Heuristics

heuristics

Street smarts are understanding why people want to tell you what they're telling you.

VIII 84. If you don't feel that you haven't read enough, you haven't read enough.

I 1. People are much less interested in what you are trying to show them than what you are trying to hide.

II 16. The main reason to go to school is to learn how not to think like a professor.

III 23. For life to be really fun, what you fear should line up with what you desire.

II 18. We invented language to be vague, if you can sort of see what I mean.

II 21. When someone writes "I dislike you but I agree with you", I read "I dislike you because I agree with you."

V 43. Success in all endeavors is requires absence of specific qualities.  To succeed in life requires a total inability to do anything that makes you uncomfortable when you look at yourself in the mirror.

VI 52. Bureaucracy is a construction designed to maximize the distance between a decision-maker and the risks of the decision.

VI 56. People tend to whisper when they say the truth and raise their voice when they lie.

VII 64. A heuristic on whether you have control of your life: can you take naps?

VIII 81. I want to write books that people who haven't read them  claim they did. *** GLEN FIXED ****

X 96. The only way to rid anyone of an illusion is to replace it with another, better illusion. *** GLEN FIXED****

XII 130. Something awesome: citizenship of convenience,

holding the passport of a country for ease of travel/tax

without committing to its community. GLEN FIXED THIS ONE*

XIII 143. The problem with the idea of "learning from

one's mistakes" is that most of what people call

mistakes aren't mistakes.

XII 129. People reveal much more about themselves

while lying.

XII 134. Trust those who distrust you and distrust those

who are suspicious of others. *** GLEN CHANGED THIS ONE TOO*** EL

XII 135. Virtue is when the income you wish to show

the tax agency is less than what you wish to show your

neighbor. **** I CHANGED THIS ONE ***** - GLEN BRADFORD *** GET RICH AND MAKE YOUR NEIGHBORS RICH IN THE PROCESS ***** SHOW YOUR SUCCESS *****

XII 138.Your duty is to scream those truths that one

should shout but that are merely whispered.

XIX 165. Risk takers never complain. They do.

XIII 141. Increasingly, people don't become academics

because of intelligence, rather because of lower grasp

of disorder.

XIX 161. If you are only bad-mouthed by people who

prefer your company over those of many others, only

critiqued by those who scrutinize your work, and only

insulted by persons who open your email as soon as

they see it, then you are doing the right thing.

XIII 149. For a free person, the optimal - most

opportunistic - route between two points is the shortest one. *** MARK HODGE CAUGHT THIS ONE AND GLEN FIXED***

XIV 150. A lot of what we call work is noise.

XIV 154. Mistakes detected by copy editors are not

likely to be noticed by readers, and vice versa.

XIV 155. Most can't figure out why one can like

rigorous knowledge & despise academics: yet they

understand that one can like food & hate canned tuna.

XIV 156. People like to eat fish by the water even if the

fish was caught far away and transported by trucks.

XIV 157. The saying goes "those who can, do; those

who can't do, teach". But I've shown that those who

can't do shouldn't teach.

XIX 158. a- You are free in inverse proportion to the

number of people to whom you can't say "fuck you". b- You are honorable in proportion to the number of

people to whom you can say "fuck you" with impunity

but don't.

XIX 174.Magnificence is defined by the intersection of

reluctant praise by your enemies and criticism by your

friends; greatness by their union.

XIX 159. Contra the prevailing belief, "success" isn't

being on top of a hierarchy, it is standing outside all

hierarchies.3

XIX 173. You are as good as how nice you are to

people you don't have to be nice to.

XIX176. Be polite, courteous, and gentle, but ignore

comments, praise, and criticism from people you

wouldn't hire.

XV 177. Change anchor to what did not happen rather

than to what did happen.

171 - When I die, I won't give two shits.

XIX 174.Magnificence is defined by the intersection of

reluctant praise by your enemies and criticism by your

friends; greatness by their union.

XX 216. You can almost certainly extract a "yes" from

someone who says "no" to you, never from someone

who says nothing.

XXII 231. Wisdom isn't about understanding things (&

people); it is knowing what they can do to you.