Philosophy

10 Rules

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Over the years, I have documented many things that I have learnt and created systems and procedures so that I am faster at doing said things. I have shared some of them in my blog, and plan to continue doing that, eventually categorizing them into books and sharing with the world.

Here I would like to share some of the rules that I live by. This is a living list and entries are modified as needed.

My 10 Rules to live by (caution: there may be more than 10 rules):
1. Don’t let things external to you affect you: never be sad/angry with what someone else does/says, they have no power over you. It is you who dictates how you feel
2. Never make the same mistake twice: keep track of the mistakes you make – mistakes in life/career/financial/emotional. Review these mistakes periodically and never repeat them
3. Look forward: don’t reminisce on who you were, think about who you want to become
4. Be proactive: be prepared
5. Do what you love and money will follow
6. If a tree falls in the woods, did it make a sound: make sure you are being heard, if not, then talk to someone else or do things differently; think outside the box
7. Breathe deeply and fully; stay centered, meditate with breathing at all times, be present with what you do and who you talk to
8. Beware of groundless fear: do not worry for things that aren’t here yet, they may never come, and if they come, deal with it then, you have dealt with far worse before and you emerged
9. Charity of your time: not all charity is done with money, be generous with your time for meaningful activities, those that enable others
10. No sugar on weekdays: this is a specific rule, however, the general concept is that a healthy body is a healthy and productive mind. Exercise daily and eat healthy, relax during down-time
11. Invest in self and others: pay for activities that improve your skills, and do the same for others
12. Do what you can with what you got: do not make excuses, you have enough to do what you need to
13. Apply 80/20 thinking: be cautious of diminishing returns
15. Minimize the variables: the simple solution is elegant, simple works
16. Do what others want, not what you want for them

Intelligence

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Based on what I have observed, there are three types of intelligence:

General intelligence: this is the intelligence that most people know. It is related to academic, work, day to day problem solving, etc. It relates to an individual’s IQ.


Financial intelligence: as the name suggests, this relates you how one spends, saves, and makes money.

Emotional intelligence: this relates to people, emotions, and ego.

It is extremely rare to find someone who excels at all three. Commonly, someone may be intelligent at two of the three types of intelligence.


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Thoughts and comments are welcome.

Solve My Problems

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Managing people ia hard, especially managing family. So many emotions to navigate, feelings to avoid like land mines. Although it feels good that someone trusts you enough to pour their feelings on you, but it can get stressful for the listener.

Try this: when presented with a problem, especially a complaint abt someone, listen actively to the complainer. Make sure you can empathize with them and try to put yourself in their shoes. Next, say, “I know this is hard, I know how you feel…,” then ask them for a solution. “What do you suppose I should do?” “What makes sense to you?”
This asks the complainer to reflect inwards and think about the problem clearly. Most of the time they will agree there is nothing wrong, or they already knew the solution. People are just people.

Minimalism

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minilamism

“Hey man, I don’t want anything, I am a minimalist!”

We all know people who are minimalists by fashion. It is trendy to consider oneself a minimalist. Minimalism is a sequential process and this is how I approach it. Before you start throwing things out of your life, please consider:

  1. Reduce waste: this includes food, water and noise.
  2. Something new replaces something old: only buy new things if you can justify them with getting rid of the thing you are replacing. Recycle, donate, or discard it completely.
  3. Prioritize repair over replace: if something breaks, try to fix it, replace the broken part, or have it repaired. Of course it should make financial sense.
  4. Wood over plastic: wood can easily be repurposed, needs basic tools to manipulate, beautiful, fun, and satisfying to work with.
  5. Buy used over buy new: where it makes sense, buying used helps reduce waste, helps the seller, and puts more money in your pocket.
  6. Sorting problem: how to know what you really need and what is just taking up space. This solution comes from computer programming. I can explain this with an example. Say you have about 10 pair of clothes in your wardrobe and you are not sure what to get rid of. Start by placing the clothes you use often on the right side of the wardrobe. Over time, you accumulate all the clothes you use on the right and you can safely get rid of the clothes on the left. If you haven’t used it, you don’t need it.
  7. Now you can start throwing stuff out: this is the fun part. Consider donating and recycling.

So before you start throwing things out of your life, consider the first three steps I outlined above.

Today>Yesterday

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What is the single most effective way to guarantee you are moving towards success?

Ask yourself this question at the end of each day:

“Was today better than yesterday?”

If you can answer yes, then sleep easy. If your answer is no, let your subconscious work on it while you sleep. The next night, this question probably has a yes answer.

Time = Money

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Money is not real. The value of the dollar bill is exactly what everyone agrees on.
Time is money, you are paid dollars for your time in return. In order to get more dollars you have to be more efficient. Do more in less time, and more importantly, do high impact tasks over low-impact tasks.

But why do you want more money?
Because you want more time for yourself. You are not just chasing the money rabbit, but you have a clearly defined target in mind. You know what amount of dollars you need to sustain your lifestyle. You know what is important to you. You know that more free time makes you happy and allow you to pursue what is really important to you.

First visualize where you want to be. This is the very first step. Know exactly what it is that you desire. Put a number on the lifestyle you desire. The rest will follow.

Remember, the secret to success is getting started.

Ignorance

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Does one get smarter with age? How about with if one is repeating the same skill/task many times. Does this make them better.

Another way to think about this is: one becomes less ignorant with time.

This is quite a paradigm shift in thinking. The knowledge did not change, neither did the content. We just become less stupid about it. It is like peeling an onion. The layers are many, but with every peel off, we get closer to the core. We become less ignorant.

Expectations

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The best way to guarantee that you don’t get hurt is: not to expect anything from others.

Every individual has their own priority in life. These are shaped by individual experiences – each hero has their own journey. It is therefore unwise to expect someone else to share the same priority as you do. Of course, sometimes paths do cross and two individuals can share a momentary sense of directionality. However, it is foolish to believe that this will always be true. There are far too many variables.

So, what is the best practice? Something that can guarantee minimizing heart-break, anger and frustration? Self-reliance. Only expect from yourself. Only rely on yourself. Try to be the best version of yourself.

Entropy and Growth

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entropy.jpg

What is the natural state of the universe? If we were to stand still and do nothing, what affect does that have on the universe?

Entropy

To answer the question above, we must look to physics. The second law of thermodynamics states that the total entropy of the universe is increases. What is entropy? In simple terms, entropy is the amount of disorder. If you were to sum up all the chaos in the universe and assign a number to it, this number will get bigger over time.

The reason for this increase of disorder is that the universe is expanding. Without turning this into a physics lesson, we can extrapolate some very practical conclusions here. I will attempt to outline some of these principles below.

Personal Growth

Let’s look at personal growth and development. If you are not growing, then you are shrinking. There is no standing still. This is because the universe is expanding around you. To combat this, one must constantly learn new skills all the time. There are many ways to do this: taking classes, reading, exploring, challenging yourself intellectually, physically, etc.

Growing internally means you are part of the universe around you and will not disappear with time.

Financial Markets

This principle of expansion is very true for the financial markets. Our current financial system works on the premise of growth: inflation, credit and debt increase, fiat currency, are all different words for the same phenomenon – entropy.

It is important to allocate time and energy in investing for financial growth. If not, the buying power of your money will depreciate with time.

Efficiency

To be increasingly productive over time, one needs to increase efficiency. Efficiency is different from productivity. I can be productive with my time by filling it with tasks and keeping myself busy. But if I am more efficient, it means that I can accomplish more in less time.

 

The core message here is quite simple: invest in yourself for personal growth.