School for Startups Minutes

Do we have a good life? Do you have a good life? When you think about yourself and what you have done in the last 20, 30, 80 years, do you feel like it's a good life? That is so important for us to think about and to make sure that we are creating the circumstances so that when we are at the end of our lives, we say yes to that question. So we need to think about it and actually spend some time ma...

We all want a good life. We want a good life for ourselves, our family, and our friends. The problem, though, is that we don't go to the next level and actually define what a good life means. So this week, that is what I am going to do. I'm going to talk about a good life and the components that make it up. I already talked about the fact that relationships are incredibly important to having a goo...

I think, universally, everyone wants the same thing: a good life, right? We all wish that for ourselves and for our friends and family. We say, "I want to have a good life. I want to be happy." But we never go to the next level and define what that actually means, to say these are the components of a good life and how to work on each one. So that's what I'm going to do this week. I'm going to defi...

This week, we have been talking about the idea that optimizing our lives to the maximum degree might not be such a good idea. This optimization culture quickly teaches us that there's always a better version of everything: a better routine, a better system, a better diet, a better version of you. That sounds awesome at first, but over time, it creates a moving target that you will never reach. The...

Tim Ferriss, the man who wrote The 4-Hour Workweek , just recently revealed that he thinks we may have gone too far as a society in optimizing everything in our lives. Some people are wearing sensors on both wrists. But something interesting is starting to happen now. After years of adding tools and systems and routines and tracking, many people are starting to do something in the opposite directi...

This week, we're talking about optimizing your life and whether it can go too far. For example, you can't optimize your way into one thing, and we'll tell you what it is. Optimizing is great at improving efficiency. It helps you get more done and waste less time with better systems. But it does not create—I'll tell you what it doesn't—right after this. Meaning. It does not create meaning. There ar...

This week, I'm pointing out that the idea of optimizing your life may have gone just a little bit too far. Today, I want to talk about biohacking and how it has already gone too far. For example, biohacking began as a very practical idea: get better sleep, improve your focus, eat better, make small changes that help your day work better. But like many ideas, it can escalate and go too far. I'll te...

For the last 10-20 years, we've been obsessed with optimizing everything. Optimize your website, optimize your sleep, optimize your diet, your morning routine, and we have to track it, measure it, wear something on our wrist that tells us about it, improve it. Get more apps that do more things and tell us more about what we're doing. No one embodied this more than Tim Ferriss, the man behind The 4...

This week, I've been trying to present a happy message that counters what we see in the world today. It is very scary right now, with our 401Ks going up and down. The stock market is crazy, the price of oil, inflation, we all know the problems that we are facing, but I've tried to share the message that good things are happening as well. For example, AI is going to give you an opportunity to level...

This week, we are looking at the world from a little bit further away. Instead of getting up close and personal in the micro analysis, we're doing a macro, 40,000-foot analysis, trying to show you that the world is actually getting better despite all of the bad things we see. Despite the wars and inflation and the stock market going up and down, good things are happening. I'll give you an example...

I am arguing this week that the world is better than we all think and feel, and that there's never been more opportunity. There are great things happening at the macro level, and I know it's hard to accept because the micro level, the war, the taxes, the inflation, my job being cut, all of that is so scary, but I'll tell you, if at the macro level, good things are happening. And I'll tell you one...

These are scary times right now. We have elections coming up, and the other guys are already stealing it. We have a war going on that I don't think any of us really want. The market is going up and down like NCAA basketball, and my team is not winning, and it's a scary time. And then they throw AI at us. I want to share another way to look at it right after this. So let me tell you what's going to...

This week, I want to talk about some things that will make you happy and feel a little more content. You know, every day right now, it feels like the world is falling apart. We have wars, elections, markets going up and down. Your 401K is like a basketball. You turn on the news, and you only hear bad stuff. There's something that they don't tell you, though, and this week I'm going to focus on tha...

I've been trying to point out that, at the macro level, the 30,000-foot level, things in the world are actually getting better. It's very hard to understand that and to feel it all. The news is bad. We're at war. Gasoline prices are going up. They say it's a hard time to be optimistic, but I've been trying to point out some ways that the world is getting better. I'll give you one more great exampl...

There is no doubt that these are difficult times to live in. We have the war in Iran, gas prices going crazy, and a possible recession. There is a lot to worry about. We all love to worry about the environment, and rightfully so. We have to keep our air and water clean, but we are always hearing that it's getting worse. I'll give you the reality in just a second. Air quality regulations, cleaner e...

News coverage understandably focuses on all of the bad: the conflict, the crime, the instability. When we see this constantly, day after day, it can feel as if the world is becoming a more dangerous place every year. But research gives us a different story. I'll tell you what it is right after this. Across centuries, the overall rate of violence has declined significantly. War deaths as a percenta...

My 15-year-old and I were in the car listening to the radio, and he asked, "Dad, is it always this bad? Is the world always like this?" No, it's not, and we have to keep that in mind. These are difficult times, absolutely no doubt. The war, the gasoline prices, the insecurity, and the lack of knowing what's going to happen, it's a challenging time. However, there is some good news, and I'll share...

These are difficult times all around. We are at war again. There are sleeper cells. They tell us they are going to attack in the middle of the night. Gas prices are soaring. We could be in another recession. It's just a hard time, isn't it? So I thought that this week, I would take a step back, look at things from a 30,000-foot level, and give us a sense of the macro. It's actually pretty encourag...

Human attention naturally gravitates toward problems in modern life. We have a constant focus on problems and how they overshadow all of the positive experiences in our life. We do this to our own detriment. You must learn to get mentally stronger by focusing on the right things and having the right response and the right attitude. I will give my last tip of the week right after this. When we focu...

This week, we are talking about becoming mentally stronger, the idea of neuroplasticity, neuro brain plasticity, plastic. Yes, our brains can change, become stronger over time. It is an amazing part of the brain, something that science is just now coming to terms with. I want to talk about how we can use this to become mentally stronger in our daily lives. I'll give you an example and a tip right...

Bad things happen to all of us. Sometimes events happen that we cannot control. Plans change. Mistakes occur. Unexpected challenges pop up. Our boss yells at us for absolutely no reason. All of these events may be unavoidable. However, you can control your response. I want to give you a trick in just a second that will make you better at controlling your reactions. I will be back in just a second...

This week, I want to talk about how to become mentally stronger. Our mental strength is not dramatic. It is something that grows over time through repeated small habits. Our small daily habits are what end up controlling what we think about and how we act. In just a second, I will give you one example of how to become mentally stronger by accepting certain things right after this. You become menta...

One of my favorite words in the entire world is neuroplasticity, neuro meaning brain and plasticity meaning plastic. The idea that our brain can change and can learn over the period of our lifetime is such a cool idea. So this week, I want to talk about how we can get mentally stronger through some of our habits. I will start with an example right after this. One of the best ways to become mentall...

This week, we have been talking about why some people advance more quickly than others. We have talked about the fact that some people solve problems without being asked. They respond faster than expected. They improve the systems around them. They make decisions when other people hesitate. I have one more thought to share on this. I'll do it right after this. People who advance quickly remain cal...

Some people get promoted more frequently than perhaps they seem like they deserve. Why do some people advance faster than others? This week, we are talking about that, and I hope you can take some of these lessons, some of these ideas, and apply them to your career and get a promotion sooner. I'll give you one way to do that right after this. Some people complete their work as assigned, and that s...