Today I took my last exam in medical school. I've been in higher education for 11 years. I went from a B student in high school to scoring in the top 3% of my peers. Most people are studying all wrong. Here are 10 study techniques that made me a top performer: [ 🧵 thread]

Spend less time studying and get better grades with: 1. Flashcards 2. Spaced Repetition 3. Practice questions 4. Feynman Technique 5. Proper Sleep, exercise, and diet Rinse and repeat → A's for days.

Study techniques to never use again: 1. Highlighting 2. Rereading 3. Summarizing 4. Underlining Please stop.

@UlllahNajih What's the problem? If you share here maybe I can try and help over the internet and help others at the same time! Otherwise feel free to email me.

My favorite 9 (internet) advisors: @paulg - Startups @naval - Philosophy @awilkinson - Aquisitions + Life @RyanHoliday - Media strategy @elonmusk - Building stuff @GordonRamsay - Business @simonsinek - Leadership @BrendonBurchard - Marketing @AliAbdaal - Productivity + Life

Why is everyone so god-damn realistic? It's just no fun. The funny thing is, most people who say they are being "realistic" are putting themselves in a box. I feel like our odds of dreaming big dwindle as we age. Even at a young age, people are being told to be "realistic." This is a long quote from Paul Graham's Do Great Work Essay but stick with me: " Develop a habit of working on your own projects. Don't let "work" mean something other people tell you to do. If you do manage to do great work one day, it will probably be on a project of your own. It may be within some bigger project, but you'll be driving your part of it. What should your projects be? Whatever seems to you excitingly ambitious. As you grow older and your taste in projects evolves, exciting and important will converge. At 7 it may seem excitingly ambitious to build huge things out of Lego, then at 14 to teach yourself calculus, till at 21 you're starting to explore unanswered questions in physics. But always preserve excitingness. There's a kind of excited curiosity that's both the engine and the rudder of great work. It will not only drive you, but if you let it have its way, will also show you what to work on. What are you excessively curious about — curious to a degree that would bore most other people? That's what you're looking for. Once you've found something you're excessively interested in, the next step is to learn enough about it to get you to one of the frontiers of knowledge. Knowledge expands fractally, and from a distance its edges look smooth, but once you learn enough to get close to one, they turn out to be full of gaps. " Paul Graham - Do Great Work Isn't it so amazing? I need to put it on my wall. The problem is, I can't tell you what that thing is. Only you can. Where is the curiosity? I know it's there, but maybe you have been stuffing it down for so many years, and it's difficult to find. For example, I've recently picked up programming. Why? Well I don't want to work as a software engineer, I want to build stuff. Solving challenging problems has always fascinated me. Initially it was video games and making money on ebay, then electrical engineering, then understanding the human body to help someone, then YouTube and storytelling, now it's more YouTube but also building technical projects that excite me- all these thing seem unrelated but really they are! They are all things that I initially had no idea how to do, but I learned how to do it well over time and put the final "projects" into the world. Again, I understand. You have a job, you have to go to school, and you have kids to take care of, but why can't you spend 30 minutes to one hour on the commute learning about drawing, programming, or writing? Marie Curie won a Nobel Prize in Physics and Chemistry for her work with radioactivity and chemistry while being a solo mother of two. Oh yeah, one of those daughters also went on to win a Nobel Prize. Abraham Lincoln was born into extreme poverty, was depressed, lost his mother at nine years old, and his children died. However, he still was one of the most revered presidents in America ever, leading the country through the Civil War, ending slavery, and orating his famous Gettysburg Address. Take Action: Think of something so insanely exciting to you that you think you could spend the next 48 hours not moving, thinking about, and working on, and do that. Plan it.

6 Principles of the top 1%: 1. Be extremely focused and extremely frugal - @paulg's advice to new YC founders 2. Always curious and constantly iterating - Thomas Edison famously blew up 1000 lightbulbs before success 3. Prioritize time - Warren Buffet is one of the staunchest defenders of his time ever, spending 80% of every day learning, reading, and thinking. 4. Are goal-oriented - @elonmusk was on the brink of losing it all multiple times with SpaceX, but he knew his goal, so his next steps were easy. 5. Have confidence - Muhammad Ali claimed that he was "The Best" wasn't just a marketing tactic; he really convinced himself he was the best. 6. Embrace Change - Netflix versus Blockbuster. **BONUS** How to implement these principles TODAY: 1. Focused and Frugal: Achieve one daily task that aligns with your vision, set the time aside, and finish the work. Slowly build the muscle of focused work; it will change your life. 2. Constant Learning - what are you curious about? Now, learn about it once a day by reading a book or article for 30 to 60 minutes a day. This habit of reading will quickly make you among the top 10% of all people. Even better, do the thing for 60 minutes daily: write code, write a book, film videos, and make art. 3. Prioritize Time - Spend 1 hour less on your phone and 1 hour more on the above two things. 4. Have a goal—this is the hardest part. We will get into this later, but what does your dream life look like? What is your vision? How are you going to change the world? Write it down today. 5. Confidence—Now, you can fake it, but the best way to do it is to earn it truly. Doing the above will help you earn it. 6. Embrace Change—Doing the above things today is hard. Actually do it. Be excited about it. Imagine what you would be like in a year if you actually did what you set out to do!

Sundays 2019: - 3 hours TV - 3 hours hungover - 5 hours of phone time - Felt like tar on the pavement Sundays 2025: - 4 hours reading - 4 hours with family - 3 hours Rucking/hiking - Energy of Zeus's Lightning Bolt NO phone/TV wins by a mile.

My 7 favorite newsletters: 1. @jasonfried - Business simplicity 2. @awilkinson - Acquisitions + life 3. @AlexHormozi - Business growth 4. @ZachHighley - Wealth + health 5. @thejustinwelsh - Solopreneurship 6. @chrisdixon161 - Startups + code 7. @stratechery - Tech + business

@Bssgompa winner winner sheen dinner

@SirAnasT Thank you!

Update: I've now also bought: - @RhodiaNotebooks , Hobonichi, Midori, AND Clairefonte notebooks - @PilotPenUSA Iroshizuku Shin-Ryoku and Yama-Budo Ink - Pilot Vanishing Point Fountain Pen - @LAMY Safari Fountain Pen ... I can't stop!

@sidak_sk cheers!

@ChrisSpiegl love the matte black!

@benjiewrites Books and notebooks and pens, can never have enough!

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Amazing guy: Diagnosed with Stage IV Glioblastoma (median survival 12-18 months), quit job, Thailand, skydiving, and documenting his journey just to help others going through the same. Makes me pause. Life can change so quickly. Wishing him the best.