You can learn things from anyone. If you think you're smart, you may lack intellectual humility to learn something from someone.

Here are some notes I learned from a mutual friend who I randomly met at a cafe (by chance)

• Clarity about yourself gives clarity to others and makes relationships better (all types of relationships). If you're unsure about yourself, it makes things very complicated and leads to confusion. Know who you are and embrace it fully. Taking time to know yourself is a great use of time. Sometimes conversations can spur independent thought that can lead to answers of understanding self.
• Trust is multi-dimensional. You may trust someone in some contexts but not others. You may trust someone to be a great person to hang out with, but wouldn't trust with them your belongings if they show to be untrustworthy in that dimension. It's important to not close all doors with a person just because they show to not be trustworthy in one dimension.
• Financial stability can open the door to self-actualizaiton, but there's no need for a nest-egg beyond one's needs. Lack of financial stability can lead people to chase things that don't matter to them. It's good to do valuable work so you don't have to stress about money to survive. Financial freedom can open the mind to asking questions of purpose.
• Big challenging ideas attract the best talent. It's rare to find the best talent working on a small idea.
• You don't have to solve a huge technical challenge to be useful to sustain your life. An example is someone who made an app for truckers that just a bit better than google maps in ways that mattered for truckers & those truckers were willing to pay for the solution because it was really important to them. It wasn't a technical breakthrough, but it was noticing & then solving a small problem persistent problem for a thousand people. a problem people cared enough about that they really wanted to solve it & could justify the cost.
• Be open to the randomness of life. You never know where you'll meet people that will turn to be incredibly important to your life. Be open-minded, clear about who you are, and always honest.
• Elon idea: a business is something that takes in input, enhances the value of that input, and produces an output of greater value (input may include things like human intelligence & manual labor as well as things like energy and materials.)
• Don't apologize for who you are. Be incredibly clear about who you are and then stop apologizing.
• Your mind is like a sponge when young. When old, you'll be more so applying your learnings from when you were young in new contexts.
• always leave an open door. never shut doors or burn bridges. you never know when it will matter.
• don't engage in drama. don't let it consume you. when you see drama, go the other way. don't always blame yourself and just try to care. if you do apologize, don't apologize for who you are but rather the effect that you being you had on them.
• speak truth. never think one thing and then say the opposite. the truth always comes, and people will mind more that you withheld it than that you have a truth you assume they may dislike.

I'm grateful for that conversation... I learn a bunch in just an hour and a half.
What a random day in a cafe in SF.

after this conversation, I took these notes and am now making a new note trying to get some clairty on self... answering the question of: "who am I?"