...That one square in the waffle that’s the most loaded with butter and syrup...

...The lesson of leverage is this: Assume that the worst imaginable outcome will occur and ask whether you can tolerate it. If the answer is no, then reduce your borrowing...

...From what I’ve seen, it isn’t so much the act of asking that paralyzes us—it’s what lies beneath: the fear of being vulnerable, the fear of rejection, the fear of looking needy or weak. The fear of being seen as a burdensome member of the community instead of a productive one...

...You’ll need to file taxes in both countries, even if you’ll almost certainly only owe taxes in one...

...When we have the ability to save more, we should save more—and when we don’t, we should save less. We shouldn’t use static, unchanging rules because our finances are rarely static and unchanging...

...Here’s what I was learning: secrets are poison. They suck the life out of you, they steal your ability to live in the present, they build walls between you and the people you love...

...further research has suggested that after people have gained power, they tend to behave like patients with damage to the brain’s orbitofrontal lobes. That is, the experience of wealth and power is akin to removing the part of the brain “critical to empathy and socially appropriate behavior.”...

...Like her idol Steve Jobs, she emitted a reality distortion field that forced people to momentarily suspend disbelief...

...When it comes to building great habits and ditching lazy ones, your commitment to staying focused on who you’re becoming regardless of where you are/who you are right now is the mightiest power you’ve got...

...Those who study positive psychology used to think that happy people were ones who were not under stress. They have since discovered that happiness is not correlated with a lack of stress or a perfect environment. It is correlated to the amount of accountability you accept in your life...

...Many did not succeed the first, second, or even third time they tried for a big goal. But they kept at it, they kept pushing....

...When your story is not clear, when it’s fragmented or overly complex, the audience has to work hard to make sense of it. Eventually, this hard work begins to produce first resistance, then irritation, and then loss of confidence...

...[Ed. note - Ok, this was an audio book in a long car ride with family]...

...Success does not lie in sticking to things. It lies in picking the right thing to stick to and quitting the rest...

...The researchers found a middle ground by creating a model that was simple, but not simplistic. Throw away too much detail, and you explain nothing. Retain all the detail—same thing...We want a model that is just simple enough so that we can extract macro insights with confidence in their micro origins...

...Ideas are easy. Execution is everything...

...As options increase, the effort involved in making decisions increases, so mistakes hurt even more. Thus the growth of options and opportunities for choice has three, related, unfortunate effects. It means that decisions require more effort. It makes mistakes more likely. It makes the psychological consequences of mistakes more severe...

...Chop wood, carry water. Anchor up. “Yes, and.” Ignore the parts you can’t control...

...Delay is the greatest remedy for anger. Ask of your anger, at the outset, not to grant forgiveness but to exercise judgment. Its first impulses are harsh ones; it will relent if it waits. And don’t try to get rid of it all at once; it will be wholly defeated if it is carved away by pieces...

...The what is mere habit. It’s an idea that makes sense until it doesn’t. The what can fly away in the wind. But the why? The why is drilled into the ground...