Establish family as your absolute number one priority, recognizing its fundamental importance above all other pursuits.
Reflect on what truly matters in life and prioritize being present for your kids and spouse, as these are the memories that will be cherished, not extra meetings or business trips.
In a world of abundant AI-generated content and information, recognize that human connection, intimacy, and shared laughter will become increasingly scarce and valuable, so prioritize these interactions.
View your life as a story written between your birth and death, and focus on actively shaping that narrative, as it’s the primary thing you have control over.
Seek purpose and meaning in work that presents intellectual puzzles and fierce competition, deriving gratification from being right when others are wrong and discovering new insights.
Actively cultivate a close-knit “framily” network of friends who share similar values, especially a strong family focus, as these relationships provide profound and comforting connections.
Leverage new environments, like college, as opportunities for self-exploration and to break free from past identities, as they offer a chance to redefine oneself without prior constraints.
Instead of focusing on what’s trending, ask “what seems impossible today?” to uncover scientific breakthroughs and unique investment opportunities that others might miss.
Begin by exploring what you are currently obsessed with, especially areas where you have ignorance, to drive competitive spirit and gain differentiated insight.
When you encounter an area of ignorance, leverage your competitive spirit to get smart about it, understand conventional wisdom, and then seek out the “white space” answer that others overlook.
Understand that your beliefs are heavily influenced by the five or six most important people around you, rather than purely by independent analysis, highlighting the power of social phenomena.
To combat misinformation and weaponized information, actively identify bad actors and cultivate a heightened degree of skepticism in yourself and others.
In a world of abundant AI-produced content, cultivate a heightened sense of distrust and skepticism towards information, as veracity and truth will become increasingly scarce.
Shift focus from copyrightability of AI-generated content to the more critical challenge of how humans can “break free” from the stylistic and intellectual constraints that AI might impose over time.
Encourage children to learn and embrace all AI tools as they would any appliance, with the specific exception of TikTok due to concerns about bad influence and Chinese Communist Party control.
Use large language models to transform mundane or boring text (e.g., PTA messages) into engaging content by prompting the AI to rewrite it in the style of a specific author or character.
Upload your medical records to LLMs to identify potential missed diagnoses, unearth interesting correlations, or find relevant scientific papers that doctors might have overlooked.
To improve justice and fairness, complement or replace human intelligence in decision-making with AIs to achieve greater consistency and fidelity, mitigating human biases.
When using AI for analysis, seek its ability to not only answer your questions but also to identify and present the crucial “five questions you didn’t ask,” unlocking deeper insights.
Use AI to conjure and test hypotheses, perform literature searches, identify white space, and then instruct cloud labs to run physical experiments, enabling remote and rapid scientific discovery.
When using AI for scientific discovery, intentionally introduce a degree of “stochastic randomness” or “temperature” into the model to simulate serendipitous errors, which have historically led to significant breakthroughs.
Consider using AI to read through all existing patents, generate next-adjacent improvements, and then publish them to establish prior art, potentially disrupting patent trolls.
Leverage AI to research new ideas, check for existing solutions, draft patents, sketch designs, and even incorporate a company overnight, rapidly transforming a “brain fart” into a business foundation.
Experiment with allocating capital to an AI that can receive pitches, respond, and build a small portfolio, treating it as an automated investment experiment.
Consider launching or redesigning businesses to optimize web pages and user interfaces not just for human clicks, but for AI agents doing research, similar to past SEO efforts for Google.
Explore using AI to simulate user behavior on front-end interfaces to bypass complex APIs, legal negotiations, and restrictions, potentially disrupting traditional software plumbing.
Understand that AIs will increasingly know you better than you know yourself, based on your digital footprint, which can be both appreciated for its utility and a source of apprehension.
Consider the significant energy required to maintain privacy in the digital age and assess whether that effort is worthwhile, as much personal data is already accessible to “information gods.”
Dedicate about an hour to an hour and a half each morning to physical activity (e.g., working out, jujitsu) and reading through approximately 40 different papers, including international publications.
When reading papers, take screenshots of important sections, then use AI to summarize articles or extract key quotes, streamlining information processing.
