When you find yourself thinking 'life is too short for x,' that's not just a figure of speech or a synonym for annoying — it's a real signal. If life is genuinely too short for something, you should try to eliminate it.

Bullshit enters your life in two ways: it's forced on you, or it tricks you. The bullshit you choose is often harder to eliminate than the bullshit imposed by circumstance, because the things that lure you into wasting time have to be really good at tricking you.

One byproduct of technical progress is that things we like tend to become more addictive. We increasingly have to stand outside ourselves and ask 'is this how I want to be spending my time?'

Heuristic for spotting fake importance: ask if you'll care about it in the future. Fake stuff that matters has a sharp peak — the area under the curve is small, but its shape jabs into your consciousness like a pin.

Rather than morbidly reminding yourself of death, cultivate a habit of impatience about the things you most want to do. Don't wait to climb that mountain, write that book, or visit your mother. Just don't wait.

If you're a freelancer or run a small company, firing or avoiding toxic customers can decrease the bullshit in your life by more than it decreases your income. The same logic applies to choosing employers — prioritize bullshit-avoidance over money and prestige.

The reason I'm sad about my mother is not just that I miss her but that I think of all the things we could have done that we didn't. With my son, I at least don't have regrets over what might have been — we had the best time a daddy and a 3 year old ever had.