For years, I'd say yes to almost everything, trying to be nice and generous. Feeling obliged to be of service to the world. Maybe also a fear of being forgotten if I don't. But I paid the ultimate price in doing that, because for all those years, I got almost no work done! Some famous authors have written about this: that if they said yes to every request, then they'd never have time to write another book again.

It's only a little difficult to say no. You've got to believe that the work you're doing is ultimately more useful to the world.

When you make a company, you make a utopia. It's where you design your perfect world.

The purpose of money is to trade for things that make you happy. So if you can bypass money and get directly to the happy, you've saved a lot of trouble. And it makes others happier, too, when you organize your business around non-monetary things.

Care about your customers more than about yourself, and you'll do well.

The first follower is actually an underestimated form of leadership in itself. … The first follower is what transforms a lone nut into a leader.

Programming languages are like girlfriends: The new one is better because *you* are better.