Inner Compass

Inner compass is a list of ideas that guide me. It is a collection of quotes, summaries, experiences, book excerpts and learnings over time. When I am feeling low, stressed out, in doubt, or have a decision to make I come to this for guidance. The goal is not to remember everything. The goal is for this document to act as my compass in life.

Most ideas listed in this internal compass are not mine. They have been borrowed from many authors. I am truly grateful for their work. This post is work in progress and continues to evolve with my thoughts.

Ideas in images

Take a break
Don’t ask, Don’t get
The power of tiny gains
Be kind
Consistency over motivation
Practice

Questions I ask myself often

Can you simplify?
Is it good enough?
Will it move the needle?
Am I 80% there already?
Were your intentions clear?
Is this something that you control?
Will this matter 30 days from now?
Does it help reduce your digital time?
Is it worth doing given your hourly price?
What if you are wrong, even a 1% probability?
What is the 1 big thing that you’ll get done today?
Are you a man of action or are you a man of contemplation?
What’s the highest leverage task that you can do right now?
Can this be your superpower? Can you do this 10x better than the competition?
If today were the last day of my life, would I be doing what I am about to do today?
Do you enjoy doing it? Does it give you energy? Can you do this consistently? Day after day, week after week?

Reminders

Failure is given
Checklists works
Embrace iteration
Criticism is given
Become a go-giver
Systems over goals
Hope is not a strategy
Writing helps you think
Health is your top priority
Simplify, Simplify, Simplify
Live by an inner scorecard
It is ok to change your mind
Comparison is the thief of joy
Assume positive intent always
The cost of perfection is inaction
Be yourself. Everyone else is taken
Reflection > Reading New Content
Action is the antidote to anxiety
Enthusiasm is worth 25 IQ points
Create a lot of noise. Look for signal
Don’t be the best. Be the only (Porter).
Stay within your circle of competence
No one died from over-communication
Always share the why. And give examples
Look at what they do and not what they say
Everything in life happens for a good reason
The two best teachers — experience & doing
You learn more from failure than from successs
Cut your losses. Double down on what’s working
Having a plan is important. Even if it is a bad plan
Look at what reality is and not what you want to be
My worst day is still better than someone else’s best day
No one cares what you do, they care what you can do for them
If you want to get lucky, start by increasing your luck surface area
Likes ≠ money. Being famous on Instagram is like being rich in monopoly
In a world full of distractions, the ability to do deep work is a superpower
Every action you take is a vote in the direction of the person you want to become
People don’t back people who are right or wrong. They back people who have a backbone.

Quotes

The only constant in life is change — Heraclitus
What you do speaks so loudly, I can’t hear what you’re saying — Ralph Waldo Emerson
Change happens automatically but for progress you need to work — Jess Sims
Go as far as you can see; when you get there, you’ll be able to see further — J.P.Morgan
Worrying is like a rocking chair, it gives you something to do, but it gets you nowhere. — Erma Bombeck
The greatest predictor of your future happiness is your happiness today. Carpe Diem — Karen Peacock
In the beginner’s mind, there are many possibilities, in the expert’s mind, there are a few — Shunryo Suzuki
The man who asks a question is a fool for a minute, but the man who does not ask is a fool for life — Confucius
Never, ever, think about something else when you should be thinking about the power of incentives — Charlie Munger
The more you create, the more powerful you become. The more you consume, the more powerful others become — James Clear
Yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery, but today is a gift that is why it is called the present — Master Oogway
No matter how great the talent or efforts, some things just take time. You can’t produce a baby in one month by getting nine women pregnant — Warren Buffett
God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, courage to change the things I can, and wisdom to know the difference — Reinhold Niebuhr
Most people don’t start. Most people who start don’t continue. Most people who continue give up. Many winners are just the last ones standing — Sahil Livanga
Most people overestimate what they can do in one year and underestimate what they can do in ten years. — Bill Gates
You will not be right simply because a large number of people momentarily agree with you. You will be right, if your hypotheses are correct, your facts are correct, and your reasoning is correct — Warren Buffett
Would you rather be the world’s greatest lover, but have everyone think you’re the world’s worst lover? Or would you rather be the world’s worst lover but have everyone think you’re the world’s greatest lover? — Warren Buffett

Poems

Agar Aap Sochte Hain

English version here.

