Short-form observations, questions, and evolving ideas. Some arrive finished. Most don’t. The ideas and raw notes that may grow into articles, newsletters, frameworks, or something else entirely.
The marginalia is where the thinking begins.
“Knowledge is only potential power. It becomes power only when, and if, it is organized into definite plans of action and directed to a definite end.” – Napeleon Hill
Anytime I find myself insisting on being “right” in a conversation I try to keep this quote in mind.
One of the great challenges in life is knowing enough to think you’re right, but not knowing enough to know you’re wrong. – Neil Degrasse Tyson
“You can be right or you can be happy.”
“Do you want to be right, or do you want to be effective?”
“Do you want to make a point, or make a difference?”
All of these point to the same idea: insisting on being right can get in the way of actually changing minds, building trust, or achieving the outcome you care about.
We talk about time management but the real scarcity is attention. You cannot manufacture more genuine focus. Every notification is a withdrawal from a finite account.
To me strong opinions are about objective truths. It’s about building a robust foundation for your thoughts. You’ve put in the work, you’ve challenged your assumptions, and you’ve arrived at a conclusion that feels right based on that rigor.
But the secret isn’t that conviction, it’s holding these beliefs loosely. You value them, but you’re not white-knuckling them. You’re willing to set them down, examine them from new angles, and even replace them if something better comes along. The problem is that a lot of us do exactly the opposite. When an opinion or belief doesn’t hold up to scrutiny we hold on even tighter.
Someone asked me “how can I be more creative” and my short answer was “read more” It might not seem like it, but the more information you can pull from when you are looking for creative answers, the more material you have at your disposal to create new things.
You can’t come up with good ideas unless you are willing to have a lot of bad ones too.
