Marcus Aurelius wrote that you could leave life right now — and that should determine everything you do, say, and think. So what are you still pretending to have time for? This reflection sits with that question honestly.

When I was younger, I was blind to so much. The lessons I needed most — about compounding progress, the power of reading, facing mortality — no one said them out loud. This is what I wish someone had told me then, and what I'm grateful to know now.