Sahil Bloom Profile picture
Aug 2 18 tweets 5 min read Twitter logo Read on Twitter
The most powerful paradoxes of life.

1. The Productivity Paradox: Work longer, get less done.

(a visual thread) Image
2. The Advice Paradox: Taking more advice can leave you less well-prepared.

3. The Wisdom Paradox: The more you learn, the less you know. Image
4. The Opportunity Paradox: Take on less, accomplish more.

5. The Boredom Paradox: The most creative, captivating ideas stem directly from periods of intense boredom. Image
6. The Social Media Paradox: More connectedness, less connected. Image
7. The Failure Paradox: You have to fail more to succeed more.

8. The Talking Paradox: Talk less, say more. Image
9. The Speed Paradox: Strong, reliable brakes allow you to go fast. Image
10. The Looking Paradox: Stop looking in order to find what you're looking for.

11. The Control Paradox: More controlling, less control. Image
12. The Persuasion Paradox: Argue less, persuade more. Image
13. The Fear Paradox: The thing we fear the most is often the thing we most need to do.

14. The Shrinking Paradox: Sometimes you need to shrink before you can grow. Image
15. The Effort Paradox: You have to put in more effort to make something appear effortless. Image
16. The Money Paradox: You have to lose money to make money.

17. The News Paradox: The more news you consume, the less well-informed you are. Image
18. The Intelligence Paradox: Intelligence leads to stupidity. Image
19. The Death Paradox: Know your death to truly live your life.

20. The Growth Paradox: Growth takes a much longer time coming than you think, but then happens much faster than you ever thought possible. Image
These are the 20 most powerful paradoxes I've found.

If you enjoyed this, follow me @SahilBloom for more.

Join 500,000+ others who receive these insights in my 2x weekly newsletter (link in bio). Image
Roger Federer was the epitome of the Effort Paradox.

Effortless, elegant performances like this are just the result of an insanely large volume of effortful practice.

The unremarkable becomes remarkable.
Another classic story of the Effort Paradox: Picasso in the market.

What appeared to the untrained eye like an effortless wave of the hand was earned through years and years of effort and intensity. Image
For those who have asked, my friends at Off Menu did these graphics and designs for me.

They do design, websites, and everything in between for startups, brands, and creators. offmenu.design
The Locksmith Paradox says that as the locksmith improves at his craft, the customers become upset by the lower time input required to deliver a fixed output.

The results are the same, but the perception of value changed.

This focus (time>results) plagues most companies.

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More from @SahilBloom

Aug 4
A 22-year-old follower recently messaged me asking for career advice.

Here are the 5 pieces of advice I shared:

1. Swallow the Frog: This is one of the greatest "hacks" to get ahead early in your career. Observe your boss, figure out what they hate doing, learn to do it, and… twitter.com/i/web/status/1…
Some of this is likely to elicit “Ok, Boomer” responses—and that’s ok.

I’m a big believer in balance, but I’m an even bigger believer that the early years of your career are the ideal time to do hard, unscalable, unbalanced things to build a foundation for life.
The whole narrative on working smart vs. hard has caused a lot of people to lose the plot.

Leverage is earned—not found.

When you’re starting out, you shouldn’t be focused on leverage.

You should be focused on creating value anywhere and everywhere.

Hard now, smart later.
Read 4 tweets
Aug 3
If you spend a lot of time thinking about closed doors, you'll spot a lot of closed doors.

If you spend a lot of time thinking about open doors, you'll spot a lot of open doors.

You'll always find what you seek.
Pessimists sound smart, optimists retire young on beaches.

😂😂😂
There was a great study I’ll dig up and write about that found that self-reported “lucky” people were much better than their “unlucky” counterparts at seeing opportunity before them.

The “unlucky” people didn’t see the opportunity, where the “lucky” people did.

Interesting.
Read 5 tweets
Aug 1
Important Rule for Life: Never bet against the person who just keeps showing up.
If you do bet against this person, prepare to get run over.
PSA: Showing up isn't sexy.

It's ugly, painful effort in the dark, when no one is watching.

How you show up in the dark determines how you perform under the lights.
Read 5 tweets
Jul 31
My mom hired a writer to sit down with my 95-year-old grandmother in India and document stories from her life.

They met weekly for two years.

The process brought my grandmother immense joy—the result will bring my family joy for years to come.

I think everyone should do this:… https://t.co/50X2A17zlitwitter.com/i/web/status/1…


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For those interested in doing something like this, there are a number of options that don't require you to source and hire a writer.

A few that I know of:

• StoryWorth
• StoryTerrace
• Remento

They all have their own flavor, so I'd suggest checking out a few options.
One realization from reading and listening to my grandmother’s stories:

Life was way more interesting back then.

I generally think technology is great, but it’s definitely made life less wild and adventurous.

Stories from a childhood in the early-mid-1900s just hit different.
Read 8 tweets
Jul 28
If you sit in back-to-back meetings at work, read this:

Microsoft's Human Factors Lab studied 14 participants across two days of video meetings.

• Day 1: 4 back-to-back 30-min meetings.

• Day 2: 4 30-min meetings with 10-minute breaks in between.

Participants wore EEG caps… https://t.co/5BTRUr5RWatwitter.com/i/web/status/1…
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Takeaway 1: Back-to-back meetings created an accumulating buildup of stress in the brain.

Takeaway 2: Breaks promoted improved performance (as measured by frontal alpha asymmetry). https://t.co/guLIi042zutwitter.com/i/web/status/1…

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Still my favorite meme of all time. Image
Read 5 tweets
Jul 27
If you struggle with energy in the morning, try my 5-5-5-30 routine:

• 5 push-ups
• 5 squats
• 5 lunges per leg
• 30-second plank

Do it right when you get out of bed.

It’ll give you a natural energy boost and start your day with a winning feeling.

It just plain works.
Note: I do the reverse lunges for the lunges in order to engage my posterior chain.

Engage and squeeze the hamstring, hip, and glute.

Building and regularly activating the posterior chain has helped solve a lot of my nagging back pain from baseball days.
My current morning routine is something like this:

4:25am: Wake Up
4:30-4:40am: 5-5-5-30 + AG1/LMNT
4:45am: Cold Plunge
5:00-7:30am: Work on Most Important Thing
7:30-9:00am: Father/Son Walk

When I’m at home and stick to this, I feel superhuman.
Read 4 tweets

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