* Work on projects you love doing, even if only part of the time. You can only be as smart as you are motivated. I will never be a smart electrician.
* Reading and learning are important, but people learn by doing, by tinkering.
* Carry a notebook or a PDA, and use it to record ideas. Periodically discard most of your ideas.
* Having a blog can’t hurt.
* This is probably the most important point: hang around with smart people. If you live among monkeys, you might have a good life, but you will not earn a Ph.D. (except if you are studying monkeys!). Happily, you can easily hang around with smart people wherever you live thanks to the Internet. This is important because if you hang around with people who do great work, you will be motivated by emulation: nobody likes to feel like a loser among his peers.

* Push yourself: try daring projects and learn to fail. Be ambitious! Do not waste your time with things you know how to do well. Go beyond. Aim as high as you can, while trying to stay on track.
* Context is important when solving problems. I found that offices are nearly the worst place to work for me. My home office is much better. Sometimes, a coffee place can be a decent alternative office (presumably because of the white noise effect). Sometimes, using a pen is better than a keyboard. Sometimes, working with a laptop in your bed is better than working on a desk. Change, try new contexts!
* Come back to important projects regularly. Do not get lost in the small stuff.
* Urgency is an important factor. Somehow, being too happy about what you achieved can slow you down. This suggests that you should be critical of your own work, and you should not underestimate your competitors. Of course, you need to stay motivated, so do not overestimate your competitors or underestimate your own work either!
* You will not cure cancer in one day. You will not become a pro golfer in a week. You can only solve big problems by dividing them up in small chunks. Always stay focus on the next small step. Do not stare mindlessly at the big picture.

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