Life Advice

To my surprise, this page has been one of my most viewed webpages, even though I don’t consider it to be among my most important pages, it’s not comprehensive, and there’s a lot of ideas that I haven’t yet added to this page. Above all, my most important life advice is to read most of the essays hosted or linked on my website. (My homepage has a section dedicated to self-improvement specifically.) Philosophical knowledge improves reasoning skills and the quality of our decisions, so I believe that it is among the best life advice that anyone could have.

Alas, this page tends to get more views than most of the other links and essays on my site because most people don’t care about philosophy (to their own detriment). Most of the ideas and advice that you’ll find on this page are things that don’t fit in with the other pages or sections on this site.

The Anthropic Principle or “observation selection effect” is a way to explain the nature of the universe, given that intelligent life exists to observe it and that the conditions necessary for creating such intelligent life have already been fulfilled. But when I use the term Anthropic Principle, I use it to mean a much more general and non-standard sense beyond what it was originally used to explain, sometimes called the Extended Anthropic Principle. The idea here is that when we observe phenomena that has some specific condition, we can reason that that the phenomena managed to accomplish that condition by having characteristics that made it/them more likely to accomplish the condition.

Many of the things that we do in life contribute to a numbers and statistics game. The best way to demonstrate this line of thinking is with examples:

• If you want to become a genius, then you need to spend your time doing things that a genius would do, and do those activities everyday. Examples:
  • Having the productivity of a genius: A workflow and daily/weekly schedule for managing their tasks everyday. Perhaps using Emacs.
  • Going to college and achieving the highest grades in your class.
  • Having a strong motivation to do research.
  • Knowing how to solve problems that have never been solved before.
• If you want to become an Olympic athlete, then you need to train like an Olympic athlete (as well as have the body of an Olympic athlete, which is definitely out of range for most people in sports like gymnastics, swimming, running, etc). Or said another way: If you want to become an Olympic athlete, then you need to examine the characteristics of Olympic athletes, and strive to acquire those characteristics, assuming that you have the Agency to do so.
• If you want to avoid getting into a car accident, then you need to do things that will decrease the likelihood that you will get into a car accident, like avoiding driving on the most dangerous roads when possible, avoiding driving during the riskier hours of the week, driving a car that will reduce the likelihood that you will get into an accident, never driving a car without knowing how it works and/or reading the manual beforehand, etc.
• If you want to live as long as possible, then you have to adopt health habits that will help you live longer. Although living a long life is strongly linked to genetics, the key is to examine how the people who live the longest lives live on a day-to-day basis, and to live that way, or at least adopt similar habits that will help one live longer. The longest living people in the world tend not to smoke, they tend to be agricultural farmers, they follow religious memetics, they exercise daily, they eat healthy, etc, so you should do all of those things too if you want to live as long as they do.
• If you want to become the richest person in the world, then you need to make money and save money like the richest person in the world: saving, making good value investments, and running a huge corporation with a comparable size to Amazon, Google, Microsoft, etc to generate a massive passive income.
• The people who have personalities similar to mass shooters, and who do things that a mass shooter would do, are more likely to become mass shooters.
• The people who obtain power are the ones who do actions that acquire power.
• If you want to get a girlfriend or a boyfriend, then you need to go to places and do activities where the person you’re looking for is likely to be. Relevant: The Most And Least Attractive Male Hobbies.

The audio recording, The Moment In Itself, has some great commentary on how moments are transient experiences, and how potential early on in life gradually gets exchanged for actualization paths as the years go by.

• Some people are smarter than others.
• Some people work harder than others.
• Some people are more prosperous than others.

If you want to be at the top of your game, then you have to work like you’re at the top.

Of course, it’s also important to be focused on progress, rather than outcomes. Obsessing about outcomes can cause people to over-exert themselves into exhaustion. It can also cause people to become more disappointed with themselves when they fail to achieve grand outcomes. One reason why the Amundsen expedition to the South pole triumphed over the Tera Nova Expedition was that the former was focused on making steady progress each day, rather than pushing themselves into exhaustion.

