humanity++

This page is a mess / work in progress of more than a year of ideas

becoming a well rounded person

1. learn how to take in information

this is the first step to overriding your natural dispositions, which are almost certainly dysfunctional to some degree

• school wisdom
• treat your behavior like an algorithm. Explore it. You’re way of doing things is unique, and so there is something you do more efficiently than everyone else. Don’t spend time trying for conform yourself to other people’s concept of efficiency and instead move quickly and continue to refine your own path in everything you learn
• get good at asking questions. If you don’t know how to ask questions, you will never be capable of changing course, (which is what agency is all about)
• become conduit of information, not a sponge
• understand the contagiousness of energy
• pursue things you know you have passion for. Explore and commit to things you are not sure if you have passion for or not, but if you later find a way out of a subject that bores you leave as soon as is convenient
  • no matter what you are obligated to do by commitment, be consistent with the things you have passion for
• you must un-buffer your intellectual and artistic impulses if either is to be explored with enough of a degree of non-seriousness for it to be worthwhile

2. learn how to take agency

taking agency is crucial to staying in business and shaping your own values

• give yourself hope. hope puts you at the doorway of opportunity so you can catch it when it comes in. Hope is inner strength. You can’t have agency without hope
• always debrief and take failure-notes. This is when you are most capable of identifying weaknesses that must be improved
• batch similar tasks and execute them production-line style whenever possible
• figure out a calendar you will remember to use
• Finding housing
• develop a Productivity Methodology that works for you
  • budget your time
• avoid burnout
  • understand and meet your needs
  • Self-Actualization → What do do, when you don’t know what
• understand the limits of your discipline and maximize it where you can
• learn to strive
• build routines iteratively. Try new things and throw away what doesn’t work
• prioritize habitual tasks that feel the most ‘real’ earliest in the day
• keep digital presence intentional and minimal
• recognize and reject the deferred life plan
• limit sensual pleasures
• understand niches
  • make knowledge graphs
  • identify Core Skills and Important Skills pertaining to your career
• maximizing opportunities
  • networking
  • being ‘ready’
• prioritize opportunities for self-employment
  • a business will require you to output 5 to 10 times the value of what you are paid
• financial literacy
  • investing
    • risk analysis
  • budgeting
• accept calculated mistakes and failure (“that’s ok”)
• remain consistent
• be able to tell stories
  • storytelling is selling
  • understanding the audience you are storytelling to
• understanding niches
  • make knowledge graphs

3. learn how to survive

survival is the gift of continued living. But also, a person’s true character is revealed in survival situations. Knowing how to survive dangerous situations makes more likely to rise above your base instincts and shape your character

• be able to observe your breath at all times
  • always breath in towards discomfort and breath out to relief
  • this can be applied in stretching, lifting, running
  • breath, unlike acting on our motivation, is an involuntary need. Associating the the relief of air intake with the pain of physical exertion teaches us to appreciate intense exercise and removes the suffering aspect from it
• cultivate athleticism. This is your #1 deterrence to physical threats (internal and external)
  • know your physical limitations and propensities
  • utilize RICE
  • numbers can be cheated, but athleticism speaks for itself
  • develop physical balance. You should be able to depend on this more than your eyesight
  • steady gains: slow is smooth, smooth is fast
  • to become stronger, you have to understand the needs of
    • your individual muscles
    • how to maximize your energy
    • and how to optimize your nutrition
• know and refine your body’s capabilities
  • HRR training
  • strength training
• outline a Doomsday Plan
• maintain self-reliance. Avoid dependency on other people or systems
  • hunting
  • fishing
  • gardening
  • raising animals
• threat modeling
• understand everyday hazards

4. learn how to fight

fighting is an extension of survival, but one that enables you to go beyond and protect yourself against the most dangerous human encounters. In doing so, you are able to carry that confidence into all interactions where you must work with others

• “the only solution for bad and violent people, are good people that are more skilled in violence”

striking

• brain health is not to be taken for granted
  • do not let anyone you train with carelessly hit you. Your brain should be treated with reverence
  • fighting 100% and routine sparring robs you of your wit and the consciousness that makes you your most human
  • longterm sub-concussive hits have the greatest impact on your mental health
  • striking should primarily focus on defense and be practiced with caution. grappling can be practiced more liberally and use more offensive work
  • even punching very hard can rattle the brain
• understand what you are training
  • lower-body = speed + power
  • upper-body = defense + power
  • neck + core = hits you can take
• prioritize defensiveness
  • neck and core-work will protect you. WORK THESE MUSCLES like your mind depends on them
  • learn non-contact defenses (slips, rolls, slides)

general

• know humility
  • you cannot expect those with more power to yield respect to you unless you are willing to yield to those with less power
• part of the reason you learn to fight is to understand the cost of conflict
  • pay attention to the signals of someone’s ability and willingness to issue violence
  • know when not to fight
  • understand the consequences of engagement with authorities and those with the potential to seriously hurt you
• be mindful of pain
  • some pain should be worked through, so don’t over-validate it. This can create unnecessary trauma that makes you afraid to push further than you are able to
    • “we give up greatness in deference to comfort”
  • some pain shouldn’t be ignored. An injury will set you back

