Maxims for a happy life: Difference between revisions

*[[This time is different|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.

*[[Be skeptical]]. The internet has vouchsafed the ability, to every man, woman and child, to publish whatever pops into their heads to the world. see? Look? ''I am doing it now''. 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 [[Evolution by natural selection|natural selection]] hasn’t had a chance to weed out the weaklings: valuable statements tend to better survive scrutiny. Not always, of course. ''See'': {{maxim|Disdain fashionable things. Especially ideas.}}  

*[[The Dead Poets’ Society|The ''Dead Poets’ Society'']] Rule: [[There’s no machine for judging poetry]].

*[[It’s okay to generalise]], but ''[[beware of shorthand]]'': Experts use [[heuristics]] to exploit knowledge they gave already acquired. Charlatans use heuristics ''instead'' of it. See: {{br|Seeing Like a State: How Certain Schemes to Improve the Human Condition Have Failed}}

*[[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. Just ask {{author|Helen Pluckrose}} or {{author|Kathleen Stock}}. Be prepared to walk a lonely path: be wary of the company of those who happen to be aligned against whoever you’re challenging.