The place to store all the ideas, thoughts and tips that inspired me. From time to time, I tend to throw in my own reflections.
Note: Each notion has its author, date of my discovery and sometimes a hyperlink to the source. Part of the citations originally come from a different language, which has been marked with the appropriate flag, such as (🇵🇱) for Polish.
10/05/2017
“People love to spend money on something that does not really make sense and what they do not understand, and at the same time, the difference in real benefit is marginal. In addition, surprisingly many do a job that they do not like to get the money they do not have (credit) for which they buy items they do not need, wanting to impress people who they do not like.” — WODZU from dobreprogramy.pl (🇵🇱)
16/05/2017
“An idea that goes into your head and returns from time to time must be good.” — Maciej Aniserowicz (🇵🇱)
18/05/2017
“It is better not to have a Porsche, live in an apartment, but have time for the family. Have time to count snails with your daughter in the morning on your way to a kindergarten.” — Maciej Aniserowicz (🇵🇱)
19/05/2017
You cannot always be locked in “your world” because others will find it harder to understand you. — own thought
28/05/2017
“We are the sum of the people we met, the books we have read and the places where we found ourselves.” — MiroBurn (🇵🇱)
05/06/2017
“If you are depressed, you are living in the past. If you are anxious, you are living in the future. If you are at peace, you are living in the present.” — Lao Tzu
“The most important principle of productivity is planning tasks (preferably the previous day/week).” — Maciej Aniserowicz (🇵🇱)
06/06/2017
“You are the sum of the 5 closest people you are spending most of the time with.” — MiroBurn (🇵🇱)
Humans change on average every 7 years. — own thought inspired by Maciej Aniserowicz
09/06/2017
“Many people from the lack of success, stuck in frustration under low self-esteem, are looking for applause on the web. If the energy invested in this would be spent on similar aspirations in the real world, it would probably also have real benefits.” — WODZU from dobreprogramy.pl (🇵🇱)
21/06/2017
A professionalist is the better part of the perfectionist. He does not wait for results, he does not really care about criticism, but above all, he acts and does not rest on his laurels. — own summary of a video by Mirosław Zelent
27/06/2017
“Fear does not often reveal the imaginary face to us but leads to magical moments.” — MiroBurn (🇵🇱)
12/07/2017
“Never compare yourself to others. Only compare the person you are today to the person you were the day before.” — Unknown author
26/07/2017
“I’m a great believer in luck, and I find the harder I work the more I have of it.” — Thomas Jefferson
“Done is better than perfect.” — Sheryl Sandberg
27/07/2017
“Treat all the uploaded materials to the internet (photos, files, e-mails) as publicly available. For everyone. To the end of the world. Even if they were sent by “encrypted channel” to a trusted recipient.” — Niebezpiecznik.pl (🇵🇱)
04/08/2017
“Not one man would cry in my place and wonder “is it worth it?”. But on my side, when I look at these expenses, only a smile appears on my face. Because all this is my bright future. Which, of course, may not come, but … what to spend on, if not on dreams? If not on this, I will be at least able to say “at least I have tried” on my deathbed?” — Maciej Aniserowicz in the summary of the financial report, in which he gained a great downside (🇵🇱)
15/08/2017
“By purchasing a luxury product, we will experience a moment of joy (at the point of purchase) that may last for a week or two. Hedonic adaptation will return us to the same level of life satisfaction as before. Since hedonic adaptation is unavoidable, is there really any value in purchasing luxury items?” — Highbrow course “Consumer behavior: Episode #7”
16/08/2017
“True friends will stick around during your lifestyle changes. They will support your pursuit of a more meaningful life. Don’t worry about those who don’t; they were never your real friends.” — Highbrow course “Consumer behavior: Episode #8”
11/09/2017
“If you’re going to learn something, don’t kill yourself to learn it. It’s a marathon, not a sprint.” — Highbrow course “Learning how to learn: Episode #6”
11/10/2017
