Summary: The author chased self-help books and quick fixes but felt restless and unfocused. A tutor urged him to “stay narrow and go deep,” which changed his life and writing. He learned that real growth comes from patience, struggle, and lingering with difficult works.
The paradox of self-help is that it begins with the premise that we are broken and thrives on keeping us in a state of perpetual seeking. (View Highlight)
I often felt like a man drowning in a sea of knowledge, mistaking variety for depth.
I understood concepts intellectually, but rarely stayed with them long enough for them to shape me. (View Highlight)
Stay narrow and go deep until you hit something true. (View Highlight)
But meaning doesn’t come from collecting—it comes from carving.
From staying long enough in one place to see what’s really there. (View Highlight)
Depth, I began to understand, isn’t about sophistication or intellect.
It’s about patience, discernment, and the courage to stay with what resists you.
It’s what happens when you stop chasing novelty and start cultivating understanding. (View Highlight)
Depth, like purpose, is not given. It is earned through patience, persistence, and the willingness to be transformed (View Highlight)