things life taught me

not preachin' - just writin' it down so i don't forget and go back to bein' dumb. might be inspired from naval ravikant, buddhism, stoicism, and starin' at the ceilin' at 2am.

happiness = peace, not pleasure. chasin' dopamine hits is just rentin' joy.
99% of the things in life don't matter at all. the hard part is figurin' out the 1%.
life is a single-player game. you're born alone, you die alone, and your github contributions graph don't come with you.
you can't control what happens to you, only how you respond. marcus aurelius was sayin' this while runnin' an entire empire.
in the early days, go all in on your career. no balance, no distractions. the "other parts of life" stuff comes later - you can't pour from an empty cup.
money can't buy happiness, but it can buy freedom. and freedom is pretty close.
attachment is the root of sufferin'. not the thing itself, but your clingin' to it.
comparison makes you sick. someone's always ahead, someone's always behind. run your own race.
motivation is a joke. if it shows up, act immediately - that stuff depletes faster than your phone battery.
you = what you are right now. not tomorrow's plans, not yesterday's wins.
memento mori - remember you're gonna die. not to be depressin', but to stop wastin' time on stuff that doesn't matter.
never make excuses, no matter what. the universe doesn't care about your reasons.
nobody actually cares about you more than you do. they're too busy worryin' about themselves.
bein' alone is far better than bein' surrounded by fake and drama-oriented friends. loneliness is temporary, bad company is damage.
if someone's gossipin' about others to you, they're gossipin' about you to others. that's not a maybe, that's a guarantee.
the cold approach is an art that can be developed. talkin' to strangers is a skill, not a personality trait.
stay calm, whatever happens. panicking has literally never solved anythin' in the history of humanity.
we suffer more in imagination than in reality. most of the things you're scared of will never happen.
nothing is free. everythin' has a price tag, visible or not.
stop wantin' things. become the person who deserves 'em. a guy who hits the gym every day deserves the body - whether it shows yet or not. results ain't in your control, but deservin' 'em is.
fame without influence is useless. bein' known by a million monkeys doesn't make any sense.
don't try to fix too broken glasses - they'll only wound you. and no, am not talkin' about glasses.
the best communicator in the room is the one who listens the most, not the one who talks the most.
don't put your raw self or personal life too much on social media. there are all kinds of people out there - don't give everyone a free pass to have an opinion about your life.
put a black dot on a white paper and everyone stares at the dot. that's society - 99% white, but all they see is the 1%. be careful out there.
if you wanna make a bad decision, ask everybody.
the world is unfair in every possible sense. idk why, god just built it that way. accept it and move on.
work expands to fill the time you give it. give yourself a week to write an email and you'll somehow need all 7 days. give yourself 10 minutes and it's done in 5.
ask for forgiveness, not permission. by the time everyone agrees, the opportunity already left the buildin'.
burn the ships. when there's no plan B, plan A suddenly starts workin'. retreat is comfortable, but comfort never built anythin' worth rememberin'.
say "no" more than you say yes. your calendar is not a charity. every "sure, why not" is a funeral for somethin' that actually mattered.
you can't convince a monkey to give up a banana by promisin' him unlimited bananas in monkey heaven. only humans fall for that.
politicians these days are just lions promisin' to go vegetarian once they become king of the jungle.
history is mostly written by people who had the power to hold the pen. don't assume the heroes were always heroes.
if you can't find anythin' wrong with your own ideology, you're brainwashed. if you can't find anythin' right in your opponent's, you're brainwashed twice.
volume beats luck. shoot enough shots and "luck" starts showin' up suspiciously often. create your own luck.
if you took all the money from a millionaire and gave it to a poor person, in 10 years the millionaire will be a millionaire again and the poor person will be poor again. it was never about the money.
hope for the best, prepare for the worst. that's literally all my swe career taught me.
there's nothin' worse than a slow failure. fail fast, learn what you gotta learn, and move on to the next thing.
the desire for more positive experience is itself a negative experience. the acceptance of negative experience is itself a positive experience.
don't hope for a life without problems. hope for a life full of good problems - ones you actually enjoy solvin'. if there's no problems at all, life gets borin' and existential crisis kicks in.
old problems need old solutions, new ones need new. buddha ain't gonna teach you how to use claude code, but he'll teach you how to not lose your mind while doin' it.
let go or be dragged. simple as that.