Taking time to reflect, trust your intuition, pursue things cheaply and quickly, and take a break can be beneficial for optimizing physical and mental productivity and creating value in uncertain ways.

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  00:00

  Take time to reflect and plan, trust your intuition, pursue things cheaply and quickly, and take a break if you can - it can be incredibly beneficial.

  • I'm breaking apart essays to discuss topics such as observing thoughts, choosing what to work on, creating value, and finding purpose in work.
  • It's easy to get caught up in things that are urgent but unimportant, so it's important to minimize your cognitive load and focus on what matters.
  • Focus on important tasks and take time to check-in to make sure you're working on the right things and at an appropriate time scale.
  • Every year on December 31st, I take a break from vacation to reflect on the past year and plan for the next.
  • Trust your intuition, pursue things cheaply and quickly, and be honest with yourself about what's working and what's not.
  • Taking a year off between jobs is hard to do in Silicon Valley, but can be incredibly beneficial if you are in the position to do so.
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  06:40

  Reflecting on my journey, I learned that it takes brutal honesty to figure out which projects are working and angel investing teaches humility.

  • I read dozens of textbooks, learned about nuclear engineering, AI, synthetic biology, and investing, traveled, reconnected with friends and family, and helped people in need.
  • Most of the projects I tried didn't work out, but the seeds were planted for things that worked in deep ways later.
  • It takes brutal honesty to figure out which projects are working and which you are trying to convince yourself are working.
  • Angel investing teaches humility and the magnitude of successes must pay for all failures.
  • Playing poker in college can teach you about the world, business, psychology, risk, and more.
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  11:36

  Surround yourself with ambitious people to optimize physical and mental productivity.

  • Sleep, exercise, and nutrition are key for physical productivity.
  • It is possible to optimize productivity by sleeping 8 hours and dedicating the best hours of the day to the projects you want to work on.
  • Hamming's lecture provides a prescriptive tone to help create a successful research institution in a world that doesn't support it.
  • Teams working on AGI need to manage the psychology of multiple teams working on different directions to get results.
  • People are too risk-averse and need to think about long-term chronic risk instead of short-term catastrophic risk to make the most of their lives.
  • Surround yourself with ambitious people to help you stay mentally flexible and pursue ambitious goals.
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  18:48

  Prioritizing focus and creating accountability groups can help increase productivity and create value in uncertain ways.

  • Reading books, biographies, and blogs about successful people and projects can help to understand risk and create value.
  • Focus and prioritization are key to getting things done efficiently.
  • Creating small groups of accountability buddies and following a simple weekly email and quarterly check-in system can help increase productivity.
  • People feel that all the innovation has already happened, but it is still happening and the Internet is a triumph of humanity where the best people want to work.
  • We're close to an answer on how to fund projects that don't have the same appeal as AGI, but will create value for the world on a long time frame in uncertain ways.
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  24:14

  Spending time on random meetings can lead to valuable insights, but be careful not to get caught up in Silicon Valley's deferred life plan.

  • Spending time on random meetings can be frustrating, but it can also lead to valuable insights.
  • Nobel Prize winners work on important problems, but if you're not willing to work hard, you should cut down your network to avoid disaster.
  • People in Silicon Valley often make plans to make money and then build rockets, but they never do either.
  • You can raise money as a 22 year old to make a rocket company, but the deferred life plan rarely works.
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  28:05

  Raise money if you can, but if not, consider a deferred life.

  • Raise money if you can, but if not, consider a deferred life.
  • If you want to make money, accept that it takes a long time and don't hide behind wanting to make Rockets.
  • People can sense if you're doing something for the right reasons and it's important that people are rooting for you to succeed, otherwise you won't.
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  31:20

  Set a fitness goal for 2019 and stay motivated to reach it!

  • People find purpose and meaning in many different ways, and with the arrival of AGI, intelligence will become less of a benefit.
  • Gaining 18 pounds of muscle mass this year has made it harder to run, but has resulted in increased strength and physical progress.
  • Set a fitness goal for 2019 and keep going until the end of the year.
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  35:01

  Check out "The Way to Love" by Anthony de Mello, a series of meditations on life that takes only an hour to read and is highly recommended.