akullpp/wisdom

Whatever works for me at this stage

Read often.

Write down regularly.

Re-evaluate at intervals.

A little bit of everything

• Take the stairs.

• Actual costs are often twice the listed price.

• Buy a tourist guidebook to your home town or region.

• Don't wait in line, it's rarely worth it.

• Be consciously inflexible with minor things like clothing, so you can be more flexible where it's important.

• Insurance companies are not on your side.

• The more you give, the more you get.

• Health is the most important asset you have.

• Restrictions are good, they will give you freedom.

• Be frugal no matter how much you think you have.

• You don't control what happens, you control how you respond.

• Pressure and persuasion results in the strengthening or adoption of a contrary belief.

About growing

• Just getting older is not an achievement.

• If you are alive, that means you still have lessons to learn.

• If you don't write it down, you will forget it.

• Your growth as a conscious being is the number of uncomfortable conversations you are willing to have.

• Don't keep making the same mistakes; try to make new mistakes.

• It is easier to change your thinking by changing your behavior than vice versa.

• You often do easy things to avoid the hard things.

• That thing that made you weird, could make you great.

• You are what you do, not what you tell or think you are.

• What you consume and spend your time on influences your thoughts and behavior.

• What you do on your bad days matters more than what you do on your good days.

• Read more books. Literature at best. Self-help at worst.

• Copying others is a good way to start but not to end.

About the importance of continuity

• Consistency is more important than quantity.

• Average returns sustained over an above-average period of time yield extraordinary results.

• A long game will compound small gains to overcome even big mistakes.

• We tend to overestimate what we can do in a day, and underestimate what we can achieve in a decade.

• Focus on directions rather than destinations.

• Good things happen slowly, bad things happen fast.

How to deal with others

• Treating a person to a meal never fails.

• Forgiveness is not something we do for others; it is a gift to ourselves.

• Hate is the poison you drink and hope that someone else might die.

• Accept compliments, don't deflect them.

• You can't reason someone who can't reason.

• Being extremely polite to rude people is the best response.

• Getting cheated occasionally is a small price, because when you trust, they generally treat you best.

• Don't treat people as bad as they are. Treat them as good as you are.

• You see only a small part of another person, and they see only a small part of you.

• Promptness is a sign of respect.

• For the best present spend only half the money you think you should, but double the time with them.

• Loan and don't expect it to get it back. Borrow something and return more.

• Ultimately, you can't change others.

• Friendships form via shared context, not shared activities.

Communication is everything

• Make eye contact.

• Apologize quickly, specifically, sincerely.

• It's not an apology if it comes with an excuse.

• It is not a compliment if it comes with a request.

• Anything you say before the word “but” does not count.

• Criticize in private, praise in public.

• Elevate good behavior rather than punish bad behavior.

• Before speaking ask yourself: Is it true? Is it necessary? Is it kind?

• Speak confidently as if you are right, but listen carefully as if you are wrong.

• A dumb person, who can communicate well, can do much better than a smart person who can't communicate well but it's much easier to improve communication skills than intelligence.

• "Yes and" instead of "No but"

Productivity is a lie

• Productivity can be a distraction.

• Embrace detours, that's where the lucky breaks happen.

• Efficiency is highly overrated; Goofing off is highly underrated.

• Action often precedes motivation. Don't wait for motivation to come.

• Embrace the dolce far niente, the sweetness of doing nothing.

Never talk about politics and society

• Smart people become stupid when talking about politics.

• The best a government can do is to slow down deterioration.

• Humans should not govern humans.

• Homogenous and collectivist societies promote stability through identity. Heterogeneous and individualistic societies promote progress through friction.

• The chances that you live in a bubble is very high. You start to assume that the majority of all people are reasonable and want the same as you do.

• Humanity isn't as advanced as you think. Our societies are fragile.

• Wars are always about money and power and only the few profit.

• Left and right, conservative and liberal are insufficient terms. Humans can hold complex and often contradictory beliefs, there were believing Nazis that saved jews.

Creating stuff

• Understand the 80/20 rule.

• Most people don't care about their job like you do.

• Always try to do things which you are unqualified for.

• Don't be the smartest person in the room.

• When you are stuck, explain your problem to others.

• Don't keep fighting the old; build the new.

• Work is endless, your time is not, so restrict your time working.

• Separate creation from improvement.

• Work to become, not to acquire.

• All of us seek ultimately the approval of others.

• Don't worry how or where you begin.

Spicy thoughts about software engineering

• Humans shouldn't write code.

• The best line of code is the one not written.

• The second best line of code is the one you can delete.

• Invest time in learning the basic tools of the trade, it often correlates to the overall skill as developer.

• SQL is the most important tool at your disposal.

• ORMs are always a mistake.

• Spend more time on the design of parts that are one-way doors. Ideally, try to make more like two-way doors.

• A good architect finds balance between abstraction and the complexity it inherently introduces.

• Sharing code as a library is often the wrong, duplication the right choice. It's better to trade verbosity for flexibility.

• Always start with the most simplistic approach.

• It’s quicker to write ten big balls of mud and see where it gets you than try to polish a single turd.

• Don't fall into the trap that one module must be responsible for one thing only, instead it should solve one problem.

• If you don't know what you are doing or even wrong, at least be consistent.

• Keep things that change more often from things that change less often or from the things which are more difficult to change.

• A loosely coupled system is one where you can delete parts without rewriting others.

• Loose coupling is about being able to change your mind without changing too much code.