Utilize PressReader to access digital replicas of newspapers and identify “meta information” from editorial placement (e.g., C22 vs. front page), which can provide an informational edge if you disagree with the editor’s prioritization.
Read a wide range of news sources, including less sophisticated ones like USA Today, to understand what the average person is consuming and gain a broader perspective beyond elite publications.
Leverage Twitter (X) by following diverse lists (geopolitics, AI, technology, team updates) to get a real-time pulse on various topics, filtering out noise by muting and blocking accounts.
Prioritize using AI models over traditional search engines like Google for information retrieval, dedicating significant time (e.g., 2-3 hours daily) to leverage their capabilities.
When prompting AI, use very specific priming instructions (e.g., “You are the world’s greatest expert in neuroscience, skeptical yet open-minded”) and ask for non-obvious points, often running the same prompt across multiple models simultaneously.
Use tools like Rewind on your Mac for nonstop screen capture to overcome memory limitations and easily recall the source of information you’ve encountered, whether it was an email, text, tweet, or PDF.
If privacy can be guaranteed, consider using AI to record and analyze partnership discussions, providing a repository of past conversations, identifying biases, inconsistencies, and quiet voices, and offering data-driven advice.
When evaluating new technologies, consider Buffett’s “loom” mental model: often, the primary benefits of technological advancements accrue to consumers, not necessarily to the producers or investors.
When considering expensive new AI systems, wait six months before implementing, as competition among LLM providers will likely drive down costs and improve offerings for users.
Recognize that the real competitive moat in the age of AI is proprietary, longitudinal, deep data, as models will become commoditized; focus on extracting value from unique data silos.
When evaluating a business, use a framework that considers if it’s fundamentally good (even with poor management), if it’s priced well for high expected returns, and if you trust the people running it.
In an environment of rising capital costs, shift focus from acquiring the “next new hot thing” to maintaining existing assets, extending their lifespan, and depreciating them for longer.
Seek out and invest in new technologies (software, services, sensors) that can be applied to older systems to improve their maintenance, extend their lifespan, and allow for longer depreciation.
Encourage or require in-person work (e.g., Monday through Friday) to foster interstitial moments, chance serendipity, and human connections that lead to unexpected introductions and unlocked opportunities, which don’t happen on virtual calls.
Foster diverse friend groups for children across various activities (e.g., school, sports, religious groups, neighborhood) to provide social hedges and prevent catastrophizing if one group experiences issues.
Recognize that competition improves systems and services, so advocate for policies that prevent monopolies, as monopolies remove the incentive to improve.
Prioritize proactive engagement in Africa, specifically the Sahel and Maghreb regions, to prevent a potential “next Afghanistan” scenario driven by extremist groups and foreign influence, which would be more costly to address reactively.
Declare hemispheric hegemony over the Western Hemisphere to shore up allies, counter adversarial influence (China, Russia, Iran, North Korea), and protect vital commerce, resources, and infrastructure.
Fund undirected basic research and science to foster serendipity, randomness, and optionality, which are crucial for generating great breakthroughs.
Implement predictable rules and regulations in capital markets to create a “low entropy” environment that can effectively carry and support “high entropy entrepreneurial surprise.”
Implement a simplified flat tax system to reduce the burden on poorer individuals and minimize the ability of wealthier individuals to circumvent complex tax codes.
Staple visas to foreign graduates who receive an education in the country, allowing them to stay and work for an American company for at least five years, to attract and retain the “best and brightest.”
Implement policies to increase the attraction of foreign graduates, as their talent is crucial for national competitiveness and historical success.
Create a welcoming environment for talented individuals, as people are drawn to places where they feel welcome and stay where they are well treated.
Design systems (e.g., immigration) that combine openness with necessary security vetting, and cultivate a great education system that attracts talent by offering high status to its graduates.
Cultivate a culture in companies and countries that attracts and retains competitive, highly intellectual individuals who respect and admire each other, fostering a desire to compete.
Implement policies like the Bayh-Dole Act, allowing universities and principal investigators to own intellectual property from government-funded research, which can then be licensed and commercialized by venture capital.
Ensure a robust capital market system with predictable rules and fair treatment to attract and retain both human and financial capital.
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