Sign in Subscribe

Rules for Life

My values and personal philosophy to life. Written down as I discover them; excerpted from my blue journal; jotted down in the moment, over many years since 2020.

  1. Peace with honour.
  2. Courage to be disliked.
  3. Reputations are fickle and change with wind and word; pay no heed to them, and never worry over your own.
  4. Let your inner self be even more visible than your outer.
  5. Today’s weakened foe is tomorrow’s vengeful threat. Never leave matters unfinished; it is cruel.
  6. Eat what you want to eat; dress how others want to see you – a translated proverb (mahavra) from your mother.
  7. Silence is one of the great arts of conversation. Wield it skillfully to unravel its power.
  8. Danger lies where we least expect it. Security is man’s chiefest enemy. – your mother.
  9. History is what separates us from the animals.
  10. Measure everything in time; it is your most valuable resource. Do not waste it. This is your secret to a happy life.
  11. So what? – your father.
  12. God has given you two ears to listen, and one tongue to speak.
  13. You will only ever be either loved, or be understood. This is your own pain to bear; in this clarity you will find your salvation.
  14. In a world of excesses, that which you can temper is what you can control.
  15. Control everything within you, but do not attempt to do so for others. Do not delude yourself of your individual relevance.
  16. Note how someone speaks; it reveals what they care most about. Note how they write; it reveals how and from where they learn the things they care about.
  17. Consolidate control.
  18. Ask questions of everyone wherever you go.
  19. Manage by wandering around; stagnation is complacency and complacency is the brother of peril.
  20. Accept humbly; let go freely.
  21. You do not fear making a decision, but you often fear being misunderstood in your process. In those moments you are foolishly being subservient to those looking for someone to follow. Lead the way until you do not need to.
  22. Serve through leadership; unanimity is a pipe dream.
  23. When provoked, remember that your reaction alone dictates whether the provocation becomes a talking point afterwards. Look at provocation as bait, recognize it, but do not be pulled by it.
  24. Like in a stream of water shooting out of a fountain: when the droplets are few and spaced their motion seems rapid and energetic, but at the very stem of the stream where the droplets are many and clustered the motion seems slow even if coordinated. There is a balance to be found between organization in numbers and efficiency. Naturally, in a fountain stream it is at the maxima.
  25. People want to feel smart. Show them their smarts.
  26. Maintain a hard heart. You can soften it if needed.
  27. People greet a rising sun. A translated proverb (mahavra) from your mother. (Jan 17th, 2021)
  28. You are free like your mother named you. (Jan 18, 2021)
  29. A mosquito has bit you? Bite the mosquito. (Your father’s advice from as far back as you can remember.)
  30. What is on paper is not the real world. It is a world. July 22, 2021
  31. If not you, then who?
  32. “Easy come, easy go.” - your mom, Fatima, speaking on streams of income and different industries and the dangers within. September 15, 2021
  33. “If you want to do big things you have to do them fast.” - Donna Shalala during healthcare crisis class talking about Clinton healthcare plan. October 10, 2021
  34. Your friends are one of your greatest weaknesses. Not because there is something wrong with them but because you are unable to say no to them.
  35. Talk to those around you. Talk especially to those not around you.
  36. Philosophy is the calculus of life; it is undeniably a basal discipline— a child to Logic and sister to Mathematics.

2025

  1. Emotion is the enemy of persuasion. Enemies, too, however, are not all bad.
  2. There is a chance that God is not history, but in fact is our destiny. As in, He represents a future to be achieved: one wherein all is well in the world. This is perhaps what Ernst Bloch is getting at when he talks about Urgrund (primordial cause) leading to Endziel (final goal)-- the key being that instead of asking "where from?" one should ask "where to?" To be abundantly clear, at risk of sounding extreme and too theist, this is all to say: perhaps we create or fulfill God through building a better world, not by being pendulums pushed by ancient force.
  3. Synthesis requires regard for complexity
  4. The present is both the record of what we are ceasing to be, and the seeds of what we are in the process of becoming. Both the “no longer” and the “not yet.”
  5. God made wine to compensate those who cannot afford revenge. God made knives to satisfy those who cannot digest your grandest plan.
  6. "War is inevitable, let it come! In this world, competition will not stop for a moment, and we will have no time to rest." - John D. Rockefeller.
  7. Crutches cannot replace strong and powerful feet. We must stand on our own feet and rely on ourselves. If your feet are not strong enough to support you, you should not give up and admit defeat, but should work hard to hone, strengthen, and develop your feet and let them exert their power. My mom would tell me something very similar growing up when I would return from school and immediately toss my backpack away instead of carefully putting it in its place in my room: "he who cannot carry the weight of his own education cannot carry anything."
  8. The self is simply a set of beliefs. Change your beliefs, change your self. Beleifs are simply a collection of thoughts. Change your location and the media you consume, change your thoughts. Transformation is simple, most people are just more complacent in how they are than they would actually like to admit, despite what they may say.
  9. Is it something that makes you better? Then why do you say "I have to do xyz"? Take joy in work. "I get to do xyz." suits you better.
  10. A friend with no courage is worse than an enemy. A coward is there when times are good and gone when times are bad. At least an enemy you can depend on. (September 13, 2025)
  11. Stop thinking of time as a linear line. It is more of a scatterplot where you may think of your actions as various dots on the scatterplot of time. You can only connect the dots and determine your direction in hindsight. In the meantime, just add more dots. (September 13, 2025)
  12. If you seek truth, the price you are willing to pay for this must be your life. Anything less, the world will dangle in front of you to shut you up and buy you out. (September 13, 2025)
  13. Most people are deeply lonely. Be their friend, even if they do not expect it. You will find it is much easier to change hearts from the inside, than the outside. Still, do not delude yourself into thinking you can change anything. The change must come from within. (September 13, 2025)
  14. You are a servant of God. Allow God to work through your hands so that he can help you do in the world that which he knows only you can do. (September 13, 2025)
  15. The burden of existence is too heavy to bear for the rational human mind. At extremes, it leads to the sort of life where one is in fact a living corpse. Ask the philosophers, many of whom turn to suicide. Religion is the force that over centuries allowed us to bear the burden of existence. It placed power innately within each person, so that the pious beggar may feel powerful even in front of the cruel King. (September 13, 2025)