- Information asymmetry
- The biggest arbitrages emerge when you know something most relevant players do not. In academia, the process of becoming “great” is built on publishing your best work openly so others work on top of it, though this has recently shifted. Credentials and experience can sometimes be a way of justifying years spent within an institution. If you can learn anything in 2 weeks you can act, uncover new information, gather more information, and be part of the 0.1% who run the world. Break down walls, seek the truth, and don't be weird.
- High Agency
- Audacity plus execution. Just create 'free' value for long enough which *does* compound. Build, act on favors, curate, just simply and genuinely care.
- Trust Economy
- Every introduction is a trade in trust. Expertise is everywhere; trust isn't. Short-term trust compounds financially; long-term trust compounds relationally. Know exactly what you value, and make it clear to others what game you're playing.
- Against mediocrity
- Most people, parties, etc. fade on an 80 year time horizon, let alone in 8 months. Put a date filter and go to 2009 or 2015, on WSJ or YouTube and you'll find a sea of passion projects started by founders who defaulted to fate over forging their destiny. Developing a sense of what mediocrity looks like helps you hire, fire, and promote ruthlessly. There's 8 billion people, someone wants to prove they're not mediocre.
- Legacy as narrative
- Every empire, religion, and revolution began as a story that refused to die. Great people, nations, and products shape narratives others want to share. Rockefeller won't be remembered for Standard Oil or Venrock, but for the narrative that reshaped American industry and etched him permanently into our collective consciousness.
- Love for the Game
- Replace ego with love for the game. Your work should be a labor of love, amplified with people who share this passion instead of chasing status. Status, like money, is fleeting if pursued directly rather than a byproduct of mastery with people who succeed together.
- Speed Kills
- Action—even without perfect information—creates momentum, which generates confidence, attracts talent, and then reveals signal. Speed itself is relevant, but often puts out a 'Bat-Signal' that compounds with secrecy.
- Just Ask
- If you don't know something, ask directly. You would be surprised how available 99.99% people are and the 0.01% are available if you have some agency. It's also much cheaper and faster to pay consultants to get this information.
- Perceived Age
- Each year can feel shorter than the last due to routine, dopamine fatigue, and lifestyle creep. The best way to fight this is to counterintuitively exploit every chance at everything you get, fully restart your life as many times as you can, and spend a few years doing nothing to understand your destiny.
- AGI is here
- It took over 200 years for people to realize Rome had fallen. It's clear to anyone talking to undergrads at most colleges that Artificial General Intelligence is more intelligent than the general population. Google didn't kill institutions; it transformed them. AGI will not kill businesses; it will reshape how business is done.
Sacrifice is a choice, and the best way to make a choice is to know what you value.