Umarbek

Bits

Short observations. One-liners. Things I believe or find interesting.

• Most learning happens right at the limit of what you can do. If it feels easy, you're not learning much.
• A calculus lecture assumes you know algebra. If you're comfortable with calculus, it moves too slowly. If you're shaky on algebra, it moves too fast.
• Nothing's duller than poetry in translation.
• Nothing's nerdier than explaining poetry.
• A claim is usually evidence of absence.
• If something needs "natural" written on it to be considered natural, it probably isn't natural.
• Anyone who tells you to "improve your communication skills" while ignoring the substance is essentially saying to improve your bullshitting skills.
• If people keep asking you the same question, write it down once as an essay. Then just send them the link.
• Goodhart's Law: When a measure becomes a target, it ceases to be a good measure.
• If you press me to say why I love her, I can say no more than because it is she, because it is I.
• Whether you're in debt to other people or to fortune, you're still in debt.
• Unexamined life is not living.
• There is no faster way to do something than not doing it at all.
• You remember messages you sent that were not answered better than messages that you did not answer.
• Nothing is as satisfying as self reliance.
• Life gets better as you replace transactions with relationships unless you are the only one who replaced.
• Never forget Apple says, "Think different," not "Leverage cognitive reorientation strategies."
• If you want to avoid a war, make sure those who declare it are the ones fighting it.
• No one should have the privilege to cause harm to others without paying a price.
• A system is unjust if decision-makers are insulated from the downsides of their choices.
• Simple ideas don't spread quickly precisely because they're too simple. The professional classes can't justify their own existence if everything is reduced to something obvious.
• The easiest way to get anything is to deserve it. "Easy" doesn't mean "quick."
• We can describe an insult as a debt unpaid. The best response is to bankrupt the creditor.
• Most of us are living in the ultimate debt because anything you get without much effort becomes debt (aka cheap dopamine).
• If it can't be wrong, it probably is.
• I don't want to work on anything that I wouldn't want to take over my life.
• You'll be known for the most absurd things you do.
• Modern 'virtue' is about displaying the correct opinions, not doing the right things.
• It's harder to unlearn than to learn.
• Learn Python. You don't have to learn anything else. It's easy and effective to invest in such knowledge.
• Content designed to make you watch more content is a waste of time.
• I speak openly on everything, even on matters beyond my full understanding. My opinions show the limits of my own view, not the limits of the things themselves.
• Almost always good is done for no reason, and evil for some reason.
• Genius is just dumb with stamina.
• Wisdom is what's left after you've been wrong enough times.
• Fight bureaucrats by making their rules irrelevant, not by protesting them. The state can't ban what it doesn't understand.
• "Physics is the law, everything else is a recommendation." — Elon Musk
• Not maximizing your potential is actually the sweet spot in a world where perfecting one skill compromises another.
• Beauty is enhanced by unashamed irregularities.
• You won't know what people really think by asking them; they don't even know themselves.
• If you want to make people miserable, pay them (generously and predictably) for their 'hobbies'.
• The most common mistake we make is to do a great job on an unimportant task.
• Identity in its purest Latin sense: to have an identity is to be unlike anything else.
• True status is being able to ignore status games.
• Anything that can be implicit should be.
• You can't build a billion-dollar empire like Instagram if you're wasting hours every day using a service like Instagram.
• Politeness is the enemy of truth.
• I don't want to be a great problem solver. I want to avoid problems—prevent them from happening and doing it right from the beginning.
• Variety in friends is way more important than quantity.
• Mimicking the herd invites regression to the mean.
• Using the word 'science' when it's not science is scientism.
• The marketplace of ideas only works when we keep the marketplace open.
• Every employee is replaceable. Only unemployable is irreplaceable.
• Beware of the person who lists credentials before making an argument. The argument should stand on its own.
• The use of the word 'but' is often a rhetorical scam.
• All systems that can be gamed will be gamed.
• Just as GPS made us worse navigators and calculators made us worse at arithmetic, AI might make us worse thinkers.
• The internet makes people think they're thinking when they're actually just reacting.
• The best management is one with a flat hierarchy. Everyone's equal in respect, different in skill.
• When there is cost for unethical act, people eventually lean toward ethical behavior.
• The person who makes mistakes, but never the same mistakes, is more reliable than someone who never makes any.
• Ethics is a process of constant trial and error.
• If you're motivated enough to go to a bookstore and buy a motivation book, haven't you already solved your motivation problem?
• Repetition does not make a statement more likely to be true, but it makes people more likely to believe it is true.
• Don't try to be the best in an existing category. Create a new category where you are the only option.
• Ignorance is not merely an absence of knowledge, but a presence of the right kind of knowledge.
• Don't take criticism from people you wouldn't take advice from.
• Don't sell anything you wouldn't buy.
• Don't write stuff you don't like to read.
• Don't build what you wouldn't wish existed.
• Don't work for anyone you don't respect.
• Don't take more credit than you're willing to take blame.
• There is no courage without justice.
• The word "free" in advertising is like "love" in a brothel - technically possible but highly unlikely.
• If you ask any question at the global level, the answer is "we have no idea."
• Banks primarily enrich bankers and only lend to people who don't need money.
• The normal reaction to failure is often to repeat it on a grander scale.
• If it needs 'science' in its name to be considered as science, it isn't science.
• The fastest way to become an 'expert' is convincing a few right people to call you one.
• The best way to save money is not to save money. It's to earn more money.
• The opposite of being content is boastful.
