Lawrence Yeo

Writer. Illustrator. Storyteller.

Author of The Inner Compass:

[Lawrence Yeo @moretothat]

Today's the day! My book, The Inner Compass, is now available.

We live in a world where we listen to everybody but ourselves. This book is about building conviction in your own voice, despite the doubts and fears.

I'm so excited to share it with you: https://t.co/XPM7VaMZgi

[Lawrence Yeo @moretothat]

Excited to share that the Korean rights for my book, The Inner Compass, have been sold to Wilma Publishing.

This means that my parents will finally be able to read my book!

Every year, I visit my parents in Korea, and I always check out the wonderful bookstores there. Koreans take so much pride in how they craft their books, and I always dreamt of having my own there.

The Inner Compass is self-published, so I didn’t expect any foreign translations of it. I just thought it’d go up on Amazon, and that a percentage of my audience would buy it.

Well, thousands of copies and 8 foreign licenses later, it’s surpassed any expectations I’ve had. It's in bookstores all around the world, and will continue to show up on shelves as more translations come out.

And soon, it will be on Korean shelves as well.

After I got the news, I told my parents that they’ll be able to read it soon. Now, whether or not they’ll actually read it is another story haha, but at least they can’t blame it on the language barrier =).

Thank you so much for supporting The Inner Compass since its release last year. It’s been an incredibly meaningful part of my journey as a writer, and it’s all thanks to you.

[Rajvi @rajvishah30]

today someone in office said that “worrying is the worst way to use your imagination” and that’s easily the best thing Ive heard all week

[Ben Carlson @awealthofcs]

South Korea has now outperformed the S&P 500 over the past 10 years

All of the outperformance has come in the past year

Nuts

[Aditi Chakraborty @aditichak0412]

Wow. How well put.

[Lawrence Yeo @moretothat]

@MiguelMayher @p_millerd @morganhousel Haha what - I wanna see that t-shirt

[Lawrence Yeo @moretothat]

Wow. Honored to be quoted in @morganhousel's new book.

Morgan’s one of my favorite writers, so this was very meaningful to see.

[Lawrence Yeo @moretothat]

@jayanaman Looking forward to @george__mack's book!

[Lawrence Yeo @moretothat]

@ItsKieranDrew Thanks for this man! Means a lot.

[Kieran Drew @ItsKieranDrew]

Lawrence is one of my favourite writers.

A great example of committing to:
1. Quality content
2. 'Human-first' writing

The only people that will be recognisable in 5 years will be following a similar blueprint now.

[Lawrence Yeo @moretothat]

@p_millerd Currently at 7. i think youll make it to at least 10

[Lawrence Yeo @moretothat]

Wow. Honored to be quoted in @morganhousel's new book.

Morgan’s one of my favorite writers, so this was very meaningful to see.

[Lawrence Yeo @moretothat]

Still on my iPhone XR. Being on such a slow device makes me feel like I can resist phone addiction

[Kyla Scanlon @kylascan]

Traded in my iPhone 11 from 2019 (prepandemic artifact) today and wow. Is this how everyone feels? A 3rd arm, The iPhone, a camera that sometimes makes phone calls. 20+ hour of battery? Mine had 1!! Incredible. The screen refresh rate is so smooth, and wow, to scroll. Astonished

[Diwaker @diwakergupta]

One of the highest impact / page books I've read.

You could read it in one sitting, but I advise against it. I had to process 1-2 chapter at a time.

Thank you @moretothat 🙏🏽

[Lawrence Yeo @moretothat]

Financial freedom isn't about money, it's about attention. The more you think about money, the less free you actually are.

[Deedy @deedydas]

The vibes in SF feel pretty frenetic right now. The divide in outcomes is the worst I've ever seen.

Over the last 5yrs, a group of ~10k people - employees at Anthropic, OpenAI, xAI, Nvidia, Meta TBD, founders - have hit retirement wealth of well above $20M (back of the envelope AI estimation).

Everyone outside that group feels like they can work their well-paying (but <$500k) job for their whole life and never get there.

Worse yet, layoffs are in full swing. Many software engineers feel like their life's skill is no longer useful. The day to day role of most jobs has changed overnight with AI.

As a result,
1. The corporate ladder looks like the wrong building to climb.
Everyone's trying to align with a new set of career "paths": should I be a founder? Is it too late to join Anthropic / OpenAI? should I get into AI? what company stock will 10x next? People are demanding higher salaries and switching jobs more and more.

2. There’s a deep malaise about work (and its future).
Why even work at all for “peanuts”? Will my job even exist in a few years? Many feel helpless. You hear the “permanent underclass” conversation a lot, esp from young people. It's hard to focus on doing good work when you think "man, if I joined Anthropic 2yrs ago, I could retire"

3. The mid to late middle managers feel paralyzed.
Many have families and don't feel like they have the energy or network to just "start a company". They don't particularly have any AI skills. They see the writing on the wall: middle management is being hollowed out in many companies.

4. The rich aren’t particularly happy either.
No one is shedding tears for them (and rightfully so). But those who have "made it" experience a profound lack of purpose too. Some have gone from <$150k to >$50M in a few years with no ramp. It flips your life plans upside down. For some, comparison is the thief of joy. For some, they escape to NYC to "live life". For others still, they start companies "just cuz", often to win status points. They never imagined that by age 30, they'd be set. I once asked a post-economic founder friend why they didn't just sell the co and they said "and do what? right now, everyone wants to talk to me. if i sell, I will only have money."

I understand that many reading this scoff at the champagne problems of the valley. Society is warped in this tech bubble. What is often well-off anywhere else in the world is bang average here.

Unlike many other places, tenure, intelligence and hard work can be loosely correlated with outcomes in the Bay. Living through a societally transformative gold rush in that environment can be paralyzing. "Am I in the right place? Should I move? Is there time still left? Am I gonna make it?" It psychologically torments many who have moved here in search of "success".

Ironically, a frequent side effect of this torment is to spin up the very products making everyone rich in hopes that you too can vibecode your path to economic enlightenment.

[Lawrence Yeo @moretothat]

@waqasali Would love to hear about this!

[Lawrence Yeo @moretothat]

Jorge Luis Borges, perhaps the greatest short story writer to ever live, wasn’t widely recognized until his 60s.

Out of curiosity, I asked Claude to estimate his income over different periods based on the jobs he had, and this is what it gave me.

He was writing for 30+ years before he “made it,” and by the time he did, his eyesight was gone.

Crazy that even for Borges, it took that long to be appreciated.

[Lawrence Yeo @moretothat]

@jestonlu @NotionHQ @ishverduzco @ASalyers3 @jamesjacoby_ Congrats Jeston!

[Lawrence Yeo @moretothat]

@MickDeBoer For sure. I tell people it does more for your mental health than it does your physical health

[Lawrence Yeo @moretothat]

Exercise is medicine for the mind.

[Lawrence Yeo @moretothat]

This is so good. I love Derek's essays.

[Lawrence Yeo @moretothat]

Fear is our default reaction to uncertainty, but what happens when you learn to embrace it?

This is the question that my friend @SimoneStolzoff explores in his new book, How to Not Know.

Simone is an incredible storyteller, drawing upon stories of people that find themselves in the depths of the unknown.

He breaks the book into 3 parts: Comfort, Hubris, and Control. You can think of them as the 3 forces that keep us from exploring uncertainty, which prevents us from expanding our horizons.

But by reading this book, you’ll understand how to reframe each of them.

The world feels more uncertain than ever, and you can either fear it or embrace it. How to Not Know is a great place to start if you’re looking to choose the latter.

Get the book here: https://t.co/Qdi5NldZbb