
Sam Altman's 36 life lessons before age 30 (2015) - LearnerHerzog
http://www.businessinsider.com/36-life-lessons-from-the-head-of-silicon-valleys-most-important-startup-factory-2015-4
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whatyoucantsay
It's an excellent list, other than 14).

> 7) Don’t waste time. Most people waste most of their time, especially in
> business.

The difficult part of this one is that many businesses employ very intelligent
and motivated people to make their products into addictive time sinks. There's
a reason so many websites start playing videos immediately upon loading and
then automatically load more until you stop them. It has nothing to do with
concern for what's best for you as a user or as a human. It takes more
determination not to waste time on the internet every year. It's an arms race
that Facebook, Netflix, Reddit, Medium, etc are winning.

While sama is doing what he does, most people spend hours tapping and stroking
their phones and hours more watching video _on a daily basis_.

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tluyben2
I agree with many of the points but he has somewhat of an age obsession. As
someone who probably (statistically) will reach the age of 100, it does not
sound very enlightened when only 30. This is not the only article he has
lamenting the passing of time.

Also point 6, mostly a good point, reads like it was written for 12 year old;
‘internet’ is the best thing if not used frivolously, which is what that
sentence, imho, is supposed to mean.

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LearnerHerzog
One of the better single lists of advice I've read. Thanks Sam

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2018wil
Was #4 a secret?

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LearnerHerzog
Which part?

It's no secret _" it’s hard to be totally happy/fulfilled in life if you don’t
like what you do for your work."_ The point is _" most people pick their
career fairly randomly"_; to those people, the rest of the advice he gives in
#4 is very helpful.

Napoleon Hill would certainly approve of the suggestion to _" aim to be the
best in the world at whatever you do professionally"_\- similar to the
philosophy Hill promotes: _" Whatever the mind can conceive and believe, it
can achieve regardless of how many times you may have failed in the past"_.
Unless you were born into a billionaire family and never had to consider goals
of the people around you, I'm sure you're aware that most people, even in
America, unfortunately, don't believe in themselves very much.
[https://www.forbes.com/sites/niallmccarthy/2016/09/23/survey...](https://www.forbes.com/sites/niallmccarthy/2016/09/23/survey-69-of-
americans-have-less-than-1000-in-savings-infographic/)

Even ambitious people tend to set goals way lower than they are capable. A
person working all day every day to make a million dollars by retirement could
probably make a billion in 10 years if they believed it.

