Maxims for a happy life

Maxims and arrows →Go uptown A hearty collection of the JC’s pithiest adages. Index: Click ᐅ to expand: Maxim 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. The internet has vouchsafed the ability to publish to the world to every man woman and child. There is no bullshit filter anymore. Assume everything you hear and read is nonsense until you have good reason to believe that contrary. The more recent it is, the more likely it is to be bullshit, since natural selection hasn’t had a chance to weed out the weaklings: valuable statements tend to better survive scrutiny. Not always, of course.

See: Disdain fashionable things. Especially ideas.

Be good company. You only have four score and seven on this planet, so for Christ’s sake try and enjoy them. Don’t talk about yourself all the time, and certainly don’t go on about your problems. Sub-maxim: Seek out people who are good company. Don’t waste your precious time on whiners.

Be a contrarian. But be prepared to stand in the cold. It’s lonely being a contrarian. If you challenge a popular, bad idea that happens to be liberal that doesn't make you a conservative, or vice versa. Be prepared to walk a lonely path: be wary of seeking shelter in the company of those who happen to be aligned against whoever you’re challenging.

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 from BlackRock and you didn't post an #iam message ... good for you. That took a ton more courage than posting one.

The glass is half full. Always. Whoever you are. Wherever you are. If you have time, resources and cognitive ability to be reading this, you’re one of the lucky ones. For Christ’s sake, buck up.

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.

Coin metaphors. Be figurative.

Be on the first lift, not in the last bar.

Disdain fashionable things. Especially ideas.

Don’t be a victim. Own your predicament, don’t whine about it. Be predator, not prey. See also : don’t talk your own book.

Beware of shorthand: Experts use heuristics to exploit knowledge they gave already acquired. Charlatans use heuristics instead of it.

See: Seeing Like a State: How Certain Schemes to Improve the Human Condition Have Failed

Judge people by what they do, not what they say Talk is cheap.

If you’re a man, be masculine. Don’t apologise for who you are.

It’s just a game: If you derive a significant part of your self-worth from the fortunes of a dozen well-paid me you’ve never met and over whom you have no influence, ask whether there’s something missing in your life.

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.

It’s okay to generalise. It’s okay to stereotype. That’s how humans work. We apply heuristics. Just be aware that you’re doing it. Sometimes generalisations are unfair. Sometimes they fail. Remember they are provisional. It’s okay for others to stereotype you too. Deal with it. It’s not like you’ll be able to stop them.

There are no outsized risks or rewards at the top of the curve. They are down the tail.

It’s not just "not all heroes wear capes". Heroes don’t wear capes.

Don’t be needy. Walk up escalators. Give up your seat.

Change direction by 5, not 45, degrees. But lock in the change. Rome wasn’t built in a day - but it was built. a 5% change is less volatile, more sustainable, more controllable. see evolution: optimal degree of ariability. If you vary to much, you’ll change away the good stuff.

Pass the ball

This time isn’t different. The laws of physics, finance and economics still apply. Even with blockchain. Just as they did in the dot com boom and the global financial crisis.

The Dead Poet’s Rule: There’s no machine for judging poetry.

The pitch

• Do your talking on the pitch. And leave it there.
• Stay on your feet. Don’t dive. Even in the penalty box.
• Don’t be that guy.
• Let it go. In the immortal words of the Eastenders script-writing collective, “LEAVE IT, PHIL. HE’S NOT WORTH IT.”

You

• Seize the day. Well, it’s obvious, isn’t it.
• Harden up. Sticks and stones.
• Be careful in what you wish for - on this score, if you want to get to the Olympics, take up curling.

What you’ve got

• Don’t be selfish.
• Share. Give freely of what you have and know, to those who need it.
• Use your resources. You can’t take it with you.
• Be useful.
• Don’t judge. Let he who is without sin cast the first stone.
• Don’t talk your own book.

Confidence

• Back yourself.
• There are other fish in the sea.
• Leave it on the pitch, not the table. (see do your talking on the pitch.)

Mental space

• Go off the grid — sometimes.
• Smell the roses. Take pleasure in beauty. Stop what you’re doing and drink it in. Enjoy what nature — and humans — let you have for free. Admire a wood in autumn.
• "Gee, I wish I spent more time in the office," said NO ONE IN HISTORY. Okay, okay — until coronavirus.

Learn

• Be open-minded. Never stop learning.
• Find a different way home.
• Write the music you want to hear.

Your nose

• If he gets up your nose, it’s your problem.
• If he gets up your nose, he’s probably got a point. Even Nigel Farage.

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, it’s probably bullshit.

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 them out.

Disobey stupid rules

• Walk on the grass. Fuck ’em.

Complexity and order

• Simplify. The Devil is the detail.
• Perfection is the enemy of good enough.
• It’ll do.