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One hundred and one rules of effective living

mitchhorowitz.substack.com

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Re: One hundred and one rules of effective living

#51

Post by edoceo »

xivzgrev wrote: post #44

I like how these kind of lists get us talking and thinking about our own experiences. What do you agree with, not agree with? “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…

I bill by the hour, but in chunks (20, 40, etc). I do discovery, define scope and that I determine scope, then work on narrow scoped thing. (Hard part) document each ECR, set scope and communicate price. Likely to next billed-task. Kinda combines fixed&hourly; not perfect.

Re: One hundred and one rules of effective living

#53

Post by readthenotes1 »

stuartjohnson12 wrote: post #23
snide wrote: post #11

I've always like Ben Franklin's 13 virtues. It's a short list. 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…

That sounds like a very boring and miserable way to live. To respond with one of my own: --- 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 a…

The poem:

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 ...)

Re: One hundred and one rules of effective living

#54

Post by ericmcer »

stuartjohnson12 wrote: post #23
snide wrote: post #11

I've always like Ben Franklin's 13 virtues. It's a short list. 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…

That sounds like a very boring and miserable way to live. To respond with one of my own: --- 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 a…

I was teaching my dog to bark less, and I worried a bit that it might make him sit silently when I actually want him to bark, like if a stranger was coming through the window.

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.

Re: One hundred and one rules of effective living

#55

Post by gatlin »

stuartjohnson12 wrote: post #23
snide wrote: post #11

I've always like Ben Franklin's 13 virtues. It's a short list. 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…

That sounds like a very boring and miserable way to live. To respond with one of my own: --- 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 a…

Genuine question: if you could tell Ben Franklin this, would you? I'm not even disagreeing with you, nor do I think there is a correct answer, but your answer and the reasoning behind it would genuinely interest me.

Re: One hundred and one rules of effective living

#56

Post by wordpad »

ericmcer wrote: post #54
stuartjohnson12 wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That sounds like a very boring and miserable way to live. To respond with one of my own: --- 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 a…

I was teaching my dog to bark less, and I worried a bit that it might make him sit silently when I actually want him to bark, like if a stranger was coming through the window. 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 Be…

That's the problem with set rules.

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!

Re: One hundred and one rules of effective living

#57

Post by [deleted] »

mindtricks wrote: post #41
stuartjohnson12 wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That sounds like a very boring and miserable way to live. To respond with one of my own: --- 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 a…

I think it's fair to have principles and still have an interesting an active life. The best example of this would have to be, well, Ben Franklin.

[deleted]

Re: One hundred and one rules of effective living

#58

Post by throwaway173738 »

jewayne wrote: post #5
ngangaga wrote: post #2

If point 2 is something so subjective as "deal plainly", point 0 should probably be "be honest with yourself". More to the point—why would anyone want to do otherwise? The hard part is satisfying your own evaluation. > 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 ov…

Yeah, I just realized there are two very different ways to parse the statement. I initially saw it as "Experiences shape thoughts in predictable ways." But the other way to interpret it is "Attitude shapes experiences in predictable ways."

I feel like that second interpretation is the seat of so much misery and of so much happiness.

Re: One hundred and one rules of effective living

#59

Post by throwaway173738 »

daveguy wrote: post #14

> 100) Those who bill by the hour work not for you but for the hour. 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 orthog…

Hourly is for work where you don’t know when it will be finished because you have no idea what you’re getting in to. Try demanding a flat rate next time you need a slow leak in a pipe in a wall repaired.

Re: One hundred and one rules of effective living

#60

Post by standardUser »

> Prepare for the day when your best friend betrays you.

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.

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