Core values guide every decision I make — both in code and in life. Simplicity over complexity, clarity over cleverness, and impact over activity.
1. Problems Fade When You Lead
Turn complaints, pain points, and surprises into small, actionable steps. This requires getting to the root of the problem and focusing on long-term efficiency — by recognizing what’s really going on and taking deliberate action.
Action remains the key.
Here’s how I approach it:
Take initiative: Don’t avoid issues — confront them early. What’s ignored doesn’t disappear; it grows and becomes part of your reality.
Dig to the root: Surface fixes are temporary. Keep asking “why” until the real cause reveals itself.
Prevent recurrence: After solving a problem, reframe it: “How can this be prevented next time?” Redesign systems to eliminate single points of failure.
Expect failure: If something can go wrong, it eventually will. Building resilience and redundancy isn’t paranoia — it’s smart preparation.
Think long-term: Use mental models like Bezos’ Regret Minimization Framework — choose the path with the least long-term regret. Short-term discomfort often prevents lasting damage.
2. Manage Energy, Not Time
Late in life, many regret spending time on the wrong things — not the lack of effort. What they often overlook is that energy, not time, drives true progress.
Energy is the true scarcity.
Key practices:
Prioritize ruthlessly: Like traveling in a place with early sunset, most days only allow one or two meaningful stops. Identify the highest-impact tasks daily and protect time for them.
Routines Over Willpower: Hard work matters, but a well-designed system (routines, cues, trackers) beats grinding through sheer willpower every time.
Start tiny to build momentum: Break work into Goldilocks-sized pieces — not too easy, not too hard — to ensure consistent execution. Action creates energy; inertia drains it.
Work in framed blocks: I use short, bounded units (e.g., 3-minute starts to unlock resistance, 10-minute for consistency, 25-minute for deep-focus blocks) to match natural energy cycles.
Protect your focus: In the modern era, attention is the ultimate currency — protect it by ruthlessly minimizing distractions and notifications.
3. Stay Ready x Be Unstoppable
You can’t control luck itself — but by preparing well, staying curious, and acting with courage over time, you increase the chances of meeting opportunity when it comes.
Design the environment: Don't blame circumstances — actively shape habits, networks, and surroundings to increase the odds of positive outcomes.
Work in public: Sharing progress and ideas openly enlarges your “Luck Surface Area,” inviting feedback, collaborations, and unexpected opportunities.
Protect energy and health: Chronic low energy or disinterest repels people and possibilities. Staying vibrant and engaged draws them in.
Define and create value: Your worth is tied to the problems you solve and the people you help. Aim higher, deliver more.
Align with your calling: Pursue what genuinely energizes you — sustained effort in the right direction multiplies serendipity.
4. The Power of Unlearning
We have to admit one uncomfortable truth: every human being — including ourselves — is naturally biased and easily influenced. Once we truly accept this, we can stay far more aware and shift from emotional, reactive thinking to more systematic and deliberate decision-making.
This is exactly why I strongly recommend two books that genuinely helped me turn these ideas into daily practice.
Judgment in Managerial Decision Making by Max H. Bazerman and Don A. Moore walks you through confirmation bias, anchoring, sunk cost fallacy, overconfidence, and many more, while giving you practical tools to spot and overcome them in real time.
Charlie Munger (Warren Buffett’s longtime partner) once called it “the most useful book I’ve ever read on managerial decision making.”
Farsighted: How We Make the Decisions That Matter the Most by Steven Johnson presents a clear three-step framework (Mapping → Predicting → Deciding) that expands your spectrum of thinking, breaks rigid binary categories, and prevents premature conclusions. Through influence diagrams, scenario planning, and pre-mortems, it teaches you to map multiple layers of reality instead of jumping straight into positions or beliefs.
Things I keep in mind:
Layers of thought: Clearly distinguish between facts, opinions, positions (interest-driven viewpoints), and beliefs (internally coherent systems). I’ve noticed that many people often mistake the last three for facts.
Cognitive Biases: People often underestimate how frequently cognitive biases shape their thinking — even in themselves. Confirmation bias, anchoring bias, sunk cost fallacy — these aren’t rare flaws, they’re default modes of thinking. Their danger lies not in their presence, but in their invisibility.
Premature Conclusions: Question what you see on social media, hear from friends, and even what you believe based on past experiences. Try to identify the underlying logic and nature of the information. Truth rarely presents itself on the surface.
Avoid Binary thinking: Most of reality exists in shades of gray. Reject rigid black-and-white categories that oversimplify complex issues.
Patterns of Failure: Success can create false confidence; study common failure patterns instead — there are many paths to success but remarkably similar ways to fail.