Decision making

Optimize for speed. If a decision is reversible, the biggest risk is moving too slow. If a decision is irreversible, the biggest risk is moving too fast.
Minimize long term regret. One way to differentiate stuff that matters vs that doesn’t matter is to ask yourself if you’ll care about it in the future? Fake stuff that matters usually has a sharp peak of seeming to matter in the near term but actually does not matter in the future. One day your life will flash before your eyes. Make sure it’s worth watching.
Have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become.
Reduce decision fatigue. Decision making ability can get fatigued when you use it over and over again. Take the time to plan out, simplify, and automate the repeated decisions. Automating decisions will free up your mental space and give you more time for making important choices.
Make decisions. There is nothing worse than sitting on decision that needs to made. Write down the pros and cons of the decisions and make it. The pain of inaction stings longer than the pain of incorrect action.
Complete it or kill it. If something is important to you, complete it. If not, kill it. Don’t be in the middle. Fill your life with goals that are worth finishing and eliminate the rest.
It is ok to change your mind. Ability to change your mind based on existing or new information is a super power. Don’t stick on to a bad decision.

Living life

Health is your top priority. There is nothing more important than your health. There is no wealth, no fame, no power without good health. Health precedes everything else.
Be an optimist. Optimism should be your default strategy. Pessimism is intellectually seductive and the arguments always sound smarter. But it leads you nowhere. No one is excited by pessimists. No one wants to follow a pessimist. Over the long term, the future is decided by optimists.
Set the agenda. Or someone else will. If you don’t decide what you want for yourself someone else will. Don’t waste your time living someone else’s life. You need to be proactive with what you want. You are more likely to get it. If you don’t know what you want, you end up with a lot that you don’t. Own your career and your life.
Do what interests you. We get more out of what interests us. The sad reality is that many people don’t enjoy their jobs, nor do they learn much from them. If you combine this with the fact that we spend over a third of our lives working, you have a situation where money is the only reason you are waking up each morning for a long long time.
Be yourself, because everyone else is already taken. There is no one out there that shares your same genetic makeup let alone your life experiences. Escape the competition through authenticity. No one can compete with you on being you.
Stop seeking permission. When you spend all your energy looking for other’s permission, approval and acceptance you run out of steam for the things you actually want to do.
Accept First. The first step towards getting somewhere is to accept where you are. Next is deciding that you are not going to stay where you are. After that comes the plan.
Learn from experience. There is really no substitute for experience. You don’t know what you don’t know. You can read stacks of books, get mentors, take courses, or make the perfect plan. You’ll still yourself making mistakes. It’s only when the mistake stings you properly that you learn and don’t forget. The best and quickest way to learn is through experience. There is a difference between seeing a picture of a snake and having a live snake thrown on your lap. It is not that you can’t learn from other people’s experience. It is just that you learn best from your own experience.
Do the right thing. No matter what don’t compromise on your ethics. You would not repent it.
Do what’s good for you. If Coinbase can rescind offers for hundreds of people after explicitly saying that they wouldn’t, despite having $6 billion in cash reserves, and Tesla can lay off 10% of it’s workforce. while giving Elon Musk a $23 billion bonus, then you can change your mind after you accept an offer to do what’s best for you. Especially if that means accepting a better role. Companies take care of themselves. You take care of you.
How to find what you love? Step 1 - Explore widely. Find out what is possible. Step 2 - Test cheaply. Run small, quick experiments. Sample things. Step 3 - Edit ruthlessly. Dive into your favorites. Cut everything else. Step 4 - Repeat.
Be nice & kind. Before you are old, attend as many funerals as you can bear, and listen. Nobody talks about the departed’s achievements. The only thing people will remember is what kind of person you were while you were achieving. Also it is hard to cheat an honest & kind man.
Take risks. The most meaningful things in life come with some level of risk, and if you are always in survival mode, you won’t take them. The stakes will seem too high, even if the downside to that risk is capped.
Buy experiences. Acquiring things will rarely bring you deep satisfaction. But acquiring experiences will.

