Micro Misconcepts Your ego can serve you or cost you 25th September 2026 | Read on misconcepts.org From me If your ego is based on external validation, you optimise for whatever earns you more social credits in your immediate environment, which doesn't necessarily align with what you want in life. It feels better in the moment, but over enough years those small trades add up to a life you didn't want. If your ego is based on good iterations, you optimise for whatever earns you better...
8 days ago • 1 min read
Micro Misconcepts Why we're afraid to choose what matters 18th September 2026 | Read on misconcepts.org From me Because our time, mental, and physical resources are finite, life is a series of opportunity cost decisions on how best to use these resources. Our modern temptation to have multiple "priorities" is a comforting illusion we use to shield ourselves from this inescapable reality, ignoring the fact that we can't have it all. But the irony of trying to make everything a priority is that...
15 days ago • 1 min read
Micro Misconcepts The invisible cage you built yourself 11th September 2026 | Read on misconcepts.org From me Most people follow the rules of their social environment, assuming that's just how the world works. Few ever pause to go one layer deeper. Who created the rules? Why these rules and not others? What assumptions produced them? Who benefits from them? What possibilities do they exclude? And because of this, those rules become their reality. Nobody has to stand over you and say no....
22 days ago • 1 min read
Micro Misconcepts Frugality is not the point 4th September 2026 | Read on misconcepts.org From me You don't win a prize for being the most frugal person in the room. Money is just a tool to solve problems in your life. Treating frugality as the goal itself might let you win the savings game, but you lose the broader game of living well. The point was never to spend as little as possible. It was to get the highest return from every dollar across a lifetime. The irony is, when you make that the...
29 days ago • 1 min read
Micro Misconcepts On the roads not taken 28th August 2026 | Read on misconcepts.org From me It's easy to look backwards and romanticise the paths we didn't take, believing them to be better, then suffering for the fact that they are now closed to us. But the paths we didn't take only look better because we've never had to live them. Every road comes with friction. Daily stressors. Hidden trade-offs. The roads we left behind appear greener because we compare our high-resolution reality to a...
about 1 month ago • 1 min read
Micro Misconcepts Buying our way to nowhere 21st August 2026 | Read on misconcepts.org From me Not all ideas spread because they're true. Some spread because they're good at resisting the question of whether they're true. The pursuit of happiness via consumption is one of them. It works by hijacking our evolutionary drive for status. In a society where the dominant model of success is defined by the goods you own and the experiences you can afford, this pursuit feels entirely normal, because...
about 1 month ago • 1 min read
Micro Misconcepts The summit illusion 14th August 2026 | Read on misconcepts.org From me Self-improvement is an infinite game. Like knowledge, the improved state is provisional. Each time you improve yourself, your models of the world improve with you, which is exactly what lets you see problems that were previously invisible. The more you grow, the more you see what you don't yet know. This is why you can be objectively better but still feel behind. The gap between where you are and where...
about 2 months ago • 1 min read
Micro Misconcepts Comfort costs more 7th August 2026 | Read on misconcepts.org From me Front-load the pain. It costs more today but leads to less aggregate pain across your lifetime. Time is neutral. It amplifies whatever trajectory you're already on. Confront the pain and time compounds that into resilience. Avoid it and time compounds that into bitterness, fear, or regret. Read the full piece → From others Jerzy Gregorek on the cost of the easy choice: "Hard choices, easy life. Easy...
about 2 months ago • 1 min read
Micro Misconcepts Confidently wrong 31st July 2026 | Read on misconcepts.org Note: I've been thinking about how to help you get the highest return from your finite life resources. So this week, I'm trying something new, a more compressed version focused on communicating an idea in fewer words and less time. Let me know what you think. From me When you outsource your own thinking, you place too much certainty in someone else's knowledge. When you mistake your confidence for competence, you...
2 months ago • 1 min read