Favourite Quotes

On my perpetual sense of doom by lack of progress:

I think anyone else from [University of Waterloo] would say the same thing, but during and for years after, being idle for more than an hour or two made you feel really really guilty, like you knew you should be working or making progress, and if you don’t lose that feeling, you can accomplish great things very quickly. A weekend of relaxing was more stressful and unnerving than anything. I think most people leave Waterloo after they graduate because they hate it so much, it was so brutal that the city itself becomes an incarnation of what you experienced.

Source: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6659617

On choosing the right game to play:

Optimists, and even sometimes pessimists, see the world changing, for better or worse, and with it, the games we play change as well. […] A pessimist also has a growth mindset, except they have a negative sign in front of it. The opposite of an optimist is the cynic.

Source: https://dimitarsimeonov.com/2021/12/12/opt-out-of-cynicism

On using “no” as the default answer for difficult personal choices:

If you find yourself creating a spreadsheet for a decision with a list of yes’s and no’s, pros and cons, checks and balances, why this is good or bad…forget it. If you cannot decide, the answer is no.

Source: Jorgenson, Eric. “Building Judgement.” The Almanack of Naval Ravikant, 2020, pp. 111-112.