This list is paying dividends already!
> 41) Use sarcasm rarely.
...Shoot
Maybe don’t be so quick to say that.
> 72) A positive mental attitude means evaluating circumstances based on their capacity for self-development.
This is one of the worst rules I have ever read. Taken literally it can squander a life otherwise well lived.
I was treated disrespectfully at a restaurant recently.
I do not plan on returning there ever.
This bit me.
I work for a disrespectful person.
It is awful.
TEMPERANCE. Eat not to dullness; drink not to elevation.
SILENCE. Speak not but what may benefit others or yourself; avoid trifling conversation.
ORDER. Let all your things have their places; let each part of your business have its time.
RESOLUTION. Resolve to perform what you ought; perform without fail what you resolve.
FRUGALITY. Make no expense but to do good to others or yourself; i.e., waste nothing.
INDUSTRY. Lose no time; be always employ’d in something useful; cut off all unnecessary actions.
SINCERITY. Use no hurtful deceit; think innocently and justly, and, if you speak, speak accordingly.
JUSTICE. Wrong none by doing injuries or omitting the benefits that are your duty.
MODERATION. Avoid extremes; forbear resenting injuries so much as you think they deserve.
CLEANLINESS. Tolerate no uncleanliness in body, cloaths, or habitation.
TRANQUILLITY. Be not disturbed at trifles, or at accidents common or unavoidable.
CHASTITY. Rarely use venery but for health or offspring, never to dulness, weakness, or the injury of your own or another’s peace or reputation.
HUMILITY. Imitate Jesus and Socrates.
---
When I am an old woman I shall wear purple
With a red hat which doesn’t go, and doesn’t suit me.
And I shall spend my pension on brandy and summer gloves
And satin sandals, and say we’ve no money for butter.
I shall sit down on the pavement when I’m tired
And gobble up samples in shops and press alarm bells
And run my stick along the public railings
And make up for the sobriety of my youth.
I shall go out in my slippers in the rain
And pick the flowers in other people’s gardens
And learn to spit.
> Be steady and well-ordered in your life so that you can be fierce and original in your work
He also, by all accounts, was instrumental in getting France to support the US war of independence, without which the war would likely have gone an entirely different way.
Not to say he treated anyone badly - by all accounts, all participants enjoyed themselves immensely.
But don’t take these pronouncements as documentations of fact, but rather playing to an audience. He was also one of the major publishers and propagandists in early America, and his audience was profoundly conservative (often in the puritan sense), rural, and poor. It’s how he made one of his first fortunes [https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poor_Richard%27s_Almanack].
He probably did follow some of them, when it suited him, but clearly was never hesitant to let them get in the way of a good time either. Taking it too literally is like taking one of those popular business books too literally.
Considering he didn’t have any embassy bureaucracy beyond a few staff helping him, and that any reply from washington would be many weeks away… it seems extremely unlikely he would have had much free time at all in Paris.
There was no electronic communication of any sort (electricity was barely understood at the time), and best case transit time was around 6 weeks each way, often 8-12 if possible at all. It was also highly seasonal, and still very dangerous.
So the absolute fastest turn around time was 12 weeks/3 months, and more realistically 4-6 months. With some decent odds that one of the legs of the trip might sink, losing all hands.
It’s why a literal founding father (and one of the most influential ones) was the ambassador. No one else could be trusted.
Technically, a year could also count if you said >> few seconds, but no one will take you seriously if you do either.
And yes “many weeks” easily covers the range of 20 to 30 weeks.
You can search older HN comments and see hundreds upon hundreds of instances of “many weeks” and so on…
https://www.poetry.com/poem/141551/warning
(When I am an old woman, I will annotate other people's comments, With inapposite quibbling or info they already know ...)
After a ton of training I realized he will never stop barking, he can realize that what he is doing is not right, but the urge to bark at every noise he hears will always be something we have to work on. We will never get it "right".
I think Ben Franklins strict rules are the same way. Obviously you can't run your entire life with military discipline, but you have to set the ideal fairly high because you are going to fall short over and over.
