My life was changed by four sentences in four books

felineflock•about 2 hours ago

The four sentences:

- in our culture it’s healthy to switch jobs every two years, ideally to something the opposite of what you’ve been doing

- there’s an organization - the National Association of Campus Activities - that pays $1000 to $5000 per gig at universities

- to keep learning we need to be surprised. Read books about subjects you know nothing about. Move to a place very unlike home, so that you’ll be surprised every day.

- rich guy said that decades of pursuing more only made him miserable and he would rather have stopped at $30 million then switch to planting trees and writing poetry.

prettyblocks•35 minutes ago

You hear that everyone? Just stop after $30 mil and you will be happier.

arjie•about 1 hour ago

This is Derek Sivers of CD Baby, right? I think he is unusually high-agency in a way I could not imagine myself being. Definitely not one of those people who I look at and say "I could have done that. Why didn't I?"

For instance, I could simply never see myself voluntary relinquishing American citizenship: https://sive.rs/xus

Getting booted out, yes. But giving it up, no chance.

Given that his behaviour is so far from what I would do, I think there are too few shared fundamentals for me to mimic him. So I think I'm not going to do the things he did.

cuttysnark•about 9 hours ago

There’s a huge gap and missing inspirational book sentence between “doing music and nothing else”, the proceeds of which bought a house, and selling a tech company for tens of millions.

The real cliffhanger was the part where he almost fell into successful serial entrepreneurial pursuits, but a book purchased as a joke warned him he’d better not.

pepperoni_pizza•about 9 hours ago

This whole article is just one big humblebrag.

amelius•about 9 hours ago

Hmm I don't see the sentences.

mr_mitm•about 9 hours ago

Me neither, and it was the first thing I looked for. Instead I saw: "No ads. No hype. Just quiet wisdom". Okay then

Ahrgo•about 9 hours ago

These are in every paragraph of his examples:

"While rock climbing, someone says the instructor used to be her physics teacher. The British man is surprised, so she explains that in their culture, it’s healthy to switch jobs every two years, ideally to something the opposite of what you’ve been doing."

Giorgi•about 9 hours ago

Just dont be poor

ericmcer•about 1 hour ago

More like timing.

White guy coming out of college in the late 80s/90s and wanting to get into tech was a rarely opportune hand.

As soon as I read "just redo your career every 2 years" I knew exactly what time period he was 22 during.

Either way a lot of people had similar backgrounds and didn't achieve anything like what he did.

GiorgioG•about 9 hours ago

Seems a bit hyperbolic.

Ahrgo•about 9 hours ago

Small things can have big impacts.

They motivate you to see an angle you just haven't thought about.

I had the issue that I stoped feeling confident going on holiday without proper insurance in a time when i was traveling with my DSLR (worht 3-5k) but i wasn't 'rich' enough ot just replace it if something would break or steal.

There is a sentence: "A ship is not build to stay in the harbor".

I accepted more risk due to this and stoped overthinking certain risks. I'm not here to just sit at home and watch television and if i go out and try something, its fine to risk things

My life was changed by four sentences in four books

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