Without principles, you would be forced to react to circumstances that come at you without considering what you value most and how to make choices to get what you want.
Principles
What I wanted was to have an interesting, diverse life filled with lots of learning—and especially meaningful work and meaningful relationships.
by 1) working for what I wanted, not for what others wanted me to do; 2) coming up with the best independent opinions I could muster to move toward my goals; 3) stress-testing my opinions by having the smartest people I could find challenge them so I could find out where I was wrong; 4) being wary about overconfidence, and good at not knowing; and 5) wrestling with reality, experiencing the results of my decisions, and reflecting on what I did to produce them so that I could improve. I believe that by following this approach I moved faster to my goals by learning a lot more than if I hadn’t followed it.
The people who really change the world are the ones who see what’s possible and figure out how to make that happen.
Truth —more precisely, an accurate understanding of reality—is the essential foundation for producing good outcomes.
