Philosophy
The foundation. Why you do what you do. How you operate.
Non-Negotiables
1. Never Stop. The only way to lose is to quit. Bad day? Log something anyway. Hard day? Fifteen minutes counts. Nobody's watching? You're watching. That's enough.
2. Prioritize Ruthlessly. You can't do everything. Pick what matters most. Do that first. Say no to the rest.
3. Fuel the Body. Body runs the brain. Three real meals, movement, seven to eight hours of sleep. You can't code your way out of poor health.
4. Ship Things. Done beats perfect. Code that runs wins over plans that don't. Push it, get feedback, iterate. The PR doesn't need to be flawless.
5. Stay Curious. The moment you stop being excited about how things work, you've lost the plot. Linux internals, networking deep dives, Go concurrency -- the joy in learning is the whole point.
TIP
If it feels like a chore every single day, something's wrong. Find the fun or change the approach.
Just Do It
The hardest part is the 5 seconds before you start. The anxiety, the difficulty, the resistance — all of it disappears the moment you begin. You know this from experience. Every single time you've started something hard, the feeling of dread evaporated once you were in motion.
Stop waiting. If you want to do something, do it now. Not after one more video. Not after you feel ready. Now.
Use AI less. The struggle is the learning. When you let the machine write your code, you skip the part where you actually get better. Fight through the confusion. Read the docs. Debug it yourself. That friction is the point.
Think of yourself as a loser. Look at your past self. That's the baseline. Be better than that person today. Not better than someone on Twitter. Not better than some imagined ideal. Better than yesterday's you. That's it.
Past and future don't exist. There is only what you're doing right now. Don't replay failures. Don't fantasize about outcomes. Look at the goal, move toward it, and keep moving. Just do.
Mindset Shifts
| From | To |
|---|---|
| Fixed mindset ("I'm bad at Go") | Growth mindset ("I'm learning Go") |
| Fear of failure | Failure as data |
| Comparing to others on Twitter | Comparing to yesterday's me |
| Seeking comfort | Seeking growth |
| Scarcity ("not enough time") | Abundance ("I have today") |
| Perfectionism | Progress ("this PR is good enough") |
| Motivation-driven | Discipline-driven |
| Waiting for the right moment | Just starting now |
| Leaning on AI for everything | Struggling through it yourself |
| Dwelling on past/future | Doing the thing in front of you |
Quotes
"We suffer more often in imagination than in reality." -- Seneca
"The obstacle is the way." -- Marcus Aurelius
"He who has a why can bear almost any how." -- Nietzsche
"You are what you do, not what you say you'll do." -- Carl Jung
Daily Rhythm
Morning: Wake early. Move for fifteen minutes. Set three priorities. Do the hard thing first.
During the day: Deep work blocks, no multitasking. Pomodoro when stuck. Take real breaks away from the screen.
Evening: Log the day. Set tomorrow's top three. Rest properly.