List of Exceptional Traits

Traits and signs of exceptional people.

1. They take risks and asymmetrical bets in life (eg: dropping out of college, changing career paths) and willing to experiment.
2. They know or use: Anki, Obsidian/Logseq/Roam Research, Zotero and prefer X over LinkedIn.
3. They help out without expecting anything in return.
4. They are able to be contrarian. Able to speak up against others. Can keep doing what they believe is the right thing in the absence of any positive feedback or only negative feedback from others. Has unwavering belief in themselves. Can tell others “I know I’m right, and you’re all wrong.”
5. They are unafraid to be mean to your face but will always defend you behind your back.
6. They can drop everything to work on a single thing if they decide that it’s important.
7. They have clear writing… but necessarily clear speaking skills.
8. They have a tendency to attribute their success to luck.
9. They operate fast, learn fast, and think fast. Likely inherently impatient. Signs of this include typing fast, lots of random small optimizations, and interrupts people.
10. They are always curious, always learning something new, and always reading.
11. They say “I don’t know” often.
12. They deliver on schedule.
13. They are seemingly always ahead on important questions and insights in the world.
14. They have a ton of interesting hobbies or side projects.
15. They had weird teenage hobbies and were against the mainstream.
16. They are intrinsically motivated and obsessively focused such that you think they’re a hermit, but they are always able to meet and talk to interesting people.
17. They make you feel like you can do anything after talking with them.
18. They understand that suffering is a part of life and doesn’t discriminate. They focus on inputs they can control. They have belief in their influence on outcomes.
19. For founder specific stuff: Founder Traits.