June 1, 2023

Every self-help tip I've discovered

I plan on keeping this list regularly updated. Obviously there are orders of magnitude more "self-help tips" residing in our heads than we'll ever be able to take note of in an organized way. But, here's my attempt. Enjoy!

  1. Finding a problem that you care about is the key to being genuine and committed. Working on things that you care about gives you a boost in genuineness. This lets you work on things for more than 5 days a week, not feel like it's work, and make the process of selling easier. All this to say -- find your problem, not your passion. Passions come and go, but problems are sticky, and they build expertise over time. 1
  2. You are likely to believe the things that you hope for. This is the classic observation that outcomes are driven by incentives. Charlie Munger refers to this quote by Demosthenes: "what a man wishes, he will believe." 1
  3. Learn to self-soothe your mind. Being able to control your level of emotions is important in relationships and in general management of stress. One tool to do this is the physiological sigh, essentially two breaths in and one slow breath out through the mouth. 1
  4. Self-glorification as an end goal is a bad idea. In the name of a means to an end, it leads to negligence, denial, and unethical behavior. 1
  5. Invent a character that you want to be when it comes to being your best, turn that mode on when certain conditions are met. 1) Identify the situations where you'd like to show up as the best version of yourself. 2) Envision the character you would like to embody in each situation. 3) Get yourself some reps by turning on this character in those situations. This process is meant to help attenuate the ability to become the best version of yourself. 1
  6. Refuse to enter the arena. Don't enter a set of rules that limits your ability to act. For example, don't argue with strangers on social media, the set of rules imposed by the message box put you at an immediate negative expected value. 1
  7. Be aware of slave mentality. Students learn to only do work to get graded. When grades are no longer present, they won't do the work. Pull the cart of society without an expectation of reward. Find work that is meaningful and do it. 1
  8. We only need a few secure friends to not feel incessantly driven by the status game. Having three secure friends, or so, is enough to change how stressed we might feel in the race to acquire accolades and things of that nature. 1
  9. Put more effort into setting yearly goals than daily goals. You should be productive in the right direction, therefore you must spend time thinking about what to work on. 1
  10. Avoid a 400% increase in all-cause mortality by not being in the bottom quartile of fitness for your age group. This one is self-explanatory. 1
  11. More coming soon
#life

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