This is a distillation of my explorations, as well as general guidelines I live by.
Abstract
There is philosophical truth, and the most meaningful truths veer into the religious. Since people don’t usually like conflict or death, deep and accurate thoughts will make you powerful and unpopular.
The two most destructive forces to the human soul are bitterness and conceit, and they feed off each other.
Understanding
Knowledge is the greatest human power, but wisdom uses power correctly.
Within the mind, all facts are perceived feelings refined by correct values, which were once perceived feelings themselves.
All perception is a biased, interwoven superset of stories, and facts are just stories with plenty of references. Data are many stories that were lobotomized and piled neatly.
“Now” is all that exists. Tomorrow is a concept, and the past is a memory. It doesn’t change that we should use all three for future versions of “now”.
You only understand something after the third time you see or teach it, but probably not even then.
If the past hurts, thoroughly capture and accept it.
Only compare yourself to yourself.
Find things to be grateful for, then focus solely on who provided it. The ultimate Provider matters most.
Every attempt is messy at first, but better than nothing. Keep expanding and don’t reinvent until you have to.
What you don’t know right now is usually more important than what you do.
What we consume shapes us without our consent.
If you don’t know something’s value, you probably just aren’t open-minded enough.
When something doesn’t make sense, you don’t have all the information.
Beyond the domain of the religious, nothing is truly permanent or endless.
Action/Purpose
0 to 1 is harder than 1 to 10.
Be as precise and brief as possible, but prioritize brevity unless someone asks.
Only leave an idea alone when you fully know everywhere it goes.
Action lasts longer than the action’s image, but everyone judges the image.
Success requires (1) focus, (2) failure, (3) accepting failure, (4) learning from failure, (5) forgiving yourself, (6) fixing what you broke, and (7) trying again.
Specific, small things determine kindness and success, so only those small things actually matter.
Fear shouldn’t deter us, but we should take all risks as safely as possible.
Theories are easier to understand, but details define all results. Therefore, only trust theories with details as overwhelming evidence.
While it feels great, outperforming requirements never yields as much reputation as advertising it.
No matter how small, well-done things are always important if they serve others.
Opportunities exist when people are hurt or irresponsible.
Since life’s only constant is change, life requires endless rework. This is always humbling.
Our deepest meaning comes through loving, in order: (1) God, (2) others, and (3) ourselves. This is harder than it sounds.
We find something’s meaning when we see what its absence would do.
Utility and complexity are against each other. Life needs utility, and safety needs complexity.
Interaction
Except when personalities differ, treat yourself like others and others like yourself. Since others are usually different from you, just treat them how they’d prefer.
Stay honest, both with yourself and others, even when it hurts.
Since all conflicts start in the mind, healthy resolutions always involve (1) self-awareness, (2) reasonable expectations, (3) mutual respect, and (4) clear communication.
Praise and criticize as precisely as possible, but avoid criticism without praise.
People are always more important than things.
Your information shortage makes other people’s thoughts more important than yours.
Everyone else knows things you don’t.
Bet on goodness when you’re not sure what other people think. You’ll never get in trouble for it, it’s the moral high ground, and you’ll inspire or shame them to their best selves.
Those who live by litigation die by litigation.
When it looks or says “free”, the payment is something else.
The large print gives what the small print takes.
Mental inertia is the same as physical: a mind at rest stays at rest, and a mind in motion stays in motion.
For every action, there is an equal and opposite criticism.
Family/Friends
To make others matter, trust them by asking them to do small favors for you.
Healthy conflicts only have two results: open disagreement or avoidance toward a greater purpose.
Friends are volatile, are always worth the experience, and the good ones are always worth preserving.
Expecting injustice increases its chances because overpreparedness for bad actors will halt others’ pro-social behavior and expectations.
Children are merely fragile, highly inexperienced, highly curious adults.
Don’t let others cross your boundaries, and empower everyone to do the same for themselves.
Society
Before working on society, work on yourself.
We can’t feel large events accurately, so we can’t truly understand large events.
Nobody knows what they’re doing, but nobody is allowed to say that.
Civilization improves life, which makes everyone weaker.
Living well is trusting correctly, because the alternative is desperate and dangerous actions.
Contact institutions before condemning them, and only condemn them when they provide absolutely no benefit to others.
Everyone should love others, but they won’t.
Most people want freedom, but don’t care for its responsibilities.
In a conflict between the elite and the unwashed masses, choose the unwashed.
Since most people vote with their feelings and wallets, as a collective they are greedy tyrants.
Since people lie proportionally to what they can gain, truth is hard to find in proportion to its politics.
History was written by the victors, who were mostly unhinged narcissists and idiot savants, and the most devastating changes were the narcissists using the savants.
More money and power mean more risk aversion, which is why institutions collapse after they grow large.
Make few rules and enforce them well. If they’re hard to enforce, remove rules and enforce harder.
About 3-10% of people cause 95% of the trouble for everyone else.
People abuse a trend in proportion to how fast it grows, and more abuse causes faster decline through disgust.
Don’t count your thieves before they’ve snatched.
Since nothing under the sun is new, every created thing is secret plagiarism, including this.