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 partners. I find that there are two attributes most desirable in people I associate with: authenticity and intelligence. There are two simple heuristics for detecting inauthentic people and genuinely smart ones, which I’ll outline below.

In Daniel Kahneman’s influential book Thinking, Fast and Slow, he presents a compelling model of how our minds work: we have two distinct systems for thinking. System 1 operates automatically, quickly, with little effort and no sense of voluntary control. System 2 allocates attention to effortful mental activities, including complex computations and deliberate choice-making.

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?

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.