Majicman Notes

The Americans have all a lively faith in the perfectibility of man, they judge that the diffusion of knowledge must necessarily be advantageous, and the consequences of ignorance fatal; they all consider society as a… Read more

Aldous Huxley on approaching life with lightness, even in the face of difficulty: It’s dark because you are trying too hard. Lightly child, lightly. Learn to do everything lightly. Yes, feel lightly even though you’re… Read more

The novel,  The Spy Who Came in from the Cold, asks you to heed a warn­ing. Where are you left mor­ally if you become the same as your enemy? “I think this is a grown-up… Read more

Ideas are like fish. If you want to catch little fish, you can stay in the shallow water. But if you want to catch the big fish, you’ve got to go deeper. Down deep, the fish are… Read more

Samurai called their principles “virtues” rather than “values”; virtues are what you do, while values are merely what you believe. Ben Horowitz  What you do is who you are  Read more

There’s a common question in Silicon Valley about what makes an extraordinary entrepreneur. Experienced investors point to various traits. Perseverance. Grit. Overcoming adversity. Hustle. Innate genius. A good childhood. A bad childhood. Luck. But the… Read more

The most dra­matic men­tal change that comes with age is a loss of interest in what oth­ers think. And that allows for more, not less, risk-tak­ing. Carl Benedikt Frey https://www.carlbenediktfrey.com Read more

If you want to be a successful creative, your hit rate probably doesn’t matter as much as how good your best stuff is. One exceptional piece of work makes up for hundreds of duds.  The… Read more

It took me a long time to figure out that I needed deadlines. Deadlines were the difference between a dream and something that you complete. And what happens with deadlines is that you’ve got to… Read more

Los Angeles weather is the weather of catastrophe, of apocalypse, and, just as the reliably long and bitter winters of New England determine the way life is lived there, so the violence and the unpredictability… Read more