Amateurs vs. Professionals

Seth Godin in Professionals are consistent: Authenticity is for friendships. Professionals simply show up. Especially when they don’t feel like it. There are many corollaries to "professionals simply show up." For example, amateurs put a lot of weight on character compatibility w … | Continue reading


@zoia.org | 4 hours ago

Constructive Projects

Wolf Tivi in Quit Your Job: True ascent beyond the kept life comes only from taking bold, determinate leaps of faith on real constructive projects. When Elon Musk pocketed his Paypal winnings, he turned around and plowed all of it into a handful of his own projects, designed to p … | Continue reading


@zoia.org | 5 days ago

Some is not a number

Don Berwick, speaking to a room full of hospital administrators at a large industry convention in December 2004: Here is what I think we should do. I think we should save 100,000 lives. And I think we should do that by June 14, 2006—18 months from today. Some is not a number; soo … | Continue reading


@zoia.org | 1 month ago

Bulding moats... or demolishing existing ones

From Mark Zuckerberg's announcement of Llama 3.1 405B: Beyond releasing these models, we’re working with a range of companies to grow the broader ecosystem. Amazon, Databricks, and NVIDIA are launching full suites of services to support developers fine-tuning and distilling their … | Continue reading


@zoia.org | 1 month ago

Not always the most useful

Great reminder by Derek Sivers in Useful Not True: most of the time, you don't need the perfect tool or explanation. You just need what's good enough to get you where you need to go: Newton’s laws of motion from the 1600s work for most situations. They were good enough to get us … | Continue reading


@zoia.org | 1 month ago

Words are Wind

George R.R. Martin: Words are wind, even words like love and peace. I put more trust in deeds. | Continue reading


@zoia.org | 1 month ago

The Future of AI Belongs to Tech Giants

Unlike traditional tech startups, AI startups like OpenAI and Anthropic need massive amounts of money because of the huge costs of training and running Large Language Models (LLMs). There is an ongoing race for better and faster AI, so they need even more money for the next itera … | Continue reading


@zoia.org | 1 month ago

Combined Strength

From James Clear's 3-2-1 Newsletter: I'm not the best writer, but it is a strength. I might be a 90th percentile writer. And I'm not the best marketer, but it is a strength. Again, maybe 90th percentile? I'm better than most, but if you pass 100 people on the street it won't be h … | Continue reading


@zoia.org | 2 months ago

The altMBA lives on

Founded by Seth Godin in 2015, the altMBA is winding down after almost a decade. In 2016, I was part of the fourth edition of the altMBA. It was a life-changing experience. The altMBA backbone was a hand-built, peer-to-peer learning environment, not a series of lectures. In fact, … | Continue reading


@zoia.org | 2 months ago

Right Thing, Right Now by Ryan Holiday

Right Thing, Right Now is the third book in Ryan Holiday's series about the Stoic virtues, more commonly referred to as the cardinal virtues: Justice, Fortitude, Prudence, and Temperance. This book is about the virtue of Justice. I've read several of Ryan Holiday's books before, … | Continue reading


@zoia.org | 2 months ago

The Champion's Playbook: Life Lessons from Roger Federer

Roger Federer is considered by many the greatest tennis player of all time. He ranked No. 1 in men's singles for 237 consecutive weeks, 310 weeks in total. He won 103 ATP Tour single titles and 20 Grand Slam singles, including eight Wimbledon titles. Maybe less known, Federer is … | Continue reading


@zoia.org | 3 months ago

Seth Godin: The intentional stance

Seth Godin, The intentional stance: Every day, millions of people are joining the early adopters who are giving AI systems the benefit of the doubt, a stance of intent and agency. But it’s an illusion, and the AI isn’t ready for rights and can’t take responsibility. The collision … | Continue reading


@zoia.org | 3 months ago

Fiction is a gateway drug to reading

Neil Gailman on raising literate kids: Fiction has two uses. Firstly, it’s a gateway drug to reading. The drive to know what happens next, to want to turn the page, the need to keep going, even if it’s hard, because someone’s in trouble and you have to know how it’s all going to … | Continue reading


@zoia.org | 3 months ago

Consistency over Authenticity

Found this quote by Seth Godin, interviewed by Dean Caravellis. More relevant than ever: I think that authenticity is a trap. No one has been authentic since they were 3 months old, laying in a diaper filled with poop. Ever since then, we’ve done things on purpose to get a reacti … | Continue reading


@zoia.org | 3 months ago

Things that take forever

Jason Fried on X: So many things you assume will take forever only take forever because you never get around to doing them. | Continue reading


@zoia.org | 4 months ago

Derek Sivers: Learn from the hard times

The hardest times are when you learn the most. Don’t wish not to have them. Don’t avoid mistakes. Just make sure to reflect on them and learn from them. And write in your journal every day, so your future self can look back to see how you really felt then. Anything that feels lik … | Continue reading


@zoia.org | 4 months ago

Farewell, LogSeq

For a couple of years, I've been a happy user of LogSeq, an open-source knowledge management tool and note-taking app. I recently discovered, however, that future versions of LogSeq will use a database to store notes instead of plain text files. So, since yesterday, I've been usi … | Continue reading


@zoia.org | 4 months ago

Write with purpose

Science-fiction writer and programmer qntm about writing: Write with purpose. Do not write just because. Don't write because you love writing, because you love reading your own writing, because you love other people reading your writing or because you love feedback. Instead, writ … | Continue reading


@zoia.org | 4 months ago