Are you working on the most important problem in your field? Why not? (with Rohit Krishnan)

1. Be Careful Who You Let Close

Be vigilant and careful about who you allow to become close to you, especially if they exhibit character traits that tend to cause harm to others.

2. Develop Personal Worldview

Synthesize your views and philosophies into a coherent personal worldview to better understand your own thought processes and address issues mindfully.

3. Prioritize Curiosity for Innovation

To be innovative or create something new, use your curiosity as the primary guide for allocating your time and resources, as this often leads to better collective outcomes.

4. Ask the “Hamming Questions”

Regularly ask yourself what the most interesting problems in your field are, and then honestly assess if you are actively working on those problems.

5. Evaluate Ideas by Value

Distinguish between ideas that are improbable but would be highly valuable if successful (worth pursuing) and those that would be pointless even if successful (avoid).

6. Cultivate Obsessive Focus

Observe that many successful individuals exhibit an obsessive focus on unique interests; steer towards deep interests to foster similar dedication.

7. Avoid Utilitarian Career Choices

Instead of solely pursuing the “best opportunity” based on external analysis, steer your career and time towards what genuinely interests you for greater engagement.

8. Test Belief Coherence

Actively think about the internal coherence of your opinions to test their limits and efficacy, especially when discussing topics outside your immediate silo.

9. Embrace Emergent Thinking

For complex social and biological issues, move beyond purely reductionist approaches and consider empirical or heuristic-based solutions that account for emergent phenomena and context.

10. Use Network Mental Model

Approach understanding complex phenomena by conceptualizing them as networks of interacting nodes and edges, visualizing information flow and recognizing model limitations.

11. Apply Trilemma for Problems

When something goes wrong, analyze it through the lens of incompetence, malice, or bureaucracy to avoid immediate blame and gain a nuanced understanding of the root cause.

12. View Understanding as Models

Recognize that all understanding is based on models, not absolute reality, and use multiple models to grasp different facets of a phenomenon.

13. Pursue Incremental Efficiencies

Focus on making small, incremental improvements in processes, as these accumulate over time to create significant collective value and platform advancement.

14. Stay Vigilant on Selection Metrics

Consistently evaluate and update the tools and metrics used for hiring or selection, moving past measures that become less predictive or are easily gamed.