“If you act like a rock star, you will be treated like one.” — Marilyn Manson
23/10/2017
“The ideal space for focused work is not about freedom from noise, but about freedom from interruption. Finding a space you can hide away in, regardless of how noisy it is, may be the best strategy for making sure you get the important work done.” — David Burkus
26/11/2017
“Think for yourself. Question authority.” — Timothy Leary
11/01/2018
“Because life is too short to be ashamed.” — Maciej Aniserowicz (🇵🇱)
15/01/2018
“To follow the path, look to the master, follow the master, walk with the master, see through the master, become the master.” — Zen Proverb
19/01/2018
“Our time is finite. Instead of always managing the shit out of it, let’s give ourselves permission to slow down and savor it.” — Becky Kane
22/01/2018
“If you give a man a fish, you feed him for a day. But if you give him a fishing rod, you feed him for a lifetime.” — Chinese Proverb
23/01/2018
“When life leaves us blind, love keeps us kind.” — Linkin Park
24/01/2018
“If you are the wisest person in the room, change the room.” — Maciej Aniserowicz about working in corporations (🇵🇱)
30/01/2018
“If I were a Dr., I’d prescribe books. They can be just as powerful as drugs.” — Shane Parrish
03/02/2018
“An expert is a person who has found out by his own painful experience all the mistakes that one can make in a very narrow field.” — Niels Bohr
11/02/2018
“If you make music, don’t give up if you’re not making money, getting any recognition or not getting good feedback. You were doing it wrong in the first place if you thought that. Do it for yourself..bleed the thoughts out on that canvas in musical form.” — CruciA
05/03/2018
“You think “oh I need a great idea” when really the idea is nothing and your psychology & persistence is everything.” — Trevor McKendrick
29/03/2018
“If you want to interest someone, show high level of understanding and willing to collaborate.” — Bo Chen (one of my clients at the university)
“When it comes to writing code, the number one most important skill is how to keep a tangle of features from collapsing under the weight of its own complexity.” — James Hague
01/04/2018
“So, in life people lie and sometimes, to some people, it’s obvious, whereas to others it’s a total blindside. A beautiful lie is a lie made with the intent to further the happiness of others, even if by sacrificial means.” — Souci
21/04/2018
“Nations are born in the hearts of poets, they prosper and die in the hands of politicians.” — Muhammad Iqbal
27/04/2018
“When angry, count to 10 before you speak. If very angry, a hundred.” — Thomas Jefferson
17/05/2018
“I have no special talent. I am only passionately curious.” — Albert Einstein
19/05/2018
“There is no such thing as ‘I do not have the time’. This is all just a matter of priorities.” — Maciej Aniserowicz (🇵🇱)
16/08/2018
“If you don’t have a plan, you become part of somebody else’s plan.” — Terence McKenna
18/08/2018
“We are the sum of small steps that we do in the present, not what we would like to be yesterday, a day before, 10, 20 years ago.” — MiroBurn (🇵🇱)
19/08/2018
“More and more often I realise that making decisions that we are proud of is one of the most important things we can do in our life.” — MiroBurn (🇵🇱)
22/08/2018
“Find any job. Find a good leader. Do your job. Learn. If needed, get promoted. Do it as long as you learn. A) find the next leader and repeat B) based on experience, build your own company. Option A is easy. Option B is challenging but more profitable.” — MiroBurn (🇵🇱)
27/08/2018
“If you have to take a holiday from work, it means that you have to change this job (especially if you feel a burnout). Look for a job where you go on vacation, because you can, not because you have to.” — MiroBurn (🇵🇱)
“There is no better thing in the world than setting your long-term goals and striving for them, deconstructing all the steps we need to take.” — MiroBurn (🇵🇱)
“There is no more important thing in life than balancing. This is how much we deal with work, sport, spirituality, family. If we forget one of these things, all the rest is going wrong. All you need is an acceptable state, not perfect.” — MiroBurn (🇵🇱)
31/08/2018
“Your success or failure is a compound of thousands (if not millions) of micro-failures and micro-successes.” — Andrzej Krzywda in his book Blogging for Busy Programmers
