The Stanford marshmallow experiment (text/video) never ends.

Sacrificing near-term satisfaction for longer-term, exponential returns is the difference between below-average and greatness.

Use all available tools, tricks, and hacks to help you wait for the exponential return.

Successfully distracting yourself into greatness is a viable strategy.

Blaine Pascal wrote, “All of humanity’s problems stem from man’s inability to sit quietly in a room alone.”

I think a modern iteration of this perhaps should focus on humankind’s inability to find solace and comfort in “not knowing.”

The bold embrace of “I don’t know” is one that few seem to relish.

The group of people who say that they are lonely is the the largest group of people in the world.

The amount of loneliness perceived is greater than the amount that exists.

The accessibility of the curated snapshots of others altering the axis by which we measure our loneliness.

One of the problems with the advice to “just be yourself” is that it can take a long time to figure out who we are – especially if we have spent years attempting to conform.

Being yourself is an experiment.

Being yourself today is different from being yourself a year ago.

Being yourself is dynamic.

It’s okay to spend some time figuring out who you are before trying to master being that person.

It doesn’t quite have the same ring to it, but “be yourself” really means “figure out who your self is” in most cases.

When telling the story of ourselves, remember these things.

1.) We are capable of making it an incredibly sad story if we choose.

2.) We are capable of making it an incredibly happy story if we choose.

3.) We are an unreliable narrator of self.

4.) The difference between the hero and the villain is often just the perspective.

To determine the amount of uncertainty of a topic, look at:

The number of options available * the variability within the content

This value is inversely proportional to how much we truly know about a topic.  The higher the number, the less we know.

Look at the number of options available when you seek knowledge about leadership, dieting, fitness, or relationships.

 There is no single solution. 

The answer is too personal, too dynamic, and ultimately unknown.

Be mindful of speaking or acting with authority in the areas where simple solutions do not exist.

The success of others is not achieved via your loss. Success is not a zero-sum game.

There is no limit on the amount of success that can exist in the world.

Your measurement of another’s success may be different than their own.

The owner of the modest home may see their neighbor with the nicer home, but who is always away from their family, as less successful than they are.

Doing something with a person you like multiplies the enjoyment by a value > 1

Doing something with a person you dislike multiples the enjoyment by a value < 1

Do more of anything with people you like.

Worry less about the what, more about the who.

It’s tempting to dismiss a set of data because the sample size is too small. There is even some great math behind why a sample needs to be of a specific size.

But large data sets start as small ones. Trends emerge and exist, even when they are statistically insignificant.

The lazy rejection is to dismiss anything with too small of a sample size.

Winners often don’t wait; they’ll study a data set even when small and develop conviction about the trend’s ability to continue.

If you wait for everyone else to agree that the trend exists, you’re often too late.

We can fake competency in a record amount of time, thanks to the internet.

With 20 minutes in front of a computer, one can take an issue they know absolutely nothing about and gather enough information to have a cogent argument. One may even develop passion or assuredness in that short amount of time. 

It’s the Dunning-Kruger effect on steroids.

Many people so confidently argue for their newfound knowledge, they influence those with only 10, 5, or 0 minutes of knowledge on the subject.

The problem is that if you know your audience knows less than you, you can appear to be an expert, even if you only know the tiniest bit more than they do. 

If our audience knows nothing, and we are just a novice, the temptation to present ourselves as an expert is enticing. 

Imagine if someone had never played basketball before in their life, but they watched 10 minutes of YouTube videos of some of the greatest players in history or read an article on the fundamentals of a basketball shot.

Would you trust them to hit their first shot?