I haven’t finalized a name for this idea, but for now I call it the “the normal curve of resources”. Often times, we can think of abilities as being a position on a bell curve relative to everybody else. In such cases, a high position on the bell curve is simply the result of several small improvements summed together.

• When given a large number of resources to choose from, it is likely that some of them will be better than others in potentially several different ways.
• When some people want to learn something, they often make the mistake of choosing whatever random resource(s) they first see off the shelf.
• The problem with this is that it fails to consider that some resources are better than others. It could be that their randomly chosen learning resource costs more than other alternatives, isn’t as comprehensive, and/or simply doesn’t teach the material very well compared to others.
  • If there are many different choices, then reason must be used to pick the best one.
  • If there are hundreds of books out there for any given topic, then it’s best to prioritize reading the best 1% of books first.
• Instead, you should do some research to figure out if there’s a better option to choose from. A little bit of research can go a long way.

There is a lot of great advice out there, but there is also a lot of bullshit too.

• A rational person must figure out which advice is helpful and which advice is irrational.
• Not all learning resources are created equally, so some of them will be better than others. A rational person would strive to get the best one and learn from that one.
• Some products sold on the market will be better than others (for your needs since value is subjective)
• Some software will be better than others.
• In just about every scenario where there is a free market available (many options to choose from), some will be better than others.
• As per the learning materials quality principle, are there any geniuses out there that have made any meaningful progress in philosophy?

Other Musings

• You could remove someone from a position, but if you do, then the next best person for the job will take that position instead.
  • For example, if Richard Spencer didn’t lead the Alt-Right, some other charismatic Alt-Righter would’ve taken the lead instead and would’ve been about as good, worse, or better.
  • The same can be said for most political elections, most positions within a powerful company, etc. There usually isn’t a single person who is qualified for a position, but rather a group of people to choose from. Determination and luck are both factors in who ultimately acquires the position.
• There is also the concept of competitive advantage. Sometimes, making friends with a successful person is almost as good as being successful yourself, depending on what you’re trying to accomplish.
• The less knowledge you know, the more you will gain from learning. For example, learning how to read is a much bigger leap in acquiring knowledge than say learning organic chemistry.
• See: What “Follow Your Dreams” Misses | Harvey Mudd Commencement Speech 2024.
  In this video, Grant Sanderson gives a lot of brilliant, practical advice. I figured out a lot of it from personal experience and thinking during my teens and early 20s, but it was incredible to see someone say it all at once so fluidly in a video. It’s honestly probably the best advice I’ve ever heard from every commencement speech that I’ve ever heard.

In many cases, it’s better to be safe than sorry:

• Security - Guarding against the worst security threats and minimizing all security threats will yield the most secure system.
• Professional Matters - Tell people the worst-case scenario so that if the worst does happen they won’t be mad. If something better happens, they will be pleasantly surprised.
• Germs - Assume that stuff that you found or germs that you encounter will have germs on it.
• Driving - The best driving practices are defensive driving. Defensive driving causes less accidents.
• Personal Finance - Always keep a life-savings, always have a plan B, diversify your assets, etc.

• Parenting - Assuming the worst will prepare a parent for any scenario.
• Algorithms - Assume the worst case scenario, even though average or best scenarios are more likely.
• Test Taking - Assuming the worst will prepare someone for the best questions.

What is the best way to search for something that you need?

