personal library
A small public stack of the books, films, shows, quotes, and links that keep staying with me.
Puzzle > Problem - An easy way to increase agency is to remove "problem" from your vocabulary and replace it with "puzzle". It sounds absurd, but "problem" activates my amygdala and "puzzle" activates my prefrontal cortex. Try it. Self-induced placebo that works.
Figure out what you want, ignore the opinions of others, do so much work, it would be unreasonable that you fail, realize it never mattered to begin with, help others. Once you get there, you've already achieved the things you said would make you successful.38
Paul Graham's legendary book on Lisp programming, available free online. Dense but rewarding — teaches you to think about computation differently.
Lee Robinson's (VP Product at Vercel) living document of personal principles. Honest takes on building, shipping, learning in public, and what matters in tech and life.
What it takes to do exceptional work. A thoughtful exploration of excellence, ambition, and the path to mastery.
Patrick Collison (Stripe CEO) shares hard-won lessons on career, learning, and building. Concise wisdom from one of tech's most thoughtful founders.
When you can't find motivation for yourself, do it for the people who believe in you. A perspective shift on external vs internal motivation.