Advice

Speaking broadly, there are two ways to think about life: passively or actively. Passive philosophy amounts to letting things happen, whereas active is about making things happen. I generally try to stay active. If I want something to happen, I need to make it happen. Sitting around waiting for something to happen or for someone to come along and tell you what to do is passive.

We often must judge others, such as when hiring, choosing who to work with, or selecting friends and mates. I find that there are two attributes most desirable in people I associate with, which are authenticity and smartness. There are two simple heuristics for detecting bullshitters and smart people, which I’ll outline below.

In Daniel Kahneman’s pop psychology book Thinking, Fast and Slow, he describes the human brain as having 2 systems for thought: a fast system, which responds quickly to stimuli, and a slow system, which tends to produce more…thoughtful thoughts. This book was all the rage amongst thought leaders circa 2011/12 after being published, but if you missed out on it, don’t worry, Wikipedia has a tl;dr which tells you all you need to know.

Starting any company is hard. Startups are even harder. If you want to start a company but don’t have a business idea, then the first step is figuring out what to build. Is this…a startup idea? The main difference between a small business and a startup is your level of ambition, and how much money you can raise.

It’s hard to maintain privacy these days, ever since we started carrying around the ultimate Internet connected surveillance device in our pockets. So what can you do about it? Here’s a brief guide. My pup cares about privacy. This photo has nothing to do with this post. Vote with your wallet #Thanks to capitalism, the best thing you can do in most cases is express your frustration about loss of privacy by boycotting companies that don’t respect your right to privacy.