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The Secret to a Happy Life from 98-Year-Old Charlie Munger
"The first rule of a happy life is low expectations. That’s one you can easily arrange. And if you have unrealistic expectations, you’re going to be miserable all your life."
"Make sure that your biggest problems are real problems, and not small problems that you’ve let swell in your mind to an unreasonable size."
"While that is certainly not the most efficient way to see a city, it is the most pleasant, insightful, and human. I don’t think you can know a place unless you walk it, because it isn’t about distance, but about content."
"The physical world contains the scars of these centuries of rationalism: Almost no new cities match the beauty of the few remaining medieval city centers, which themselves are so cherished that people will spend thousands to fly there, just to see them in person for a few days."
"People 1,000 years ago walked among squares with marble sculptures, domes, stone arcades, and past village churches with gardens kept by the clergy that lived there. As a matter of life, some walked through what constituted art on the scale that people today, even very rich people, may never experience."
"It is said that traditions are answers to enduring questions, and so dispensing with them because we do not understand them (or "see the point of them") is an unfortunate way to squander this inheritance."
The Lazy Way To An Awesome Life
"Take your health, for example. The Framingham study showed that drinking, smoking and obesity are all quite contagious. If someone you consider a friend becomes obese, your likelihood of obesity increases by 53%. And if the friendship is mutual, the number rises to 171%."
"They weren’t iconoclastic ubermenschen rising above the crowd; they were just disengaged and detached. This is the real result of what happens when you don’t care what anyone thinks."
"Surround yourself with people you admire and striving to be liked becomes a more elegant striving to be a better you. Frankly, it’s also easier. Since so much of peer pressure is unconscious, you’re going with the grain."
103 Bits of Advice I Wish I Had Known
"Efficiency is highly overrated; Goofing off is highly underrated. Regularly scheduled sabbaths, sabbaticals, vacations, breaks, aimless walks and time off are essential for top performance of any kind. The best work ethic requires a good rest ethic."
"When you lead, your real job is to create more leaders, not more followers."
"If winning becomes too important in a game, change the rules to make it more fun. Changing rules can become the new game."
"Productivity is often a distraction. Don’t aim for better ways to get through your tasks as quickly as possible, rather aim for better tasks that you never want to stop doing."
"Your growth as a conscious being is measured by the number of uncomfortable conversations you are willing to have."
"The consistency of your endeavors (exercise, companionship, work) is more important than the quantity. Nothing beats small things done every day, which is way more important than what you do occasionally."
"The advantage of a ridiculously ambitious goal is that it sets the bar very high so even in failure it may be a success measured by the ordinary."
"A great way to understand yourself is to seriously reflect on everything you find irritating in others."
"When you have some success, the feeling of being an imposter can be real. Who am I fooling? But when you create things that only you — with your unique talents and experience — can do, then you are absolutely not an imposter. You are the ordained. It is your duty to work on things that only you can do."
"What you do on your bad days matters more than what you do on your good days."
"You will be judged on how well you treat those who can do nothing for you."
"The only productive way to answer “what should I do now?” is to first tackle the question of “who should I become?”"
"Average returns sustained over an above-average period of time yield extraordinary results. Buy and hold."
"Purchase the most recent tourist guidebook to your home town or region. You’ll learn a lot by playing the tourist once a year."
"When you are stuck, explain your problem to others. Often simply laying out a problem will present a solution. Make “explaining the problem” part of your troubleshooting process."
"When negotiating, dont aim for a bigger piece of the pie; aim to create a bigger pie."
"If you repeated what you did today 365 more times will you be where you want to be next year?"
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