Read How to Live

I didn’t like this at first, till I realized the point is to rile you up with viewpoints taken to extremes to help you realize what you think. In almost all, even the ones I strongly disagreed with, there was a kernel of truth. And it made me look more carefully at the ones I did agree more with, thinking about what was extreme about this viewpoint, and what isn’t helpful about it.

Key Notes

Emphasis mine.

“Never agree with anything the same day you hear it, because some ideas are persuasively hypnotic. Wait a few days to decide what you really think. Don’t let ideas into your head or heart without your permission.”

“Indecision keeps you shallow.”

“We treat the future like a garbage dump.”

“Never make a story for the things you want to forget. Let those disappear with time.”

“How you feel about anything is based on how you look back at it. Your memory is influenced by how you feel now… Give moments meaning to remember them. Take away meaning to forget.”

“Improvement is transformation.”

“Problems persist until you claim them and solve them.”

“Plans are just predictions about what you might want in the future.”

“Ignore all marketing and advertising. Nobody is pushing what really matters. Friendships, nature, family, learning, community. The best things in life aren’t things.” My thoughts.

“Shallow happy serves the present. Deep happy serves the future. Shallow happy is trying to conquer the world. Deep happy is conquering yourself.”

“The world needs more boldness.”

“You aren’t supposed to be easy to explain.” Reducible to salable data profiles for advertisers, or archetypes in the story someone wants to tell about you.

“You’re an ongoing event — a daily improvisation — responding to the situation of the moment.”

“Your past is not your future. Whatever happened before has nothing at all to do with what happens next… Never believe a story.” (At least not one that’s holding you back.)

“Creating is a higher form of communicating. You join the elite conversation by contributing. You reference creations from the past to make your own unique addition or combination. The dialog can span centuries.” The Long Now.

“It’s not a revolution if nobody loses… When the bad people are mad, you’re doing it right.”

How you react to situations: “Do you tend to change yourself, change the environment, or change nothing and leave?”