As a rule the people who know the most about something are the pros whose incomes depend on doing it well. The pros at judging tech talent are ventur… - Paul Graham

If I were back in high school and someone asked about my plans, I'd say that my first priority was to learn what the options were. You [high school students] don't need to be in a rush to choose your life's work. What you need to do is discover what you like. You have to work on stuff you like if you want to be good at what you do.

The harder the task, the less you care about people's race or sex or whatever, either in the racist sense or the diversity sense. You're so desperate simply to find anyone who can do it well that you don't think about anything else.

If you're in a job that feels safe, you are not going to get exceptional, because if there is no danger there is almost certainly no leverage.