The Operating
System

Never recommend something you don't own.

Being early and being wrong feel exactly the same. Budget for it.

The best investment thesis fits on one napkin. If it doesn't, you don't understand it yet.

Do your own due diligence. 'Someone smart said so' is not a thesis.

At the supermarket, 50% off draws a stampede. At the stock market, 50% off is a bomb threat. Be the one shopping during bomb threats.

Write down why you bought something before you buy it. Read it when you want to sell.

Conviction is earned through work, not wishful thinking.

The market doesn't care about your feelings, your thesis, or your mortgage. Respect that.

If you can't explain it to a bartender, you can't explain it to a judge. And sometimes you need to explain it to a judge.

The biggest returns come from positions you hold long enough to feel stupid.

Ship it before you're ready. You'll never be ready.

Done is better than perfect. Shipped is better than planned. Deployed is better than discussed.

Build the ugly version first. Make it beautiful second. Most projects die at 'planning the beautiful version.'

Nine features in parallel is not reckless. Nine features in parallel with no tests is reckless.

The best way to learn a technology is to build something embarrassing with it.

If you're not embarrassed by the first version, you launched too late.

Automate the boring stuff. Agonize over the interesting stuff. Never confuse the two.

3,143 pages beats a perfectly planned 10-page website that never launches.

Your users don't care about your architecture. They care if it works.

The fastest way to finish a project is to start it. Right now. Today. Not Monday.

Be the person your dog thinks you are. If you don't have a dog, get one.

Launch rockets with your daughter. Real ones. The stomp kind. Every single day she'll let you.

Say 'yes' to things that scare you, 'no' to things that bore you, and 'maybe later' to nothing.

The best things I've built were done while people told me not to. The worst things I've built were done because people told me to.

Eat the Nutty Bar. Life is short and the chocolate-wafer ratio is perfect.

Write 8 books about something you believe in. Or 1 book. Or a tweet. Just don't keep it inside.

Call your sister. Send the personalized blanket. It matters more than you think.

Drink the expensive blueberry juice. Small daily luxuries compound into a good life.

You are not your portfolio. You are not your job title. You are the sum of your decisions and the stories you tell about them.

Take it or leave it. But take it.