This is a clip from a talk titled "Escaping the Local Optimum of Low Expectation": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5qjA8HPJl_0

Advice number 3 is to measure passion, not progress.

So most of us get an average of about 27,000 days of life.

I think a good metric by which you should live is to maximize the number of those days that are filled with a passionate pursuit of something, not by how much you've progressed towards a particular goal.

Because goals are grounded in your comparison to other human beings, to something that's already been done before.

Passionate pursuit of something is the way you achieve something totally new.

Again, I'm a little bit Russian so maybe I romanticize this whole suffering and passion thing.

But the people who love you, the people who care for you, like I mentioned, your friends, your family, should not be trusted.

Parents and significant others will tell you to find a secure job, because passion looks dangerous.

Advisors, colleagues will tell you to be pragmatic because passion looks like a distraction from the main effort that you should be focusing on.

And society will tell you to find balance, work-life balance in your life, because passion looks unhealthy.


Speaker 0: Advice number 3 is to measure passion, not progress. So most of us get an average of about 27,000 days of life. I think a good metric by which you should live is to maximize the number of those days that are filled with a passionate pursuit of something, not by how much you've progressed towards a particular goal. Because goals are grounded in your comparison to other human beings, to something that's already been done before. Passionate pursuit of something is the way you achieve something totally new.

And a quick warning about passion. Again, I'm a little bit Russian so maybe I romanticize this whole suffering and passion thing. But the people who love you, the people who care for you, like I mentioned, your friends, your family, should not be trusted. Accept their love, but not their advice. Parents and significant others will tell you to find a secure job, because passion looks dangerous.

It looks insecure. Advisors, colleagues will tell you to be pragmatic because passion looks like a distraction from the main effort that you should be focusing on. And society will tell you to find balance, work-life balance in your life, because passion looks unhealthy.

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Measure passion not progress