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I don’t want to be normal. I want to be something else.

Ben Casnocha

I to the We means that both the individual’s effort and the power of the network matter, and they work in tandem. Someone with no skill won’t get very far, no matter how strong the network.
BEN CASNOCHA

Effort Mean Strong
Expose yourself to as much as possible. Attend conferences no one else is attending. Read books no one else is reading. Talk to people no one else is talking to.
BEN CASNOCHA

Book Reading Talking
If you really understand something, you can: 1) explain it using a clear metaphor and 2) explain the strongest counter-argument to the idea.
BEN CASNOCHA

Argument Ideas Metaphor
I’m skeptical of passive learning. If you don’t write down what you’re hearing and learning, what the odds you remember it?
BEN CASNOCHA

Hearing Odds Writing
I suspect the debate over the ethics will be much more heated than the debate over steroids in baseball or any other sport, where the use is limited to a select group of freakish athletes.
BEN CASNOCHA

Debate Group Limited Other
I don’t want to be normal. I want to be something else.
BEN CASNOCHA

Normal Something Want
Rule of thumb: Be skeptical of things you learned before you could read. E.g., religion.
BEN CASNOCHA

Before Skeptical Thing Thumbs
If frequency with which you cite an education credential does not decrease over the course of your life, you’re not accomplishing very much.
BEN CASNOCHA

Accomplish Citing Decrease
Sometimes Plan B can have the same desired outcome, but a different path for getting there.
BEN CASNOCHA

Different Path Sometimes
The internet tends to make smart people smarter and dumb people dumber.
BEN CASNOCHA

Dumb People Smart
Long-term goals are dangerous. They limit you. They hinder you from reacting to new conditions.
BEN CASNOCHA

Goal Limits Long
Similarly, someone with lots of skill but a weak network won’t realize his or her fullest potential. So, you need both.
BEN CASNOCHA

Association Group Someone
I really focused on three things in high school – my company, basketball and my school work.
BEN CASNOCHA

Basketball School Three
Expose yourself to as much randomness as possible.
BEN CASNOCHA

Expose Possible Random
One theme that fascinates me is cognitive enhancement. It seems only a matter of time until we live in a world where steroids for the brain are readily available to all. And once we come to grips with that reality,
BEN CASNOCHA

Athlete Baseball Sports
It got a little stressful in my first two years of high school, trying to make conference calls with investors in between classes, but I definitely learned a lot of important time-management lessons.
BEN CASNOCHA

Class School Years
I have a broad range of interests, so I’ll always be working on something.
BEN CASNOCHA

Broads Interest Range
Taking on short term risk can involve switching jobs, joining new groups / associations in the area, launching a personal blog, running an experiment within your existing job. These are some practical ways to inject volatility into your life, and thus some risk.
BEN CASNOCHA

Risk Running Term
I’m just the smallest dot in a big map of human history.
BEN CASNOCHA

Big Dots Maps
Sometimes I have to pause to make the distinction between Ben the teenager and Ben the businessman.
BEN CASNOCHA

Distinction Sometimes Teenager
I’ve always loved to write, and I kept a diary of what I thought about my business, being an entrepreneur and other things of interest to me.
BEN CASNOCHA

Diary Entrepreneur Writing

I don’t want to be normal. I want to be something else.

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I don’t want to be normal. I want to be something else.

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