Talia Smiley (Montreal 11/03-11/09)

I’m smart and funny and pretty and perfect! And you are too <3

AI safety is so cool, I wish it was real

I’m not convinced it’s worth it to do things effortlessly until you’re like, 50 to 55. until then, probably the compounding gains from struggling through novel experiences is still super worth it.

insane alpha in thinking hard for 60 seconds

from a joint party celebrating my 22nd and my best friend’s 27th.

I thank whatever gods may be / For my unconquerable soul.

it feels like it’s been “last call” for about a decade now.

you can ignore most advice if you’re really talented, and most advice won’t work if you’re really untalented. therefore, being a generalist is the only way to take advantage of most advice.

there’s alpha in lying, but only once. and the cost is that from that point on, you have to fight to even capture the beta.

order of operations when I realize I’m in way too deep: stabilize my Present first. next, settle up with my Past. only then is it tenable to plan for my Future. trying to do them out of order will cause none of them to get done.

“yeah I could get out of a wet paper bag. a dry one though? idk, they didn’t cover that on the exam.”

I don’t understand people who are indecisive. it presumably comes from some desire to optimize? but surely after one attempt at being indecisive, an optimizer realizes that doing something would be better than doing nothing.

if I were given this option 10 years ago, I would've done it for free (all of my commitments would become wayyy more credible). but at this point in my life, there are secrets I have given my word to never divulge; I would not do it for any price.

insane alpha in capitulating

bro you’re still doing inbox zero? I went inbox negative in 2018 and never looked back.

I’m joining the gender wars. on the side of gender.