1. “If I am not for myself, who will be for me? But if I am only for myself, what am I? And if not now, when?” –Rabbi Hillel (P. 476)
2. Find a new topic or area or concern that has a small number of people you respect behind it, but which has not become a culture-wide fad or conventional wisdom. If it’s already common knowledge, it’s probably too late to make a major contribution. If you’re the only one excited, you may be deluding yourself.
-Ignore advice to simply follow your intuition or gut without thinking through whether the course of action is likely to be fruitful and rewarding.
-Focus on effectiveness—what your actions will actually accomplish—and not self-actualization or other ways of trying to feel good about yourself.
-Think about what you will add to the world. Some lucrative professions (e.g., ultra-high-tech finance) are dubious applications of human brainpower. (P. 476-477)
3. “The only way to get rid of a temptation is to yield to it” (assuming it’s not destructive to oneself or others). “What will matter to me in six months, a year, five years? What is essential, and what is optional, in my life priorities?” (P. 478)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steven_Pinker
STEVEN PINKER is a Johnstone Family Professor in the Department of Psychology at Harvard University. He conducts research on language and cognition, writes for publications such as The New York Times and The Atlantic, and is the author of ten books.
2. Find a new topic or area or concern that has a small number of people you respect behind it, but which has not become a culture-wide fad or conventional wisdom. If it’s already common knowledge, it’s probably too late to make a major contribution. If you’re the only one excited, you may be deluding yourself.
-Ignore advice to simply follow your intuition or gut without thinking through whether the course of action is likely to be fruitful and rewarding.
-Focus on effectiveness—what your actions will actually accomplish—and not self-actualization or other ways of trying to feel good about yourself.
-Think about what you will add to the world. Some lucrative professions (e.g., ultra-high-tech finance) are dubious applications of human brainpower. (P. 476-477)
3. “The only way to get rid of a temptation is to yield to it” (assuming it’s not destructive to oneself or others). “What will matter to me in six months, a year, five years? What is essential, and what is optional, in my life priorities?” (P. 478)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steven_Pinker
STEVEN PINKER is a Johnstone Family Professor in the Department of Psychology at Harvard University. He conducts research on language and cognition, writes for publications such as The New York Times and The Atlantic, and is the author of ten books.
Reference
Ferriss, Timothy. Tribe of Mentors: Short Life Advice from the Best in the World (P. 475). Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. Kindle Edition.
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