What sentence gives you goosebumps?

George Mack

What sentence gives you goosebumps?

Here's mine: "You waste years by not being able to waste hours"

13 thoughts:

1. A behaviour rewarded at school that punishes you later in life: Doing the work without asking why.

2. A behaviour punished at school that rewards you later in life: Asking "Why am I working on this?"

3. The busy trap: Being busy today causes you to be more busy tomorrow. You never get the time to question, delegate or prioritise your schedule.

4. Sign of being too busy: You don't know what the most important question to solve is.

Hint: If you don't know what the most important question is... Good news: You've just found that question: "What is the most important question to solve right now?"

5. Cleaning out inboxes and messages can be a busy trap: All you’ve done is increased the number of replies you will get in the future.

6. You have less time than you think. You do not have 24 hours in the day: That’s like confusing revenue with profit. You have 16 hours per day once you factor in the sleep tax.

7. Note to self: If I’m too busy to spend 20 minutes thinking about what the most important thing to do is that day: I should probably spend an hour instead.

8. Sobering data: Pull up your calendar from this time last year and see how much time you wasted in hindsight.

9. The Energy Razor: If you don’t schedule actions that produce energy, assume they’ll never happen. If you don’t monitor actions that drain energy, assume they’ll keep expanding.

All low agency roads lead to entropy.

10. Bringing a victorian factory worker mindset to the age of infinite leverage is like bringing boxing gloves to a drone war. 

11. "The average tech worker can not go more than 6 minutes on average without checking a communication tool." - Sam Corocos

12. "There's so many people working so hard but achieving so little" - Andy Grove

13. The output of clear thinking has never been higher in human history. The output of being busy has never been lower in human history.

---

If you enjoyed this, it's taken from my newsletter. Get my best ideas when you sign up below.

Table of contents

What sentence gives you goosebumps?

Here's mine: "You waste years by not being able to waste hours"

13 thoughts:

1. A behaviour rewarded at school that punishes you later in life: Doing the work without asking why.

2. A behaviour punished at school that rewards you later in life: Asking "Why am I working on this?"

3. The busy trap: Being busy today causes you to be more busy tomorrow. You never get the time to question, delegate or prioritise your schedule.

4. Sign of being too busy: You don't know what the most important question to solve is.

Hint: If you don't know what the most important question is... Good news: You've just found that question: "What is the most important question to solve right now?"

5. Cleaning out inboxes and messages can be a busy trap: All you’ve done is increased the number of replies you will get in the future.

6. You have less time than you think. You do not have 24 hours in the day: That’s like confusing revenue with profit. You have 16 hours per day once you factor in the sleep tax.

7. Note to self: If I’m too busy to spend 20 minutes thinking about what the most important thing to do is that day: I should probably spend an hour instead.

8. Sobering data: Pull up your calendar from this time last year and see how much time you wasted in hindsight.

9. The Energy Razor: If you don’t schedule actions that produce energy, assume they’ll never happen. If you don’t monitor actions that drain energy, assume they’ll keep expanding.

All low agency roads lead to entropy.

10. Bringing a victorian factory worker mindset to the age of infinite leverage is like bringing boxing gloves to a drone war. 

11. "The average tech worker can not go more than 6 minutes on average without checking a communication tool." - Sam Corocos

12. "There's so many people working so hard but achieving so little" - Andy Grove

13. The output of clear thinking has never been higher in human history. The output of being busy has never been lower in human history.

---

If you enjoyed this, it's taken from my newsletter. Get my best ideas when you sign up below.

More Essays

0.1% of ideas I've written — or discovered in rabbit holes

Join 50,000+ people on my 0.1% of ideas newsletter