gamestop

The result is an oversize and overcompensated financial market that has long since abandoned its role to channel savings to the highest and best use, becoming nothing more than a high-tech casino.

Why it still resonates: I feel like there is still so much greed and frantic lottery ticket grabbing going on.

From The Boring Advice Repository

Pretty much everything

From Scott Galloway’s 2021 Predictions

2021 is the year that a new firm joins Uber, Lyft, and Facebook in the Menace Economy (the pursuit of wealth at the expense of other human beings). That menace is online trading app Robinhood.

Why it still resonates: Theres still so much greed going on

From How to Live on 24 Hours a Day

A good novel rushes you forward like a skiff down a stream, and you arrive at the end, perhaps breathless, but unexhausted.

From Unknown

In the modern workplace you can put in a full 8 hour day, be genuinely exhausted, and not have produced anything whatsoever.

Why it still resonates: Its an all-too-common risk as an engineer working on tricky things.

The shortest distance between two points is reliably a straight line. If your dreams are apparent to you, pursue them.

Why it still resonates: Sometimes the most obvious route is the best route

Creating optionality and buying lottery tickets are not weigh stations on the road to pursuing your dreamy outcomes. They are dangerous diversions that will change you.

Why it still resonates: My society is addicted to lottery culture

Treat people like you’ll know them for the next ten thousand years and work on the kinds of projects you’ll be proud to tell your grandchildren about.

Why it still resonates: Its a great ideal!

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