Shane Parrish - DeveloPassion

# Shane Parrish ![[2025-08-22_Shane_Parrish.jpg]] Creator of [Farnam Street](https://fs.blog/). ## Quotes   - [[Amateurs focus on the outcome. Professionals focus on the process]] - [[Amateurs think in absolutes. Professionals think in probabilities]] - [[Ask yourself. What am I doing every day that's just the result of inertia. Is this habit, action, choice getting me closer to my goals]] - [[Avoiding regret is more important to happiness than avoiding failure]] - [[Avoiding responsibility is a recipe for misery, and the opposite of what it takes to cultivate good judgment]] - [[Bad habits are easy to acquire when there is a delay between action and consequence]] - [[Consistency finishes what excitement starts]] - [[Do things when you don't feel like doing them]] - [[Entropy is a measure of disorder and affects all aspects of our lives]] - [[First-principles thinking is a competitive advantage because almost no one does it]] - [[Focus is the cost of excellence]] - [[If an action could have a major impact on your life...you must decide and not merely choose]] - [[If you compete with people who only think short-term, you don't have to worry much. Eventually the weight of their actions anchors them]] - [[If you struggle to stick with good habits, find ways to recognize the positive feedback loops between the effort and the results faster]] - [[If you want to take control of your priorities, use a calendar and not a to-do list]] - [[If you want to think for yourself, you can’t have someone always whispering in your ear. If you want space to think, you need quiet and calm, not a bunch of people throwing out new ideas]] - [[It’s pretty simple. Either you read or you don’t. If you read, you probably want to do it more. If you don’t read, I’m not going to convince you to put down the remote]] - [[Making a good decision is about the process, not the outcome]] - [[More time is wasted focusing on the past than the future]] - [[Most errors in judgment happen when we don't know we're supposed to be exercising judgment]] - [[Not all writing is worth reading. Just because someone can put words on a page doesn’t mean they are worth reading or add value. Every minute you waste reading something bad is a minute that could've been spent reading something great]] - [[Problems shrink when you approach them and expand when you move away from them]] - [[Procrastination creates negative momentum. The longer you wait, the harder it becomes to start. Telling yourself you'll do it tomorrow is how dreams die]] - [[Talent and potential mean nothing if you can’t consistently do things when you don’t feel like doing them]] - [[The best decisions have little to no immediate payoff. The best choices compound. Most of the benefits come at the end, not the beginning. The more patient you are, the bigger the payoff]] - [[The bigger the outcome, the more likely small things compounded to make it happen over time]] - [[The conditions for success don't create winners. Winners create the conditions for success. They take what they're given and make the most out of it]] - [[The formula for failure is a few small errors consistently repeated]] - [[The key to great writing is ordinary words and simple sentences]] - [[The minute you convince yourself you could have done better without a margin of safety is exactly when you need it most]] - [[The most important story is the one you tell yourself. Telling yourself a positive story won’t always turn it into reality, but telling yourself a negative one often does]] - [[The most successful people have the highest standards, not only for others but for themselves]] - [[The pain of failing to try is less intense but never really goes away]] - [[The secret to effective results is turning acquired knowledge into default behavior. Habits, routines, and rules all turn knowledge into sustained action]] - [[There is a big difference between being interested in something and being committed to something. Committed people do what interested people won’t]] - [[Think slow. Act fast]] - [[What looks like success is often just patience]] - [[Wisdom is turning your future hindsight into your current foresight]] - [[Writing about a decision forces you to put words to your blind spots, causing you to confront reality and see where you don't fully understand the process behind your decision]] - [[Writing enables us to practice reasoning]] - [[Writing is the process by which we discover we don’t really know what we are talking about]] - [[You can buy people’s skills, but not their hearts. You can buy people’s time, but not their loyalty. The most valuable things must be earned]] - [[You can't force yourself to think any faster. Speeding up your thinking process often results in poor decisions that create future problems]] - [[You don’t control the mountain, only the climb]] - [[You're only as good as how you perform on your worst day. When everything is going well, it's easy to be successful. But when things start crashing all around