Mental Models

Start with why. Explain to others and yourself why is something important? What is the rationale behind your action? Give examples to bring it to life.
Knowing what you don’t want gets you closer to what you want. Always Invert. Each no brings you closer to a yes. A lot of success in life and business comes from knowing what you should avoid eg. bad investments, bad marriage, bad food, bad behaviour etc. Amass long-term advantage by consistently being not stupid.
Learn by doing. Not reading/watching/listening. Don’t over study and under execute. You don’t learn cooking by reading cooking books.
Try it out before you go all in. The only sure way to know that you are going to like or not like something is to try it out. Don’t go all in from the very start. For new things, buy a 1 month subscriptions instead of locking in 36 months from day 1. Examples — Webflow, Squarespace, HabitTracker
Think long-term. In a world focused on being short term being long term is a competitive advantage. Remember, most benefits of compounding come in the later stages.
Both quantity and quality time matter. There is nothing like quality time. If you don’t have quantity then sometimes you don’t have quality too.
When wrong, Apologize. Don’t justify your actions. Admit that you screwed up. To make mistakes is human. To own your mistakes is divine. Mistakes become harder to correct the longer they linger. Apologize quickly, specifically & sincerely.
Control your anger. So it does not control you. Anger seldom brings you anything good. It obstructs your rational thought process. Don’t respond or act when you are angry. Breathe in. Let it go. Act once your anger subsides.
Envy is a great leveller, and it levels all downwards. Instead of motivating one to better performance, as my father thought it could, envy prefers to see the other person fall. The envious person is willing to see both sides lose.
Accept the compliment. When you receive a compliment, say thank you. We often ruin compliments by devaluing the statement or acting overly humble. Internally, you might think this prevents you from appearing arrogant or smug. The problem is that by deflecting the praise of a genuine compliment, you don’t acknowledge the person who was nice enough to say something. Simply saying “Thank You” fully acknowledges the person who made the compliment and allows you to enjoy the moment as well.
Speak up. There is some immorality in silence. The immorality to remain silent when there is evil afoot. If you are seeing someone being suffered. When honest people fail in their duty to speak up they wound the dharma.
Mould your Identity . Identities are more important than rules/goals. eg. I am a healthy person. Everytime you see food. You don’t have to make a decision as it is already a part of your identity.

Productivity

Done > Perfect. Don’t let perfect be the enemy of good. Progress > perfection. Make a choice and move on. Just ship.
Embrace iteration. Anything you do you get better with iteration. Without iteration you just don’t know so many things.
Ask yourself and others a deadline. A deadline weeds out the extraneous and the ordinary. It prevents you from trying to make it perfect, so you have to make it different. Different is better.
Reduce distractions. Nearly every habit is initiated by a trigger or cue. One of the quickest ways to reduce the power of the Diderot Effect is to avoid the habit triggersthat cause it in the first place. Unsubscribe from commercial emails. Call the magazines that send you catalogs and opt out of their mailings. Meet friends at the park rather than the mall. Block your favorite shopping websites using tools like Freedom.
What We Measure, We Improve. Measure what matters. The things we measure are the things we improve. It is only through numbers and clear tracking that we have any idea if we are getting better or worse. Our lives are shaped by how we choose to spend our time and energy each day. Measuring can help us spend that time in better ways, more consistently. Measure what matters.
Look out for 80/20 solutions. Get to the 80% output quick. Look for a way in which you can accomplish 80% of what you want with only 20% of the work/effort/time. An 80% solution to a real customer problem which is available right away, is much better than a 100% solution that takes ages to build.
Be consistent. You need consistency more than you need intensity. Consistency makes for progress. Your 1st blog post will be bad, but your 100th will be great. Your 1st workout will be weak, but your 100th will be strong. Put in your reps. Luck also favours the consistent.
Don’t overdo productivity. Don’t bleed every last piece of productivity from every second you have to spare. Look around you, all the people who you love will be gone one day, especially the ones who spent their whole lives looking after you, yes you. Think about that once in a while. Spend your time, love, energy, and emotions accordingly.
Opt-Out vs. Opt-In. There is a famous organ donation study that revealed how multiple European countries skyrocketed their organ donation rates: they required citizens to opt-out of donating rather than opt-in to donating. You can do something similar in your life by opting your future self into better habits ahead of time. For example, you could schedule your yoga session for next week while you are feeling motivated today. When your workout rolls around, you have to justify opting-out rather than motivating yourself to opt-in.

