A master in the art of living draws no sharp distinction between his work and his play; his labor and his leisure; his mind and his body; his education and his recreation. He hardly knows which is which. He simply pursues his vision of excellence through whatever he is doing, and leaves others to determine whether he is working or playing. To himself, he always appears to be doing both.

Let My People Go Surfing: The Education of a Reluctant Businessman

originally: L. P. Jacks

in my data science communication course everyone had to go in front of a room and sit on a chair and answer the question "tell me about yourself". you can't be too excited or too robotic. you can't talk too fast or too slow, too loud or too soft. you can't swivel your chair. your eyes should be on the same plane and should move between a few people. you should tell a story about your motivations, give the WHY. you should be friendly and approachable, your goal is to make the person on the other side feel comfortable, and make them feel like you're a great person to work with.

went to the embarcadero gym for the first time, chinatown's ymca is closed. the equipments are much older. i'm hitting a plateau in my strength, i always do 3 sets of 40 lbs for 10 reps for bicep curls, and on the last set i have to go down to 30 lbs. what is the optimum way to slowly increase the weights? i need to be more consistent or i lose out on my progress.

listened to the backstory of patagonia's Yvon Chouinard. he's a self-taught blacksmith, a rock climber, a surfer, an environmentalist. he basically started patagonia for himself, to make the best climbing gear. he soon realized that it could become a business, and focused on making quality clothing.

“If you want to understand the entrepreneur, study the juvenile delinquent. The delinquent is saying with his actions, "This sucks. I'm going to do my own thing.”

his philosophy is minimalistic. he believes in simplicity, in quality, and in doing things right.

"The more you know, the less you need."

the way towards mastery of any endeavor is to work towards simplicity. complexity is a sign that the functional needs have not been solved. use functionality as a design guidepost. have an obsessive focus on the customer, not on the competition.

in 2022, he donated all his shares of patagonia (worth $3 billion) to a trust and non-profit company for fighting climate change.