Overly productive and active people create rules to better focus their productivity and tame their impulses.
Someone unambitious and lazy would see more benefit from a single rule that says go do something, literally anything!
My interactions with such people usually reflect a piteous tone, as if it were a tremendous shame that I had not stopped for a second to think of the gravity of the situation. That is a necessary frame for them to hold given the preconditions which led to them becoming a serious man.
[0] https://www.ushistory.org/franklin/autobiography/page38.htm
"Not to elevation"? Let me direct you to the Finnish language. It contains two tightly related concepts: "nousuhumala" (ascending alcohol buzz) and the subsequent & corresponding "laskuhumala" (descending alcohol buzz).
If you recall the course of an evening of overindulgence, you may notice that these two concepts do describe the terrain.
This is just not true. Some bill by the hour to be certain that full and focused work is applied for you and your project. In other words, if someone is following even a fraction of these 101 rules, then they are working for you. Maybe I am misunderstanding what this rule is trying to say. But, it seems like the mode of payment is completely orthogonal to the motive and priority of the person working.
Compassion, frugality, and humility.
OK, but that's going to wipe out 99%+ of Internet 'content', HN included.
I suppose that dynamic isn’t hugely different from a typical in-person social situation (e.g., a classroom where kids are afraid to look stupid by asking questions) but it would be cool if a social platform incentivized people to ask “dumb” questions they are curious about.
At this point though, ChatGPT is basically fulfilling this function for me, and its lack of judgement is refreshing compared to the typical Ask subreddit.
However there is the opposite problem - usually known as 'the empty pot sounds loudest' - where those who respond or comment are often those with the confidence of their simplistic opinions. Those with a more nuanced or expert view are more hesitant, so are less likely to weigh in.
HN is a lot better than other places (youtube comments! reddit!) but of course falls into these traps as well.
nonetheless i made an account just to support it
"Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?"
far simpler rules have been laid out numerous times in the classics.
such as: the golden rule of ethics, ie, dont do unto others what you dont want done to you, and the serenity prayer etc.
I'm always wary of people who spend too much time in the world of inspirational books. It's healthy to read a little, and to "sharpen the ax" every so often, but reading too much of this stuff is mind-numbing outside of historiography reasons.
I cannot overstate how absolutely hollow it must be that work is your #1 rule of living
The next saddest thing is that the only mention of love is a fucking Machiavelli quote
One of my greatest pleasures has been orienting my life toward projects and away from pleasures. I now find myself doing a lot of what other people consider work, but self-directed and self-paced in a way that brings me incredible, deep satisfaction. No one, including me, forces me to do these things. I do them because I like doing them. Bodybuilding, maintaining my home, lawn and garden, cooking/brewing/fermenting, building software. I'm not an extraordinarily wealthy man but if I woke up tomorrow with "comfortably live the rest of your life based on interest alone" money I don't suspect my life would change all that much.
Once you're doing that sort of work, the meaning of this rule will become clear as will its meaninglessness.
That Machiavelli quote is a poor take on love as part of life, I agree.
In defense of TFA though, it is titled rules of effective living, not necessarily happy living.
The rules on avoiding cruel people and who treat others badly are kind of like an anti-rule that works here though: if you're judicious and conscientious about that, I think you just end up with loving people around you, in every type of relationship: acquaintance, familial, friendship, intimate...
Obviously, being buried under an avalanche of thankless work is just as bad.
My ideal life would be some sprints of large effort (maybe pulling the occasional all-nighter once in a while), followed by rest / low work times.
A constant amount of work, all the same, blurs the days together. Too little, and you start feeling useless. Too much (consistently) and you're overwhelmed.
20) Get away from cruel people—at all costs.
58) “If we must choose between them, it is far safer to be feared than loved.” (Machiavelli)
This is simply a self-help back-of-the-book quotes compilation.
But the wise person, after reading a few inspirational books and slogans for the masses, gets annoyed at the simplistic "just be kind" that means nothing when out of context, of tough decisions to make, of mornings when everybody and everything annoy them. And so they decide to go back to looking at actions, that words are fleeting, but examples are lasting.
