The Obstacle Is the Way - A method for excellence in any and all situations

@therealsjr Hmmm. So if all the knowledge was the same, basically we're either talking about spotting and jumping on other opportunities or we're talking personal stuff/mindset. I have no regrets or no real unsatisfied needs so I don't think I'd handle the career part much different. I would tell myself to relax. I think I'd like to instill some patience and self-care in myself that I was lacking when I was younger. I know that's pretty common for young people. You're dying to prove yourself, you think you'll die if you don't. But the reality is, a lot of this is out of your control. If you can relax, if you can enjoy what's happening, you'll still have the same success but you'll actually appreciate it. It won't be so painful and costly.

@dfmorse23 There is an old Zen kōan about an aspiring swordsman who approaches a master. “How long would it take me to become great under you?” he asks. “10 years,” the master swordsman replies. “I don’t have that long,” says the student. “I want to be good soon. What if I worked very hard and dedicated myself completely to the task?” “Ok, 30 years,” he says back. “But that’s even longer,” the student says with some perplexity. “I am telling you I am in a hurry.” And so the master replies, “Precisely, students in a hurry end up taking even longer to learn what is right in front of them.”

@anarghya503 1) I found my passions by following and learning from really great mentors who had found theirs. Our paths have differed to certain degrees but it was in their model and with their support that I was able to explore and take risks and learn. 2) The answer to this question is to pay forward what I was talking about in answer #1. I also somewhat bristle at the concept of privilege. We're ALL advantaged and disadvantaged in various ways. It's absurd to think these things can or should be ranked. The idea should be to: recognize talent when you see it, help the people that you can, empathize with everyone.

@micah That's a very cool questions. Honestly, my life is pretty public and I like writing about it so there is less than you think. I suppose I am very proud of my relationship--it's been 8 years now with my wife. She's been with me since the beginning. Not everyone gets to meet her but when they do they seem to *get* it.

@eriktorenberg My pleasure.

@jeffumbro I'm going to change your question a little bit because I don't really care WHEN books were published. Some of my favorite reads this year: The Hunters by James Salter A Night To Remember by Walter Lord The Epic of Gilgamesh The Sorrows of Young Werther by Goethe Facing Codependence by Pia Mellody Enemies of Promise by Cyril Connolly Ben Franklin by Walter Isaacson Creatocracy by Elizabeth Wurtzel

@frame_arran Aaron Ginn put it very well when he said that growth hacking is a mindset and not a toolkit. I try to direct people to that little proverb when they ask me for specific tactics. You wouldn't say to Napoleon "what's a good way to win battles" because every battle is different and even individual battles only matter as part of the larger strategic goal. Does this make sense? The specifics of your company--your resources, your market, your budget, your goals--that are going to determine what the essentials are for you. But even realizing that as a marketer your job is to GROW a company, already puts you ahead of most of your sadly ignorant and worthless peers.

@ryanholiday @frame_arran great advice

@ryanholiday @frame_arran Haha, that is useful and good advice. I very much like your proverb and will undoubtedly find myself using it in the future

@meidlin 1. Like everyone else, time. But if you make it a priority, it will happen. 2. My reading routine is a bit more unusual http://thoughtcatalog.com/ryan-h... 3. I would say more for the latter, less for the former. But it wasn't always so. I'm trying to balance it out a bit more. I'm reading more fiction (or my favorite, narrative non fiction) and I am trying to do it earlier in the day. I'd rather read more and check email less. I think I'll be more creative and happier as a result. 4. You didn't ask me about my goats http://thoughtcatalog.com/ryan-h...

@russfrushtick I'm not sure he should. Clearly Harvard is doing a damn fine job serving and helping the elites of the world. And sure a certain amount of that trickles down to the rest of us. I think Tyler Cowen has talked a bunch about why Harvard should accept a lot more students. Or maybe it was Felix Salmon. Other people have said tuition should be free. I'd agree with most of that. I think it's rather disgusting to have an institution of higher education with an endowment worth tens of BILLIONS of dollars, meanwhile plenty of smart, talented people are taking on hundreds of thousands of dollars of debt to get a degree. And why other people continue to donate money to Harvard, I do not understand.

@melissajoykong Pragmatism is a favorite of mine. Of course, what I talk about in the book is the idea that you accept what comes to you and then make the most of it. It's a sort of an iterative, adaptive, resilient, mental model. I call it stoic optimism. In terms of fallacies...if only there were just one. The sunk cost fallacy is a big one. The confirmation bias is a huge problem.

@ryanholiday @melissajoykong good article on the sunk cost fallacy: https://litemind.com/sunk-cost-b...