01/09/2018
“Evil is the force that believes its knowledge is complete.” — Jordan Peterson
“There’s no reason to do shit you hate. None.” — Gary Vaynerchuk
05/09/2018
“If you do what you love, you’ll never work a day in your life.” — Marc Anthony
- But, the other side of the coin is “Make money on what you love, and you will never leave the job.” — Maciej Aniserowicz (🇵🇱)
“Should you become a photographer or a programmer? In my opinion, it is good to do both. Do two things, one of which will be purely profitable and the other will be a hobby.” — Maciej Aniserowicz (🇵🇱)
“Find 3 hobbies you love: 1) One to make you $$, 2) One to keep you in shape, 3) And one to be creative.” — Unknown author
21/09/2018
“Being an entrepreneur is like being a painter or someone who creates in general. You can have one painting, create it for your entire life and make it perfect, but sometimes we want to do something different. Even if the next work is not that beautiful as others, if we just exclude the subject of comparing ourselves, and we will start to look at it as on creating something wonderful, we will see the need of our work.” — MiroBurn (🇵🇱)
22/09/2018
“Firstly, I plan my free time a year ahead, then I plan my professional obligations towards myself for a year ahead, and finally, all the external things (training, conferences, etc.).” — Maciej Aniserowicz (🇵🇱)
27/09/2018
“An entrepreneur is someone who jumps off a cliff and builds a plane on the way down.” — Reid Hoffman
“New levels bring new devils. Stay unapologetically committed to your goals and let go of anyone who poisons your spirit.” — Steve Maraboli
“Parents raise children for themselves, to look good in the eyes of others, not for the kid. This is the problem that also applies to business.” — Gary Vaynerchuk at the World Business Experience
18/10/2018
“Leaders must own everything in their world. There is no one else to blame.” — Jocko Willink
“Creative brains are a valuable, limited resource. They shouldn’t be wasted on re-inventing the wheel when there are so many fascinating new problems waiting out there.” — Eric S. Raymond
25/10/2018 (all the citations are from the book: Zawod: Programista)
“Continuous learning is the new procrastination.” — Maciej Aniserowicz
“Note not only the solution but also your mistake, thanks to which you will fully understand what happened.” — Maciej Aniserowicz (🇵🇱)
“The great end of life is not knowledge but action. Try to learn something about everything and everything about something.” — Thomas Henry Huxley
“In theory, there is no difference between theory and practice. But, in practice, there is.” — Jan L.A. van de Snepscheut
“I find that the harder I work, the more luck I seem to have.” — Thomas Jefferson
“Ask for the assessment of effects, not intentions.” — Maciej Aniserowicz (🇵🇱)
“Think for yourself. Question authority.” — Timothy Leary
08/11/2018
“A man is a success if he gets up in the morning and goes to bed at night, and in between does what he wants to do.” — Bob Dylan
14/11/2018
“Everyone here has the sense that right now is one of those moments when we are influencing the future.” — Steve Jobs
“If you tell the truth, you don’t have to remember anything.” — Mark Twain
24/11/2018
“No one told you when to run. You missed the starting gun.” — Pink Floyd
27/01/2019
“Do we like it? No, we love it!” — Marcos Trapa
01/03/2019
“It happens, that sometimes things will go wrong, or that I would prefer them to be different, but then I imagine that the number of alternative realities is unmeasurable and in one of them is what I want, hurray. It’s just that currently I’m in the other one.” — Maciej Aniserowicz (🇵🇱)
11/04/2019
“Live and Let Live” — James Frey
31/05/2019
To be an expert, learn to live in chaos. Embrace it, accept that staying in an organised way won’t develop you. — inspired by Filozofia Mr. Robot (#4) Moje pierwsze włamanie (🇵🇱)
14/06/2019
“A problem well defined is a problem half-solved.” — Charles Kettering
17/06/2019
4 Important Questions to Continually Ask Yourself: - “How have I been complicit in creating the conditions I say I don’t want?” - “What am I not saying that needs to be said?” - “What am I saying that’s not being heard?” - “What’s being said that I’m not hearing?” — Jerry Colonna
