A contrarian isn’t one who always objects – that’s a conformist of a different sort. A contrarian reasons independently, from the ground up, and resists pressure to conform.

Figure out what you’re good at and start helping other people with it; give it away. Pay it forward. Karma sort of works because people are very consistent. On a long enough timescale, you will attract what you project.

The best way to prepare for the future 20 years is find something you love to do, to have a shot at being one of the best people in the world at it. Build an independent brand around it, with your name, not a company’s name or other people’s names around it. Try to make a creative work, so you’ll stay interesting, stay ahead of the game.

Today in society you get rewarded for creative work, for creating something brand new that society didn’t even know that it wanted that it doesn’t yet know how to get, other than through you.

I want to see truth. I want to see the world the way it is. Not through my filters. Not through my desires. Not through the way that other people want me to see it. And I want to accept it the way it is.

Art is just creativity, it’s just anything done for its own sake.

Only through suffering do you have change and self-improvement.

To a tree, there is no right or wrong. There is no good or bad.

Ego is false confidence, self-respect is true confidence.

Good entrepreneurs don’t fail because they stay at it.

No one in the world is going to beat you at being you.

Ideally you want to end up specializing in being you.

Spend your time doing only what you can uniquely do.

No matter how high your bar is, raise it.

The heart decides, the head rationalizes.

To be honest, speak without identity.

Desire is just fear by another name.

Busy is the death of productivity.

The firm, the enduring, the simple, and the modest are near to virtue.

Let us train our minds to desire what the situation demands.

Eventually you will get what you deserve.

Guard your time. Forget the money.

Anything deep is interesting.

Signaling virtue is a vice.