Inspised by Nabeel Qureshi’s Principles here is my own set.

• Live a life of service. Aim to be useful to those around you.
• Everybody is always trying their best. And even if they act selfishly, lazily, or deceptively, this is what they can give in that moment. You might as well resent a fig tree for secreting fig juice.
• Be patient, and enjoy the process. Greatness takes time. And when you arrive, you’ll realize that the way up the mountain was more rewarding than the view from the top anyway.
• Take care not to over-intellectualize things. There is a way to understand or create that is beyond thinking or the intellectual mind.
• If it’s not a Yes, it’s a No (via Naval or Mark Manson).
• Choose gratitude over pride. Meritocracies make no sense from an ethical or biological standpoint.
• Don’t take yourself too seriously. After all, “you” are but a temporary arrangement of stardust sitting on a Pale Blue Dot.
• See others not as a means to an end, but rather as an end in and of themselves.
• You can lose your sense of self, either intellectually (by reading the works of Parfit or Dennett), or cognitively through intense meditation. The latter is much more rewarding, if often tumultuous. In either case, there is great relief in realizing how much of your daily thoughts are about a “me” that is entirely fictional.
• Ethics matters — you know yourself best and that winds up in your self image, which people will react to
• When in doubt, prefer older ideas or practices (Lindy’s Law).
• Talk to people. Seek their advice. Rubberduck it.
• When in doubt, think long-term: People, places, work. Study long term trends, it’s probably right to be a long-term optimist.
• “Each of you is perfect the way you are … and you can use a little improvement.” (Shunryu Suzuki)
• Pursue wealth first. Once you have found that alone unfulfilling, you are ready to climb the Second Mountain.
• Love your pain: It’s usually only through pain and struggle that you build up the motivation and leverage to change.
• Love your love: Don’t be afraid to tell others how you feel about them or that you appreciate them. The ones that matter won’t mind, the ones that mind won’t matter.
• Honesty is the best policy, even if you might not get what you want in the short term.
• Your willpower is a finite resource, use tricks to protect it (default wardrobe, routine, physical reminders, group workouts, precommitment)
• Invest in community and friendship, this means being around people with shared values regularly.
• And in the end … remember, all of these, they’re just thoughts.