Money

Never bet the house. There is a story about a gambler who lost regularly. One day he heard about a race with only one horse in it, so he bet the rent money. Half way around the track, the horse jumped over the fence and ran away. Invariably things can get worse than you expect.
Money only solves your money problems. Not all your problems. A calm mind, a fit body and house full of love can’t be bought. They are things that need to be earned.
Real wealth is not about money. Real wealth is not having to spend time with jerks. Not being locked into status games. Not feeling like you have to say yes. Not worrying about others claiming your time and energy. Real wealth is about freedom.

People

You are the average of the 5 people who you spend the most time with. . Success in your life depends on who you chose to work with. This can be extended beyond people. What books, podcasts, videos do you consume?
Follow up twice. People forget. They don’t think you are serious the first time. Give them the benefit of doubt. Follow-up twice. It’s amazing how often a second try works.
People are not thinking about you. We spend most of our lives crippled with fear of what other people think of us, when in reality, those other people aren’t making judgments on us, but rather, are worried about what we think of them. Do not let the fear of other people’s opinion destroy your inner peace.
Judge people on the same yardstick as you would judge yourself. We judge others by their behaviour. We judge ourselves by our intentions. Don’t form opinions on people based on single action. People are more complex than that. Anyone can have a bad day.
People are oddly consistent. If someone treats someone badly it’s only a matter of time, they treat you badly. If someone screams over an enemy it is only a matter of time they scream at you.
Don’t change people. Don’t waste your time trying to change people. Set the behaviour expectation and hold that line. If they don’t change, accept and move on. Also you can’t change someone’s opinion by teaching them. You can only aks question that might prompt them to change their behaviour themselves.
Stop being everyone’s friend. Because you just can’t. Trying to appease everyone means you appease no one. Consensus is regression to the mean. Trying to appeal to all leads to average.
Treat others like you would like to be treated. Be genuine above all.
Search goodness. In life you often don’t get what you want, you get what you expect. Go looking for trouble and that’s what you’ll find. Go looking for conflict and you’ll find it. Go looking for people take advantage of you and they generally will. See the world as a dog-eat-dog place, and you’ll always find a bigger dog looking at you as if you’re his next meal. Go looking for the best in people, and you’ll be amazed at how much talent, ingenuity, empathy and goodwill you will find. Ultimately the world treats you more or less the way you expect to be treated. You’d be amazed at how much you have to do with happens to you.
Show your work. The most effective networking strategy has nothing to do with conferences, cocktail hours or cold emails. It is about doing interesting things & sharing them publicly. Like-minded people will come to you.
Praise people. You’ll get 10x better results by elevating good behaviour rather than punishing bad behaviour, especially in children and animals.
Stay away from negative people. Vibes are contagious. The impact of negativity is magnified when we talk about it, no matter what we say. Surround yourself with people who increase your energy. Run far away from those who drain it (Vampires).
Do not hold onto negative criticism. Critics will always be loud and clear. It doesn’t matter how you choose to live your life — whether you build a business or work a corporate job; have children or choose not to have children; travel the world or live in the same town all of your life; go to the gym 5 times a week or sit on the couch every night — whatever you do, someone will judge you for it. There will always be haters and difficult people. For one reason or another, someone will find a reason to project their insecurities, their negativity, and their fears onto you and your life, and you’ll have to deal with it. Criticism and negativity from difficult people are like a wall. We are more likely to remember to this negative criticism than praise. And if you focus on it, it you’ll run right into it. You’ll get blocked by negative emotions, anger, and self-doubt. Your mind will go where your attention is focused. If you’re dealing with criticism, then don’t let the wall keep you from seeing the road. Focus on the path ahead.
Hatred is a curse that does not affect the hated. It only poisons the hater.
When someone is nasty, rude, hateful, or mean with you, pretend they have a disease. That makes it easier to have empathy toward them which can soften the conflict.
Do not hold grudges. If you do, it is only going to make your life bitter. Life becomes much easier when you learn to accept an apology you never get. When someone is nasty, rude, hateful, or mean with you, pretend they have a disease. That makes it easier to have empathy towards them which can soften the conflict. Sometimes good people act badly. You continue to do what is right. Release the grudge as if it was a poison. Let it go.
Forgive. When you forgive others, they may not notice, but you will heal. Forgiveness is not something we do for others; it is a gift to ourselves.
5 years people rule. Only spend time with people who you would want to spend time with even 5 years from now. Life is too short.
Social proof works. When unsure how to act, people copy others, outsourcing their decisions.
The more you give to others, the more you’ll get. Perhaps the most counter-intuitive truth of the universe is that the more you give to others, the more you’ll get. Understanding this is the beginning of wisdom.
If you can avoid seeking approval of others, your power is limitless. The ability to walk away from a deal is what gives you power.
Choose wisely. 90% of happiness in life comes from who you decide to partner with (marry etc). The other 10% is your boss.

