(Originally posted on Twitter)
10. Do 1,000 of something. Anything, it doesn’t matter what. Really. When was the last time you did 1,000 of something? You will be a different person at the end of it. It’s one of the simplest ways to become an interesting person – there’s something interesting at the end of the 1,000th rep of anything.
9. Take notes. Take lots and lots of notes, about everything, and review them. Over time, your notes will become a sort of super-structure for your intellectual life. It externalises your thinking. You will reverse-engineer your smartest utterances. You’ll notice patterns, and bugs, and errors in your thinking.
8. Be so prolific you don’t recognise yourself. This is my advice to songwriters but it applies to everyone. Don’t try to make good stuff. Your idea about what is good is itself a work in progress. So just make lots of stuff. Make 1,000 of something.
7. Do little experiments. Experiment with your aesthetics. Go to a different coffeeshop. Find a different route home. Use your other hand to brush your teeth. Little experiments build your confidence for bigger experiments and that’s how you take moonshots
6. Develop your taste. That means you seek out what you find interesting, and then you reflect on what is interesting about it. This is a messy, tedious process – but it’s fun if you actually like what you like. And once you do, you will never be bored again. AND it makes you interesting. AND it’s super valuable.
5. Introduce your ignorance. You don’t need to go over the top with this – just a little bit of humility goes a long, long way in getting people to like you
4. Publish stuff online. I have yet to find a better way to make friends with thousands of people around the world.
3. Make friends. Collaborate. Be kind. Be Lovable. Aggressively seek out outgroup members to agree with. There are a lot of people in the world. Your in-group is tiny.
2. Marry really young – find someone that you can fight well with, and laugh about it afterwards. Marry them and make them a close and intimate part of your life.
1. Accept defeat. Decide that you are okay with getting your ass kicked. Life is going to kick your ass in many ways. You are going to fail, fuck up, be embarassed. Decide in advance that you are going to be okay with that. Don’t live in fear of shame of things that haven’t even happened.