Disguised as a Straight Line

Progress is just falling and getting back up over and over again, disguised as a straight line.

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The best things in life—trust, talent, luck—have one thing in common: the harder you chase them, the faster they run.

Your reputation is the only magnet strong enough to make them come to you.

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Problems scream for attention while successes only whisper. We're wired to chase whatever's loudest.

Your biggest opportunity isn't hiding in what's broken; it's hiding in what's working that you've stopped noticing.

Rick Ruben on how to create anything great:

“If you need 10 of something, make 30. Then pick the best.”

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Gene Roddenberry on books:

“I consider reading the greatest bargain in the world. A shelf of books is a shelf of many lives and ideas and imaginations which the reader can enjoy whenever he wishes and as often as he wishes. Instead of experiencing just one life, the book-lover can experience hundreds or even thousands of lives.”

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Pete Davis on why we love people who commit but don't commit:

“Why do we love committers but act like browsers? I think it’s because of three fears. First, we have a fear of regret: we worry that if we commit to something, we will later regret having not committed to something else. Second, we have a fear of association: we think that if we commit to something, we will be vulnerable to the chaos that that commitment brings to our identity, our reputation, and our sense of control. Third, we have a fear of missing out: we feel that if we commit to something, the responsibilities that come with it will prevent us from being everything, everywhere, to everyone. Because of these fears, the tension sticks around. We act like browsers, we love committers, and we’re too scared to make the jump—so we’re stuck.”

Andy Grove learned paranoia hiding from Nazis as a child. Decades later, that same paranoia saved Intel.

While posting record profits, Grove hunted for what could kill his company. When Japanese firms started destroying Intel's core memory business, he asked: What would a new CEO do if we got fired? The answer was brutal: exit memories. So Grove fired himself and became the new CEO.

The lesson: only the paranoid survive.