A Man Must Have a Code
Every person lives by a set of principles that govern their actions throughout life. They are either principles inherited by the society they were raised in (unconsciously), or principles that were chosen and updated by a person on their own (consciously). The best principles in life are ones you have thought through yourself. Below are the top principles I like to live my life by.
Bias for Action
Action is the best answer to most problems. Sitting around waiting for something to happen to you rarely works out. No one ever get’s lucky sitting on their couch watching Netflix. Action creates luck, creates feedback, and also creates momentum.
Sense of Urgency
Life is short, and timelines are negotiable. Ever heard of the parkinson principle? It states that work expands to fill the time available for its completion. Got an important work project due in a month? It will probably take you a month to do. Does the same project need to be done by Friday? Then you will also probably finish it Friday morning.
Reality is negotiable. Peter Thiel has a saying: “If you have a 10 year plan of how to get somewhere, you should ask: why can’t I do this in 6 months?”. The quality of your questions determines the quality of your life.
When you combine a sense of urgency with a bias for action, you become an unstoppable force. This brings us to my next principle.
High Agency
Who would you call to break you out of a third world prison? That person has a high sense of agency, which means they have have the ability to control what happens to them in life. Think of it as the opposite of a victim mentality. Agency is the combination of a bias for action with a sense of urgency.
George Mack does a good job discussing agency. Here is a good example.
Zero Expectations
When Charlie Munger was asked about what it takes to live a happy life his response was simple, have low expectations. In a similar vein, Naval Ravikant states that happiness is a simple equation. Happiness = Reality - Expectations.
If you came to Seattle in January and expected it to be warm and sunny, you’d be bummed out if it was 50 degrees with a slight drizzle. Instead if you came expecting it to be cold and constantly raining, then you’d be pleasantly surprised to find out that it didn’t rain much at all. The same external events happened in both examples, but the change in expectations made for a better outcome.
It’s ok to have high expectations for yourself, but having high expectations over things in life you can’t control is a recipe for disaster.
Time Over Money
Control over how you spend your time is the ultimate freedom and source of power. It’s the life razor I use to make most decisions in my life.
Love Over Power
Most things we chase in life are a form of power. Money, status, fame, beauty, these are all forms of power. They will not make you fulfilled in life. You know what will? Love.
Giving Without Getting
Giving away my time, attention, and skills with no expectations of something in return is very important to me. Nothing grinds my gears like someone doing a good deed in the world then immediately posting about it on social media. They are giving with the intention of receiving status in return. Giving yourself to others is an amazing act in and of itself, full stop.
Stay Present
If you think about the future, you are anxious. If you think about the past, you are depressed. Staying in the future moment is the best way to live a happy and purpose filled life.
Stagnation is Death
If you are coasting, you are going downhill. Always be learning, always be evolving. If you are not learning, you are dying.
Keep it Simple
The best solutions to problems in life are the simplest. Keep it simple stupid.
Incentives Matter
Charlie Munger once said “show me the incentive and I’ll show you the behavior”. Incentives rule most things in life. Use the right incentive and you will change your life, and maybe the world.
Run Towards Fear
Usually the things you are the most afraid of are the most important things that you need to do to improve your life. Scared of public speaking? Then getting good at it will probably change your life more than anything else.
Allergic to Status
Increasing your status will not create a fulfilling life. So I try not to do things that inflate my status. Comparison is the thief of joy. Never compare yourself to others (aka your status compared to others), only compare yourself to who you were yesterday.
Do Things Worth Writing, Write Things Worth Reading
This is a quote from Ben Franklin. I think it’s a great life philosophy. I try to do both interesting things, and write interesting things. Heck, you are hopefully reading something interesting right now!
What Would You Do If You Couldn’t Fail?
This is a fantastic question to ask yourself. It can help you determine your career path and most of your major decisions in life. If you are stuck in your career, asking this question can point you in the right direction.
What Makes for the Best Story?
Amjad Masad, CEO of Replit, uses this question as the final decision framework for big life moves. When deciding between two paths, taking the one that makes for the better story will almost always create a better life for you. Choose wisely.
Did I Always Do My Best?
John Wooden says that “success is the peace of mind that is the direct result of self-satisfaction knowing you did your best to become the best that you are capable of becoming”. He didn’t care about the score of the game, he only cared that his players rose to their full potential. If they did that, everything else will take care of itself. Even if they lost, they still were at peace because they knew they did their best. This is a powerful idea and one that people today seem to overlook.
Don’t Be the Best, Be the Only
This comes from the law of category from a book called The 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing. It’s better to be the first person in a new industry than to be the 10th person. Finding things that you are the only person in the world doing is a good place to be.
Stop Trying to Sound Smart
I’ve had to learn this one the hard way. Stop trying to be right all of the time. Stop trying to one up people with more interesting facts or stories. Stop correcting people. Once you stop, the quality of your relationships improve, which improves your entire life.
Hard Choices, Easy Life. Easy Choices, Hard Life.
This comes from Jerzy Gregorek. If you make the easy choice of eating junk food today, your life will become much harder in the future once you develop diabetes and cardiovascular disease. But if you make the hard choices of diet and exercise today, future you will be happy and healthy. This approach applies to most things in life. Hard now, easy later.
Gear Over Stuff
This was outlined in Michael Easter’s book called Scarcity Brain. Having more stuff in my life weighs me down, increasing stress. Instead gear serves a purpose in your life. You can have tons of stuff, but only so much gear.
Avoid Scarcity Loops
This is the main concept outlined in Michael Easter’s book called Scarcity Brain. It has three parts.
- Opportunity
- Unpredictable Rewards
- Quick Repeatability
Scarcity loops are built to make us crave certain behaviors that are most likely not good for us. Once you learn this you see it everywhere. Let’s take checking your email. It’s easy to open the app on your phone (opportunity), you may or may not have any new unread emails (unpredictable rewards), and you can easily recheck for new emails five minutes later (quick repeatability). Checking your email constantly is obviously not good for you, but scarcity loops change your behavior for the worst. There are also scarcity loops on social media, junk food, drinking, drugs, gambling, online shopping, and literally anything else that is not healthy for you.
Avoid them at all cost.
The Most Important Question
Josh Waitzkin has a framework called the most important question that helps train you on discovering what matters most. Knowing where to focus your energy is often more important than how hard you work at something. Remember, the quality of your questions determines the quality of your life. So being able to think about the most important question to solve for in your job, marriage, etc. is paramount.
Final Thoughts
To live a quality life you must have quality principles. If you don’t, you will be easily influenced to live an unauthentic life based on the expectations of society. Feel free to take some of mine to use as your own principles, or don’t! I could care less, because I have zero expectations about people reading this post.