Prediction: Established companies will use cherry-picked examples violating broad definitions of AI safety as a way to suppress competition from star… - Paul Graham

It would be very hard to make yourself read a lot if you didn't like reading. Even if you made yourself "read" lots of books, you wouldn't do it with sufficient attention. So only people who enjoy reading will be able to write well.

It's a superpower to be interested in important things that most other people find boring. They'll do them out of duty, if they do them at all. So if you do them out of genuine interest, you'll get a lot further.

Even though nerds are socially awkward, its actually easier to hang out with them than with smooth people, because standards are lower. You don't worry that you might be making social errors; all of you always are; so it stops mattering.