18 lessons
1. do what you love
life is too short to do smth you don't genuinely love. while going to bed at night, if you're not excited to wake up the next day thinking about your work, you should rethink your decisions. my life so far has been an example of doing what you love.
2. health can't wait
you can't work, play or do anything if you're in an icu. health is everything. and the best thing is that it takes very small habits to stay healthy. health is your top priority (after family)
3. sleep defines your life
sleep is the simplest and most effective hack to improve and win in life. that "2am" or "whole night" grind is a show-off. successful ones wrap their day at 11pm and wake up at 7am.
4. eat your food like medicine otherwise you'll have to eat the medicine like food.
you are what you eat. you can't eat crap and expect yourself to perform like ronaldo. these small habits are more than enough to improve your eating habits healthier than 99% of the population.
5. uniqueness is an advantage not the liability
everything great is unique. if you have a unique talent or taste, express it. show it. monetize upon it. this is the best time for it.
6. action is the solution to almost 99.99% of your problems
be highly biased to action. life rewards actions more than anything
sometimes, the only way to know what's possible is to do it.
7. never use words "i can't", "impossible" and "webinar"
just don't.
8. obsession is the differentiator
mastery in something comes from knowing the details. the more details you know the better of a master you become.
how to know the details? attention.
the more attention you pay to something the more you know about it.
how to pay attention to something for a long time? obsession.
get obsessed with it. you'll notice the patterns that no one ever did.
you'll get the insights that no one ever had.
obsession is rare. not everyone has it.
9. less noise. more work.
noise destroys obsession. the habit of checking socials again and again to get the brain stimulated is worse than cocaine addiction.
deleting socials from my phone, only logging in once a day on laptop is the best decision of my life.
less noise. more work.
10. one thing at a time
do lots of things in life. but always one at a time.
while playing, don't worry about work. while working don't think about playing.
just one thing. at. a. time.
11. fundamentals >>>>>
the most effective way to make yourself a great engineer is to learn things from the fundamentals.
most boring thing. very few do it.
once you understand things from the fundamentals, you'll enjoy engineering. your work. your career.
12. open source is one of the best things to happen to humanity.
a 15 year old boy who was helping his father in his farming work and was studying hard to get a government job never thought that he'd ever be able to own a computer.
today, he's writing this blog from his macbook.
open source doesn't see your country, race, language, color, etc.
all that matters is genuine work.
13. no tutorials
decade of tutorialism has made us believe that the best way to learn is to watch a 100-hr playlist.
but who gave you a tutorial when you were learning to ride a bicycle?
none.
you learnt by doing it. by your own intuition. that's the way.
14. online presence is a must
i'd rather be an average engineer who many people know about than the best engineer no one has any clue of.
"jo dikhta hai wo bikta hai" is universal.
15. write like life depends on it
writing is the best cure for doomscrolling.
it pumps creativity, clarity of thoughts and enhances your articulation.
16. ai can't replace the taste, trust and creativity
true moats in the age of ai:
- domain expertise
- taste
- trust
- distribution
- connections
- problem solving (first principles)
- uniqueness
- being great at writing
17. talk to the actual living genius using the internet
it's insanely crazy to think that we can literally talk to the greatest living minds for free — on twitter.
use that privilege.
18. be kind
just be kind for no reason.