Tweets

Goodhart's Law: When a measure becomes a target, it ceases to be a good measure.

October 9, 2025

If you press me to say why I love her, I can say no more than because it is she, because it is I.

October 9, 2025

Whether you're in debt to other people or to fortune, you're still in debt.

October 9, 2025

Unexamined life is not living.

October 9, 2025

There is no faster way to do something than not doing it at all.

October 9, 2025

You remember messages you sent that were not answered better than messages that you did not answer.

October 9, 2025

Nothing is as satisfying as self reliance.

October 9, 2025

Life gets better as you replace transactions with relationships unless you are the only one who replaced.

October 9, 2025

As a rule of thumb, just like anyone pushing Kiyosaki books is either naive or selling something, people obsessed with IQ scores are usually charlatans.

October 9, 2025

Never forget Apple says, "Think different," not "Leverage cognitive reorientation strategies."

October 9, 2025

If you want to avoid a war, make sure those who declare it are the ones fighting it.

October 9, 2025

No one should have the privilege to cause harm to others without paying a price.

October 8, 2025

A system is unjust if decision-makers are insulated from the downsides of their choices.

October 8, 2025

Simple ideas don't spread quickly precisely because they're too simple.

October 8, 2025

The professional classes can't justify their own existence if everything is reduced to something obvious.

October 8, 2025

The easiest way to get anything is to deserve it. "Easy" doesn't mean "quick," and "easy to get" doesn't mean "easy to deserve."

October 8, 2025

We can describe an insult as a debt unpaid. The best response is to bankrupt the creditor.

October 8, 2025

Most of us are living in the ultimate debt because anything you get without much of effort becomes debt (aka cheap dopamine).

October 8, 2025

If it can't be wrong, it probably is.

October 8, 2025

I don't want to work on anything that I wouldn't want to take over my life.

October 8, 2025

You'll be known for the most absurd things you do.

October 8, 2025

Modern 'virtue' is about displaying the correct opinions, not doing the right things.

October 8, 2025

It's harder to unlearn than to learn.

October 8, 2025

All podcasts are similar, the same guests going around, videos are shot the same way, book covers and topics repeat, clips, reels, and movies are just sequels to previous ones - refinement culture in short.

October 8, 2025

Learn Python. You don't have to learn anything else. It's easy and effective to invest in such knowledge, esp when you don't feel like doing anything else.

October 8, 2025

Content designed to make you watch more content is a waste of time.

October 8, 2025

I speak openly on everything, even on matters beyond my full understanding or authority. My opinions show the limits of my own view, not the limits of the things themselves.

October 8, 2025

Almost always good is done for no reason, and evil for some reason.

October 8, 2025

Genius is just dumb with stamina.

October 8, 2025

Wisdom is what's left after you've been wrong enough times.

October 8, 2025

Fight bureaucrats by making their rules irrelevant, not by protesting them. The state can't ban what it doesn't understand.

October 8, 2025

"Physics is the law, everything else is a recommendation." — Elon Musk

October 8, 2025

Not maximizing your potential is actually the sweet spot in a world where perfecting one skill compromises another.

October 8, 2025

Beauty is enhanced by unashamed irregularities.

October 8, 2025

You won't know what people really think by asking them; they don't even know themselves.

October 8, 2025

If you want to make people miserable, pay them (generously and predictably) for their 'hobbies'.

October 8, 2025

The most common mistake we make is to do a great job on an unimportant task.

October 8, 2025

Some sellers are so ignorant all they think of their job is to sell.

October 8, 2025

Identity in its purest Latin sense: to have an identity is to be unlike anything else.

October 8, 2025

The law of truly large numbers: a sufficiently large sample size, any rare event, no matter how improbable, is likely to occur.

October 8, 2025

True status is being able to ignore status games.

October 8, 2025

Anything that can be implicit should be.

October 8, 2025

You can't build a billion-dollar empire like Instagram if you're wasting hours every day using a service like Instagram.

October 8, 2025

Politeness is the enemy of truth.

October 8, 2025

I don't want to be a great problem solver. I want to avoid problems—prevent them from happening and doing it right from the beginning.

October 8, 2025

Variety in friends is way more important than quantity.

October 8, 2025

Mimicking the herd invites regression to the mean.

October 8, 2025

Using the word 'science' when it's not science is scientism.

October 8, 2025

The marketplace of ideas only works when we keep the marketplace open.

October 8, 2025

Every employee is replaceable. Only unemployable is irreplaceable.

October 8, 2025

Beware of the person who lists credentials before making an argument. The argument should stand on its own, without the appeal to authority.

October 8, 2025

The use of the word 'but' is often a rhetorical scam.

October 8, 2025

All systems that can be gamed will be gamed.

October 8, 2025

Just as GPS made us worse navigators and calculators made us worse at arithmetic, AI might make us worse thinkers.

October 8, 2025

The internet makes people think they're thinking when they're actually just reacting.

October 8, 2025

People who have more downside than others for the sake of others, more downside than upside for the sake of others: the class of saints.

October 8, 2025

The best management is one with a flat hierarchy. Everyone's equal in respect, different in skill.

