Intelligence is over rated.

• Carmack claims to have maintained a sixty-hour work week, working a 10-hour day, six days a week, throughout his career. He has spoken publicly about the importance of long hours of uninterrupted focus in his work. Not only does high intensity allow him to make progress more quickly, but long hours are also critical to maintaining a focused mindset over time. Despite working such a demanding schedule, he has never experienced burnout.

  Carmack is also known for taking week-long programming retreats. These retreats involve a solitary, uninterrupted period away from his normal routine often sequestered in a random city and hotel. The goal of these retreats is to allow Carmack to operate at full cognitive capacity, tackling a specific, difficult problem or learning a new skill. The solitude and physical isolation of these retreats offer an environment for deep focus and reflection, making them an essential part of Carmack's creative process.

  Carmack subscribes to the philosophy that small, incremental steps are the fastest route to meaningful and disruptive innovation. He compares this approach to the "magic of gradient descent" where small steps using local information result in the best outcomes. According to Carmack, this principle is proven by his own experience, and he has observed this in many of the smartest people in the world. He states, "Little tiny steps using local information winds up leading to all the best answers."

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• He ate Pizza everyday when he was working at ID software. He has a "spirutual experience" with diet coke. Pop one, and now he means business.

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• Knowledge in depth. Don't have surface level knowledge. Don't fix a goal and push towards it. Be aware of your tools and look for opportunities as you move through the world and the world changes. John thought he was born too late, and he missed the early hacker days.

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