if the hacker is a creator, we have to take inspiration into account. - Paul Graham

If you really want to hold yourself to a high standard, graph the growth rate of the number you care about instead of the number itself. Then you're winning if you can even keep it flat.

Finishing things is more than just an exercise in tidiness or self-discipline. In many projects, a surprising amount of the best work is done in what was meant to be the final stage.

If you suppress variations in income, whether by stealing private fortunes, as feudal rulers used to do, or by taxing them away, as some modern governments have done, the result always seems to be the same. Society as a whole ends up poorer.