Happiness
1. You don’t have to love your job. Jobs are a way to make money. Many people live fine lives in okay jobs by using the money they make on things they care about.
2. Sturgeon’s law states that 90% of everything is crap. If you dislike poetry, or fine art, or anything, it’s possible you’ve only ever seen the crap. Go looking!
3. People don’t realize how much they hate commuting. A nice house farther from work is not worth the fraction of your life you are giving to boredom and fatigue.
4. There’s some evidence that introverts and extroverts both benefit from being pushed to be more extroverted. Consider this the next time you aren’t sure if you feel like going out.
Success
5. History remembers those who got to market first. Getting your creation out into the world is more important than getting it perfect.
6. Are you on the fence about breaking up or leaving your job? You should probably go ahead and do it. People, on average, end up happier when they take the plunge.
7. Done is better than perfect.
8. Discipline is superior to motivation. The former can be trained, the latter is fleeting. You won’t be able to accomplish great things if you’re only relying on motivation.
9. You can improve your communication skills with practice much more effectively than you can improve your intelligence with practice. If you’re not that smart but can communicate ideas clearly, you have a great advantage over everybody who can’t communicate clearly.
10. You do not live in a video game. There are no pop-up warnings if you’re about to do something foolish, or if you’ve been going in the wrong direction for too long. You have to create your own warnings.
11. If you listen to successful people talk about their methods, remember that all the people who used the same methods and failed did not make videos about it.
12. The best advice is personal and comes from somebody who knows you well. Take broad-spectrum advice like this as needed, but the best way to get help is to ask honest friends who love you.
13. Make accomplishing things as easy as possible. Find the easiest way to start exercising. Find the easiest way to start writing. People make things harder than they have to be and get frustrated when they can’t succeed. Try not to.
14. Cultivate a reputation for being dependable. Good reputations are valuable because they’re rare (easily destroyed and hard to rebuild). You don’t have to brew the most amazing coffee if your customers know the coffee will always be hot.
15. How you spend every day is how you spend your life.
Relationships
16. In relationships look for somebody you can enjoy just hanging out near. Long-term relationships are mostly spent just chilling.
17. Don’t complain about your partner to coworkers or online. The benefits are negligible and the cost is destroying a bit of your soul.
18. After a breakup, cease all contact as soon as practical. The potential for drama is endless, and the potential for a good friendship is negligible. Wait a year before trying to be friends again.
19. When dating, de-emphasizing your quirks will lead to 90% of people thinking you’re kind of alright. Emphasizing your quirks will lead to 10% of people thinking you’re fascinating and fun. Those are the people interested in dating you. Aim for them.
20. There are two red flags to avoid almost all dangerous people: 1. The perpetually aggrieved ; 2. The angry.
21. Those who generate anxiety in you and promise that they have the solution are grifters. See: politicians, marketers, new masculinity gurus, etc. Avoid these.
Body
22. The 20-20-20 rule: Every 20 minutes of screenwork, look at a spot 20 feet away for 20 seconds. This will reduce eye strain and is easy to remember (or program reminders for).
23. Exercise is the most important lifestyle intervention you can do. Even the bare minimum (15 minutes a week) has a huge impact. Start small.
24. Phones have gotten heavier in the last decade and they’re actually pretty hard on your wrists! Use a computer when it’s an alternative or try to at least prop up your phone.
Productivity
25. Learn keyboard shortcuts. They’re easy to learn and you’ll get tasks done faster and easier.
26. Keep your desk and workspace bare. Treat every object as an imposition upon your attention, because it is. A workspace is not a place for storing things. It is a place for accomplishing things.
27. Reward yourself after completing challenges, even badly.
Rationality
28. Noticing biases in others is easy, noticing biases in yourself is hard. However, it has a much higher pay-off.
29. Explaining problems is good. Often in the process of laying out a problem, a solution will present itself.
30. Selfish people should listen to advice to be more selfless, selfless people should listen to advice to be more selfish. This applies to many things. Whenever you receive advice, consider its opposite as well. You might be filtering out the advice you need most.
Compassion
31.Call your parents when you think of them, tell your friends when you love them.
32. Compliment people more. Many people have trouble thinking of themselves as smart, or pretty, or kind, unless told by someone else. You can help them out.
33. Don’t punish people for trying. You teach them to not try with you. Punishing includes whining that it took them so long, that they did it badly, or that others have done it better.
34.Don't punish people for admitting they were wrong, you make it harder for them to improve.
35. In general, you will look for excuses to not be kind to people. Resist these.
Possessions
36. Things you use for a significant fraction of your life (bed: 1/3rd, office-chair: 1/4th) are worth investing in.
37. “Where is the good knife?” If you’re looking for your good X, you have bad Xs. Throw those out.
38. If your work is done on a computer, get a second monitor. Less time navigating between windows means more time for thinking.
39. Establish clear rules about when to throw out old junk. Once clear rules are established, junk will probably cease to be a problem. This is because any rule would be superior to our implicit rules (“keep this broken stereo for five years in case I learn how to fix it”).
40. When buying things, time and money trade-off against each other. If you’re low on money, take more time to find deals. If you’re low on time, stop looking for great deals and just buy things quickly online.
Self
41. Deficiencies do not make you special. The older you get, the more your inability to cook will be a red flag for people.
42. If you’re under 90, try things.
43. Things that aren’t your fault can still be your responsibility.
44. Defining yourself by your suffering is an effective way to keep suffering forever (ex. incels, trauma).
45. Keep your identity small. “I’m not the kind of person who does things like that” is not an explanation, it’s a trap. It prevents nerds from working out and men from dancing.
46. Don’t confuse ‘doing a thing because I like it’ with ‘doing a thing because I want to be seen as the sort of person who does such things’.
47. Remember that you are dying.
48. Personal epiphanies feel great, but they fade within weeks. Upon having an epiphany, make a plan and start actually changing behavior.
Others
49. In choosing between living with 0-1 people vs 2 or more people, remember that ascertaining responsibility will no longer be instantaneous with more than one roommate (“whose dishes are these?”).
50. When you ask people, “What’s your favorite book / movie / band?” and they stumble, ask them instead what book / movie / band they’re currently enjoying most. They’ll almost always have one and be able to talk about it.