“Comfort is overrated. Because being quiet is comfortable. Keeping things the way they’ve been is comfortable. And all comfort has done is maintain the status quo. So we’ve got to get comfortable with being uncomfortable by speaking these hard truths when they’re necessary.”
“The purpose of art is to collide the intellectual and visceral together at the highest speed possible.” — Penn Jillette
The three headline templates that got me millions of readers.
“The disaster we fear is going to unfold is actually behind us.”
“The first step in leaving your work on time is realizing that you do not need to work long, crazy hours to be successful.”
“Our default answer to opportunities should always be a ‘no,’ with grace. If our default state is rejecting opportunities, then we’ll surely take on less, because in order for a ‘yes’ to happen we need to be doubly convinced that it’s worth it, either by the person presenting it to us convincing us that it’s a good idea or internally convincing ourselves.”
“Tech is not neutral. One of the most important things everybody should know about the apps and services they use is that the values of technology creators are deeply ingrained in every button, every link, and every glowing icon that we see. Choices that software developers make about design, technical architecture or business model can have profound impacts on our privacy, security and even civil rights as users.”
“If you have to think about things like what time, for how long, and what your output is every day, you’re wasting cognitive bandwidth and depleting your willpower by making low-value decisions.”
“One of the most subtle, but effective listening techniques is actually quite simple to learn: It’s the art of the paraphrase.”
“You’ll learn a lot more about the world, but don’t worry — you’ll also be entertained.”