What you can do in a decade

swyx · 22 Apr 2026 · swyx.io ↗

3 korrents from this piece

swyx did not write this page.

Every claim below was made in this piece, quoted word for word and numbered in the order the piece makes them, so you can read it there rather than take our word for it. The sentence above each quote is our reading of the claim, not their wording. Each quote was checked against a stored copy of the page at build time; where the two differ, the quote is the fact.

Our reading
The people who run the world are not smarter than anyone else, and even well-meaning ones often only offer paths not worth pursuing.

Their wordsthe world is run by people no smarter than you - and even people that genuinely mean well, end up only prescribing games that you don't want to win.
Our reading
Lasting satisfaction comes from studying how others play, then defining and fully playing one's own game rather than someone else's.

Their wordsThe only lasting path to satisfaction, happiness, skin in the game, maximizing learning, is to really study everybody's game, define your own, and then play it to the best of your ability.
Our reading
A single year tends to look much like the one before it, but a decade can change everything about a person's life.

Their wordsIn one year you'll probably mostly be thinking and doing what you think you'll be doing in a year today. In a decade, EVERYTHING can change.