As part of my preparation efforts for the next book I intend on writing, I'm writing a list of 100. As the book is meant to be a collection of lessons, told as parables, for my son to one day read, I've chosen to take lessons only from my life for this list.
- Never buy pizza at the chicken place - which is the flip side of 'The person who chases two rabbits catches neither"
- Always accomplish more than one thing with one action (if you can help it)
- It is the curse of mankind that we almost never recognize the value of a moment until it has passed
- Listen to your parents. They know stuff.
- Mistakes breed wisdom
- Before you assume malice, assume stupidity. Before you assume stupidity, assume that it is the influence of the situation
- There, but for the grace of god, go I
- Pleasure is an intoxicant and pain is a teacher
- Choices compound, whether they are wise or foolish
- If the computer does something you don't like, you can't blame the computer
- Invert, always invert
- if you don't take the bad with the good, you won't be able to recognize the good when it arrives
- Neither researching nor planning are doing
- Don't waste energy fighting the way things are. Accept that things are that way and work with them as they are
- It's not always a misunderstanding. Some people just won't like you, and that's okay
- Before you can control it, it is a reason. After you can control it, it is an excuse
- A good night's sleep is the foundation that a good day is built on
- First, you cannot do it even with the tools, then you can only do it with the tools, then you can create your own tools, and finally, you can do it with no tools
- You'd be surprised how far you can walk when you're not paying attention to the walking
- Allowing yourself to feel bad because other people tell you that you should is a waste of time
- Solutions tend to cause more problems
- The vast majority of all problems live in people's minds
- The difference between obsession and love is that love is a choice
- Sometimes things take a really long time
- There is no difference between a book you don't have and a book you don't read
- Someone just like you came up with everything that people have made in this world
- Humans remember things better in stories and rhymes
- "Impossible" is a placeholder concept for "I don't know"
- If people aren't making sense, the problem is probably the receiver and not the sender
- Our attention can make the difference between something working and not
- Just because something is hard in the beginning, it doesn't mean it will be hard the entire time
- The voice in your head is no more you than your clothes or your name
- Avoid just-so stories like the plague unless they come from someone who has wrestled them from the jaws of deep complexity
- Come with gifts. People like gifts
- Most of what you will think, believe and understand about the world has already been written in a book somewhere
- Life is easier with mentors
- If you cannot lead, you must follow*
- Don't worry about how long things will take. The time will pass anyway
- Almost nothing in life can be understood by reading a book, rather books can only be understood by living life
- Repetition is a tool that solves more problems than you would think
- What isn't said is often more important than what is
- There is a power in naming things properly
- In order to have good friends, be a good friend
- Always be mindful of what you're repaying people for their kindness
- Try not to accrue debt and pay your debt down quickly if you do
- Humans learn best through play
- Failure stings only if you believe that it means something about your value as a person. it doesn't
- The key to asking good questions is to do the easy mental work on your own and ask for help only when you actually need it
- Separatness is an illusion. You are your whole body, and you're the earth, and you're the universe at the same time
- The cure to inability is often time. Give things time
- If something is not physically impossible, it must be possible
- One day, people in the future will look at us the same way we look at people in the past
- When you are old and gray, what will you have wished you did now?
- The heart wants what the heart wants
- "A spoonful of sugar makes the medicine go down" applies to every sensory experience
- Fear feels like you're going to die. You must do things you're afraid to do to prove to yourself that you won't
- There is a positive way and a negative way to view everything
- The story of anything starts before that thing exists
- Incredulity is an insufficient response to possibility
- Energy moves society
- Money is a proxy for energy
- Nothing you're worrying about now will matter in 10 years
- Having big feet doesn't mean you don't fit in the world. It means the world must stretch to fit you
- Some of the best stuff is weird
- The tribe always needed someone to taste new foods and see if they were poisonous
- Everyone is as deep and complex as you are
- Every journey is unique but paths cross and overlap
- The gift of being human is that anything that is automatic can be made manual to great effect
- Tea is better than coffee and sleep is better than both
- Don't always do things on autopilot. Feel the wind on your face. Taste the flavor of the food you're eating. Don't guzzle juice
- A moment is only awkward if you join in that feeling
- People require your cooperation to make you feel bad
- You can't do everything, so you must choose what you will do
- Do not rely on others
- Lean on people
- Trust but verify
- Love is a verb
- The more time and effort it takes to reverse a decision, the more thought should go into it
- Things only make sense in hindsight
- The chain of destiny can only be handled one link at a time
- Never practice at full intensity
- If something is important to you, have time set aside for it
- The part where you want to slow down is where you must speed up
- It's not about getting ready, it's about staying ready
- The basics are what most people get wrong, not advanced material
- Slow is fast. Fast is lethal
- Plans always fail but plan anyway
- Do it when you think of it the first time
- Lies are expensive, the truth is cheaper, but silence is free
- Every lesson learned may be something to unlearn tomorrow - which is the flip side of 'what got you here won't get you there'
- Be someone other people can call in an emergency
- If you know you're starting from a deficit, don't bother measuring the magnitude before you start counteracting it
- Getting better than most people at most things is easy but becoming the best takes a lifetime of work
- Lean into what motivates you. Find more of it
- Technical knowledge is dirt cheap but the vision to use it is too rare to value
- What we expose ourselves to becomes who we are
- Always ask yourself if the juice is worth the squeeze
- You have to suck at something before you can become good at it
- When you cheat, you're usually cheating yourself
- Everyone has something to teach you
Ethics Consultant; Professor of Philosophy
1 年6 is especially important.
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1 年beautiful and wise