The motto I try to live my life by is “Live a life that would make you happy, if others lived as you live”—it’s like the golden rule, but even better. Obviously, it’s influenced by a lot of thinking about decision theory, both as discussed here on LW, and in my own thinking about how to live life. I do probably have a lot to improve in terms of actually integrating my behavior with this rule.
Some other mantras I like:
From “How To Win Friends and Influence People” by Dale Carnegie (a very handy guide to not being an asshole): “The only reason you aren’t a snake yourself, is because your parents were not snakes”
User Dagon on LW once wrote “If you aren’t taking actions contrary to incentives, you aren’t making moral choices”
The future only exists as expectations based on past experiences
Even if you are twice as good a medic as the typical medic, if you are ten times as good at firefighting, you should be fighting fires, not doing medicine. (This is Adam Smith restated)
And, I guess I’ll add a quote from a mathematician, just for our host Alkjash: “Sometimes general questions can be cleaner than specific questions, and easier to analyze”—Tim Gowers
The motto I try to live my life by is “Live a life that would make you happy, if others lived as you live”—it’s like the golden rule, but even better. Obviously, it’s influenced by a lot of thinking about decision theory, both as discussed here on LW, and in my own thinking about how to live life. I do probably have a lot to improve in terms of actually integrating my behavior with this rule.
Some other mantras I like:
From “How To Win Friends and Influence People” by Dale Carnegie (a very handy guide to not being an asshole): “The only reason you aren’t a snake yourself, is because your parents were not snakes”
User Dagon on LW once wrote “If you aren’t taking actions contrary to incentives, you aren’t making moral choices”
The future only exists as expectations based on past experiences
Even if you are twice as good a medic as the typical medic, if you are ten times as good at firefighting, you should be fighting fires, not doing medicine. (This is Adam Smith restated)
And, I guess I’ll add a quote from a mathematician, just for our host Alkjash: “Sometimes general questions can be cleaner than specific questions, and easier to analyze”—Tim Gowers