1) I was so obsessed with health and living longer - I spent over 1,240 reading hours and read over 900 papers within a couple of months.
2) I read for one hour every day no matter what. If I don't learn new things, I won't get better.
3) I give someone a compliment every day. It's in my daily checklist.
4) I spend one hour of quality time with my partner every day, no matter what.
We aim to use our quality time as best as possible and we ask each other every day:
1) What did I learn today (shows commitment to continuous learning)?
2) What went well today?
3) What can I do better?
He's my accountability buddy for almost everything I do.
5) Understanding Kolmogorov complexity, Fermi estimations, and expected value calculations will change your life.
For instance, for my work I read hundreds of papers, yet I spend a lot of time thinking about what to read.
EV = (Value × Probability of gaining value) - (Time cost + Opportunity cost)
Quick example: Reading a textbook chapter (2 hours):
- Value = $1000 (better job performance)
- Probability = 70% of using knowledge
- Time cost = $500 (2 hours at $250/hr)
- EV = ($1000 × 0.7) - $500 = $200 positive EV
So if EV > 0, read it. If EV < 0, skip it
6) I love figuring out the best questions to ask and always encourage emotional check-ins and talking about vulnerable topics (e.g., how happy are you with our physical intimacy?)
7) Most people should care more about who they date. You will spend hundreds to thousands of hours with that person. Make sure to be as intentional with this decision as possible and not just slide into a relationship.
8) I deeply care about being a great partner. I always ask myself how to make my partner a better and happier version of himself. I respect that he chose me and want to encourage that decision.
9) I have the most effective gym workout that helped me put on 4 pounds of muscle in just 45 minutes 3x per week within 7 weeks, by:
a) Saving time through super sets (20min per workout. 1 hour per week. 52 hours per year),
b) Figuring out the most excellent training guides in the field and buying their plan (having the best plan can yield up to 1.5 to 3x the effects)
10) I love using vim and I have shortcuts for almost everything. I spend up to 8 to 12 hours on my computer and I estimate this saves me around 8 minutes per day (50 hours per year). Also, makes me really happy to do simple time-saving stuff.
11) Double press the fn button on Mac enables dictation. This saves you potentially hours a day. Set it up NOW.
12) I like asking questions with odd numbers; that makes people actually think more about the answers. For example, instead of asking about their worst and best moments of the past year, I ask about the past 14 months.
13) I worked a ton as a waiter and learned more than anyone else about what buttons to press to get high tips. I am extraordinarily good at reading people.
14) If there's a red thread in my life, it's that I will never accept what nature has chosen for us. I will never accept fundamental constraints of being human - I will rewire every single thing. For instance, I tried almost every method to avoid needing sleep (life is so great, if I could get more wake hours why shouldn't I?) from polyphasic to multiple day sleep - I tried everything.
15) Think more about what you want to work on anything else. Speed in the wrong direction isn't worth anything at all.
16) I purposefully trained myself to experience less pleasure from food so I don't think about it and thereby maximize mental clarity. A major component was microinjecting low dosage GLP-1 Analoga. This is not medical advice; please think carefully about any drug you administer yourself.
17) I think everyone should spend reasonable time improving their looks. If you're more beautiful, people are more interested in you and you feel happier. Almost every aspect in life is better. For women: wear makeup, lose weight but not too much (runway models are actually not what most men/people find beautiful), wear jewelry, lift weights 3x week. Extra: go blonde, wear jewelry, get tan.
18) I try to always be extra nice to everyone: cleaners, waiters deserve as much respect and kindness as every other person. This makes other people feel happy and increases my happiness as well.
19) Whenever my bubble has a strong opinion on something, I make sure to read everything about the contradictory side to make sure I have a clear perspective.
20) Enormous high-value trick to read better: read while listening to it. Use Readwise or Speechify. This makes me more focused and helps retain more knowledge (credits [ES Learning How to Learn]).
21) I don't organize my digital files. Search function is great and I always find everything. Sorting into folders takes too much time (Credit [Algorithms to Live By])
22) "Work smart" is a lie: you can be successful if you only work hard or smart, but to get to the 99th percentile you need to do both.
23) Fidgeting is one of the best hacks for my restless and high-energy mind. I bought every single fidget tool on Amazon. I had to figure out which hone is the very best.
24) Have a weekly reading club with a good friend. Discussing what you and the other person found interesting adds 2-8x retention and increases accountability and fun from reading books. Plus you connect with your friends while learning at the same time.
