Article I.

Optimism & energy are important ingredients in progress.

• You have to believe something else is possible first, or why bother trying
• Energy entering a room makes new things possible

Article II.

Most work is waste.

• It doesn’t end up mattering but people need to feel like they’re doing something
• The best line of code is the line that doesn’t need to be written. This applies to much more than code.
• The hardest part of work is figuring out what to do, not the doing itself. This was already true before AI.

Article III.

On average people like having a boss more than they realize.

• Being given the todo list means you can (legitimately) be & feel productive without taking equity risk
• If you knew the exact path success would be as simple as following a syllabus

Article IV.

Growth & great people solve for everything else.

• If you’re growing you have time & resources to solve everything else
• Great people remove entire universes of problems from your plate.
• “I never have to think about that again” and “it’s better than I would have done” should be your bar in hiring

Article V.

Startups & entrepreneurship are underrated sources of personal fulfillment.

• (Almost) nothing has made me feel more alive than when my last company was really, really working
• Too few people have experienced the joy of putting something out in the world and seeing people use it
• The best relationships come from working on hard things with great people

Article VI.

Knowing who you are and what you’re about are the best ways to prioritize your time.

• Knowing your values lets you filter the noise of the world
• You don’t have to redecide in each moment what you need to do
• It’s easier to take the next step into the unknown when it’s because of who you are

Article VII.

Courage is the scarce resource.

• Even rich people don’t want to fail in public
• Obvious from startups that money doesn’t translate directly to success
• It’s really hard to be the author of the todo list