Camilo F. Pirillo

Father of Rufina and Marcos, husband of Mercedes. Founder and CEO at Verad.

[Camilo F. Pirillo @CamPirillo]

Starting @dmexco 2025 and meeting with the @iabswitzerland team.

[Camilo F. Pirillo @CamPirillo]

The Gentle Singularity https://t.co/3h0wLbplZN

[Nat Eliason @nateliason]

Prove you can do hard things

When a teenager asks why they need to learn calculus, what should you say?

You know they will never use it in adulthood, outside of certain career choices.

You could say, “It’ll help you get into college,” but then they’re left wondering why college cares if you know calculus.

And once they’re in college, maybe you could say, “To get a good job,” but why would a potential hirer care how you did in multivariate calculus if your job doesn’t require any knowledge of calculus?

But I recently realized there is a very good reason to take Calculus. It’s to prove you can do hard things.

The ability to do hard things is perhaps the most useful ability you can foster in yourself or your children. And proof that you are someone who can do them is one of the most useful assets you can have on your life resume.

Our self-image is composed of historical evidence of our abilities. The more hard things you push yourself to do, the more competent you will see yourself to be.

If you can run marathons or throw double your body weight over your head, the sleep deprivation from a newborn is only a mild irritant.

If you can excel at organic chemistry or econometrics, onboarding for a new finance job will be a breeze.

But if we avoid hard things, anything mildly challenging will seem insurmountable.

We’ll cry into TikTok over an errant period at the end of a text message. We’ll see ourselves as incapable of learning new skills, taking on new careers, and escaping bad situations.

The proof you can do hard things is one of the most powerful gifts you can give yourself.

My goal with our kids is to avoid lying to them as much as possible.

I won’t tell them that calculus is super important or even that grades are super important. The truth is, they aren’t, so long as you have other plans.

Calculus is a great way to prove you can do hard things if you have no other proof to show.

But if you’re learning programming and building apps in your free time, or winning soccer championships, or writing a novel, then you are doing hard things. Probably harder than Calculus.

This is also why there’s so much survivorship bias and bad advice in the “C students hire A students” trope. Most C students are not doing other hard things instead of school. They’re just goofing off, so they end up working for the A student.

But some C students are getting C’s because they’re obsessed with other projects. Hard projects. And that obsession with doing hard things lets them blow past their Excellent Sheep peers over time.

So if you have a C student who’s obsessed with something hard, you probably don’t have to worry. If they’re getting high and watching TikTok, well…

I don’t particularly care what grades my kids get once they start school. But I do care that they consistently prove to themselves they can do hard things. If Calculus is how they want to do it, fine, but there are many, many more options.

And if you’re not someone who knows they can do hard things, find a way to prove it to yourself.

Build a habit, learn a skill, create something, whatever it is that turns your default stance on challenges from “that seems hard” to “I can figure it out.”

Create proof you can do hard things.

[Camilo F. Pirillo @CamPirillo]

If you are still wondering what ChatGPT is, just try it. This kind of technology, together with other Generative AI tools, are having and will have such a great impact in our lives that future generations will be talking about this moment for centuries.

[Mira Murati @miramurati]

Unveiling GPT-4 -- our large multimodal model that exhibits human-level performance on various professional and academic benchmarks. With iterative alignment and adversarial testing, it's our best-ever model on factuality, steerability, and safety.
https://t.co/rjsIYWTN3Y

[Camilo F. Pirillo @CamPirillo]

Jeff Beck - Cause We've Ended As Lovers (Live at Ronnie Scott's) https://t.co/kQ6ktMJoTf vía @YouTube

[Jon Erlichman @JonErlichman]

“Inflation is just like alcoholism.”

~ Milton Friedman

[Ian Hubert @Mrdodobird]

It's done! FINALLY I can share this! Basically everything I've posted over the past 3 years has been for this first episode of Dynamo Dream. I really hope you enjoy it :D

https://t.co/iTKcuqFt5I

[Michael Saylor @saylor]

It took clarity and conviction to set up $GBTC, and now @Grayscale is demonstrating courage and commitment in their campaign to convert GBTC into a Spot #Bitcoin ETF. They deserve your support. If you agree please let the @SECGov know. https://t.co/0uawul3sMg

[Camilo F. Pirillo @CamPirillo]

Check out Ecstasy of the Dead by Laprisamata at https://t.co/g8NfomzxQW NFT! https://t.co/PBcZttN175 via @cryptocom

[Camilo F. Pirillo @CamPirillo]

@MastercardArg estoy llamando desde el exterior hace 1 hora y no me atienden. ¿Cómo es posible que no haya un sistema de callback o devolución de llamada?

[Camilo F. Pirillo @CamPirillo]

The ad tech industry is crowded and competitive @google https://t.co/BXeihysXFs

[Diego Rottman @diegorottman]

Al final, el solo de Phil Colins se resolvía con un par de tuppers...

[Camilo F. Pirillo @CamPirillo]

Me gustó el video “That's My Jazz | A Breakwater Original” en #Vimeo: https://t.co/PZFTaozRMq

[Camilo F. Pirillo @CamPirillo]

I’ve given my #voicefortheplanet to call for a #newdealfornature. Nature is vital for our health, our livelihoods and our wellbeing. Let’s set the planet on a path to recovery by 2030. https://t.co/wgcEWmoaEp #naturematters https://t.co/n0lmbMEB9l #naturematters

[Camilo F. Pirillo @CamPirillo]

@Iberia Paguen la indemnización correspondiente según indican sus propias políticas. Ya voy dos reclamos vía web y se hacen los distraídos.

[Camilo F. Pirillo @CamPirillo]

@Iberia un desastre. Vuelo cancelado por fallas técnicas. El siguiente vuelo demorado 2 horas. En Barajas una persona para atender a 150 pasajeros que estamos hace 24 horas demorados.

[Camilo F. Pirillo @CamPirillo]

Adhiero a esta idea. Hay que empezar, aún cuando creamos que no estamos listos.
https://t.co/FR7LPliGq5

[Comunidad #InnovaRock @irockCL]

Lo dijo @CamPirillo en #CPAR2 "la gamificación permite transformar productos y procesos en experiencias. En materia de diseño, muchas veces menos es mas"

[San Antonio Spurs @spurs]

1 RT = 1 Vote

Manu Ginobili #NBAVOTE