Don’t compete. Escape competition through authenticity.
Find a niche. Focus on your strengths
Don’t be the best. Be one of the only.
Work smart, not necessarily hard.
How can you get 80% of the results, by putting in 20% of the effort?
Focus on what you do, not what you say.
Operate within your circle of competence
Follow your genuine intellectual curiosity
Create a local net positive
Always tell the truth. Then you have nothing to remember.
You are grounded in reality. Your internal thoughts match your external speech and actions. A vastly more peaceful way to live.
If someone asks for your opinion, rather than lying to make them feel good, you can tell them the truth (in a respectful way). This is way more valuable then telling a comforting lie.
Perfect is the enemy of good
Make 100 crap things rather than focusing on one perfect thing. Quality comes through repetition and iteration.
Write 100 bad blog posts. Maybe one will be good.
Sing 100 bad songs. Maybe one will sound nice.
Sketch 100 bad drawings. Maybe one will look good.
Attempt 100 will be better than attempt 1. If not, make 100 more.
Trade your intelligence for bewilderment
Wonder and curiosity are the best guides.
Ask the stupid questions
Be the dumbest person in the room.
Put yourself in intellectually uncomfortable situations
Question the premise of the question.
Speak simply.