To be creative, actively nurture your innate curiosity about the world, even for things you might typically stop noticing, as this is a key to creativity.
Instead of just being smart, focus on being creative and innovative to achieve significant impact, as smart people alone don’t always amount to much.
Cultivate an interest in a wide range of subjects and actively look for patterns across different domains, as this enables mental leaps and unique insights.
Maintain a broad vision and an insatiable curiosity about everything, avoiding premature specialization to allow for both deep dives into specific subjects and a wide understanding across domains.
Focus intensely on creating an ‘insanely good product’ rather than prioritizing profit, because a superior product will naturally lead to profitability without cutting corners.
Cultivate an obsessive passion for understanding the inner workings and minute details of your domain, as this deep engagement is a key to making great advances and achieving creativity.
Extend your commitment to beauty and quality to even the unseen or hidden parts of your work, as this reflects true artistry and a deep level of care.
When creating products, consider what the initial presentation and design ‘imputes’ or signals to the user, aiming to convey delight and a magical experience from the first interaction.
Do not define yourself or your success by the material objects you can acquire, as this can detract from deeper meaning and purpose.
Shift your perspective from what you can gain from life to what you can contribute, as this spiritual grounding helps maintain perspective and avoid being consumed by material success.
Instead of seeking ‘how-to’ guides, study many different lives to understand various attributes and approaches, then adapt what’s comfortable and effective for your own strengths and goals.
Understand and play to your unique strengths and attributes rather than trying to perfectly emulate others, as this is the most effective path to success.
As a manager, practice brutal intellectual honesty to motivate your team, address underperformance, and ensure you build a team composed solely of high-performing ‘A players.’
Recognize that different situations require different leadership styles; sometimes direct intellectual honesty is needed, while other times, fostering collegiality, collaboration, and compromise is more effective.
Create physical spaces and opportunities that encourage spontaneous meetings and random discussions, as these unscheduled encounters are crucial for sparking creativity and new ideas.
Position yourself or your team in environments that attract diverse ideas and possess a vibrant energy, as these ‘cradles of creativity’ foster innovation.
Embrace the intersection of humanities and sciences, like Ada Lovelace’s ‘poetical science,’ by loving both math and poetry, as this broad perspective can lead to significant conceptual leaps.
Adopt the mindset that you are capable of learning anything, even complex subjects, as this belief empowers you to tackle new fields and expand your knowledge.
Recognize the value of a non-expert perspective, especially in technical fields, as it can help popularize and explain complex ideas to a broader audience without jargon.
Whenever possible, go directly to primary source materials to gain deeper insights, observe original thought processes, and avoid interpretations that might simplify or lose context.
For contemporary figures, triangulate information by reading secondary sources, original documents, and conducting interviews with people involved to gain a comprehensive and nuanced understanding.
When interviewing, focus on active listening and allow people to talk freely about themselves and their experiences, as this encourages them to share more openly and deeply.
When an interviewee hesitates or doesn’t immediately answer, use silence as a technique; people often feel compelled to fill the void, leading to more detailed responses.
When studying people or telling a story, use a chronological narrative approach, as this mirrors how lives unfold and how we naturally learn and develop character.
After writing on a screen, print out your work to review it on paper the next morning, and then read it aloud, as this helps identify clunky phrases and areas that don’t track well.
Actively participate in ethical discussions surrounding powerful technologies like gene editing, rather than ceding responsibility solely to scientists, to help shape societal rules and consensus.
Recognize that your thinking on complex issues will evolve over time, allowing for first, second, third, and subsequent thoughts, rather than seeking a single, definitive answer.
Share compelling stories of innovators and their achievements to inspire the next generation, encouraging them to pursue scientific, artistic, or entrepreneurial paths.