Starting a manifesto from other people

Principle Manifesto #1 : principles from the Internet

Because Omar Shahata wrote

I also think it’s a really interesting way to get to know someone – to read about their values, how they make the choices they do, and what drives them. I encourage you to publish your own (and if you do, and are comfortable sharing, let me know!)

I started writing about it on the 16th of April 2021, then adding content from time to time. Time flies, so let’s publish it before it is graveled.

I found much principles from other manifesto online. Authors have a curated list of items, in which they put their thoughts first. I think it’s a shame not to reuse what people have already thought and shared before me. I find some of them relevant. Moreover it applies in my life and my model of the world. I feel free to rewrite to own them or add a personal touch. Naturally, I share them as they could be my own principles too.

Ideas from Devid Perell’s blog

Preference Falsification

People lie about their true opinions and conform to socially acceptable preferences instead. In private they’ll say one thing. In public, they’ll say another. Yeah family and stuff.

Talent vs. Genius

Society is good at training talent but terrible at cultivating genius. Talented people are good at hitting targets others can’t hit, but geniuses find targets others can’t see. They are opposite modes of excellence. Talent is predictable, genius is unpredictable.

Competition is for losers

Avoid competition. Stop copying what everybody else is doing. If you work at a for-profit company, work on problems that would not otherwise be solved. If you’re at a non-profit, fix unpopular problems. Life is easier when you don’t compete. (Hint: don’t start another bottled water company).

Look for Things That Don’t Make Sense

The world always makes sense. But it can be confusing. When it is, your model of the world is wrong. So, things that don’t make sense are a learning opportunity. Big opportunities won’t make sense until it’s too late to profit from them.

Opportunity Cost

Doing one thing requires giving up another. Whenever you explicitly choose to do one thing, you implicitly choose not to do another thing.

Or saying yes is saying no to the rest for this period of time.

Overton Window

You can control thought without limiting speech. You can do it by defining the limits of acceptable thought while allowing for lively debate within these barriers. For example, Fox News and MSNBC set limits on what political thoughts they consider acceptable, but in the grand scheme of things, they’re both fairly conventional. The political spectrum stretches far beyond the ideas they entertain, but ideas outside their limits are shunned.

Goodhart’s Law

When a measure becomes a target, it ceases to be a good measure. One hospital took too long to admit patients so a penalty was given for 4+ hour wait times. In response, ambulance drivers were asked to slow down so they could shorten wait times.

Hock Principle

Simple, clear purpose and principles give rise to complex and intelligent behavior. Complex rules and regulations give rise to simple and stupid behavior.

The Paradox of Specificity

Focus isn’t as constraining as it seems. In the age of the Internet, when everybody has Google search and personalized social media feeds, differentiation is free marketing. The more specific your goal, the more opportunities you’ll create for yourself. Narrowing your aperture can expand your horizons.

Hormesis

A low dose of something can have the opposite effect of a high dose. A little bit of stress wakes you up, but a lot of stress is bad for you. Lifting weights for 30 minutes per day is good for you, but lifting weights for 6 hours per day will destroy your muscles. Stress yourself, but not too much.

Robustness Principle

Be conservative in what you do, be liberal in what you accept from others. It’s a design guideline for software and a good rule for life: Hold yourself to a higher standard than you hold others to.

Legibility

We are blind to what we cannot measure. Not everything that counts can be measured, and not everything that can be measured counts. But people manage what they can measure, so society repeats the same mistakes.

Penny Problem Gap

Economists assume demand is linear, but people’s behavior totally changes once an action costs money. If the inventors of the Internet had known about it, spam wouldn’t be such a problem. If sending an email cost you $0.001, there’d be way less spam.

The Paradox of Abundance

The average quality of information is getting worse and worse. But the best stuff is getting better and better. Markets of abundance are simultaneously bad for the median consumer but good for conscious consumers.

Principles from Omar Shehata

Don’t get stuck, descope

Lower the bar if it’s too hard. Start easy and build from it.

Pretend you live on a farm

Habits are a priority and you don’t have an internal debate or wether it’s worth getting out of bed to do your chores - animals depend on you.

You got a point.

If you are tired, do more

Doing things is a great source of energy and that helps you do even more things.

I had some examples: doing nothing all day and then all the sudden, doing all tasks in the evening. Wtf? But… it works.

Think about the end

Picture how you’ll feel a few hours or months later!

It helps to make big things indeed, or keep a habits.

Good feelings can not last

Always doing the same thing. such as eating and watching a videos decreases over time. Stop at a moment as it will makes it easier to get up and do something more fulfilling.

Collaborate more

It’s much easier to make progress and avoid to get stuck together.

I am a lonely guy, so it sounds good to me, but I haven’t really tested it.

Do the dishes one step at a time

A mountain of dishes is discouraging but a few are ok.

It matches every told about. The little prince cleans the volcanoes and weeds unwanted seeds and sprigs regularly.

One thing at a time

so my energy is focused.

Context switching suck energy up. Focusing on one thing helps to get things done.

Taking action to improve your mood

Yeah… even if I need to have the feeling it is productive.

It is important to be healthy, and the mood is also a part of it: we can not live depressed, and living happy is so much better :D

You don’t have a lot of time

Time always move faster than you think. The sooner you finish it the more exciting things will be.

Yep yep yep… MVP, doing only what’s needed und so on. Priorities help to organize our time: the most important first.

