<ol>
<li>Practice good deeds and celebrate success in silence. The point is to do good. Not to elevate your status.</li>
<li>Always assume good intentions and don't take anything personally.</li>
<li>Set clear expectations for what you want out of a relationship as soon and revisit them as often as possible.</li>
<li>Know when to give something up. The time, money and energy you invested doesn't make it more worthwhile. Keep the concept of sunk costs in mind.</li>
<li>Don't waste time or energy in things you cannot change.</li>
<li>Stand up for what you believe in. Be willing to walk alone if you have to.</li>
<li>Embrace your uniqueness. No one else in the entire world thinks the way you do or has your life experience. And that's your unfair advantage.</li>
<li>Trust yourself and your decisions.</li>
<li>Extreme people get extreme results. Work as hard as you can.</li>
<li>Focus on the things that don't change. The books, technologies, ideas, relationships that are likely to still be here in 50 years.</li>
<li>Prioritise practical experience over books and theory. The shorter the feedback cycle, the better.</li>
<li>Admit your mistakes and shortcomings openly and emphatically. That will make you grow.</li>
<li>Be humble with knowledge. What you know is so much less than what you don't know. And every person knows more about something than you do.</li>
<li>Surround yourself with people who challenge you and help you grow.</li>
<li>Be consistent and practice your craft deliberately but be patient with results. It takes time but sooner or later they'll come. Keep showing up and doing the work.</li>
<li>Reject most labels and boxes. Don't let them define who you are or who you can become.</li>
<li>Cultivate disobedience. In yourself and others. That's how new knowledge is created and how society evolves.</li>
<li>Seek to understand the world. Leave your bubble and travel as often as you can on your own.</li>
<li>Don't try to be perceived as smart. That will keep you from learning and connecting with people genuinely.</li>
<li>Question everything about yourself and about what you believe in. Don't be afraid of changing your mind or seeming inconsistent.</li>
</ol>

Turning 26.

<a href="https://rsms.me/">Rasmus Andersson</a>, known for designing the <a href="https://rsms.me/inter/">Inter typeface</a>, co-creating Spotify and GraphQL, and shaping Figma as lead designer, is one of my personal heroes. I look up to him for his proficiency in both design and computer science. Something I too aspire to achieve. Besides the work everyone knows about, he spends his time tinkering and creating <a href="https://rsms.me/projects/">other projects</a>. Among them multiple programming languages.
Mastering both design and software is no small feat. And since I'm graduating soon, I decided to reach out and ask for advice. He was kind enough to share his thoughts on <a href="https://twitter.com/rsms/status/1645135344134942721">a tweetstorm</a> I'm sharing here in a compiled format.
<h3>Rasmus Andersson:</h3>
Every person is different and we all have a unique perspective, so it's hard to give general advice, but anyhow:
Do! Make! Do a lot of work, do A LOT of work. The saying that in order to be great at something, you have to do it 10 000 times is true (in most cases.)
You can read all the books in the world about playing soccer but the only way you can be a great soccer player is (obviously) by playing a lot of soccer (and maybe reading a few books.) The same is true for any path to mastery — you have to practice, a lot.
Now, about software design vs engineering. Think about software the way you'd think about furniture: To build a good chair you need to consider everything from reason and personality to materials and maintenance.
There are of course people specialized in many aspects of furniture: materials, types of furniture, part of the process (ie. concepts, development, production etc.) and so on. But as a designer of a chair you can'd do a good job without considering and prototyping the whole.
It is important to find your specialization of course, otherwise you will have a hard time selling yourself (ie. what—concretely—do you bring to the table?)
What I often see in the software industry is people putting themselves into silos (which is different from specialization.) For example someone who only does motion design but would never imagine actually implementing an animation in e.g. an iOS app (for prototyping purposes.)
A furniture designer doing that would be pretty terrible at designing chairs;
"I design the most exquisite legs"
Very pretty! But they break if you put the chair on a carpet and apply lateral force, so we can't ship that.
I think it’s REALLY hard to take this advice to heart in the insanely-fast paced software industry. The idea that you might have to work hard for 5-10 years to get to where you want to be might seem crazy when the software people build only lasts for a fraction of that time.
<hr>
Rasmus's advice echoes what other people I admire have told me in the past. Working hard and <a href="https://moonwith.com/posts/train">showing up every day</a> probably matters more than any other thing. Sometimes it can be discouraging not see results right away but we have to have faith. Trust the process.
And regarding bold goals and achieving mastery: Only we can know who we can be. — Never forget that.

Advice from Rasmus Andersson

Although at times real, lasting transformation may seem like an impossible task, I'm reminded of the power of belief, discipline and persistence in building character and leadership while revisiting Benjamin Franklin, a dipomat and one of the founding fathers of the United States. He began working on a system for self-improvement when he was only 20 years old.
In his autobiography he outlines the program he designed to cultivate his personal virtues. To do so, he made a list of 13 values he found desirable. Then, he added them to a table with a column for each day of the week. He tracked his progress daily, marking his performance with a mark or a cross when he didn't follow through. The goal was to have an empty table without any marking.
| Benjamin Franklin's 13 Virtues |
| :- |
| 1. Temperance: Eat not to dullness; drink not to elevation. |
| 2. Silence: Speak not but what may benefit others or yourself; avoid trifling conversation. |
| 3. Order: Let all your things have their places; let each part of your business have its time. |
| 4. Resolution: Resolve to perform what you ought; perform without fail what you resolve. |
| 5. Frugality: Make no expense but to do good to others or yourself; waste nothing. |
| 6. Industry: Lose no time; be always employed in something useful; cut off all unnecessary actions. |
| 7. Sincerity: Use no hurtful deceit; think innocently and justly, and if you speak, speak accordingly. |
| 8. Justice: Wrong none by doing injuries or omitting the benefits that are your duty. |
| 9. Moderation: Avoid extremes; forbear resenting injuries so much as you think they deserve. |
| 10. Cleanliness: Tolerate no uncleanliness in body, clothes, or habitation. |
| 11. Tranquility: Be not disturbed at trifles, or at accidents common or unavoidable. |
| 12. Chastity: Rarely use venery but for health or offspring, never to dullness, weakness, or the injury of your own or another's peace or reputation. |
| 13. Humility: Imitate Jesus and Socrates. |
Here's what my own version looks like today:
<img src="https://user-images.githubusercontent.com/6923650/227373891-387684c0-413f-4d5b-b23f-3833577475dc.png" alt="">
What are the values and traits you would like to cultivate? Do you have a system in place to help you make progress?

The Benjamin Franklin Method for Self-Improvement

Throughout life, some people will be kind enough to provide us with negative feedback on matters that are sensitive to us.
At times, it will feel unfair or unjustified. Either because of the way the feedback was given. Or because it relates to our sense of identity. But we can learn to see feedback as an opportunity for growth and reflection.
a) Take negative feedback as a warm hug. A gift you can use to grow.
b) Next time someone gives you feedback, resist the urge to defend yourself. Listen attentively. Thank the other person for giving you their time and mental space.

Take feedback as a gift

Tags

✨ Grow with me. Get my personal letters on emotional intelligence delivered to your inbox every week.

Other essays you may like

Turning 26.

Advice from Rasmus Andersson

The Benjamin Franklin Method for Self-Improvement