you, that's when it matters most to keep your head and think long-term]] - [[Your work will never rise past the level of your standards. Average standards create average work]]   - [[Amateurs focus on the outcome. Professionals focus on the process]] - [[Amateurs think in absolutes. Professionals think in probabilities]] - [[Ask yourself. What am I doing every day that's just the result of inertia. Is this habit, action, choice getting me closer to my goals]] - [[Avoiding regret is more important to happiness than avoiding failure]] - [[Avoiding responsibility is a recipe for misery, and the opposite of what it takes to cultivate good judgment]] - [[Bad habits are easy to acquire when there is a delay between action and consequence]] - [[Consistency finishes what excitement starts]] - [[Entropy is a measure of disorder and affects all aspects of our lives]] - [[First-principles thinking is a competitive advantage because almost no one does it]] - [[Focus is the cost of excellence]] - [[If an action could have a major impact on your life...you must decide and not merely choose]] - [[If you compete with people who only think short-term, you don't have to worry much. Eventually the weight of their actions anchors them]] - [[If you struggle to stick with good habits, find ways to recognize the positive feedback loops between the effort and the results faster]] - [[If you want to take control of your priorities, use a calendar and not a to-do list]] - [[If you want to think for yourself, you can’t have someone always whispering in your ear. If you want space to think, you need quiet and calm, not a bunch of people throwing out new ideas]] - [[Making a good decision is about the process, not the outcome]] - [[More time is wasted focusing on the past than the future]] - [[Most errors in judgment happen when we don't know we're supposed to be exercising judgment]] - [[Not all writing is worth reading. Just because someone can put words on a page doesn’t mean they are worth reading or add value. Every minute you waste reading something bad is a minute that could've been spent reading something great]] - [[Problems shrink when you approach them and expand when you move away from them]] - [[Procrastination creates negative momentum. The longer you wait, the harder it becomes to start. Telling yourself you'll do it tomorrow is how dreams die]] - [[Talent and potential mean nothing if you can’t consistently do things when you don’t feel like doing them]] - [[The best decisions have little to no immediate payoff. The best choices compound. Most of the benefits come at the end, not the beginning. The more patient you are, the bigger the payoff]] - [[The bigger the outcome, the more likely small things compounded to make it happen over time]] - [[Do things when you don't feel like doing them]] - [[The conditions for success don't create winners. Winners create the conditions for success. They take what they're given and make the most out of it]] - [[The formula for failure is a few small errors consistently repeated]] - [[The key to great writing is ordinary words and simple sentences]] - [[The minute you convince yourself you could have done better without a margin of safety is exactly when you need it most]] - [[The most important story is the one you tell yourself. Telling yourself a positive story won’t always turn it into reality, but telling yourself a negative one often does]] - [[The most successful people have the highest standards, not only for others but for themselves]] - [[The pain of failing to try is less intense but never really goes away]] - [[The secret to effective results is turning acquired knowledge into default behavior. Habits, routines, and rules all turn knowledge into sustained action]] - [[There is a big difference between being interested in something and being committed to something. Committed people do what interested people won’t]] - [[Think slow. Act fast]] - [[What looks like success is often just patience]] - [[Writing enables us to practice reasoning]] - [[Wisdom is turning your future hindsight into your current foresight]] - [[Writing about a decision forces you to put words to your blind spots, causing you to confront reality and see where you don't fully understand the process behind your decision]] - [[Writing is the process by which we discover we don’t really know what we are talking about]] - [[You can buy people’s skills, but not their hearts. You can buy people’s time, but not their loyalty. The most valuable things must be earned]] - [[You can't force yourself to think any faster. Speeding up your thinking process often results in poor decisions that create future problems]] - [[You're only as good as how you perform on your worst day. When everything is going well, it's easy to be successful. But when things start crashing all around you, that's when it matters most to keep your head and think long-term]] - [[Your work will never rise past the level of your standards. Average standards create average work]]  ## Books