George Mack Quotes

Golden rule: Never underestimate someone’s ability to get in their own way.

The easiest way to increase my bias to action is to say to myself: “I’m not thinking small enough.” If you’re delaying eating an elephant, think of the smallest bite. If the elephant is too big, try an organ, if too big, try an individual cell, if too big, try an atom, if too big, try a proton, if too big, try a quark. You start with a few quarks on your plate, the 3 tiniest steps imaginable, and before you know it, you’ve got an elephant shaped stomach.

Alive mode = When you make choices based off what makes you feel the most alive, regardless of the status of the choice.

Dead mode = When you make choices based off status and sacrifice what makes you feel the most alive behind the eyes.

Pick any problem in your life. Now imagine you have an evil twin with a moustache. This evil twin is making it their sole focus to solve this problem before you do. What are they doing differently to you? Write this down. And then try to beat them. Hurry. They've already started.

The three biggest myths society tells children: Santa Claus, the tooth fairy, and adults have everything figured out.

Rule of thumb for spotting future trends: If you’re mocked for it, it doesn’t mean it’s the future. But if you’re not mocked for it, it’s almost certainly not the future.

If you compliment someone behind their back, the listener respects your loyalty. If you gossip about someone behind their back, the listener starts wondering if you'll do the same once their back is turned.

One of the most ironic lessons in life: The pareto principle is the pareto principle for principles. When you find yourself exploring other principles, first assume you haven't taken the pareto principle seriously enough. It's true even when you factor in this rule.

Friendstration - A feeling of frustration when you believe in a friend more than they believe in themselves.

Never argue with a professional cynic online. Instead, try and find their earliest ever work. Often when I go scroll back far enough, I'll discover an old version of them that had hope, that had optimism, that had agency. And then some rejection happened.

Underappreciated advice: Get friends who are significantly older than you. There's no mimetic competition. Just decades of wisdom they love to share. This was normal for most of your ancestors.

Useful rule of thumb: If someone says "trust the science", distrust them and whatever they've just said.

3-factor authenticator for decisions: 1). Luck razor - What do I think will produce the most luck in the future 2). Story razor - What do I think will make for the best story 5 years from now? 3). Alive razor - What makes me feel the most alive behind the eyes? If all 3, go.

A skeptic wants to see the truth. A cynic wants to see you depressed.

The best writing advice I’ve found is to read your writing on Kindle. When I read my work in Google docs, I think I’m a genius and I need to say more. When I read my work on Kindle, I think I’m an idiot and need to say less.