Life is short, you need to…blah blah blah….” I knew this already, anything I haven’t been informed yet? Justin Freeman got us an answer on Quora: What are the top 10 things we need to know in life? Anna is the Editor-in-Chief of Lifehack and shares tips on happiness and relationships
Realize that nobody cares
Do not base your happiness on people’s caring, because they won’t.
- People will care about your car just as much as you care about yours, but that doesn’t mean they will want your stuff or hate you for it.
Account for the threat of black swan events
Take risks, but backstop them with something
Some rulebreakers will break rule #1
Occasionally, people in your life will defy the odds and actually care about you. If they value you, they’ll value that you value it, and they’ll listen.
- When you talk about all of those things that nobody else cares about, they will look into your eyes and consume your words, and in that moment you will know that every part of them is there with you.
Responsibility to everyone
You are responsible to everyone, but you’re responsible for yourself.
- Nobody else is going to find success for you, and no one else will instill happiness into you from the outside.
- You have the ability and responsibility to be the voice for the voiceless.
Money is cheap
Don’t engineer your life around getting a slightly less tiny portion of this pile, and make your spirit of generosity reflect this principle
- I knew a man who became driven by the desire to amass six figures in savings, so he worked and scrimped and sacrificed to get there. He did… right before he died of cancer.
Learn to see reality in terms of systems
the world around you is a massive web of interconnected, largely interdependent systems, things get much less mystifying-and the less we either ascribe to magic or allow it to exist behind a fog, the less susceptible we’ll be to being taken advantage of.
You both need and don’t need other people
You need others in a sense that you need to be part of a community
- However, you don’t need another person to make your life have meaning-this idea that Disney has shoved through our eyeballs is hokum.
- Establish your own life
Money is expensive
Avoid debt on depreciating assets, and never incur debt in order to assuage your vanity
- Debt has become normative, but don’t blithely accept it as a rite of passage into adulthood
- Student loan debt isn’t always avoidable, but it isn’t a given
- Make sure your degree is an investment rather than a liability
Learn the ancient art of rhetoric
The elements of rhetoric make the world go around
- They are what prompt the decisions people make
- You will be able to craft your speech in ways that influence people
- However, bear in mind as you use it that your opponent in any debate is not the other person but ignorance
