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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

#91

Post by graycat »

Five rules:

(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
Some of the good content may help with financial security. Friends made can be crucial for financial security and parts of family formation. Never stop learning and for much of education pick some good and relevant material and largely teach yourself. For your children, help them with their education.

(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.

Re: One hundred and one rules of effective living

#93

Post by sandspar »

LVB wrote: post #79
jebarker wrote: post #16

I often wonder if there's any real benefit in reading things like this. Philosophising (and meditating) without putting it into practice in your life is largely worthless, but I tend to think with ideas like this you only learn them through experience.

Over my many years I've found that mental pivots that have lasted came at completely unpredictable times. I'd hear or read something like one of these, it would resonate and get me thinking "Hmm, yeah, I should stop that", and it stuck. Presumably my brain was primed to receive the advice at that time.

Psychologists call this the "psychological moment." You can tell a depressed friend 100 times that they should go for a walk and they'll ignore you. Then for some reason the 101st time it sinks in, they go for a walk and lo, they feel better. Psychological moment applies to all sorts of changes. Telling your abused friend that they should take the kids and leave, telling your aging dad that it's time he gives up his driver's license, asking your husband to stop interrupting you. 100 times they ignore it, 101st time it clicks. Everything is timing.

Re: One hundred and one rules of effective living

#94

Post by borroka »

reverendsteveii wrote: post #37

this feels like another person who sits by himself thinking about things that sound wise to him. he operates on the assumption that he is wise because wise sounding things sound wise to him, and also that those things are wise because they sound wise to him and he is wise. they're great for books, blogs and other one-way forms of communication where their entire job is just satisfying fridge logic so that the audienc…

We all know what you should do, be doing, and not do. Of course, we should do our job earnestly and enthusiastically, love our families to death, and protect the weak and help the poor. All in this ethereal world in which there are no trade-offs, good and evil are separated like the ocean and the mountain, and somebody, up there, is looking pensively at our actions.

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.

Re: One hundred and one rules of effective living

#95

Post by lazide »

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.

I find the list hilarious, because Ben Franklin was a notorious player, and his time in France (as American ambassador) was legendary - if documented today, it would make the Wolf of Wallstreet jealous. In modern parlance, ‘coke and hookers’ galore.

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.

Re: One hundred and one rules of effective living

#96

Post by srik »

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…

It's funny that this is by Ben Franklin, someone notorious for routinely violating at least half of these virtues.

Re: One hundred and one rules of effective living

#97

Post by metalman »

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…

my dogs, when I have them, dont bark, but have exceptional freedom and are expected to act with discretion, I talk to my animals a lot, and watch them closely, responding to there needs and comunications......a big dogs warning "CHUFF" says everything needed....."big dog here....please observe formalitys, aproach calmly, say hi, be pleaant and confident, and all will be fine", with the understanding that I can order a stand down, for non dog people who are of no threat. dogs, and animals, offer a real ,genuine , opinion on many aspects of life, a check.......,can I walk away from that expectant look...sometimes it's , ha! nice try you manipulative fucker, and other times it's hang it all, your right, lets do the thing, now..... the leson bieng, to be aware of everything, and one of those things is that try as you might, there are loose ends, which will unpredictably re prioritise everything, and the final proof of living well, is having the capacity to re prioritise, and then go on from there and a child, or a dog, or a horse, will call your bluff

Re: One hundred and one rules of effective living

#98

Post by afpx »

You can more easily get ~90% of these from practicing Christianity. And, if you practice it, you won't need the other 10%.

And, in Christianity, you don't have to do it alone. You instantly get a loving, supportive community to help you on your journey.

Re: One hundred and one rules of effective living

#99

Post by stuartjohnson12 »

gatlin wrote: post #55
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…

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.

Sure I would. The conversation would go about as well as it would with any moral realist who believes he has identified the set of virtues or deontic norms which obligation would have us adhere to. I do not know if Mr. Franklin was a "serious man" as de Beauvoir described it, but these are certainly the same kinds of self-flagellatory ethics you would expect a serious man to have.

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.

Re: One hundred and one rules of effective living

#100

Post by jajko »

BizarroLand wrote: post #82
dole wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Franklin did not try to work on them all at once. Instead, he worked on only one each week "leaving all others to their ordinary chance." While he did not adhere completely to the enumerated virtues, and by his own admission he fell short of them many times, he believed the attempt made him a better man, contributing greatly to his success and happiness, which is why in his autobiography, he devoted more pages to th…

This week, I will avoid murder. Other than that, all bets are off

Better be careful around you next week then
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