“Those who bill by the hour work not for you but for the hour.” Strikes me as cynical. Yes some people can run up the clock, but paying by the hour is also fundamentally the most fair work arrangement. You are asking for someone’s time, you pay for that time.
Flat rate work gets into their own issues. For example, suppose you want your home deep cleaned and someone charges you $x to do so. A great deal!
Except you find after the fact they missed a lot of stuff. Technically they followed through on the letter of what you agreed to but they did the bare minimum. There’s no pride in the work. If you had paid by the hour, you could’ve asked them to stay and focus on some areas that matter more to you.
Or conversely, there’s lots of horror stories here about devs accepting flat rate work and getting endlessly dragged thru change requests
I panned this list in a different comment but I like it a lot better from this perspective. It's not necessarily there to be right. Sometimes it's there to say things to which your immediate response is "That's bullshit" but in a way that forces you to articulate why, or (and this is even better) to admit that you can't. Like when I read Heinlein.
Stopped reading here, waste of time.
Before you strap those extra rounds of ammo to your vest, may I suggest simply finding better friends?
There's several on the list that sound a bit paranoid to me. And many more that make it feel like I'm being scolded by a schoolmarm. But there's definitely some gems. My favorite...
> Cynics know nothing.
I like this one. Would be curious to hear the author's elaboration.
Thanks for posting this!
1. Know yourself.
2. Work hard.
3. Serve others.
I think 90% of unhappiness comes from violating at least one of these rules.
Conversely, of course, following these rules doesn't guarantee happiness, but (I think) it increases your chances.
Why exactly twenty percent?
The rest is noise in an expanding universe
And yet the phrase "be kind" appears nowhere on that page
If you wish to train your mind with such aphorisms and craft your own, I recommend reading Nietzsche, Schopenhauer, or more modern thinkers like Heidegger and Adorno. Each of them has collections of aphorisms, akin to an elevated 'Farmer's Almanac'.
Yeah but it also produces blindness and lots of it.
For my money, Do unto others as you would have them do unto you shows up in some form or another in most major civilizations, and there's probably a reason for that. It's simple, makes sense, and covers a lot of situations.
If I had a number two rule to add, it would be slower traffic keep right. That's deep wisdom with a practical application.
(1) Financial Security.
Since tough to get financial security when have a boss, instead start a business, make it successful, and sell it. Usually at the beginning, tough to know if some business direction is good, and good/bad can change over time. So, keep in mind new directions.
The business should yield at least enough for a good family, a house for self and family in a good neighborhood, and significant savings.
(2) Health. Do well on diet and exercise. Don't smoke, drink, or take illegal drugs. Don't try to climb Mount Everest or anything similar.
(3) Family. Enabled by the other rules.
(4) Education. K-12, 4 year college, advanced degrees should yield good ability at selecting good from bad.
“It ain't what you don't know that
gets you into trouble. It's what you
know for sure that just ain't so.“ –
Mark Twain
(5) Socialization. Understand people and how to interact. So, special cases include friends, family, leadership, media, politics.
More is important, but these five 'rules' are a start.
And, in Christianity, you don't have to do it alone. You instantly get a loving, supportive community to help you on your journey.
“…and the unbelief of those who dissent.”
68) “The past controls the future but the present controls the past.”
(G.I. Gurdjieff)
I know Orwell used Zamyatin "We" as an inspiration, but not seen the Gurdjieff attribution before.
P.S. Also a fan of Asian Dub Foundation's Memory War.
ngangaga•8mo ago
> 4) There exists uncanny congruity between thought and experience.
Charitably, there must be a more effective way to articulate this sentiment.
I could go on, but that seems sufficient to address the overall tone of the writing.
EDIT: I apologize for being so critical. These are clearly well-thought-out points and I'm not trying to detract from that. I'm just not sure how to process someone else's internal understanding of themselves in a generally useful manner.
jewayne•8mo ago
throwaway173738•8mo ago
dullcrisp•8mo ago
tcfhgj•8mo ago
lying to yourself is sometimes a easy way out of cognitive dissonance