How to Become More Intelligent Than 99% of People

The only real test of intelligence is if you get what you want out of life. — Naval Ravikant

High intelligence is the ability to iterate, persist, and understand the big picture. The mark of low intelligence is the inability to learn from your mistakes.

The destination is a point of view that allows you to appreciate the journey.

“the end of a melody isn’t its goal,” as Nietzsche would say

Man is by nature a goal-striving being. And because man is “built that way,” he is not happy unless he is functioning as he was made to function — as a goal striver. Thus true success and true happiness not only go together but each enhances the other. — Maxwell Maltz

The optimal state of inner experience is one in which there is order in consciousness. This happens when psychic energy — or attention — is invested in realistic goals, and when skills match the opportunities for action. The pursuit of a goal brings order in awareness because a person must concentrate attention on the task at hand and momentarily forget everything else. — Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

The man who conceives himself to be a “failure-type person” will find some way to fail, in spite of all his good intentions, even if opportunity is dumped in his lap. The person who conceives himself to be a victim of injustice, one who “was meant to suffer,” will invariably find circumstances to verify his opinions. — Maxwell Waltz

Your ego is a system of ideas, beliefs, values, and standards that shape your perspective. Contrary to popular belief, the ego is not the enemy. It’s the storyteller. The interpreter. Your job isn’t to get rid of it, your job is to develop it. To expand it. To remove the conditioned limits keeping you in a narrow-minded perspective that makes life reactive and negative.

80% of living the life you want boils down to creating your own goals while most people are mindless slaves to society’s goals.