Aphorisms, Rules, and Heuristics
docs.google.com
docs.google.com
9. It is quite a predicament to be both evil and risk averse.
This basically explains 4chan
41. One of life's machinations is to make some people both rich and unhappy, that is, jointly fragile and deprived of hope.
43. High Modernity: routine in place of physical effort, physical effort in place of mental expenditure, & mental expenditure in place of mental clarity.
It's hard to get clarity out of someone who doesn't share your abstractions, it's hard to get effort out of someone who doesn't share your goals
47. Life is about execution rather than purpose.
52. Used skillfully, a compliment will be much more offensive than any disparagement.
As a Canadian I know this, and I am tempted to learn Japanese because I think it will take me to the next level
63. The ultimate freedom lies in not having to explain "why" you did something.
69. Saying someone good at making profits but not good at managing risk is like saying someone is a great surgeon except for cases when the patients die.
75. The only valid political system is one that can handle an imbecile in power without suffering from it.
I disagree, and I bet he wouldn't say this about a hedge fund
88. An economist is a mixture of 1) a businessman without common sense, 2) a physicist without brain, and 3) a speculator without balls.
110. If you detect a repressed smile on the salesperson's face, you paid too much for it.
Competition: escalate if they're happy. Love: escalate if they're sad.
112. If powerful assholes don't find you "arrogant", it means you are doing something wrong.
125. In a conflict, the middle ground is least likely to be correct.
A compromise between two sane solutions can easily produce an insane solution
129. Intellect without balls is like a racecar without tires.
163.Journalists reporting on journalism (such as the NYT intrigue) is an unconscious form of onanism.
187. For life to be really fun, what you fear should line up with what you desire.
191. In the days of Suetonius, 60% of prominent educators (grammarians) were slaves. Today the ratio is 97.1%, and growing.
I understand the idea they're trying to get across but that's a terrible saying
193. A writer told me "I didn't get anything done today".
Answer: try to do nothing. The best way to have only good
days is to not aim at getting anything done.
Actually almost everything I've written that has survived
was written when I didn't try to get anything done.
Pg had said it's hard to write quotes, because they are so dense, like one-line essays. I suspect he meant it's hard to come up with one consciously. It's surprising how easy it is to spot an aphorism when you aren't really looking. Big revelations come when you least expect them.
To me aphorisms feel like conclusions that help you move forward. No aphorism, no direction.
We should also care because social insight often comes from relative comparisons. They let us compare things without having precise data. For example, people growing indignant is often a sign they don't understand a topic well, which is generally true without knowing the particular person involved.
One of my favorites from this list is the following, which is also supported by research on vulnerability[1]:
It is a sign of weakness to avoid showing signs of weakness.
[1] - https://www.ted.com/talks/brene_brown_on_vulnerability
Nassim Taleb is compiling his own aphorisms in this document. And he said that when he reachs 500 he will write a new book. Awful title change.
source: https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=1015221578...
The way to supply context for a story you're submitting is not to stuff it in the title, but to post it as a comment to the thread. Had you done that here, you could have shared with us the Facebook link where Taleb describes what he's doing. That would have been more informative, and in keeping with the HN guidelines as well.
2) Why didn't the old one have 'rules' in it? Removing it looks like editorializing.