Your world is the outcome of what you pay attention to.

The happiest, most passionate employees are not those who followed their passion into a position, but instead those who have been around long enough to become good at what they do.

Move your focus away from finding the right work, toward working right, and eventually build a love for what you do.

ChatGPT is amazing, but in the final accounting it’s clear that what’s been unleashed is more automaton than golem.

A 40 hour time-blocked work week, I estimate, produces the same amount of output as a 60+ hour work week pursued without structure.

Cognitive work is a fragile endeavor; environment matters.

When we pass the laundry basket outside our home office (a.k.a. our bedroom), our brain shifts toward a household-chores context, even when we would like to maintain focus on our work.

Here's a reminder for the rest of us, nervous about slipping into digital oblivion.
What ultimately matters is the fundamental value of what we produce. Everything else is distraction.

The 'open office' is up there with Slack as representing the peak of early 21st century distraction culture — a period which the knowledge sector disregarded the reality of how human brains actually go through the difficult task of creating value through cogitation.

The right question is not whether new, rapidly spreading technology is useful (it often is), but instead, how we should use it.
For example, email is clearly better than fax machines, but does this mean we should check our inbox every six minutes?

Steinbeck was productive, writing 33 books and winning a Nobel Prize for his efforts.

But he wasn't busy. After writing in the morning, he'd spend afternoons fishing or chatting with other writers.

Maybe we understand 'busy' in the wrong way.

The only people who achieve much are those who want knowledge so badly that they seek it while the conditions are still unfavorable. Favorable conditions never come. — C.S. Lewis

At some point, we need to 'get down to our work' even if the favorable conditions never come.

Put relationships first.

Give non-trivial time and attention to other people.

That's the net that is going to allow you to get through anything.

Deep Work - Professional activities performed in a state of distraction-free concentration that push your cognitive capabilities to their limit.

These efforts create new value, improve your skill, and are hard to replicate.

Work schedules brimming with emails, Slack messages, and calendar invites cannot support the form of thought that moves the needle in your field.

But how many of us are serious enough to protect the time to do nothing but think?

Do fewer things. Work at a varied pace. Focus on quality.

Do less.
Do better.
Know why.

Different people have different ambition types.

Type 1 craves activity and indulges in the appealing opportunities that success creates.

Type 2 seeks simplicity and autonomy — seeing success as a source of leverage to reduce stressful obligations.

You can accomplish a lot more than you think in normal 40-hour weeks if you're willing to really work when you're working.

Then you get to be done when you're done.

When choosing a career path: fix the lifestyle you want, then work backwards from there.

Because in the end, what matters is your lifestyle. The specifics of your work are important only in how they impact your daily experience.

When it comes to cognitive work, setting makes a difference.

Setting up your laptop in your kitchen might technically give you everything you need to do your job. But will your mind end up in the same state produced by working in a marble-lobbied skyscraper in the city center?