Advice to My Younger Self

A collection of principles that turn good work into exceptional work. These aren’t tips – they’re fundamental truths I wish I’d understood from the start. Each one still shapes my path from competence toward mastery.

Choose worthy problems. The biggest wins come from picking the right problems to solve. The best opportunities often hide in plain sight, written off as unreasonable or impossible by others. Find something that matters to you, and trust your ability to figure it out.

Develop taste. Learn to spot what’s exceptional in every field you touch. Good taste builds on itself – it guides your choices, attracts excellence, and raises your standards. Study the best work you can find, understand what makes it special, then demand that standard from yourself.

Stay curious. Questions beat answers. Don’t just collect information – pursue understanding. Keep asking “why” until you hit bedrock. Push into what you don’t understand. Knowledge builds on itself faster than anything else.

Master focus. Progress happens when you do the right things, not everything. Deep focus is your superpower in a distracted world. Protect your attention like your most valuable asset because it is. Your best work happens in the spaces you create by saying no to urgent but unimportant stuff.

Be steady. Do what you love daily. Small actions, repeated with conviction, reshape your skills, your work, and your life. Consistency beats intensity every time. What you do every day matters more than what you do sometimes. Small improvements build into big changes over time.

Care about your craft. The best craftsmen get pulled forward by the work itself. When you find work that excites you, protect and nurture that connection. This excitement is rare and precious – it’s what will carry you through the tough periods. Life’s too short to make things you don’t care about.

Build with integrity. Do excellent work, especially where it’s hidden. The back of the fence says more about your work than the front. True craftsmanship shows in the details others won’t see – but you do. This hidden excellence can become your superpower.

Embrace being wrong. Being wrong isn’t just okay – it’s expected. The faster you spot and admit mistakes, the faster you improve. Success comes from how quickly you learn from being wrong. Make it easy for others to tell you when you’re off track.

Hold strong convictions, loosely. The best ideas come from believing in something while staying open to being wrong. Strong opinions should be earned through experience, defended hard, and dropped when wrong. This balance is tough but crucial – conviction gives you the strength to pursue bold ideas, while openness keeps you from getting trapped by them.

Communicate simply. Clear writing reflects clear thinking. Use simple words for complex ideas. If you can’t explain something simply, you don’t understand it well enough yet.