Identify obvious failure points, and steer clear of them.

Theory of Constraints: A system is only as strong as its weakest point. Focus on the bottleneck.

Preference Falsification: People lie about their true opinions and conform to socially acceptable preferences instead.

Mimetic Theory of Desire: Humans are like sheep. We don’t know what we want, so we imitate each other. Instead of creating our own desires, we desire the same things as other people. The entire advertising industry is built on this idea.

Competition is for Losers: Avoid competition. Stop copying what everybody else is doing. If you work at a for-profit company, work on problems that would not otherwise be solved.

Secrets are Hidden in Plain Sight

things that don’t make sense are a learning opportunity. Big opportunities won’t make sense until it’s too late to profit from them.

The Wisdom of Paradox: Logic is the key to scientific truths, but paradoxes are the key to psychological ones. When it comes to the human condition, the deepest truths are often counter-intuitive.

Planck’s Principle: Science doesn’t progress because people change their views. Rather, each new generation of scientists has different views. As old generations pass away, new ideas are accepted and the scientific consensus changes.

A complex system designed from scratch never works and cannot be patched up to make it work. You have to start over with a working simple system.

Parkinson’s Law: Work expands to fill the time available. People don’t want to look like they’re lazy, so they find extra tasks to tackle, even if they’re trivial.

In the age of the Internet, when everybody has Google search and personalized social media feeds, differentiation is free marketing. The more specific your goal, the more opportunities you’ll create for yourself. Narrowing your aperture can expand your horizons.

Hormesis: A low dose of something can have the opposite effect of a high dose. A little bit of stress wakes you up, but a lot of stress is bad for you. Lifting weights for 30 minutes per day is good for you, but lifting weights for 6 hours per day will destroy your muscles. Stress yourself, but not too much.

Hold yourself to a higher standard than you hold others to.

Legibility: We are blind to what we cannot measure. Not everything that counts can be measured, and not everything that can be measured counts.

Horseshoe Theory: Extreme opposites tend to look the same.

Personal Monopoly: Corporations reward conformity, but the Internet rewards people who are unique. If you work in a creative field, strive to be the only person who does what you do. Find your own style, then run with it. Create intellectual real estate for yourself.

Penny Problem Gap: Economists assume demand is linear, but people’s behavior totally changes once an action costs money.

The Paradox of Abundance: The average quality of information is getting worse and worse. But the best stuff is getting better and better. Markets of abundance are simultaneously bad for the median consumer but good for conscious consumers.