Ask yourself: “Am I a good person who’s doing the best I can?” If your answer is yes – then you don’t have to feel guilty saying to somebody, “I don’t have the space to do the thing you’d like me to do” — Jerry Colonna
“If you want something to be part of your identity, talk about it. If you want to learn something, teach it.” — Justin Kan
30/08/2019
“You know yourself mostly by your thoughts. Everyone else in the world knows you only by your actions. Remember this when you feel misunderstood. You have to do or say something for others to know how you feel.” — James Clear
“Habits will form whether you want them or not. Whatever you repeat, you reinforce.” — James Clear
27/11/2019
Definition Of Hell: “On your last day on earth, the person you became will meet the person you could have become.” — Unknown author
28/11/2019
“The most satisfying form of freedom is not a life without responsibilities, but a life where you are free to choose your responsibilities.” — James Clear
“Going to gym for 5 minutes might not transform your body, but it does reaffirm your identity.” — James Clear
12/12/2019
“Modern society is defined by an excess of opportunity. We have more information, more products, and more options than ever before. As a result, curating, filtering, and refining are more important skills than ever before. Those who edit best will find the signal in the noise.” — James Clear
20/12/2019
“In fact, the most powerful form of hard work is thinking clearly. Designing a winning strategy may not look very active, but make no mistake: it is very hard work.” — James Clear
09/01/2020
“Any fool can know. The point is to understand.” — Albert Einstein
13/01/2020
“The future depends on some graduate student who is deeply suspicious of everything I have said.” — Geoffrey Hinton
20/01/2020
“I learned very early the difference between knowing the name of something and knowing something.” — Richard Feynman
22/01/2020
“When you tell yourself “just one more game” or “just one more post”, or “just one more video” and end up doing 3-5 hours more, do that with your other tasks too! “just one line of code”, “just one tutorial”, “just one rep”, “just one line of reading/writing.” — Stay_Frosty_Friends
19/03/2020
“The most useful form of patience is persistence. Patience implies waiting for things to improve on their own. Persistence implies keeping your head down and continuing to work when things take longer than you expect.” — James Clear
27/04/2020
“What Matters In Media: People pay for premium content for the content itself and connection to the creator, not for studio lighting and animations” — Erika Nardini
14/05/2020
“Sometimes you have to separate yourself from everything you know, in order to grow as a person… Can you really hear yourself with all that noise?” — Souhex
21/05/2020
“There are 3 primary drivers of results in life: 1) Your luck (randomness), 2) Your strategy (choices), 3) Your actions (habits). Only 2 of the 3 are under your control. But if you master those 2, you can improve the odds that luck will work for you rather than against you.” — James Clear 02/06/2020 “Five thoughts on writing: 1) Great writers comfort the confused and confuse the comforted. 2) We tell stories when the truth is too painful to talk about directly. 3) Writing every day is the best way to become a better public speaker. Talking about things you’ve already written about it easy, and your ideas will be so well-structured that people will call you a genius. 4) Writing becomes a lot easier once you realize people only remember your best work. 5) Writing isn’t the byproduct of deep thinking. It’s where deep thinking actually happens.” — David Perell (Monday Musings 6/1/2020)
12/06/2020
“You keep on learning and learning, and pretty soon you learn something no one has learned before” — Richard Feynman
09/07/2020
“3 things that help habits stick: 1) Repetition. Habits form based on frequency, not time. 2) Stable context. If the context is always changing, so is the behavior. You need a reliable environment. 3) Positive emotions. If it feels good, you’ll want to repeat it.” — James Clear
“When you lose track of time, you are either living your best life or wasting it.” — James Clear
14/07/2020
“Hard times create strong men. Strong men create good times. Good times create weak men. And, weak men create hard times.” — G. Michael Hopf
28/07/2020
