The world bursts at the seams with people ready to tell you you’re not good enough. On occasion some may be correct. But do not do their work for them. Seek any job; ask anyone out; pursue any goal. Don’t take it personally when they say “no” – they may not be smart enough to [...]

Visualization works if you work hard. That’s the thing. You can’t just visualize and go eat a sandwich.
– Jim Carrey
I have learned the secret to getting rich in math and science. And now, for the first time ever, I am making these secrets available to you.
I can teach you everything you need to know to [...]

Competence, like truth, beauty and contact lenses, is in the eye of the beholder.
– Laurence J. Peter
The World’s Fastest Man in 1980, Allan Wells, would not have made the podium in the 100-metre races at the Beijing Olympics last year. In fact, his winning time of 10.25 would not have even qualified him for the [...]

A common recipe for personal growth is to start with what you have, identify what sucks about it, and try to make it suck less. Software developers call this “fixing bugs.”
“Fixing bugs” may seem like a natural metaphor for personal development, but in most cases this is actually an extremely limited, even harmful, perspective. [...]

The test of literature is, I suppose, whether we ourselves live more intensely for the reading of it.
– Elizabeth Drew
In my recent article, How to Read a Book, I offered some ideas for extracting value from dead trees. I focussed primarily on non-fiction in that article. Now I want to offer you an approach for [...]

Properly, we should read for power. Man reading should be man intensely alive. The book should be a ball of light in one’s hand.
– Ezra Pound
I run a One Man University.
I’m the Dean, the Professor, and the entire student body of OMU. My major is the conscious pursuit of happiness; my minor, everything else. My [...]

It’s not who you are that holds you back, it’s who you think you’re not.
– Author Unknown
If your primary goal in life is to meet an amazing woman, you probably won’t.
Setting out on a mission to find a girlfriend is like starting a company to get rich: It focusses you on the wrong things and [...]

Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.
– Leonardo da Vinci
I need every word I write.
The titles of my articles are descriptive but unflashy. I strive for short sentences. I formulate simple concepts, act on their hint, and document my experiences in the hopes of inspiring others. I use technology as an instrument of reach, rather than as [...]

Only with absolute fearlessness can we slay the dragons of mediocrity that invade our gardens.
– George Lois
Since I started 30 sleeps, I’ve always imagined writing to be just one of several mediums through which I speak to the world. The written word can transport a serious payload, but there’s nothing quite like reaching out to [...]

While flying back home from Christmas vacation last night, I had a “Tollegasm” on the plane, after reading the following passage. The context of this quote is that Eckhart Tolle is explaining the apparent conflict between living in the moment and achieving big, hairy, audacious goals. How can you achieve greatness if your attention is [...]