• When looking for something to buy, it is best to know what you want before you buy it. And if you don’t know, then you use reason to decide what you need. If comparing multiple products, then a side-by-side review table would be best (e.g. bestreviews.com)
• Companies and advertisements will usually paint their products in the best light possible, so these might be misleading sources of information. The probability that advertisements would offer people the best information there is to know on a product or service is very low.
• For religious and political doctrines, people often have no choice and get hopelessly indoctrinated into believing ridiculous irrational ideas.
• Indoctrination is more dangerous at the youngest ages. Young children are taught irrational ideas by their parents, education, and the society around them. And then when their brains finally reach the age where they are sufficiently developed enough to think for themselves, it is too late because they’re too indoctrinated to think otherwise.
• The products that are advertised the most often tend to be the ones that cost the most money.
• Whereas the free products that don’t cost any money are not well advertised at all and have to be found by searching deep for them.
• This is because the companies aiming to make a profit have to heavily advertise their products in order to make their bottom-line, whereas the free resources don’t have the money to advertise.
• Thus, people often pay money for expensive resources since they are what catch their eyes first, even though they could’ve found better, cheaper resources, if they had done more research and thinking.
• Examples: Bitwarden, Wiktionary.org, MyLanguages.org, Khan Academy, etc.

One of the main negative consequences of modernity has been how new technologies and lifestyles are preventing the human body from shaping or functioning in its normal form, including the hands, feet, mouth, and other body parts. This section is meant to briefly introduce some sources that address these issues with solutions.

• The Colemak Keyboard Layout: Colemak is a keyboard layout that enables people to type faster and more comfortably than Qwerty or Dvorak. Typing with Colemak will reduce the risk of repetitive stress injury and carpal tunnel in the hands. The best way to switch to Colemak is to use the Tarmak layouts.
• Ergonomic Shoes: Most modern shoes cram the toes of our feet into pointy toe boxes. This ruins the natural shape of our feet, it atrophies the muscles for moving our toes sideways, and it negatively affects the muscles that we use to walk. Everybody realizes that foot-binding is bad, but we don’t realize that we’ve been micro-dosing it. This video concludes with mentioning companies that sell more ergonomic shoes.
• Orthotropics: Orthotropics is a superior alternative to orthodontics because it directly addresses the causes of malocclusions and other craniofacial issues by promoting ideas like proper breathing techniques and proper tongue posture. Orthotropics thus doesn’t require surgeries, nor does it cause facial damage, unlike orthodontics. There’s also a proposed causal theory that orthodontics may increase the risk of facial acne by pushing the jaw inwards to the neck, thus preventing lymphatic drainage from the skin around the head, and thus causing acne. It may even increase the risk of Alzheimer’s and other mental disorders later in life by putting more pressure on the veins in the neck, thus causing blood to pool in the head, and thus increasing the risk of mental disease. The potential health risks of orthodontics are not well understood nor well known to the public. Also see: Mewing Studies.
• The Unnecessity of Wisdom Teeth Removal Surgery: In most cases, it’s not necessary or practical to remove wisdom teeth. This blog post gives an overview about this, and links to sources that talk about this topic in more depth.
• Reversing Axial Elongation Of The Eyeball: Staring at computer screens and doing near-work for so many hours a day can elongate one’s eyeballs over time, thus causing myopia. However, it’s possible that the elongation of the eyeballs can be reversed by residing in a natural environment where the eyes do not have to constantly stare close to a screen all the time. In other words, it’s possible that the elongation axis of eyeballs responds to homeostasis, and is thus reversible. This may reduce the need for eyeglasses and corrective lenses in society. Also see:
  • Video: Why is Everyone Going Blind? The Myopia Epidemic - Michael Chua
  • Video: Eye Test Innovators vs The Bottleneckers - John Stossel: An online Eye exam has been created that is cheaper than an in person exam. It has been banned in several states as a protectionist economic policy.
• Breathing should be done mainly with the stomach (diaphragm) rather than the chest. For most of life I had unknowingly been breathing using the latter, until I bought the Breather and used it to retrain my muscles to use my diaphragm instead. It’s arguably overpriced, but it was still worth it because it helped me to breathe and run more easily with less energy.
• Neckties can often restrict blood flow to the brain and make it harder to breathe, just for the sake of covering the vertical line of buttons on a dress shirt. However, Clip-On Ties accomplish the same goal, are more ergonomic, and have multiple other advantages.
• Avoiding Peyronnie’s Disease (For Males): Since people are either right-handed or left-handed, a male may be inclined to stroke his phallus at an angle when masturbating if he’s not careful. If this is done for long periods of time, it can cause the phallus to bend at an angle one way or another. Thus, a male should only ever stroke his phallus straight up and straight down.

