Enzo Calamo

08/21/2026

3 Ideas:

I. The measure of a life is not what you consume, but what you contribute.

Spend less time owning, consuming, taking. Spend more time giving, creating, making.

​II. Everyone wants to be happy now, but it might be better to optimize for being satisfied later.

Perhaps the key to happiness is to not worry about being happy today, but rather to make choices that will leave your future self feeling satisfied with how you chose to live. Do you feel a sense of satisfaction with the choices you made? With the way you lived today? With the things you chose to focus on over the last year? Are you "happy" with the impact you are making?

Momentary happiness is hard to predict, but deep satisfaction is easier to control. It is on the other side of good choices, good habits, and meaningful impact.

III. Your life is simply your days, accumulated. Did today's habits contribute to the life you want to build?

2 Quotes From Others

I. Neurobiologist and Nobel Prize winner Rita Levi-Montalcini reminds us that good judgment requires warmth and logic:

"Rare are those people who use the mind; few use the heart; and really unique are those who use both."

Source: WIRED Interview (March 2009)​​

​II. Author and speaker Jim Rohn reminds us to continually redirect our attention toward what is helpful and productive:

"Much of life is in learning to always remain part of the solution rather than allowing ourselves to become part of the problem."

Source: The Seasons of Life

08/21/2026

Criticism is welcomed and encouraged at Bridgewater, but there is never a good reason to bad-mouth people behind their backs. It is counterproductive and shows a serious lack of integrity, it doesn’t yield any beneficial change, and it subverts both the person being badmouthed and the environment as a whole. Next to being dishonest, it is the worst thing you can do in our community.

08/13/2026

08/13/2026

People who achieve success and drive progress deeply understand the cause-effect relationships that govern reality and have principles for using them to get what they want. The converse is also true: Idealists who are not well grounded in reality create problems, not progress.

What does a successful life look like? We all have our own deepseated needs, so we each have to decide for ourselves what success is. I don’t care whether you want to be a master of the universe, a couch potato, or anything else—I really don’t. Some people want to change the world and others want to operate in simple harmony with it and savor life. Neither is better. Each of us needs to decide what we value most and choose the paths we take to achieve it.

08/13/2026

My experience, based on watching thousands of people try this approach, is that with practice the vast majority find it so rewarding and pleasurable that they have a hard time operating any other way.

This takes practice and changing one’s habits. I have found that it typically takes about eighteen months, which is how long it takes to change most habits.

08/13/2026

Most people fight seeing what’s true when it’s not what they want it to be. That’s bad, because it is more important to understand and deal with the bad stuff since the good stuff will take care of itself.

08/13/2026

In an idea meritocracy, openness is a responsibility; you not only have the privilege to speak up and “fight for right” but are obliged to do so. This extends especially to principles. Just like everything else, principles need to be questioned and debated. What you’re not allowed to do is complain and criticize privately—either to others or in your own head. If you can’t fulfill this obligation, then you must go.

08/13/2026

People lie more than most people imagine. I learned that by being in the position of being responsible for everyone in the company. While we have an exceptionally ethical group of people, in all organizations there are dishonest people who have to be dealt with in practical ways. For example, don’t believe most people who are caught being dishonest when they say that they’ve seen the light and will never do it again because chances are they will. Dishonest people are dangerous, so keeping them around isn’t smart.

08/13/2026

It’s important not to let our biases stand in the way of our objectivity. To get good results, we need to be analytical rather than emotional.

Whenever I observe something in nature that I (or mankind) think is wrong, I assume that I’m wrong and try to figure out why what nature is doing makes sense. That has taught me a lot. It has changed my thinking about 1) what’s good and what’s bad, 2) what my purpose in life is, and 3) what I should do when faced with my most important choices.

08/13/2026

3 Ideas:

I. Being curious and excited can take you far, especially over the long arc of a life. The person who is a voracious lifelong learner will figure it out eventually. A strong reader with a healthy dose of curiosity and a willingness to try things is hard to stop.

​II. Delaying a conversation doesn't make it easier.

III. Who is initiating the items on your to-do list?

When I'm most productive, I decide what I want to create and work on the task that will help build my vision.

When I am less productive, I spend my day responding to what someone else sends to me — emails, texts, etc. — and often that means I end up building someone else's vision.

2 Quotes From Others

I. Modernist painter Georgia O'Keeffe on making your vision a reality:

"Whether you succeed or not is irrelevant — there is no such thing. Making your unknown known is the important thing."

Source: Georgia O'Keeffe: Art and Letters​​

​II. Professor and writer Joseph Campbell on following your passion:

"If you do follow your bliss, you put yourself on a kind of track that has been there all the while, waiting for you, and the life that you ought to be living is the one you are living. When you can see that, you begin to meet people who are in your field of bliss, and they open doors to you. I say: follow your bliss and don't be afraid, and doors will open where you didn't know they were going to be."

Source: Joseph Campbell and the Power of Myth with Bill Moyers