“As many languages you know, as many times you are a human being.” — Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
23/09/2020
“You should write every day, even if it’s torturous, even if you hate it, you sit down and say: “this is not what I wanna be doing, I’m not in the mood, I’ve got too many things going on”. But you should do it anyway, cause it keeps your creative muscles strong, and eventually, even on the bad day, you can come up with something that’s remarkable and surprising that you can use later.” — Mike Shinoda addressing the idea from Stephen King’s book “On Writing”
30/10/2020
“Reading can teach you the best of what others already know. Reflection can teach you the best of what only you can know.” — James Clear
12/11/2020
“When reading books or listening to podcasts or taking advice, remember that everyone is biased to their personal history. The world is complex and there is no single path to a success. Look for patterns that are repeated across many successful people, not single stories.” — James Clear
25/02/2021
“Clarity is the elimination of mental clutter. Agility is the elimination of physical clutter. Tranquility is the elimination of spiritual clutter.” — James Clear
27/02/2021
“Einstein’s fundamental creed was that freedom was the lifeblood of creativity. “The development of science and of the creative activities of the spirit,” he said, “requires a freedom that consists in the independence of thought from the restrictions of authoritarian and social prejudice.” Nurturing that should be the fundamental role of government, he felt, and the mission of education.” — from the biography: Einstein: His Life and Universe
05/03/2021
“People generally have more control over their actions than their feelings. But we can influence our feelings by taking action. Take one small step. Move the body first and the mind will follow.” — James Clear
18/03/2021
“New goals don’t deliver new results. New lifestyles do. And a lifestyle is a process, not an outcome. For this reason, your energy should go into building better habits, not chasing better results.” — James Clear
“Some things are better off ignored than attacked. Attention is the oxygen of conflict. When you fight a problem, you breathe life into it. When you starve a problem of your attention, you suffocate it. In a surprising number of cases, the way to solve a problem is to ignore it.” — James Clear
15/05/2021
“Half-formed ideas, they float around. They come from different places, and the mind has got this wonderful way of somehow just shoveling them around until one day they fit. They may fit not so well, and then we go for a bike ride or something, and it’s better.” — Tim Berners-Lee interview, Academy of Achievement, June 22, 2007 (I found it in the book The Innovators)
12/08/2021
“Play better games. Win better prizes.” — James Clear
09/09/2021
“Friendship happens on the way to something else. If you “try to meet new people” it feels weird and forced. The more you aim for friendship, the more it eludes you. But if you aim to learn or achieve something with others, friendship happens naturally during the shared pursuit.” — James Clear
08/11/2021
“Try your best to be right, but don’t worry when you’re wrong. Repeatedly. If you feel uncomfortable, or like an impostor, good. You’re pushing yourself. Don’t assume you know everything, but try your best anyway, and let the internet correct you when you are inevitably wrong. Wear your noobyness on your sleeve.” — Shawn Wang (swyx)
03/03/2022
“You can’t double your intelligence in one hour, but you can use one hour to write something twice as clear. And ideas that are easy to read and easy to understand will make you seem smarter. The better you communicate, the more intelligent you appear.” — James Clear
16/04/2022
“Anger is a result of life alienated thinking that is disconnected from needs. It indicates that we have moved up to our head to analyse and judge somebody rather than focus on which of our needs is not being met.” — Marshall B. Rosenberg in the Nonviolent Communication audiobook
03/05/2022
“What may be a hassle at first soon becomes habit, and eventually a source of pride and productivity for all involved.” — cbeams
17/11/2022
“Persistence and variety. These are the two primary ways to develop great ideas or to solve important problems.
