The key takeaway for my very disappointing answer to what is my daily routine is that the exact boot up sequence does not matter. What matters is having at least, say, 3 hours in a block of time uninterrupted where you can focus on 1 or 2 of your highest leverage tasks, which have been defined beforehand.

The number one test I have for myself is I know I'm too busy if I don't know what the most important question is right now.

The stuff that works is not sexy. It doesn't sell, and it seems insignificant in many ways. But it is small daily repeated habits done over and over and over again.

Whatever you do, try your hardest not to have a billion dollars, because it's gonna ruin your life. A couple million, fine; but not a billion.

Most people think they have a software problem when they actually have a hardware problem. So, if I'm finding myself thinking more cynically, thinking more negatively, I'll just try and fix the hardware. So, it's like some kind of breathing exercise, sauna, run, exercise, eat well.

I come from Silicon Valley—and in Silicon Valley, the cynics get to be right and the optimists get to be rich.

Don't ask what you can add; ask what which can subtract. Recovery is mostly about doing less, not about doing more.

Stop worrying so much about other people liking you. Most people don't even like themselves.

That thing that you wish that you could tell a younger version of you is almost always the single most important thing that you need to tell the current version of you.

Nobody talks about the achievements of the departed; they talk about what they were like, how they made them feel, whether they were kind or funny or helpful. And so those are the qualities that we remember.

I used to view loneliness as a failure of self, a failure of discipline, a failure of resilience, a failure of inner narrative. Something like that. I think it's much much simpler in the sense that loneliness is usually a failure of group activities in your calendar.

One of the roles of a good manager is to make him or herself irrelevant ... You're not a good manager if your company would collapse if you disappeared.

What's the ultimate predator? What's the ultimate predator? What's the enemy you harbor in your own heart who hates you? That's the ultimate predator.

Lift weights, do jiu-jitsu, go for runs, stretch out, eat good, stop drinking. It's pretty straightforward ... If you don't use it, you're going to lose it. Every day that you don't do work, you're going backwards, and it definitely will hurt you, and it'll show up.

I will say it is kind of weird that Donald Trump has been subjected to more assassination attempts in the past 8 weeks than Kamala Harris has to one-on-one interviews. I didn't see that one coming.

I don't have a 5-year plan ... I don't know where I want to be in 5 years. It's like the ultimate proof that you don't rise to the level of your goals; you fall to the level of your habits, and my habits are that I work pretty hard and I pay attention to stuff.

99% of people in the world are convinced that they are incapable of achieving great things, so they aim for the mediocre. The level of competition is this fiercest for realistic goals, paradoxically making them the most time- and energy-consuming. If you are insecure, guess what? The rest of the world is, too. Do not overestimate the competition and underestimate yourself. You are better than you think.

I think that like the true definition of work-life balance is having enough life that you don't think about work-life balance.

Ultimately, happiness in life comes down to the discomfort between choosing to become aware of your mental afflictions or the discomfort of becoming ruled by them. You can choose to be aware of your mental afflictions, or you can be ruled by them. And I want to be aware of them.

The the first prescription for somebody who is suffering from some sort of depression should be, like, get off your ass and go do something.