I generally try to avoid people and situations that put me in bad moods, which is good advice whether you care about productivity or not.

Some rich people keep working hard because they love doing what made them rich. I've found three other types (not mutually excl): the ambitious who keep moving the goalposts, the creatives who keep finding new passions and the Calvinists who are afraid to not be working hard.

I personally experience the three types differently: the ambitious are inspiring, creatives are fun and Calvinists are draining.

Common causes of bad decisions:

1. Assumptions based on small sample sizes
2. Wanting the world to work the way we want rather than the way it does
3. Conforming to expectations/authority/group (social default)
4. Blindness to large trends (blind spots)
5. Not asking, "and then what?"

If I knew I was going to live this long, I'd have taken better care of myself.

Clear writing gives poor thinking nowhere to hide.

An hour before 9 is worth 2 after 5.

Yesterday I was clever, so I wanted to change the world. Today I am wise, so I am changing myself.

The public has a distorted view of science because children are taught in school that science is a collection of firmly established truths. In fact, science is not a collection of truths. It is a continuing exploration of mysteries.

Most people write to sound smart when they should write to be useful.

Communicating to sound smart lowers your potential for impact. The harder people have to work to understand you, the less they want your input.

Writing to be useful means writing what you would want to read. Simple, but not easy.

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

Many people assume they are bad at writing because it is hard. This is like assuming you are bad at weightlifting because the weight is heavy.

Writing is useful because it is hard. It's the effort that goes into writing a clear sentence that leads to better thinking.

The world will ask you who you are, and if you don't know, the world will tell you.

One of the most critical skills in life—and yet never taught in school—is choosing where to direct your attention.

After graduation, the valedictorian will often get lapped by "average" people who better invest their time.

People who want to appear clever rely on memory. People who want to get things done make lists.

When you first start to study a field, it seems like you have to memorize a zillion things. You don’t. What you need is to identify the core principles – generally three to twelve of them – that govern the field. The million things you thought you had to memorize are simply various combinations of the core principles.

Remember, always, that everything you know, and everything everyone knows, is only a model. Get your model out there where it can be viewed. Invite others to challenge your assumptions and add their own.

"The earth is degenerating today. Bribery and corruption abound. Children no longer obey their parents, every man wants to write a book, and it is evident that the end of the world is fast approaching." 
- Assyrian tablet, c. 2800 BC

If you suffered in life and want other people to suffer as you did because "you turned out fine," you did not in fact turn out fine.

Things you control:

Your effort.
Your beliefs.
Your actions.
Your attitude.
Your integrity.
Your thoughts.
The food you eat.
How kind you are.
How reflective you are.
How thoughtful you are.
The type of friend you are.
The information you consume.
The people you surround yourself with.

It may be confidently asserted that no man chooses evil, because it is evil; he only mistakes it for happiness, the good he seeks.