Life Lessons From Others

An evolving collection of impactful life lessons that others have learned.

Self-Narratives can influence and mold who you are.

"Now, as I’ve gotten older, I would say starting in my mid to late 20s, I could not help but notice the effect on people of the stories they told about themselves. If you listen to people, if you just sit and listen, you’ll find that there are patterns in the way they talk about themselves. There’s the kind of person who is always the victim in any story that they tell. Always on the receiving end of some injustice. They’re the person who’s always kind of the hero of every story they tell. The smart person, they delivered the clever put down there. There are lots of versions of this, and you’ve got to be very careful about how you tell these stories because it starts to become you, that you are in the way you craft your narrative, kind of crafting your character. And so I did at some point decide, 'I am going to adopt self-consciously as my narrative, that I’m the happiest person anybody knows.' And it is amazing how happy-inducing it is."

— Michael Lewis (Source)

On imposter syndrome

Even Michael Lewis—one of the most successful American writers of all time—has imposter syndrome (Source, 31:00). It's not just you and me.

"Yes and..." when evaluating ideas

"When someone in this room says something, don’t ask if it’s true, ask what might it be true of. What value might there be in that thing that was said? Don’t try to show me how smart you are by showing how stupid everybody else is. Show me how smart you are by showing me how smart everybody else is.” — Daniel Kanheman