No. 654 – November 9, 2025
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Tiny Thoughts
Feelings follow actions.
Reliability is magnetic because humans are hardwired to avoid risk, so once you prove yourself trustworthy and reliable, you become the default choice for opportunities without ever asking for them.
When you’re only halfway interested in something, you’ll lose to someone obsessed. It won’t even be close.
It’s worth asking why.
Small advantages compound over time like interest in a bank account, so being 10% more committed doesn’t give you 10% better results; it gives you 10x better results. Think of it like studying: the genuinely curious person will remember and connect ideas in ways that the person just trying to pass will never.
Being all in doesn’t just beat partially in; it crushes it.
Insights
Vincent Van Gogh on inspiration:
“I know nothing with any certainty, but the sight of the stars makes me dream.”
Marketing legend David Ogilvy on keeping things short.
“The longer your memos, the less likely they are to be read by men who have the power to act on them.”
Aikido instructor George Leonard on how if you want to get better, you have to be willing to look foolish:
“It’s possible that one of the reasons you got on the path of mastery was to look good. But to learn something new of any significance, you have to be willing to look foolish.
[…]
If you’re always thinking about appearances, you can never attain the state of concentration that’s necessary for effective learning and top performance.”
The Knowledge Project [Outliers]
Steve Wozniak is the engineer who built Apple.
He gave millions of his own money to early employees, stepped away from power, and refused to play by the rules everyone else was following.
Woz’s philosophy of open architecture, the very one a young Steve Jobs fought against, is what saved Apple long enough for it to become Apple.
This is the story of the reluctant co-founder who won by refusing to compromise, and a blueprint for success without selling your soul.
Here are 10 of the maxims I took away from this episode and my research:
1. Committees kill revolutions.
2. Learning is the prize.
3. Hold your ideas with the right grip. Let go of incorrect ideas.
4. If it’s worth doing, it’s worth giving it 100%.
5. Obsession isn’t a problem. It’s an advantage.
6. Time will do the work for you if you align with how the world works.
7. Move with urgency. You can do it much faster than you think.
8. Obsess over customers.
9. You win in the dark, when everyone else is partying or sleeping.
10. “Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.”
+ Listen to the full episode Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Web/Transcript | X
Want to go even deeper?
+ Wozniak’s rules to live by
+ All 25 maxims
+ All 11 deeper lessons
+ Members have access to 87 of my highlights from reading Wozniak’s autobiography.
Thanks for reading,
— Shane Parrish