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the Rosetta Project, which is building an archive of all documented human languages,
“The Zen mantra is ‘Sit, sit. Walk, walk. Don’t wobble.’ … It’s this idea that when I’m with a person, that’s total priority.
Memento mori—remember that you’re going to die.
“Our life is frittered away by detail…. Simplify, simplify…. A man is rich in proportion to the number of things which he can afford to let alone.” —Henry David Thoreau, Walden
paralyzing. Perfectionism leads to procrastination, which leads to paralysis.
‘People-pleasing is a form of assholery,’ which I just loved, because you’re not pleasing anybody. You’re just making them resentful because you’re being disingenuous,
“Happiness is wanting what you have.”
“When people seem like they are mean, they’re almost never mean. They’re anxious.”
“The more you know what you really want, and where you’re really going, the more what everybody else is doing starts to diminish. The moments when your own path is at its most ambiguous, [that’s when] the voices of others, the distracting chaos in which we live, the social media static start to loom large and become very threatening.”
“To blame someone for not understanding you fully is deeply unfair because, first of all, we don’t understand ourselves, and even if we do understand ourselves, we have such a hard time communicating ourselves to other people. Therefore, to be furious and enraged and bitter that people don’t get all of who we are is a really a cruel piece of immaturity.”
Which philosophers would Alain suggest for practical living? Alain’s list overlaps nearly 100% with my own: Epicurus, Seneca, Marcus Aurelius, Plato, Michel de Montaigne, Arthur Schopenhauer, Friedrich Nietzsche, and Bertrand Russell.
Favorite documentary The Up series: This ongoing series is filmed in the UK, and revisits the same group of people every 7 years.
‘Appreciate what’s good about this moment. Don’t always think that you’re on a permanent journey. Stop and enjoy the view.’
“Listening is about being present, not just being quiet.”
more than 80% of the world-class performers I’ve interviewed meditate in the mornings in some fashion.
Taking the time to walk to work every day (5 miles, 1 hour 15 minutes)
“There are only four stories: a love story between two people, a love story between three people, the struggle for power, and the journey. Every single book that is in the bookstore deals with these four archetypes, these four themes.”
“The world is changed by your example, not by your opinion.”
For most writers who didn’t start off as journalists (e.g., Malcolm Gladwell, Neil Strauss), writing is hard and continues to be hard.
“Keep it simple. Trust your reader. He or she has a lot of imagination. Don’t try to describe things. Give a hint, and they will fulfill this hint with their own imagination. That’s why I am so reluctant to sell the rights of my books for movies because there, you have everything. The [viewer] does not need to think. However, if I say like in Aleph, at the very beginning, ‘I am in my house in the Pyrenees, and there is an oak there.’ I don’t need to explain my house in the Pyrenees. I only needed to put in the elements that are important: the oak, myself, and the person that I’m talking to.
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“I strongly encourage writers not to think about writing every time they do something. Forget notebooks. Forget taking notes. Let what is important remain. What’s not important goes away. When you sit down to write, there is this process of purging, this process of cleansing, where only the important things remain. It’s much easier than taking notes and overloading yourself with information.”
“I don’t have researchers, no. No, no … If you overload your book with a lot of research, you’re going to be very boring to yourself and to your readers. Books are not here to show how intelligent and cultivated you are. Books are out there to show your heart, to show your soul, and to tell your fans, readers: You are not alone.”
Every writer in this book has a slightly different process, but they all start with the same thing: a blank page.
Even if you don’t consider yourself a writer (I never did), putting thoughts on paper is the best way to A) develop ideas, and B) review and improve your thinking. The benefits of even 30 minutes a week of scribbling can transfer to everything else that you do.
► Write about a time when you realized you were mistaken. ► Write about a lesson you learned the hard way. ► Write about a time you were inappropriately dressed for the occasion. ► Write about something you lost that you’ll never get back. ► Write about a time when you knew you’d done the right thing. ► Write about something you don’t remember. ► Write about your darkest teacher. ► Write about a memory of a physical injury. ► Write about when you knew it was over. ► Write about being loved. ► Write about what you were really thinking. ► Write about how you found your way back. ► Write about
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In 2010, he was interviewed by a journalist named Joshua Foer. Under Ed’s Yoda-like tutelage, in 2011, Joshua became the very next American Memory Champion. It took less than a year for Ed to transform a novice into world-class. The result was Foer’s book Moonwalking with Einstein.
“‘Honor those who seek the truth, beware of those who’ve found it’ [adapted from Voltaire]. A reminder that the path never ends and that absolutely nobody has this shit figured out.”
“Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it’s time to pause and reflect.”—Mark Twain. This isn’t just for my audience.
“The limits of my language mean the limits of my world.”
Bigoteer (n)—a person who implies other people are bigots, for personal gain.
“There’s a mystic who says there’s only one really good question, which is, ‘What am I unwilling to feel?’
Khaled Hosseini wrote The Kite Runner in the early mornings before working as a full-time doctor.
As Paul might ask you, “Is that a dream or a goal?” If it isn’t on the calendar, it isn’t real.
Given the purported jump in “suicidal gestures” at Princeton and its close cousins (e.g., Harvard appears to have 2x the national average for undergrad suicides), I hope the administration is taking things seriously.
“Being deeply loved by someone gives you strength, while loving someone deeply gives you courage …” —Lao Tzu
2. I realized it would destroy other people’s lives. Killing yourself can spiritually kill other people.
Make it about them as much as you. If you don’t care about yourself, make it about other people.
And when in doubt or starting to slip, try these: Go to the gym and move for at least 30 minutes. For me, this is 80% of the battle. When possible, I prefer an actual “How can I help you, sir?” gym to walking or a home-based workout, as the last thing I need is alone time with my head. Somehow force yourself to be around other humans. Each morning, express heartfelt gratitude to one person you care about, or who’s helped or supported you. Text, message, write, or call. Can’t think of anyone? Don’t forget past teachers, classmates, coworkers from early in your career, old bosses, etc. If you
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Robert refers later to this quote from Francis: “Failure is not necessarily durable. Remember that the things that they fire you for when you are young are the same things that they give lifetime achievement awards for when you’re old.”
Failure isn’t always durable. You can go back and you can look at it and go, ‘Oh, that wasn’t a failure. That was a key moment of my development that I needed to take, and I can trust my instinct. I really can’.”
“You must want to be a butterfly so badly, you are willing to give up being a caterpillar.”
