I just turned 33 and thought:

  • What are some lessons I keep coming back to?
  • What would I have told my younger self?

Each of this could take an entire post to unfold and I don't expect them all to make sense to you. To some extent these say more about me than they say about the rest of the world. Don't take them as advice to follow, but meditating on their truth may be useful to you.

  1. Turns out it’s possible to talk to people for reasons other than learning new facts about the world. Some call this ‘vibing’.
  2. If you find people (or anything, for that matter) boring it’s a skill issue
  3. Compounding works: sticking to the same thing for a long time lets you go further
  4. Not everything you don't like that happens around you is your fault
  5. The right forms of therapy and meditation work as advertised. You can truly be happiness maxxing more than you thought you could
  6. You can just do things!
  7. Real winners quit!
  8. You don’t have to understand everything perfectly
  9. Turns out emotions are real and useful and I have lots of them to feel
  10. Sometimes not trying is the best way to achieve something
  11. I really like quiet spaces and dancing to loud music
  12. It’s likely possible to enjoy everything if you put in the effort. Though I haven’t yet figured out how to enjoy loud rooms full of people yet.
  13. Depressed people ask why, happy people say why not
  14. What happened before will happen again, there’s nothing new under the sun
  15. A big chunk of problem solving is being aware that you have a problem in the first place
  16. Ultimately I’m just a guy like everyone else
  17. Everyone is always doing their best, even Hitler
  18. Doing things for the plot turns out to be a good idea
  19. I’ve been so wrong about so many things. What things am I wrong about right now? Can’t wait to find out!
  20. Ultimately, this is it. This is what there is, this very moment. There’s nothing else.
  21. It’s never too late!
  22. The important things in life are pointless
  23. You can’t win or lose the game, but you can play well
  24. Any problem can be solved in two ways: changing the world or changing yourself
  25. Nature is not to be carved at its joints: concepts are more like clouds than sharp objects
  26. Beyond a basic threshold of met physical needs, wellbeing is mostly a function of how you relate to the world, not how the world is.
  27. Money will not make you happier, but it will make it easier to be
  28. The only way out the 'tism is through (more 'tism)
  29. No matter how hard you try to be nice, someone will dislike you at some point
  30. The Bay Area is truly the best place on Earth to be
  31. You can't fix her
  32. Just being smart doesn't go as far as you thought.
  33. Be more patient with everyone, including yourself. There's so much to do, enjoy, say, think, experience, but that's hard to do if you run past the present moment into a future that never comes.