Write Down Your Principles! The two most powerful practices that radically improved my life were meditation and writing down my principles. If you do these two things I guarantee you a much better life. (1/5)
— Ray Dalio (@RayDalio) October 19, 2022
Life
Live healthy.
The human body is incredible. We owe it to these incredible machines (barring a better analogy) to treat them with the utmost respect.
I must emphasize this does not mean skipping out on fun nights with friends. They make life worth living.
The key is finding a balance.
- Avoid processed food.
- Exercise regularly.
- Moderate screentime.
- Stay hydrated.
- Cultivate a healthy relationship with alcohol.
Work hard.
We are standing on the shoulders of the giants. The amount of effort and innovation that allowed this webpage to even exist unfathomable. We owe it to those who pioneered before us as well as future generations to make this world better.
Prefer radical transparency.
- Maybe it's from growing up on the East Coast or having a "Berliner Schnauze", but I prefer honest, straightforward communication.
- My father once told me a joke about Americans versus Germans. A man buys a new car. The American says, "Wow, I love your car." The German says, "I love your car, but I would not have gotten it in that color.". So far, I have generally found unsolicited feedback to be counterproductive.
- Being honest does not imply "yapping". Prefer deliberate, thoughtful communication.
Embrace minimalism.
I do not like having a lot of stuff.
Having fewer possessions makes daily life more sustainable.
- It makes both cleaning and organization easier.
- This results in less mental energy wasted searching for things or deciding what to wear.
Prefer quality products. I support BuyItForLife.
For practical, durable and quality made products that are made to last.
Clothing
- This does not necessarily mean having an empty wardrobe.
- Embrace dressing well whatever that means for your style.
- Prefer comfortable, lasting clothing over cheap products.
Prefer brands with quality guarantees.
- Patagonia repairs everything.
- Lululemon has shortened their "Quality Promise".
- L.L. Bean ended its lifetime return policy.
Work
I really like Warp's "How We Work" page.
Eliminate meetings as much as possible.
- Meetings prevent people from engaging in deep work.
- Strive to replace meetings with asynchronous collaboration as much as possible.
- This is not a hard and fast rule. I have witnessed code reviews, message threads, and more devolve to the point where a 5 minute conversation would have been more efficient. I consider these scenarios to be a bug in processes similar to a bug in software. Conway's law exists for a reason.