Simplest Thing
Umbrella Game Rule/brand for lots of my activities
- One Man Show Lean Startup I'm starting: Family Financial Future
- how I built it: WebpyForSimplestThing
- Raising Reality Hackers
whatever's Good Enough
Software Development Game Rule: WikiWikiWeb:DoTheSimplestThingThatCouldPossiblyWork
for Fractally Generative Pattern Language:
Context: want to have a Meaningful Life while keeping your sanity
Forces
- standards/expectations keep rising - job performance (whether DayJob or Free Agent), Raising Kids, House Keeping/Cooking
- Value Driven/Principle Based Life Style management approaches (Stephen Covey, etc.) recognize the need for top-down planning to keep your time from being frittered away, but don't help you pick those priorities very well.
Solution
- Define a Personal Philosophy (which can change), to Focus - pick 1-2 things that are really worth investing time/energy/Passion into, to Win.
- Say No to lots of things, esp if they create an implicit ongoing Commitments.
- buying stuff - you have to store it, clean it, maintain it, fix it, move it....
- Having Kids - doing it half-assed is bad mojo
- lower your standards/expectations/drag down to "Good Enough" for everything else - Less Bullshit Living - do the Simplest Thing that could possibly work
- consider variety of tasks/tactics, pick best ROI (Pareto Principle), be clear on what's at the top of your personal To-Do List
- see Personal Finance and Physical Fitness
- beware giving up your Agency for someone else's Management
- give other people the same opportunity
Derek Sivers: Why are you doing?
- the worst thing in life would be a death-bed regret that you’ve spent your life pursuing what someone said you should want, instead of what you really want.
- whatever you decide, you need to optimize for that, and be willing to let go of the others.
- Once you realize it and admit it, you need to pursue it.
- Use it as your compass and optimize your life around it. Let the other goals be secondary.
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