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On career advice, getting lucky, and being misunderstood
The Z Fellows Newsletter - Oct 9th, 2023
Jay Yang
October 09, 2023
Welcome back to the Z Fellows newsletter! Every Monday we share 3 ideas - to help you build companies, ship products, and create your life's work.
Imagine you find yourself in a foggy mountain range and you want to find the highest mountain — but you can’t see further than a few feet in any direction.
What do you do?
Most of us try to climb. Wherever we are, we try to take a step in the direction that takes us higher. That’s only natural.
But computer scientists say we’ve got it wrong.
If you climb from where you are, you’re chained to where you started. The risk with the climbing method is if you happen to start near a small mountain, you’ll end up at the top of a small mountain, not the highest one.
Not only that, but you’ll also find yourself further away from where you want to be… on the highest mountain.
Rather than climb, the math says “wander”.
Why?
Randomness gives you a chance to collect as much information as possible, from as many sources as possible.
Once you have a better understanding of the terrain, then you climb.
Source: Climbing The Wrong Hill by Chris Dixon
Luck is an interesting concept to think about.
When most people hear “luck”, they have a negative connotation.
It isn’t earned through hard work so it must be bad.
Yes and no.
I believe there are two types of luck:
Blind Luck - This is the lottery luck that most people think of
Manifested Luck - This is formulaic. You can increase the probability of a positive outcome by taking certain actions.
As Sahil Bloom says…
“What we come to call "luck" is actually the macro result of 1,000s of micro actions. Your daily habits put you in a position where “luck” is more likely to strike.”
Be a Connector
“When you connect other people, tons of value will eventually flow back to you. Introduce your friends to each other. Opportunities are everywhere: Say yes to pick-up basketball, a spontaneous afternoon run, or a trip to the museum.”
Reminds me of this quote by Chris Williamson:
"Networks don't divide as you share them, they multiply.”
Avoid Boring People
“’Avoid Boring People.’ Three words, two meanings. The trope is a reminder to (1) stay away from people who aren’t interesting and (2) to be interesting and avoid boring people when you’re speaking with them.”
Twitter DM is a Superpower
“Get on Twitter. Tweet about what interests you. Follow like-minded people. Send generous, thoughtful replies. Tweet so the people you admire most will follow you. Once they do, send them a direct message.”
Source: How to Maximize Serendipity by David Perell
I recently stumbled across a short essay Sam Altman wrote 3 years ago.
One of his readers asked him how to stop caring what other people think.
This was his answer…
“The most impressive people I know care a lot about what people think, even people whose opinions they really shouldn’t value (a surprising numbers of them do something like keeping a folder of screenshots of tweets from haters).
But what makes them unusual is that they generally care about other people’s opinions on a very long time horizon—as long as the history books get it right, they take some pride in letting the newspapers get it wrong.”
Source: The Strength of Being Misunderstood by Sam Altman
See you next Monday,
- Jay + The Z Fellows Team
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