25) Some of my favorite questions are: how do you describe yourself in 3 words (what's important to you), how do your friends describe you in 3 words (see if there's a notable difference in how the person sees themselves vs. how others see them), and who would you like to be in three words (how much does the current version of them differ from the future version of them).
26) Whenever I give a talk, I really think about if what I'm saying is truly 100% worth everyone's time. I have the duty to make it super high value and not waste anyone's precious time. A 30-min talk to 20 people equals 10 hours of time - could that time be better spent doing other things?
27) For talks, emails, and almost everything, a simple rule applies: shorten it. If you did so, make it even shorter. Most things can be equally good or even better retained in less time.
28) I maintain multiple lense of reality than having one 'correct' model. Clear thinkers can switch between different interpretative lenses but still holding the epistemic humility to understand limitations of each. For instance, economic policy: simultaneously view markets through free-market efficiency, behavioral economics' , and complex systems theory of economic behaviors—each model a partial truth, none the whole story.
29) You should decide more intentionally in what city you live in. Most people underestimate the value of being together with like-minded people. [Paul Graham]
30) I have an insane respect and gratitude for money. When I was in high school, every Saturday I woke up at 6:00 AM to work at a local bakery for 6.5€ per hour while others recovered from partying. I will never lose appreciation for money because I had to work hard for little money.
31) I buy 85% of my clothes second-hand (still online via Vinted). It can be 20%-50% of the price and saves me tons of money while still having nice clothes.
32) I have an extra device for deep work (reading, Anki etc.). I don't have any messenger, emails, social media, or other things installed. iPad mini is super lightweight and I got an older version since I don't need anything fancy. Costs me $100 and makes me eliminate almost every distraction in my focus time.
33) Every woman should consider egg freezing. Makes them avoid having children with a non-ideal partner or other bad decisions just because of decreasing fertility window.
34) I carefully choose to be known as an always-happy person. Even if I don't feel great, I know it's expected from me and then I actually start feeling better again. It's insane how much you can change your perception of happiness.
35) Cold emailing is high value. Even a well-written email costs me 10 minutes of time and little worse can happen than a "no." Potential upsides are insane. Plus it gets me out of my comfort zone.
36) At conferences and networking events, I go to the people least interested in networking. The less they care about being perceived in any way, the more intelligent or interesting they (often, not always) are. Generally, I believe everyone should think more about who to talk to than just talking to random people.
37) If it's a single bathroom, not a group one, I always use the men's bathroom if it's free. Often they are completely free and there is often a line for the female bathroom. Single gender-separated bathrooms are stupid and I don't like following stupid rules. Plus, comfort challenge.
38) I see every gathering as a learning opportunity. If someone works or is interested in a certain field, I ask them everything about it. Mostly because I'm actually just curious about almost everything and people love talking about themselves.
39) A highly underrated source of learning is YouTube. Whenever I feel too tired to read, watching YouTube is a great way of learning and relaxing at the same time. YouTubers like Veritasium or Kurzgesagt spend hundreds of hours of research on their videos and you can learn about these things often in 10 minutes. Plus they are really fun to watch and I want to connect as many positive emotions to learning as possible.
40) I actually don't eat meat for the mental challenge and reducing suffering. Meat is delicious but resisting it makes me emphasize that my mind is stronger than my physical desires.
41) One of the reasons why I got into longevity is because I enjoy every moment of my life so much that I don't ever want to die.
42) I highly value novelty and different experiences. I need constant stimulation for my brain and I hate a monotone boring life (not that I don't enjoy routine).
43) I do "think weeks" with my longest friend ever since I saw the Bill Gates documentary about it. For 5 days we book a cheap Airbnb and go to the quietest place and just read, discuss, and learn the entire day. Saturates my curiosity. Series five coming up.
44) After I read Kahneman's System 1 and System 2, I made it an intentional habit to use System 2. Therefore, I am able to use my high reasoning system more than most other people.
45) Instead of introducing myself with low-value information (like where I grew up), I like to add my values: rigorous improvement (no matter what), unstoppable curiosity, and enormous kindness.
46) Most people optimize for avoiding embarrassment rather than maximizing learning. Those most concerned with appearing intelligent often plateau their actual intelligence by refusing to engage with situations where they might appear not smart.
47) Quick reminder: life is great and so are you! Smile (now) and just notice how much better you feel with an intentional smile :)
48) I make sure to hug and kiss my partner every day. Oxytocin is the best natural stimulan.
49) For every single person I meet, I take 3 minutes before meeting/dinner to prepare some high-value questions. This can increase the value of encounters by ~4-10x.
