Personal lessons learned — 2022

  • Every spiky strength (an area of life that you are better at than others) comes with a corresponding weakness. Every spiky weakness comes with its own corresponding strength.
  • We often don’t give others the grace that we give ourselves. Our mistakes were because “I was having a bad day” versus other’s mistakes are because
  • History is not static — it’s re-interpreted by actors over time (and at particular moments in time) for their own ends.
  • There is a difference between structures and agents. Know which one you are looking at before analyzing or criticizing it.
  • Think about whether you are in a probabilistic situation or a deterministic one.
  • Balance doesn’t have to thought off on a day-to-day basis. You can have week-to-week (some days are crazy, some days are calm) balance or even month-to-month balance.
  • The last 20% of any project takes 50% of the work.
  • If you’re feeling upset, ask yourself three questions: In the last 48 hours (1) have you exercised? (2) have you slept properly? and (3) have you eaten properly? If the answer to any of the these is no, fix it first.