Whether its the luck of knowing the right person to help you start a company. Or the luck of having an experience that gives you an especially good approach to your work. Or the luck of meeting a professor in college who led to that 6 figure starting salary. Or the being born in a…More
Category Archives: Daily Posts
Theres a hard limit to how much a human brain can improve.
No matter how much time you spend on self-improvement you will hit a wall. This wall isn’t that much higher than the rest of the human race. Maybe 20%. Maybe 50%. Definitely not more that 100%. Thats pretty depressing when you realize that the difference between human’s and others species is measured in the thousands…More
Habit change is a never ending process.
Its something where every time you build a good new habit there is another one that will give you a leg up. Every time you break a bad habit, theres another bad habit to break. Its not like learning to ride a bike where you learn and then you know. Its not like learning a…More
In the past 6 months I’ve cut my consumption of news down to nearly 0.
I’ve decided that the day to day news that you get, even from “reliable” sources like the NYTimes or Wall St Journal, is usually low quality compared to what you will read about those events in 5 years. It doesn’t change much from day to day. A developing story like a bombing somewhere will add…More
New experiences, freeze time.
I wasn’t speaking for 9 days and my routine was also completely different than what I was used to. In my normal life, a day seems to fly by. The takeaway? Find new experiences. Life will be more interesting and seem longer. You won’t get to the end of life thinking “Where did all that…More
If you make a mistake today, the setup happened days, months maybe even years ago.
Similarly, if you do something exceptionally well today, its because of actions that you took in the past. Sometimes in the very distant past. Don’t beat your self up over mistakes. Identify the habits that you would need to change to make it so that you never make that mistake again. They,…More
Meditation is the ultimate productivity hack.
If you don’t take it to the extreme of cutting off all craving and attachment to goals. If, you target only counter-productive cravings. You will be able to create a version of yourself that only cares about doing things that help you. Disconnect from the sugary food craving, replace it with a…More
Meditation is a virus that would kill humanity if it could.
A virus has the motivation of making sure that it succeeds and thrives, even if it is at the cost of the host. Theres a good argument that ideas are viruses. They infect our brains and then we spread them by telling others. In the case of meditation (vipassana specifically), its especially insidious.…More
10 Days of Silence and Meditation for a Smartphone Addict
10 days is a lot longer than you think. I got stuck in the one room in the basement with no windows and no attached bathroom. I went from constant stimulus of reading and podcasts and emails and audio books and conversations to nearly nothing. 3:59 AM, my roommate’s, alarm goes off. 15…More
I’m doing a 10 day silent meditation retreat.
Its going to be a bit intense. Its hosted in western Massachusetts. When you arrive your phone is put in quarantine. Schedule is 4am wakeup, meditate until 9pm and then sleep. (with some small breaks for food) No talking to fellow attendees. No writing. No reading. No exercising.…More
konrad kopczynski 