Lookism will probably never go away, so it’s important to take care of one’s appearance.

Parents have the power to make many decisions that will have life-lasting effects on their children. Regardless, it is pointless to complain about your parents after you turn 20 and especially if you no longer live with them if you grew up with bad or mediocre parents. At best, it is a waste of time, and at worst it’s a self-sabotaging narrative because it makes you sound self-centered and unable to move on. Outwardly, people will sympathize, but they really don’t care about excuses. That’s just the way how society is. It doesn’t mean that your parents are perfect or that you cannot ever say that you don’t like them very much, but having a personal narrative where they’re responsible for some or all of your failings never gets you anywhere. What’s done is done.

It’s also not really clear what makes parents “good” or “bad” anyway. Even if they had done horrible shit to you, it would still be better to portray your life as if you had an internal locus of control where you managed to be (hugely) successful in spite of that. You have to make your own success and take responsibility for your own life going forward. If you are determined to work hard enough, you can be awesome regardless of how terrible your upbringing may have been and people will admire you for that.

As an example, I personally find Blithering Genius’s life story to be pretty inspirational. Despite having grown up poor and being homeless at 17, he worked his way through college and paid rent by doing blue collar jobs. Now he’s married with five kids, owns two houses, and lives a posh lifestyle while also being a revolutionary philosopher, biologist, sociologist, computer scientist, book author, and youtuber. It’s remarkable that he’s managed to accomplish so much in life, even more so since he had a terrible upbringing. However, his life story wouldn’t be as interesting if he grew up with a wealthy, privileged upbringing.

Chris MacAskil is another example of someone who had a rather rough childhood. His mother developed schizophrenia at 35 years old. As a consequence, he faced homelessness, juvenile detention, and failed college English multiple times. But eventually, he became fairly successful: he got a Master’s of Science in Geophysics, worked for Steve Jobs at NeXT, co-founded at least four different companies, had many children and grandchildren, and created a YouTube channel dedicated to talking about nutrition, Viva Longevity. The takeaway from these examples is that if you had a terrible upbringing and childhood, you can actually use that to your advantage to make your successes in life look more impressive compared to someone who had a better upbringing and accomplished the same things.

You can cast yourself as the victim and deny your own agency as a subject, but the habit of blaming society, circumstances, or other people for your own failures is a huge reason for failure. There is some truth to the idea that people have it too easy these days, whether they’re mentally disabled or not. Being forced to work construction or mop floors would be good for a lot of people. Except for some extreme cases, most people can learn to take care of themselves when they have to. At some point, you will be able to trust your own judgment more, even in the social realm.

That’s a narrative about what could have been, not a fact. Many people succeed in life despite having bad parents, and many people fail despite having good parents. Some people even succeed because they had bad parents. It’s a common theme with the ultra successful to have had abusive, absent, or dead parents. And even if you did have an amazing upbringing and excellent parents in a better world, that may only cause people to envy you. Plus, if everyone had a better upbringing, many people would still find something to complain about regardless, because things can always be hypothetically much better than how they turned out.

There’s also an argument to be made that it could not have been otherwise. Your parents are you, in a sense. Whatever they did (or didn’t do) to you, you did to yourself from a deterministic perspective. If they were different people, you would be a different person. Beyond knowing that they need to provide for their children’s basic needs, most mediocre parents were never given a comprehensive instruction manual on how to raise their children.

Lastly, if you are ever going to talk about how your parents raised or treated you, then you should do so in a Wikipedia-style manner. That is, you should just state the facts clearly, but without ranting or describing your emotions. This way, you can inform people of how you were raised without sounding entitled, and they can make their own judgment. If they independently decide that your parents suck, then you will win them in your favor. In particular, you should also limit yourself to people who are likely to sympathize and possibly help you.