Hard work

`3:09:13`

And so there is a degree to which you wanna make the mistake. So I think I would still give the advice of you want to have a stretch of your life where you work too hard, including a thing that fails. I don't think you can learn the lessons why that's a bad idea in any other way except by doing it. There is a degree like, but of course you don't. — I think you should stretch. Should you have to stretch for a decade? I'm not so sure. — Yeah, the decade thing is 20s is a special time. — It's a lot to trade. You don't get your 20s back. Yeah, you don't get your 30s back. You don't get your 40s back. You really, I would've regretted personally if I hadn't done the other things I did in my 20s, if I hadn't had the fun I had, if I hadn't had the friends I had, if I hadn't built up the hobbies that I did, if I hadn't started driving race cars at an early enough age to actually get really good at it, if I had just gone all in on business because I would've got the same out in the end. This is something Derek Sivers really taught me is he has this great essay

`3:10:15`

about how when he went for a bike ride, he could go really hard all out and he could do the ride I think in whatever 19 minutes. Or he could enjoy the ride, go 5% slower, do the ride in 21 minutes and realize there's only two minutes apart. Either I go all in all the time, there's nothing else, I'm completely exhausted at the alt. Or I travel the same distance and I arrive maybe two minutes later, but I got to enjoy the scenery, listen to the birds, smell the flowers. That journey is also valuable. Now I say that while accepting and celebrating that if you wanna be the best at one thing in the world, no, you have to sacrifice everything. You have to be obsessed with just that thing. There is no instant of someone who's the best in the world at something who's not completely obsessed at. I didn't need to be the best at anything. This was a rare blessing of humility I had early on is like, do you know what?

`3:11:16`

I am not that smart. I'm not that good. I'm not that talented. I can do interesting things by combining different aspects and elements that I know, but I'm not gonna be the best at anything. And that released me from this singular obsession with just going, I'm gonna be the best programmer in the world. Eh, I know I'm not. I failed at it twice before I even got how conditional it's worked. I'm not smart enough to be the best at anything. I'm not dedicated enough to do that. That's a bit of a blessing. And I think as a society, we have to straddle both celebrating peak excellence, which we do all the time and celebrating the peak intensity of mission it takes to become that. And then also going like, do you know what? We don't all need to be Michael Jordan. There's only gonna be one of those. — Well, we should say that there's certain pursuits where a singular obsession is required. Basketball is one of them. By the way, probably racing. If you wanna be the best at F1 in the world...