12 Rules for Life

rule 1

stand up straight with your shoulders back

• lobsters
• primitive brain
• serotonin
• dominance hierarchy
• face the uncertainty of the world voluntarily, with faith and courage

rule 2

treat yourself like someone you are responsible for helping

• not taking the medicine
• chaos and order
• give life meaning
• strengthen the individual

rule 3

make friends with people who want the best for you

• drugs
• use your judgement
• average of the 5

rule 4

compare yourself to who you were yesterday, not to who someone else is today

• tame the inner critic
• are you a tyrant or do you negotiate with yourself?
• narrow your field of view
• find the real reason behind the thought

rule 5

do not let your children do anything that makes you dislike them

• badly raised children
• use force wisely

rule 6

set your house in perfect order before you criticise the world

• serial killers
• start small
• be rational
• don't embellish what doesn't need it (primitiveness)

rule 7

pursue what is meaningful, not what is expedient

• don't trade the present for the future
• adam and eve
• meaning > moment

rule 8

tell the truth. or, at least, don't lie

• truth is the principle of order
• manipulation comes from untruth
• don't be fooled by inner lies, look for the essence

rule 9

assume that the person you are listening to might know something you don't

• be genuine in conversations (without the social filter)
• find out for yourself
• listening means something else (without judging)

rule 10

be precise in your speech

• be precise in your ideas so you don't drown in the complexity of the world
• never underestimate the destructive power of sins of omission
• work with reality, without assumptions or imprecise claims
• confront chaos with the precision of being

rule 11

do not bother children when they are skateboarding

• danger (living on the edge) drives progress
• don't hold others back, it can hurt your whole development
• don't believe the "self-appointed judges of the human race"
• patriarchy: has more good in it than people think
• ideas have consequences (marx)
• differences between men and women are natural
• don't be insufficiently aggressive, sometimes you have to stand your ground

rule 12

pet a cat when you encounter one on the street

• accept that BEING comes with its suffering and its limits, without them it wouldn't be BEING
• take some moment of your day to restore the strength of your purpose, either doing something you enjoy or just not doing what's expected