If someone asks you “what do you do?” within seconds of meeting you — don’t be annoyed. Smile. You’ve just identified a transactional player. Instead, give them the lowest status answer. Then drop your highest IQ insights for the rest of the conversation. This breaks brains.

I think some content creators would benefit from "Politics time". One slot per month where they talk about politics, and that's it. Politics is like worry, it can eat people's entire lives. It becomes the only thing they talk about. Some creators drift into politics, and lose their entire minds. They slowly forget the incredible content their audience subscribed to in the first place. If they have one scheduled slot in the diary, it works like Worry Time, where they can compartmentalise the politics parasite to a single actionable slot. It's effective for anxiety. I suspect it will also work for politics.

One of my most contrarian opinions is that if you want to be more creative, optimize for a weak bladder or irritable bowel syndrome. You only have shower thoughts once to twice per day. But you can have toilet thoughts 10 to 20 times per day.

If you gaze for long enough into Instagram, Instagram also gazes back into you.

There's zero correlation between the best mathematicians I know and the most successful people I know. There's a huge correlation between the best napkin mathematicians I know and the most successful people I know. (I can show you the math behind this on a napkin)

How to increase agency in others: When people come to you with a problem, first ask if they can guess how you'd answer it. Having to make a proactive guess 10x's learning -- either from success or failure. Gradually, they'll ask this question to themselves and stop using you.

One regret from my early 20s was networking. If someone were more successful than me, I'd try desperately to get them to like me, even if I didn't like them. As I got older, I realised 2 things: 1. It rarely worked. 2. In the rare circumstances where it did work, my prize was spending time with people I didn't like. I then shifted to a more vibe-based approach. 1. Do I think this person is awesome? 2. What's the energy like when I hang out with them? My social life is 10x better. And ironically, I've ended up becoming friends with more "successful" people than I previously did. I met lots of awesome people on the come-up because I spotted their awesomeness when nobody was paying attention to them yet. Desperately trying to meet people leagues above you in life is overrated. They often have no time for you because they can sense the transactional game you're playing. Most want fewer sycophants in their lives who glaze them, not more. Ironically again, it's easier to meet "successful" people when you don't care about meeting successful people. They are drawn to people who don't care who they are and treat them like one of the guys or gals. Meeting people who are awesome on the come up is underrated. You get to share the journey. When those people "make it" (not that making it matters), they want to spend time with their old friends from the come-up because they trust them so much more. Vibe > Networking. You'll have more fun, more true friends *and* network better than the networkers.

I’ve noticed 3 kinds of strangers: 1. Completely blank you. 2. Non-verbal nod or smile. 3. Say “Hello!” And smile. Whenever I'd meet a 3, I immediately liked them more. I also mirrored 3's when they did that. The aha moment was realising most people are 1's because of fear. If you 3 them, they 3 back.

Razor for creating timeless work: Don't try to predict what will make sense 100 years from now. Instead, create something that people from 100 years ago would understand. If it doesn't make sense in 1925, it likely won't age well in 2125.

What's the best storytelling you've ever seen?