Maxims for a happy life

From The Jolly Contrarian
Revision as of 08:41, 29 August 2024 by Amwelladmin (talk | contribs)
Jump to navigation Jump to search
A hearty collection of the JC’s pithiest adages.
Index: Click to expand:
Tell me more
Sign up for our newsletter — or just get in touch: for ½ a weekly 🍺 you get to consult JC. Ask about it here.

Maxims for a happy life.

Be skeptical

  • This time isn’t different. The laws of physics, finance and economics still apply. Even to blockchain ChatGPT. Just as they did before, during and after the dotcom boom, the global financial crisis, Brexit and COVID.
  • Be skeptical. The internet has given every person on the planet the power to publish whatever pops into her head, to the whole world. See? The JC is doing it now. There is no bullshit filter anymore. Assume everything you hear and read to be nonsense until you have good reason to believe it is not.
Sub-rule: The more recent it is, the more likely it is to be bullshit, since natural selection hasn’t had a chance to weed it out: better ideas withstand scrutiny. Scrutiny comes with time. See: Disdain fashionable things. Especially ideas.

Contrarianism

  • It’s lonely being a contrarian. Be a contrarian, but be prepared to stand in the cold. If you challenge a popular, bad idea that happens to be “liberal” that doesn’t make you a conservative, or vice versa. Just ask Helen Pluckrose or Kathleen Stock.
  • Corollary: When you challenge a popular, bad idea, be wary of the company you keep: bad people whose bad ideas happen to align with yours might seek to bring you in. Don’t let them. Stay aloof. It’s lonely being a contrarian.
  • Don’t join in. From the pages of the contrarian handbook. It’s okay not to be joiner-inner. It's best not to be a joiner-inner. If you’re the guy from BlackRock who didn’t post an #iam message ... good for you. That took a ton more courage.
  • Disdain fashionable things. Especially ideas.
  • Be suspicious of leaders. Especially leaders with their own svengalis. People who are at the top of their field — Elon Musk, Steve Jobs, Peter Thiel —are as likely there by good luck and timing as skill and judgement. Make up your own mind. By all means, buy the product, but why buy the philosophy of a guy who may well just have fluked it? Principle applies to leaders who themselves slavishly follow a svengali. Ayn Rand is a red flag.
  • Ignore pop stars when they talk about politics. Would you listen to politicians when they talk about pop music?
  • It’s not a fucking competition

You

Harden up

  • The glass is half full. Always. Whoever you are, wherever you are. If you have the time, resources and cognitive ability to read this diatribe, you’re one of the lucky ones. For Christ’s sake, buck up.
  • Don’t be a victim. Own your predicament. Fix it, don’t whine about it. You can change the future. You can’t change the past. If you can’t be the predator, at least don’t be prey. See also: don’t talk your own book.
  • If you’re a man, be masculine. Masculinity is not inherently toxic. It is to be strong, not powerful. It is to be chivalrous. It is to have come to terms with who you are. Don’t apologise for who you are. If you don’t like who you are, be someone else.
  • Heroes don’t wear capes. Be a hero, do not wear a cape. (Be a hero; substance. Wearing a cape: form.)
  • Don’t give or take offence. Don’t indulge those who do. Deliberately giving offence is oafish, negative and counterproductive. Taking offence is cowardly and anti-intellectual. To be offended is to have no better reason to disagree. If you don’t like something or someone, go somewhere else.
  • Don’t be needy. Walk up escalators. Give up your seat. See: You’re one of the lucky ones.
  • Don’t be easily shocked: it’s called “the shock of the new” for a reason. Shock value isn’t the same as stock value. The longer something’s been around, the more crap it has put up with, and the more likely it is to be worthwhile. See: disdain fashionable things. Especially ideas.
  • It’s just a game: If you derive a significant part of your self-worth from the fortunes of a dozen well-paid men[1] you’ve never met and over whom you have no influence, ask yourself this: is that all there is? is something missing in your life?
  • It’s okay to generalise. It’s okay to stereotype. That’s how humans work. We apply heuristics. Just be aware you’re doing it. Sometimes, generalisations are unfair. Some fail. All are provisional. It’s okay for others to stereotype you too. Deal with it: it’s not like you can stop them.

People are jerks

  • Jerks wear capes. It’s not just “heroes don’t wear capes”. People who do are not heroes. They tend to be jerks.
  • Pray for peace. Prepare for survival. From the military school of life. Expect people to be jerks, and you won’t be so upset about it. People are jerks.
  • Network power is symmetrical. AKA Someone On The Internet Is Wrong . Beware survivor bias. Just as the internet’s network power can surface works of sublime genius it can elevate cats of unspeakable cruelty and supreme stupidity. Exult the former, Don’t rise to the latter. Your public outrage, correction or wry rejoinder won’t change his mind, but it will feed the troll, spread the meme and give the idiot more exposure. Which is, likely, what he wants.

The good stuff

  • Make gradual changes in direction, but lock them in. There is an optimal degree of variability. If you vary to much, you’ll change away the good stuff. A 5% change is less volatile, more sustainable, more controllable than a 50% change, and you can tack back if you change away from some good stuff. It is safer. It is wiser. See evolution.
  • Be provisional. Iterate. Be prepared to change your mind. In a complex environment make decisions based on what you know but be prepared to change them as what you know changes. Avoid making irreversible decisions. See: don’t judge.
  • Ski off-piste. The out-sized risks and rewards are not at the top of the curve. They are down the tail.

The good stuff isn’t always obvious till later.

Don’t be that guy

You

Use your scone

What you’ve got. Be additive
Confidence
Mental space

”*Celebrate your mental resilience. Convey it. (See: harden up.) Do not broadcast mental fragility. Solve other people’s problems; don’t expect other people to solve yours. (See: be additive.)

  • Switch off. Get good sleep. Per @suzihixson “Nothing good happens when checking email right before bed.”
Learn
Your nose

Simplify

  • Eschew contraptions: don't buy a machine to do something you can do perfectly well yourself. It will break. And closing curtains is good exercise.

Others

  • Don’t be intimidated: they’re more scared than you are.
  • First question: cui bono?
  • Assume they’re talking their own book until you know otherwise. Value people who don’t.
  • Insiders have an interest in making what they do seem hard.
  • Challenge. Require an explanation. What a professional can’t explain, she doesn’t understand. If she can’t explain it, but she does it anyway, it’s probably bullshit. Most complicated things are bullshit.
  • Leave something on the table. Don’t be too careful in your accounting. The unsettled account is a feature of an infinite game. Mutual indebtedness is a good thing. Be in others’ debt, and let them be in yours.
The team
  • Disregard rank. Seniors must earn your respect. You must earn it from juniors.
  • Your team. They get the credit. You take the responsibility. Deal with underperformance privately: that’s your job. Never sell out your team.

In a nutshell: respect the team, wherever you are in it.

Disobey stupid rules

Complexity and order

Lessons from a small firm in New Zealand

JC is a small-town boy who trained in a small firm in a small town in a small island in a small country in the middle of a big nowhere. But you learn big lessons in small places. Here are three, for which he is indebted to the partners and staff of what once was Kensington Swan, in Wellington, New Zealand. some of these are reflected in the above, but here they are in their raw state:


Miscellaneous

References

  1. Footballers.
  2. If you said, “or girl,” you’re being that guy. (and/or girl, as the case may be.)