Principles from Jon Tiburzi

I like these little pixellised animals so much <3

Time is valuable

Spend your time such that you wish you had more.

When I get enough money to live, then time is the thing that I need more.

Simplicity

Strive for it through reduction, consideration, and organization.

Yes. We already have enough complicated things.

Be pruposeful

Every detail is seen, and do things with reason.

Also details can be omitted. If we want to live great together, then details matter.

Be appreciative

Appreciate when people do things for you, especially if you don’t see it.

It is also relevant if people give their time. This is underrated.

Self development

Strive to be self-sufficient, but learn from those more experienced.

Optimistic nihilism

We are free to create our own meaning in a brilliant but meaningless universe.

This is also a selfish argument for a better world.

Enjoy the Present

the end will come and with have a dedicated amount of time to live. It may come before being ready to get there.

I forget it too often, but I remind myself every week that being alive is smoothing appreciable.

Principles from Evy’s manifesto

Evy has a dedicated digital garden. It’s a source of inspiration for me.

Prioritize sustainable connections

Find people I can rely on who have the bandwidth to support me and meet my needs. Move away from relying on people for things they aren’t able to do. Prioritize connections where I feel secure and loved.

Zoom out

Recognize the wider scale of things to make the present moment less scary. Long-term trends are generally more useful than short-term trends. My life, mood, relationships (everything?) has its ebbs and flows and if I’m too zoomed in, it can be exhausting to react strongly to every small change. Even if I’ve had a rough time for a while, I can zoom out and see similar patterns in the past where I eventually felt better, and trust it’ll get better again.

In french, we have an expression for it: “Prendre du recul” (literraly, taking a step back).

Be wary of others’ confidence

Consider others’ opinions, especially those of people I care about and trust, but don’t let those opinions overshadow my own opinions. Other people may sound more confident than me, but that doesn’t mean they’re more likely to be right. Be aware of the weight I naturally give to opinions of people who have power over me. Trust myself.

In the end, it’s better to mix different opinions, but the choice I have to make should be driven by my interests only. Avoiding to be people pleaser, but instead driving my own choices makes me better.

Iterate

Bias towards trying something and adjusting than doing it perfectly the first time. There’s more space to learn when I allow failure as part of my process, and it’s okay to make mistakes as long as I’m reflecting onthem. Seek out feedback - from others, and from my own experience and reflection. Find ways to approach life experiences as experiments and ever-changing.

I also try to make the first things perfect, but it can not. We have to learn first, make mistakes, then make great. I can be great on the first time though.

Thoughts about turning 30 from Herman’s blog

Respect is given, not earned

The idea that respect is earned is toxic as it assumes the worst in people. Instead, approach every new person with respect (and rescind that respect if necessary).

If everyone give respect to each other, the society and everyone will benefit from it.

Relationships are an investment

They need consistent input. It goes for love, friends and family.

Difficult conversations are the most important to have

We avoid them too much indeed. I started asking people if I can ask them directly tough topics. All agreed to this.

Sugar and affeine affects mood

It took me a while to realise how much. Sugar crashes and caffeine anxiety are something that can be controlled. Use these substances wisely.

Sleep well

Sleep is one of the most important thing to take care about ourselves: we spend nearly a third of a day to sleep. Natural and artificial light, as well as the comfortability of your bed and many other factors affect your sleep. Figure these out as they contribute to your overall well-being. Most insomnia is solved with some simple sleep hygiene.

You suck at investing

The only way to consistently build wealth over time is to stop trying to game the market (you can’t). Instead consistently invest in stable growth.

The only way to get rich is to increase your income

Despite all the personal finance gurus telling you otherwise, you can’t save your way to a million (at least not in the foreseeable future). You have to find ways to increase the amount of money coming in (and then you can optimise).

Always have something you’re working on

Humans tend towards consumption to fill our free time (think movies, books, games). More enjoyment can be had through creation.

Writing is thinking

Writing is a way of ordering and articulating your thoughts, which helps you understand them better. This inadvertently also makes you a better speaker.

Celebrate the small things

Our time here is limited. Celebrations are an expression of gratitude. Embrace the opportunity to celebrate.

Travel is not that improvssive

Anyone can travel. It’s not hard. Many people wear it as a badge. Meh. What’s impressive (and takes time and practise) is being excellent.

Video content is not nuanced

Video is too expensive to produce for nuanced topics. If your only source of information comes from video, you’re only scratching the surface (this especially applies to politics and economics). The only example I’ve seen of an actual deep dive using video is this talk on NFTs, and it’s over 2 hours long.

Most things are driven by incentives and economic forces

The news will paint war and upheaval as someone’s doing. But the truth is (as always) more nuanced.

So if you create enough incentives, you can drive most things.

The world is awful. The world is much better. The world can be much better.

Our World in Data summarises this better than [he] ever could.

The three statements are valid.

Things will be okay

There have been times where I’ve felt so depressed or heartbroken that I believed that I would never be happy again. It never helps in the moment, but the adage “time heals all wounds” is mostly true. Things will be okay. ❤️

As I get more experience, it resonates to me 😄

Wrapping up as this is getting long. I agree with lot’s of principles because they look valid to me. I also think some are relative of personal experiences, while others are just true “The world is awful. The world is much better. The world can be much better.”

Let’s write some in another blog post :)