# 26 year old's haphazard guide to living as of the last update of this post i am 26 and the date is 2nd fructidor 232 according to french revolutionary calendar (2024-09-16 according to g*orgian calendar) this is my personal best practices document, to keep reminding myself how to do things, and what are the essentials, the spheres of life, sources of beauty feel free to use this to own regard and to understand where things might not work for you. your mileage may vary, i am not an expert at living (who is), but again - writing this for myself and maybe for a friend ## maxims/quotes - slow is smooth smooth is fast - git gud - push yourself - be fast with action, be patient with results - speak evil of no man - never go full retard - pati legem, quam ipse tuleris [keep the law you make yourself] (monostichs of cato) - as a human, you are only entitled to death - record what you can (journal/make notes) - do not go overboard tho - Since fickle life turns on uncertain perils, -- Consider each day you struggle through a gain. (distichs of cato) - Πάντα ῥεῖ (everything flows) - heraclitus, the great philosopher - Finite time and infinite time contain the same amount of joy, if its limits are measured out through reasoning. - Epictetus - continuous learning - The game taught me the game. (Edwin Lefevre, in resources) - All things excellent are as difficult as they are rare. (Benjamin Graham) - momentum is everything - be outcome independent - one should accept the truth from whatever source it proceed (Maimonides) - avoid being a victim/loser mentally - When the same Abba Anthony thought about the depth of the judgements of God, he asked, 'Lord, how is it that some die when they are young, while others drag on to extreme old age? Why are there those who are poor and those who are rich? Why do wicked men prosper and why are the just in need?' He heard a voice answering him, 'Anthony, keep your attention on yourself; these things are according to the judgement of God, and it is not to your advantage to know anything about them.' (Sayings of Desert Fathers) - you have no chance to survive make your time sources: - - ## time i cannot think of more important and underappreciated resource than time time defines everything other things happen in time, and if you waste it, or allow your attention (which really - is time) to be stolen by other entities - you are fucked profoundly fucked of course here, i mean time as space for action, for doing things once accepting we need 7-9 hours of sleep as average mortals, we need to deal with things in this timeframe always remember, as with everything - you are the first priority for planning and for your action i believe simple steps to take are: - plan your general goals (write as many as you have and pick 5 you are going focus on for current year/season) - note your seasonal/yearly goals (i do not think this is as important to differentiate, currently i am doing every 6 months) - every week write your successes, failures and aims - from aims plan your every day (can use notebook/app/whatever is comfy), go as detailed as you can do , a perfection would be a timeblocked system but checklist already will put you miles ahead - never overcomplicate, you do not need second brain, you need only be aware and mindful the hell are you doing - control your environment as much as you can, if you have some online addiction BLOCK BLOCK AND FUCKING BLOCK. leave social media as if you are not able to put time there productively and it does not benefit your general position or joy, you are out. and in most likelihood - it does not. i do not expect social media influencers are reading this phlog - but if you are please contact me (email later in this post). - same applies to physical addictions, getting rid of these should be an uppermost priority as one cannot kill time without injuring eternity - codependency is an addiction resources: - - ## finances finances are something that came naturally to me due to my father being insane about the topic i needed to live through university on less than shoestring budget, so i am probably terrible at giving advice as i am past all the needed stress the basics are: - have a general spending budget - put that to an account - if you did not have a plan to pay off or make more money using a debt - this is a dumb debt. never have dumb debt - use a credit card sensibly for big purchases for safety of that - have 6 months of wages saved on a current account - invest as much as you can either into simple low-risk savings account, or etf, such as s&p500 - always assets > liabilties (and when buying anything question it assett/liability status, and are you capable of selling it/getting rid of it in sensible way) [if you do not know what assets and liabilities and relationships is idk read rich dad poor dad, read some finance subreddits, a lot of work to do) - always look for easy money and get it when you can - passive income is the golden standard but in some ways is more of an idea than reality - look at 9-5 as a temporary research - not a means to live (if you truly love it - then keep