December 31, 2023

• definition of genius: “to have a disinterested obsession with something that matters”
  • this equips you with “an infinite capacity for taking pains about something that matters”
  • compared to someone who is just ambitious, this allows one to explore ideas out of pure curiosity
• what matters?
  • if you’re creating something
  • it’s more difficult for others
  • you’re talented
• but you can never be sure what truly matters. so realistically, you may have to waste a lot of time
• decisions…
  • waste a lot of time to try everything
  • hedge your bet by following a conventionally ambitious path
  • switch between multiple high interest projects, but this prevents diving deep
• “what are the most important problems in your field, and why aren't you working on one of them?”
• “if you could take a year off to work on something that probably wouldn't be important but would be really interesting, what would it be?”