• The opposite of equal opportunity is equal outcome.
• The opposite of happiness is boredom, not sadness.
• The opposite of love is apathy, not hate.
• Outside your comfort zone you learn most; too much guidance early can be counterproductive because it removes the necessary struggle.
• Misery is wasted on the miserable.
• Calling everything trauma is the trauma.
• Never delegate what could be automated, and never automate what could be eliminated.
• The grass is always greener on the side that's fertilized with bullshit.
• "The future ain't what it used to be." — Yogi Berra
• You can't pay people enough to work as hard as they'll work on their own projects.
• Understanding components without understanding the system is how idiots operate.
• Those who think religion is about belief don't understand religion, and those who think science is about certainty don't understand science.
• People who write cryptic one-liners don't want readers, they want memorizers.
• People who say "I don't care what people think" usually do. Constantly.
• The best way to have good ideas is to have lots of ideas, then throw away the stupid ones.
• If your job is to follow rules exactly, a robot will replace you.
• If you can't fire people, you hire carefully. If you hire carefully, you hire slowly. If you hire slowly, someone faster eats your lunch.
• If you can't fire the intern who wrote it, you can't fix the bug. This is true of code and true of governments.
• If you need "exciting," "revolutionary," or "amazing" to make your point, you don't have a point.
• The easiest way to unite people: give them someone to unite against. "We" is the most powerful word in influence. The second most powerful is "them."
• Saying something in fewer words doesn't make it truer. It just makes it shareable.
• Progress: trading instinct for insurance policies.
• Post-industrial economy: an economy that forgot how to make the things it needs.
• If your competitive advantage is "we work harder," you don't have a competitive advantage.
• You're not paid for working hard. You're paid for being right. Working hard just improves your odds.
• Don't ask for permission when you can simply do it better and deal with consequences later. Most "rules" are just social constructs, not actual constraints.
• Flex time means working all the time, flexibly.
• A startup is a group of people who agree to be poor together until they're either rich or no longer together.
• Small teams move fast because everyone knows what everyone else is doing. Large teams move slow for the same reason.
• Nobody who says "that's above my pay grade" has ever done anything above their pay grade.
• Show me what someone gets paid for and I'll show you what they actually do, regardless of what their job title says.
• "Free speech, but..." is like "I'm not racist, but..." Whatever comes next proves the opposite.
• Every "temporary" solution becomes permanent. This is true of buildings, code, relationships, and government agencies.
• Summary of book often tells more about summarizer than book itself.
• Everything good is protected by inconvenience. That's how we keep the tourists out.
• Nobody who's actually busy tells you how busy they are.
• The butterfly effect doesn't mean small things always cause big things. It means complex systems are fundamentally unpredictable.
• You learn programming the same way you learn to draw: by doing it badly for a long time until you're doing it less badly.
• If you can't explain it simply, you probably don't understand it. Or you're a consultant trying to justify your fees.
• Consultants are people who borrow your watch to tell you what time it is, then keep the watch.
• People who say "I'm brutally honest" are usually more brutal than honest.
• If you need to explain why your design is good, it isn't.
• If you're bored drawing something, the drawing will look bored. This is also true for code.
• Anyone who describes themselves as a "thought leader" isn't having thoughts worth leading.
• If you need a motivational poster to do your job, you're in the wrong job.
• The most reliable indicator of intelligence is how quickly someone says 'I don't know' when they don't.
• Experience is what you get right after you needed it.
• People who need to tell you they're successful are collecting evidence for themselves, not you.
• "Know your reader" quickly becomes "pander to your reader." Write for yourself.
• All advice is autobiographical. This sentence included.
• A language that doesn't change how you think about programming is not worth learning.
• If you need supplements, your diet is broken. If you take supplements anyway, your wallet is also broken.
• "Life is short" motivates no one. "Your life is shorter" might do it.
• Food scientists are the only people who can make an apple worse by improving it.
• The productivity guru has never produced anything except productivity courses.
• Economics is extremely useful as a form of employment for economists.
• Saying "this is bullshit" is not anti-intellectual. Often, it's the most intellectual thing you can say.
• "I don't care how you do it, just do it" is a complete specification.
• "Quick fix" is an oxymoron that becomes expensive moron.
• If something's worth having at all, it's worth having a good one.
• To be present is to be without story.
• Learning that survives forgetting is the only kind worth paying for.
• Specialization means everyone knows everything just about nothing.
• Morale meetings exist because morale doesn't.
• Privilege is what other people have that you want.
• "Always forgive your enemies; nothing annoys them so much." — Oscar Wilde
• If you are starting a business and take a debt, you are a moron.
• The best time to negotiate your salary is before you even get the job offer.
• How you do anything is how you do everything. It all matters.
• The more you get paid, the harder it is to tell if you're any good.
• A credential is a socially acceptable way to say "trust me blindly."
• We signal virtue by pretending to teach it.
• "Most livable city" means "least affordable for actual living."
• If a YouTube video can teach your job, you don't have one.
• You can't afford to learn from destroying what can't be rebuilt.
• You can't call it charity unless no one is watching.
• I'm 100% happy to watch you get really rich doing something that I have no interest in doing. — Brent Beshore
• The biggest problem with school might be the "classroom fallacy." Belief that real-world problems have 'correct answers.'
• If you think someone is normal, you don't know them very well.
• If someone is trying to convince you that it's not a pyramid scheme, it's a pyramid scheme.