Nate Ritter's personal principles

personal-principles.md

Here's the deal

• These are in no particular order.
• Principles are ideas by which we live.
• Ideas are not sacred. Ideas change. Ideas are not people nor identification marks.
• People change their value systems all the time.
• Principles are an attempt to retain some version of consistency between contexts, thus simplifying one's life with generalities.
• Specific instances may require these ideas to be adapted or thrown out entirely.
• To be offended by an idea means you are offended by a magical, make believe thing. Don't be.
• Get your own.

You are valuable because you are breathing

Summary:

• We might never know why we exist, so don't focus on externalities to define this for you. Make up your own purpose.
• When you recognize you are valuable your behavior towards yourself and others changes.
• You see others as valuable also. Who are you to judge why they exist? Their identity is not tied to what you think of them either.
• You are free from the judgement of others.
• Identities based on static or historical activities are judgemental (either you are judging yourself or you are judging others). However, everyone has the ability to do something new in an instant. So, either identities change or, if identities must be static for some reason, they are not based on historical behavior or other changing externalities. They must be based on something else - something static.

Look backwards while you work

Summary:

• Celebrating small wins is important. It is often said, but rarely done because it feels quaint and inconsequential. However, stepping back to think about small accomplishments (like a 1% improvement) and sharing that with others lets them join in your vision (community/relationship building), solidifies your resolve to continue, and helps you see the job from someone else's viewpoint.
• It may build empathy as well, because as you ask others to celebrate your wins, you may want to start helping celebrate the wins of your friends and family too, building relationships in the process.
• Story: cutting sod to make a walkway. The feeling of progress and how easy it was to continue when I turned around and cut it while looking back at my progress rather than forward at what I had left to do. Encouraging vs discouraging. Tricks your brain into thinking it's easy, which actually does make it easier and more enjoyable to do, reducing stress in the brain at the same time.

Making an impact: Focus locally first

Summary:

• Making a "dent in the universe" or a large impact on the world is commendable, but typical without practical, tactical steps. It's not bad to have lofty goals or large visions, but visions without execution are delusions.
• The fastest, easiest way to make a large impact is not the number of people, but the depth of the impact. This can be accomplised easier on a local level - within your current network scopes (geography, interests, etc).
• Learning and solving the needs of a local population can scale. Not all do, but while that's explored, you're making an impact now, today, in people's lives you can see.
• Seeing your impact is important to feeling fulfilled in your purpose with whatever the task at hand is.

Authority and responsibility must be balanced

Summary:

• There must be a balance between having the resources to accomplish the task and the responsibility for it's outcome.
• Authority without responsibility is typified by the team leader taking the credit while doing nothing to get the team's goals accomplished.
• Responsibility without authority is typified by the team member who is attempting to accomplish a task but not given the resources (time, control, tools, etc) to do so, while being judged upon the performance and results of it.
• When the two are not balanced, the relationship is toxic. Exit or change these relationships.

On Travel

Summary:

• Travel is one way to experience variety and diversity, visually, linguistically, philosophically, etc.
• The ability to see from other's perspectives influences your ability to find value in the world
• Travel rewires and short circuits your brain, causing you to learn to find solutions in difficult situations. It makes your mind tougher and more flexible.
• Travel helps you understand there are more than just black and white values and perspectives in the world. Trying to understand where other people come from will enrich your life and the lives of those around you.

Invest in flexibility / freedom (contextual to democracy)

Summary:

• You never know what life will bring you. If you are flexible and free to change directions quickly, you will have less loss, heartache, and difficulty.
• Freedom has exponential growth. You may not know what will grow or when, but something free will grow.
• NOTE: This is the goal of the game while in a democracy. Other government types incentivize or value flexibility or freedom. Case in point is communalism. A better principle which supersedes all forms of government is altruism. Altruistic democracies, benevolent dictators, etc. The altruism is the point. Aristotle said the best government is to be the best man you can be ("it is evident that the form of government is best in which every man, whoever he is, can act best and live happily."). Plato / Socrates said focusing on and becoming more virtuous is the goal. Both infer or explicitly say only those who can govern themselves in this way have the ability to lead others to do it too. And in that, you should lead / govern by example.

Go all in. Commit to something.

Summary:

• Do not compete against desperate people. Instead, be desperate. Commit to something.
• Waiting to see if something else better comes along leads to mediocre results at best. This is the case at least in careers, hobbies, and relationships, and perhaps other areas of life.

On thankfulness and being grateful

Summary:

• It slows you down, allowing you to be present in the moment (↑ contentedness)
• It reduces the comparison mindset's impact on your thought process (↓ poison, degeneration)
• It helps you be patient with others (↑ connection)
• It makes you more empathetic to where others may be coming from (↑ connection)
• It reduces stress, telling your brain "this is easy", which is, many times, self-fulfilling (↑ solutions, enjoyment, purpose)

On financial literacy and value

Summary:

• Basic financial literacy is not taught in schools. It's probably the most fundamentally important and used tool in every day life after high school.
• Reference: https://mattstauffer.com/blog/matts-magical-finance-plan-for-20-and-30-somethings/ (most, but not all, is correct IMO)
• Value regardless of context is the building block to financial literacy. If you can find the value in the chain of events and/or transaction, you make better decisions and avoid financial ruin. You also are free from the bindings of an employer/employee relationship because you'll always be able to see where people are in need.

Cultivate a dynamic mindset

Credit: Joshua Waitzkin in the Art of Learning

Summary:

• Static mindset examples: You are smart. You are fast. You are [x].
• Dynamic mindset example: You can learn how to do [y] well.
• Static mindset is indicated by an identity wrapped up in a personal property/trait. Dynamic mindset is indicated by fluid change, improvement, and the ability to learn from mistakes.

Act the way you want to become and you will become the way you act

Summary:

• Your habits dictate your thoughts, your skills, your network, etc.
• Know who you want to be
• Becoming the person you want to be is as simple as acting more like that person today - now
• Who you believe you are is important to you. Matching that to reality is important for others. Authenticity is how parallel those two are in your life.

Compound One Percent as Soon and Often as Possible

Summary:

• 1% improvement per day leads to massive gains (3776% improvement in 1 year)
• Much of life is "winner take all", and much of those competitions are earned by being the best. How much better is irrelevant. It could be thousandths of a second to get the gold medal in the Olympics.
• Compounding interest is fundamental in successful financial investing. It should be fundamental in self-development (self-investing) as well, not because you're trying to win a "winner take all" game, but because of how fast you'll improve vs your old self.

Find Someone who Shares Your Values

The world has become "lonely". People are amidst other people all the time but still are intensely lonely. The way to combat this is to share something with another person or group that is meaningful to both of you. Philosophy, bowling, cheesecake, anti-cheesecake clubs. Whatever, as long as it has meaning and value to you.

Each person in these communities is unlikely to share all your values. But, you just need them to share one, and then respect and enjoy learning about the differences between the rest, and why you each hold them.

Updated today, modifying my thoughts on identity, and connecting identity to a dynamic mindset. Definitely still some holes in what is an "identity", but the two feel more connected now.

Fixed some grammar and simplified some thoughts.