October 8, 2025

When there is cost for unethical act, people eventually lean toward ethical behavior.

October 8, 2025

The person who makes mistake, but never the same mistakes, is more reliable than someone who never makes any.

October 8, 2025

Ethics is a process of constant trial and error.

October 8, 2025

If you're motivated enough to go to a bookstore and buy a motivation book, haven't you already solved your motivation problem?

October 8, 2025

Never join any group that would accept someone who joins groups.

October 8, 2025

Repetition does not make a statement more likely to be true, but it makes people more likely to believe it is true.

October 8, 2025

Don't try to be the best in an existing category. Create a new category where you are the only option.

March 9, 2025

Ignorance is not merely an absence of knowledge, but a presence of the right kind of knowledge.

March 9, 2025

Don't take criticism from people you wouldn't take advice from.

March 9, 2025

Don't sell anything you wouldn't buy.

March 9, 2025

Don't write stuff you don't like to read.

March 9, 2025

Don't build what you wouldn't wish existed.

March 9, 2025

Don't work for anyone you don't respect.

March 9, 2025

Don't take more credit than you're willing to take blame.

March 9, 2025

There is no courage without justice.

March 9, 2025

The word "free" in advertising is like "love" in a brothel - technically possible but highly unlikely.

March 9, 2025

If you ask any question at the global level, the answer is "we have no idea."

March 9, 2025

Banks primarily enrich bankers and only lend to people who don't need money.

March 9, 2025

The normal reaction to failure is often to repeat it on a grander scale.

March 9, 2025

If it needs 'science' in its name to be considered as science, it isn't science.

March 9, 2025

The fastest way to become an 'expert' is convincing a few right people to call you one.

March 9, 2025

The best way to save money is not to save money. It's to earn more money.

March 9, 2025

The opposite of being content is boastful.

March 9, 2025

The opposite of equal opportunity is equal outcome.

March 9, 2025

The opposite of happiness is boredom, not sadness.

March 9, 2025

The opposite of love is apathy, not hate.

March 9, 2025

Unanimous violence is always anonymous violence.

March 9, 2025

Outside your comfort zone you learn most; too much guidance early can be counterproductive because it removes the necessary struggle.

March 9, 2025

The popular adage "use it or lose it" doesn't go far enough. If you don't use it, you might never gain it in the first place.

March 9, 2025

Misery is wasted on the miserable.

March 9, 2025

Calling everything trauma is the trauma.

March 9, 2025

Never delegate what could be automated, and never automate what could be eliminated.

March 9, 2025

The grass is always greener on the side that's fertilized with bullshit.

March 9, 2025

"The future ain't what it used to be." — Yogi Berra

March 9, 2025

Intense suffering triggers the very processes that eradicate it; mild suffering does not.

March 9, 2025

The morality of a group has very little to do with the morality of individuals composing the group. A virtuous society can be composed of vicious people.

March 9, 2025

'Adults' can't learn new skills is equal nonsense as the belief that education requires formal schooling.

March 9, 2025

"A person who thinks all the time has nothing to think about except thoughts. So, he loses touch with reality and lives in a world of illusions." — Alan Watts

March 9, 2025

All knowledge begins with a problem. If we ran out of problems, wouldn't that itself be a problem?

March 9, 2025

Get 2x the payment by delivering a service 10x better than your competitors. Make it so good they can't ignore you.

March 9, 2025

What you do is far more important than how you do it, and doing something matters is far more important than doing 100x something doesn't matter.

March 9, 2025

There are only two industries that call their customers 'users' - illegal drugs and software.

March 9, 2025

If you see what is right and fail to act on it, you lack courage.

March 9, 2025

As you start to walk on the way, the way appears.

March 9, 2025

All is gift.

March 9, 2025

The natural state of all possessions is to need repair and maintenance. What you own will eventually own you. Choose selectively.

March 9, 2025

If you know neither the enemy nor yourself, you will succumb in every battle.

March 9, 2025

The reward for good work is more work.

March 9, 2025

What you fear is rarely what you think you fear—it is what you link to fear.

March 9, 2025

Nature and history do not agree with our conceptions of good and bad; they define good as that which survives, and bad as that which goes under.

March 9, 2025

Doing nothing is better than being busy doing nothing.

March 9, 2025

What did you get done this week?

March 9, 2025

Some people are so poor that all they have is money.

March 9, 2025

The opposite of peace is desire.

March 9, 2025

The set of conditions necessary to become successful is part of the set that's sufficient to become successful. But the sufficient set itself is much larger than the necessary set.

March 9, 2025

"Of the six people who started PayPal, four had built bombs in high school." ― Peter Thiel

March 9, 2025

I am 100% happy to watch you get really rich doing something that I have no interest in doing. — @BrentBeshore

March 9, 2025

"Follow the science" is the most unscientific phrase ever uttered.

March 9, 2025

Science is not a collection of facts; it's a method to question them. If someone tells you 'follow the science,' they're selling you a dogma.

March 9, 2025

There are no ultimate authorities for knowledge. Everything remains a guess that we can improve.