Keep leaning your head against a topic for a long time. Certainly for weeks, possibly for years. And along the way, try many lines of attack. Continue to generate options, explore paths, and propose silly ideas. Copy and paste concepts from widely different disciplines and see if it gets you anywhere. All the while, continue to refine the best solution you’ve found thus far.
What looks like genius may simply be the byproduct of persistence and variety.” — James Clear
24/11/2022
“The truth about productivity is that it’s not really about the apps, it’s not really about having a perfect system or about being disciplined or motivated more than anyone else.
When I think of my own life and how I do things like: YouTube channel, entrepreneurship, medical school, being a doctor, none of it feels like suffering, none of it feels like a grind. So, when my housemate says: “It’s 11 o’clock at night, why are you still working?”, it’s always a bit surprising because it really doesn’t feel like work because it’s actually fun.
The main insight that I’ve realized is that productivity isn’t really about getting more things done, it’s mostly about LEARNING TO ENJOY THE JOURNEY.” — Ali Abdaal
30/12/2022
“If you find that you’re spending almost all your time on theory, start turning some attention to practical things; it will improve your theories. If you find that you’re spending almost all your time on practice, start turning some attention to theoretical things; it will improve your practice.” — Donald Knuth
25/05/2023
“One of the most valuable skills in life is being able to see another person’s perspective.
If you’re going to someone’s house, think about how it might feel to be the host. If you’re creating a product, spend as much time as possible thinking like the customer. If you’re calling customer service, think about how it might feel to be on the other end of the conversation.
The more clearly you understand the viewpoint of your spouse or customer or coworker, the better positioned you are to find a solution.” — James Clear
28/05/2023
“Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms—to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way.” — Viktor E. Frankl in Man’s Search for Meaning
24/11/2023
“You probably don’t want maximum effectiveness.
For example, the most effective way to make money likely requires a lifestyle you don’t want to live. Instead, you want the most effective path that fits your desired lifestyle.
How do you want to spend your days? Start there, then optimize.” — James Clear
09/04/2024
“Socially, we’re told, “Go work out. Go look good.” That’s a multi-player competitive game. Other people can see if I’m doing a good job or not. We’re told, “Go make money. Go buy a big house.” Again, external multiplayer competitive game. Training yourself to be happy is completely internal. There is no external progress, no external validation. You’re competing against yourself—it is a single-player game.” — Eric Jorgenson in The Almanack of Naval Ravikant: A Guide to Wealth and Happiness
04/01/2025
“I think a lot of people, they do like the company of others, but I think they maybe like the company of others because it takes them off their own mind.” — Bryan Johnson
03/07/2025
“Three qualities that have nothing to do with talent or intelligence, but can make a dramatic impact on your results: Cheerful - You are pleasant to work with and generally raise the level of energy in the room. Accountable - You feel personally responsible for what you want to accomplish. It is not someone else’s job. It’s your job. Adaptable - You can find alternate paths to success. You don’t need things to be a certain way to be happy.” — James Clear
14/08/2025
“Running one mile has more in common with running a marathon than sitting at home.
Investing $100 has more in common with being a millionaire than being broke.
Writing one sentence has more in common with writing a book than never writing one.
It always feels small in the beginning and the big goals seem far away. It’s easy to talk yourself out of the early attempts because they feel kind of meaningless.
But every race starts with one step. Every fortune starts with a small deposit. Every book begins as one sentence.
The real question is not “What is my current position?” but rather, “What is my current trajectory?” Doing nothing builds nothing. Put yourself on the path to something better. Start small, but make sure you start.” — James Clear
30/09/2025
“I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.” — Maya Angelou
03/03/2026
“The only way to do great work is to love what you do.” — Steve Jobs
Supplementary Assortment
Section titled “Supplementary Assortment”Want more? Make sure to check this site later, as I will be adding new content every now and then.
I can also recommend you to check these Twitter profiles, which will give you a great reflection time: