Principles

Be impatient about taking action on the things you want. This includes marriage/kids.
Don’t wait for permission.
Think long-term, but act short-term.
Engage in activities that have a compounding effect.
Consider the opportunity costs. You can have anything you want, but you can’t have it all.
Lift weights. You want to be fit when you’re old? Are you even fit now?
Dress in a way that signals care, not neglect.
When considering a risk, if you can survive the worst case and the upside is significant, bias toward action. Twenty-somethings especially, you have time to recover and presumably less to lose.
Network effects play a significant role in shaping your life. Actively seek out and engage with high value networks.
Newer doesn’t mean better. Don’t be a chronological snob.
Read more old books than new ones.
Define what you want and actively pursue those goals. At the very least, define what you don’t want and avoid those things.
Days build life.^[1]
Determine when to keep exploring new opportunities/ideas and when to exploit existing ones.
Take more actions that have asymmetrical returns, such as sending cold messages or simply asking for things.
Broadcast your desires to the world. Put yourself out there. Make it easy for luck to find you.
But remember you’re more than your desires.
Care deeply about your endeavors, both big and small.
Don’t evade duty… embrace it.
Cultivate humility.
Seek commitments worthy of your sacrifice and dedication.
When feeling down, remember that things could always be worse.
Aim to be useful.
Adopting a mindset of radical responsibility is a good heuristic.
A good set of mental models is worth a few IQ points.
Be cautious of assumptions. Reason from first principles.
Consider the secondary and tertiary consequences of your actions.
Love is a conscious creation, not a chance discovery.^[2]
The modern idea that a job needs to be a passion, is bad. Work funds life, it doesn’t define it.
Filter modern ideas and practices through the lens of evolutionary skepticism, traditional wisdom, and the Lindy effect.
Limits cultivate freedom. Freedom flourishes within the frame of limits.
Be a snob. Snobbery is just a term for passionately pursuing quality.
Commitment = Sacrifice
Good health is a moral/ethical duty
Action creates clarity.
Envy and insecurity reveal what you actually value. Pay attention to them, then translate into worthy action.
Expect struggle. Who promised you a frictionless life? Most stress comes from resenting that things didn’t go as planned but struggle is the plan.
Commit to what contracts you.

[1] My compressed version of Annie Dillard’s “How you spend your days is how you spend your life.”

[2] Choose someone and keep choosing them through specific daily actions, especially when you don’t feel like it.