BEN CASNOCHA

The internet tends to make smart people smarter and dumb people dumber.

Rule of thumb: Be skeptical of things you learned before you could read. E.g., religion.

Talk to people no one else is talking to. Who would have thought that giving a speech at a funeral at age 12 would introduce me to a man who would introduce me to my first business contact who would introduce me to several other important people in my life. That's luck. That's randomness.

I really focused on three things in high school - my company, basketball and my school work.

I’m skeptical of passive learning. If you don’t write down what you’re hearing and learning, what the odds you remember it?

Expose yourself to as much randomness as possible.

Taking on short term risk can involve switching jobs, joining new groups / associations in the area, launching a personal blog, running an experiment within your existing job. These are some practical ways to inject volatility into your life, and thus some risk.

I'm just the smallest dot in a big map of human history.

I to the We means that both the individual's effort and the power of the network matter, and they work in tandem. Someone with no skill won't get very far, no matter how strong the network. Similarly, someone with lots of skill but a weak network won't realize his or her fullest potential. So, you need both.

I've always loved to write, and I kept a diary of what I thought about my business, being an entrepreneur and other things of interest to me.

Talk to people no one else is talking to. Who would have thought that giving a speech at a funeral at age 12 would introduce me to a man who would introduce me to my first business contact who would introduce me to several other important people in my life. That's luck. That's randomness.

I have a broad range of interests, so I'll always be working on something.

Expose yourself to as much randomness as possible.

I really focused on three things in high school - my company, basketball and my school work.

I'm just the smallest dot in a big map of human history.

Long-term goals are dangerous. They limit you. They hinder you from reacting to new conditions.

Sometimes I have to pause to make the distinction between Ben the teenager and Ben the businessman.

I don't want to be normal. I want to be something else.

I've always loved to write, and I kept a diary of what I thought about my business, being an entrepreneur and other things of interest to me.

It got a little stressful in my first two years of high school, trying to make conference calls with investors in between classes, but I definitely learned a lot of important time-management lessons.

If frequency with which you cite an education credential does not decrease over the course of your life, you’re not accomplishing very much.

I’m skeptical of passive learning. If you don’t write down what you’re hearing and learning, what the odds you remember it?

Sometimes Plan B can have the same desired outcome, but a different path for getting there.

If you really understand something, you can: 1) explain it using a clear metaphor and 2) explain the strongest counter-argument to the idea.

Rule of thumb: Be skeptical of things you learned before you could read. E.g., religion.

I to the We means that both the individual's effort and the power of the network matter, and they work in tandem. Someone with no skill won't get very far, no matter how strong the network. Similarly, someone with lots of skill but a weak network won't realize his or her fullest potential. So, you need both.

Expose yourself to as much as possible. Attend conferences no one else is attending. Read books no one else is reading. Talk to people no one else is talking to.

The internet tends to make smart people smarter and dumb people dumber.

Taking on short term risk can involve switching jobs, joining new groups / associations in the area, launching a personal blog, running an experiment within your existing job. These are some practical ways to inject volatility into your life, and thus some risk.

One theme that fascinates me is cognitive enhancement. It seems only a matter of time until we live in a world where steroids for the brain are readily available to all. And once we come to grips with that reality, I suspect the debate over the ethics will be much more heated than the debate over steroids in baseball or any other sport, where the use is limited to a select group of freakish athletes.