James Clear on taking action to increase your surface area for good luck

vutran | May 10, 2021, 7:26 a.m.

"You can increase your surface area for good luck by taking action.

The forager who explores widely will find lots of useless terrain, but is also more likely to stumble across a bountiful berry patch than the person who stays home.

Similarly, the person who works hard, pursues opportunity, and tries more things is more likely to stumble across a lucky break than the person who waits."

— James Clear

Andrew S. Grove on writing reports as medium of self-discipline

vutran | May 9, 2021, 9:35 a.m.

"Reports are more a medium of self-discipline than a way to communicate information. Writing the report is important; reading it often is not." 

—Andrew S. Grove

Gandhi on living and learning

vutran | May 9, 2021, 9:33 a.m.

"Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever." 

— Gandhi

William Gibson on the not very evenly distributed future

vutran | May 5, 2021, 8:43 p.m.

"The future is already here -- it's just not very evenly distributed."

— William Gibson

James Clear on lifestyle as a process

vutran | May 4, 2021, 8:53 a.m.

"New goals don’t deliver new results. New lifestyles do.  And a lifestyle is a process, not an outcome.  For this reason, your energy should go into building better habits, not chasing better results.”  

— James Clear

Karl Anders Ericsson on learning as a way of developing potential

vutran | May 3, 2021, 12:03 p.m.

“Learning isn’t a way of reaching one’s potential but rather a way of developing it.” 

—Karl Anders Ericsson

Colvin on the critical part of self-evaluation

vutran | May 1, 2021, 1:56 p.m.

…A critical part of self-evaluation is deciding what caused those errors. Average performers believe their errors were caused by factors outside their control: my opponent got lucky; the task was too hard; I just don’t have the natural ability for this. Top performers, by contrast, believe they are responsible for their errors. Note that this is not just a difference of personality or attitude. Recall that the best performers have set highly specific, technique-based goals and strategies for themselves; they have thought through exactly how they intend to achieve what they want. So when something doesn’t work, they can relate the failure to specific elements of their performance that may have misfired.

— Colvin