5. learn how to work with others (outside your circle)

in all relationships you will encounter people who can help you, people who can hurt you, and people who could be great friends. It’s important to understand how to set boundaries that allow the right people to come closer and keep the wrong people at a distance

• seek to inspire, not to impress
• understand Game Theory principles
• be a giver, but give mindfully of your time and energy (small, frequent gives as opposed to big, infrequent ones)
• poor opinions are more likely to be simple, simple opinions are more likely to be loud, and louder opinions are more likely to get attention
• RICE (rewards, ideology, coercion, ego)
• practice your first impressions
• give space to suspected high conflict people
  • learn how to appease them so they don’t target you
  • understand your own propensity for conflict –and don’t work with people who are higher conflict than yourself
• do not trust people unless you know and align with their ethical boundaries (see the humanity chart)
• understand personality types (Myers-Briggs) and figure out how to communicate in a way that is receptive to each
• be able to identify a persons insecurities
  • this makes it easier to avoid inadvertently hurting people
  • you can inspire confidence in others where it’s most needed by recognizing and/or even making light of insecurities (when it’s appropriate)
• AUTISTIC PEOPLE: do not let being ‘interesting’ come at the cost of being considerate of others
  • you should be able to fully express yourself without feeling taxed by self-censorship in public spaces
  • learning to be yourself comes with the risk of developing opinions that can offend others
  • recognizing and compartmentalizing your controversial opinions in a dedicated private journal can help you to conduct yourself better around unvetted acquaintances and strangers
• the “two questions + validating statement” technique
  • shows people that you care to know them
  • also tells you a lot about who the other person is and what they stand for
• there are no-go things you should never casually probe for
  • what you earn
  • what you rank/title —inspires jealousy. Others can’t help but compare
  • how much you trust someone
• a lot of people who seem mean aren’t. They are shy
• when you are in an uncomfortable situation surrounded by unfamiliar people, the best thing you can say hello
• set boundaries at every appropriate opportunity
• show the same baseline respect for everyone
  • even if you don’t like them
  • even if they don’t show it back
  • especially if they don’t have much power over your quality of life
• try to find good things to say about everyone. You should only talk positively of others with people outside your circle
• never assume you know what a person does or does not want
• learn debate
  • Do not argue with mentally ill and high conflict people
  • use argument as a tool to call out the voice that argues, when it is appropriate
• understand manipulation tactics
  • gaslight + patronize cycle of manipulation
  • indoctrinated thought
  • 48 laws of power
• asking for references and favors
  • there is nothing wrong with getting close with someone as a means to an end, if you are upfront about that. It doesn’t matter if you are being transactional about it, or asking for free lunch. just keep your ask concise and to the point

6. learn how to make and maintain healthy relationships (within your circle)

treat your friends well. Building a community of people you care about will set you up for a lifetime of happiness

• while certain people may influentially change how you behave and act, transformative change begins with you and ripples out to your close relationships, not the other way around
• fostering Asabiyyah
• cups of potential
• understand the importance of asking for a father’s hand in marriage
  • the father is the primary cup filler of their daughters
• travel with people. It will teach you 90% of what you need to know about them
• do not objectify people for their status, or attractiveness
  • puts you into a scarcity mindset and sabotages the potential for genuine relationships
  • good, smart people can feel when they are being objectified
• asking people for favors or support is fine, but consider each person you work with as someone you will mutually support and grow with over the course of your lives
• learn and enjoy conversation as an art form. It is not just a means to an end
• understand high conflict personality types and thoroughly vet people before being close to them
• find the right place to live (see parenting)
• invest your time in people who are happy for others
  • some people don’t want to see your success exceed their own. They will make subtle jabs at you disguised as comforting remarks or concern for your well being. These people are the most dangerous to be close with
• show random acts of appreciation/admiration/kindness
  • especially for those who are easiest to take for granted (friends, peers, and family)
• love

7. live with integrity

bring love into your life. Whatever that means to you —dhamma, god, compassion, etc.

• what is the use of money?
• life has a rhythm to it that obsession can take you out of if you allow it to
• focus on the being a generalist philosophy
• respect randomness. Appreciate what comes to you. Things don’t have to happen for a reason for them to have meaning
• advocate for increasing the net understanding of things that are important
• recognize FOMO
• reject Monoculture systems, behaviors, and attitudes. They erode beauty and elevate weakness
• life is limitation. Perfectionism is death because it hyper-focuses on the gains of diminishing returns rather than the sweeping gains of exploring breadth and leaning into your unique strengths
• Important qualities of healthy interpersonal relationships
• God is something you either know or do not know. Relying on ‘faith’ is equivalent to not knowing God
• your Values should not be ambiguous. Outline them and know when you are violating them
• starting a family in an ivory tower is a recipe for generational poverty and societal collapse
• Elements of liberation