Success & Failure

Stack your skills. If you want to be extraordinary, you have two paths: 1) Become the best at one specific thing, 2) Become very good (top 10%) at three or more things. The first strategy is difficult to the point of near impossibility. Few people will ever play in the NBA or make a platinum album. The second strategy is fairly easy. Everyone has at least a few areas in which they could be in the top 10% with some effort. At least one of the skills in your mixture should involve communication, either written or verbal.
Give yourself the liberty to fail. Some failure in life is inevitable. It is impossible to live without failing at something. Unless you live so cautiously that you might as well not have lived at all - in which case you fail by default. Most failures are one-time costs. Most regrets are recurring costs.
Success comes at a cost. Everything in life is a trade-off. Do you want to spend two extra hours at work each day rather than with your kids? Do you want to put your career ahead of your marriage? Do you want to wake up early and go to the gym when you feel like sleeping in? Success in one area is often tied to failure in another area, especially at the extreme end of performance. The more extreme the greatness, the longer the shadow it casts.
Do not worry about who gets the credit. It is amazing what can be achieved if you don’t care who gets the credit.
Rejection is given. It is not personal. It is about your product or your application. Carry on until luck finds you. Keep pushing forward.
Have Patience. No matter how great the talent or efforts, some things just take time. You can’t produce a baby in one month by getting nine women pregnant.
Recipe for success. Under-promise and over-deliver.
Secret to success. Every morning write down the list of things that need to be done that day. Do them.
Nobody cares if you fail. Your biggest critic is yourself. Stop worrying about what other people think—the truth is that they mostly don’t think anything about your successes and failures. They’re too busy thinking about themselves. It may seem depressing, but it’s actually freeing. You’re free to try, experiment, fail, try again—nobody cares anyway, so have fun!

Business

Don’t try to sell what you wouldn’t buy. Potential customer will know if you believe in what you’re selling.
Get the incentives right. It’s the most important thing in management. You get what you reward. Align incentives.
Always humans first. Money is replicable, humans are not.

Cool Hacks

Mirror. To get people around you comfortable.
Power pose. Before an important meeting to boost you.
Heavy Breathe. To signal your brain that you are ok.
I can’t change the past but we can work together on the future. I can’t change what happened to you in the past but together we may be able to use your experience to protect other people.

Learning

Read what you like. There are more books published every year than you can even read in your entire lifetime. It is ok to quit on a book and move to a different one.
Focus on the learning. Do not crave or seek early career success! Instead of trying to impress others with your title or your pay, focus on what you learn, who you help and what habits and skills you develop.
Teaching is the best way of learning. If you really want to learn a topic, then “teach” it. The best way to understand a topic is not to read about it, but write about it. Write a book. Teach a class. Build a product. Start a company. The act of making something will force you to learn more deeply than reading ever will.

Image credits: Liz & Mollie, James Clear & Visualize Value