at it, but be aware it is going along the sea in someone elses boat) always pay yourself first, and if unsure pay yourself first to follow moneysavingexpert money mantra regarding buying: skint? - do i need this? can i afford it? not skint? - will i use it? is it worth it? investing is a complex topic and skill, deserving for its own article but resources should give the general mindset resources: - - - - treat it as a reference - ## fitness physical health is so goddamn important - and i have learnt this way too late than i wish if you are a man you gotta do resistance training (as in weightlifting) i am generally an absolute beginner at this, so just look at the resources, they explain things a lot better than i ever will, also was expounded upon in previous article if you are bad with food just measure things and go for sensible things do not go apeshit with the fridge idk how is it to have low appetite, then again - look at resources remember to note what you do, although this should go into time but if you do not log your workouts, you are breaking some of the maxims resources: - - - - ## hobbies/skills/work/employment this is going to be an intense section how can you finally make yourself useful? how can you be believable? get a skill and git gud at it until someone is willing to pay for it get necessary papers if you want to be certified(tm) at it if you fail this, no point to anything else always gain new skills as sum of skills is more than each of the skills separately if you see you are stopping to grow at work, try to find a new job and be aware, your value truly, is what are you worth to other people internal comes from the external external comes from the interal so get going git gud at something i sincerely think if nobody is willing to pay you (or respect you) for something, you are not truly gud at something, you are a hobbyist at best (nothing wrong with that, just be aware that then this is a secondary aim) of course this does not mean do not play around and never have fun, just be mindful of what are you doing with your time. cataloguing anime series you torrented might be fun and a good escape, but at this point, you just might need therapy and mentoring the more difficult the and less conventionally fun skill is the lower time barrier and skill set barrier to entry. for example, gaming is an easy skill, but to make money with it, one needs to have high entertainment skill or extreme extreme gaming skills to be at esports on the other hand accounting has very high time and low joy barrier, but it is then very easy to get a job only with accounting and semi-good social skills this especially works with skill joining - somebody who knows a set of difficult conventionally low joy skills - idk - accounting + assembly programming + calculus + ironman + strongman - will most probably have lots of interesting success if added to some decent social skills remember to read books... - - ## relationships probably after fitness, my second weakest sphere, i have been doing things wrong quite a bit i think all what i have seen boils down to: - meet as many as good people as possible - always try to enter better rooms - be mindful of any kind of person you are planning to spend time with and (i am allowing you to) be judgemental to your benefit. of course, going back to the mantra, speak evil of no man, so just slowly grow distant, sometimes confront, but confront like an investor a company that kept losing money on herman miller aeron chairs - avoid people with serious mental issues, especially the ones that cause emotional instability or toxic behaviour (bpd/npd), treat them as if they had poop tattoo on their forehead - do not spend time in places with sick people (looking at discord chats, other netgroups especially due to their low barrier to entry), they might put a poop emoji tattoo on your forehead - be aware that if you are not having fun, you might need to put in more, and figure out have to have fun having things in mind - search for people with high integrity, high intelligence and good work ethic for doing work with, for closer relationships i think empathy, openness and being emotionally stable is critical - if you have brainworms (which will affect other things) - get as much support as you can - books, therapy, medication (although being physically fit will also help), as only then you can remove the poop tattoo from your forehead - be proactive in your people search and keep in mind all the maxims and quotes stated a lot of this stuff is paradoxical again, i am anti-expert so if anyone has advice, please email me lich atto dataswamp dotto org ## mentors if you can, find a mentor, can be parasocial or social (of course better if social) i am sorta in bad position here, i have some semi personal irl mentors but working on this just somebody who is at a position you aspire to i believe it is important that this person lives now, as otherwise the microculture will be profoundly different here are some people who do that for me - scott locklin - scooby1961 ## conclusion this was some heavy stuff enjoy some music: - -