March 9, 2025

There can't be magic formula for good thinking. If there were, you could just check if an idea came from the "right" method and know if it's true. But there's no such method. You have to judge ideas by what they say, not where they come from.

March 9, 2025

The opposite of a good idea can be another good idea.

March 9, 2025

Non-fiction is the new fiction.

March 9, 2025

Innovation is a pyramid scheme.

March 9, 2025

Every forecast = today's number × tomorrow's story. Fact × story = something less than fact.

March 9, 2025

Mental health awareness has become a new form of storytelling addiction. Sometimes you need less self-analysis, not more.

March 9, 2025

Your romantic relationship "origin story" is mostly fictional. You're editing reality to match the rom-com in your head.

March 9, 2025

If you have something to say, say it yourself, don't hide behind 'people say' or 'studies show'. Have some skin in the game.

March 9, 2025

History isn't truth. It's a collection of popular stories that won.

March 9, 2025

Motivational speakers are drug dealers selling narrative cocaine. The high feels good but leaves you more dependent on external validation.

March 9, 2025

The most dangerous people are those who've convinced themselves they're the heroes of their own story. Villains always think they're saving the world.

March 9, 2025

All evidence is circumstantial because humans are unreliable narrators of their own experience. Eyewitness testimony, scientific observation, statistical analysis—all filtered through fallible minds.

March 9, 2025

Humans didn't invent stories before science—stories ARE science. Every narrative is a theory about causation.

March 9, 2025

Every autobiography is fiction pretending to be truth. Memory is just storytelling with a good publicist.

March 9, 2025

Scared crowds do dumb things together that they'd never do alone.

March 9, 2025

To be present is to be without story.

March 9, 2025

Dictators cherry-pick a few "corrupt" officials to punish—never for justice, but to deflect attention from their own crimes.

March 9, 2025

The most delicious and healthy food is the one that you want to eat with your hands and after which you want to move, communicate, work, and not lie down and rest.

March 9, 2025

The quicker you want something, the easier you are to manipulate.

March 9, 2025

You are at your most productive when you stop trying to be productive.

March 9, 2025

People who write cryptic one-liners don't want readers, they want memorizers.

March 9, 2025

Scared voters will trade their rights for safety promises. But the politicians making those promises need you scared to stay in power.

March 9, 2025

Few errors in judgment prove as costly as mistaking people for the reasonable beings we wish them to be.

March 9, 2025

Power is at core believing you have it. If you walk into a room thinking you're powerless, you are. If you walk in thinking you can change things, you probably can.

March 9, 2025

Practice does NOT make perfect. Practice makes permanent. If you practice wrong, you get very good at doing things wrong. Perfect practice makes perfect. Which is why you need feedback loops, not just repetition.

March 9, 2025

Don't listen to people who don't pay for their mistakes.

March 9, 2025

You can't learn from experiences you never had.

March 9, 2025

If a politician starts wars but sends other people's children to die, they're a fraud.

March 9, 2025

If a consultant gives you advice and walks away when it fails, their advice is worthless, and perhaps harmful.

March 9, 2025

People who give advice for a living are selling you stories. They optimize for sounding smart, not for being right. When you reward perception over results, you get complicated nonsense instead of simple truth.

March 9, 2025

If you want to know if someone's advice is worth anything, ask what they personally lose if they're wrong.

March 9, 2025

Money should give you more options, not fewer. If wealth is pushing you into a bigger house away from people, fancy restaurants with bad food, and boring social events, you're doing it wrong.

March 9, 2025

Rich people start hiring "experts" for everything - financial advisors, lifestyle coaches, breathing specialists. Most of these people are parasites selling you solutions to problems you don't have.

March 9, 2025

The person who can walk away usually gets the better deal.

March 9, 2025

The fastest way to lose a negotiation is to want something desperately.

March 9, 2025

Never waste time negotiating with someone who has no authority. The person behind the counter following "company policy"

March 9, 2025

Experience beats theory every time. Real world beats classroom every time. Consequences beat speculation every time.

March 9, 2025

When you already have a job, getting another job is easy. When you're desperate and unemployed, every interview feels like begging.

March 9, 2025

If you don't feel like writing something today, maybe it's not worth writing.

March 9, 2025

Censorship usually backfires. Banned books become more popular.

March 9, 2025

Humans hate contradicting themselves. Take a public position, you're trapped defending it.

March 9, 2025

Modern secular intellectuals reject traditional wisdom because it sounds superstitious, then create equally arbitrary rules based on the latest academic fashion.

March 9, 2025

Choose between daily misery over world problems or personal happiness despite them. If you postpone happiness until society improves, you'll wait forever.

March 9, 2025

We live in a world that's becoming more connected and more extreme. Small problems become big problems faster. Big wins become bigger. The old strategy of "be average and safe" doesn't work anymore. You need to be either very safe or positioned to benefit from chaos. Success convinces smart people they can't lose. Failure convinces them they're terrible at everything. Both are wrong.

March 9, 2025

Most people who think they're independent-minded are actually the most conformist of all—they just conform to contrarian groupthink instead of mainstream groupthink.

March 9, 2025