The art of the good life

Einstein put it this way: "A clever person solves a problem. A wise person avoids it."

The Fine Art of correction

Don't overdo planning but adjust as you go.

We've got to get rid of the stigma attached to correction. People who self-correct early on have an advantage over those who spend ages fiddling with the perfect set-up and crossing their fingers that their plans will work out. There's no such thing as the ideal training. There's more than one life goal. There's no perfect business strategy, no optimal stock portfolio, no one right job. They're all myths. The truth is that you begin with one set-up and then constantly adjust it. The more complicated the world becomes, the less important your starting point is. So don't invest all your resources into the perfect set-up---at work or in your personal life. Instead, practice the art of correction by revising the things that aren't quite working---swiftly and without feeling guilty.

The Pledge

When it comes to important issues, flexibility isn't an advantage---it's a trap.

Two reasons. First: constantly having to make new decisions situation by situation saps your willpower. Decision fatigue is the technical term for this. A brain exhausted by decision-making will plump for the most convenient option, which more often than not is also the worst one.

The second reason inflexibility is so valuable has to do with reputation. By being consistent on certain topics, you signal where you stand and establish the areas where there's no room for negotiation. You communicate self-mastery, making yourself less vulnerable to attack.

Black Box Thinking

Learn from errors through reflection (record previous sequence of events like a black-box). Radical acceptance of the objective truth + rectify mistakes.

Counterproductivity

Considering a holistic view lots of productivity tools are actually counterproductive since we spend in the end more money time on maintaining/setting up the gadgets.

Do Nothing Wrong and the Right Thing Will Happen

Focus on avoiding mistakes/negative things rather than doing everything right.

when we ask what factors have a significant negative impact on the good life we can pinpoint them exactly: alcoholism, drug addiction, chronic stress, noise, a lengthy commute, a job you despise, unemployment, a dysfunctional marriage, stupidly high expectations, poverty, debt and financial dependence, loneliness, spending too much time with moaning Minnies, overreliance on external validation, constant self-comparisons with others, thinking like a victim, self-loathing, chronic sleep deprivation, depression, anxiety, rage and envy.

"All I want to know is where I'm going to die, so I'll never go there." -- Munger

The ovarian lottery

Most of the things achieved are mainly a matter of luck (your genes, your family, where you were born)

So take other people's feelings very seriously, but not your own. Let them flit through you---they'll come and go anyway, just as they please.

Focus on what you are good at (circle of competence)

Why our sample sizes are too small

Let's say you want to hire a secretary (sorry: a PA). A hundred women have applied for the role, and you're interviewing them one by one in random order. After each interview, you have to make a decision: will I hire or reject this candidate? No sleeping on it, no putting it off until you've seen all the applicants. The decision you make straight after the interview cannot be overridden. How do you proceed?

This question is known among mathematicians by a politically incorrect label: the secretary problem. Surprisingly, there is only one optimal solution. You should interview the first thirty-seven candidates and reject them all; meanwhile, however, you should be monitoring their quality. Then keep interviewing until you find someone who is better than the top applicant out of the previous thirty-seven. Hire her. You'll be making an excellent decision. She may not be the very best of the hundred applicants, but she's sure to be a solid choice. Every other approach has been shown to produce statistically worse results.

What is it about the number thirty-seven? Thirty-seven is 100 divided by the mathematical constant e (2.718). If you had only fifty applicants, you would turn down the first eighteen (50/e) then hire the first candidate who was better than anyone out of the previous eighteen.

The world is much bigger, richer and more diverse than we imagine, so try to take as many samples as you can while you're still young. Your first years of adulthood aren't about earning money or building a career. They're about getting acquainted with the universe of possibility. Be extremely receptive. Taste whatever fate dishes up. Read widely, because novels and short stories are excellent simulations of life. Only as you age should you adapt your modus operandi and become highly selective. By then you'll know what you like and what you don't.