A Personal Operating System...

Setting myself up for success.

Finding the best way to handle day-to-day living.

Creativity and energy are wasted reinventing the wheel. So, I chose to curate the best of what’s already been developed for my starting point. (Positioning is important).

A set of principles to guide me wasn’t a simple matter of going with my default W.A.S.P. background, a particular religion, or other philosophy. So, I put together a do-it-yourself moral compass and principles kit. That meant asking some questions…

My first questions to myself were “What should I use as my starting point?” Should it be religion? Which one(s)? Philosophy, Science, Psychology, “Common” sense, or some other approach altogether? What about a synthesis of the best ideas from wherever they originate? I’d have to determine how to evaluate ideas, but this seems reasonable. Let’s dig in further…

Religion as a guide?

I am cynical about religions, though I still value the feelings of community and the high aspirations of most. Also, “Thou shalt not kill” seems like good advice. I freely take the best of what religions offer, realizing they are run by humans with all our faults.

What about philosophy?

Some serious exploration brought me to the concepts of Stoic philosophy. I had heard it was a philosophy for slaves from ancient Greece. I wanted nothing of being guided by slaves and believed the stereotype of a stoic as some sort of emotionless zombie.

However, once I took a closer look to see what value I could get from it. Almost every concept resonated with me. Here are a few examples:

1. You have no control over the random things that happen due to chance. You do have control over how you react to them.

2. Energy spent on things you have no control over is wasted. Use that energy to change your actions to adapt to reality as it exists, not as you would like it to be.

3. The four main virtues of Stoicism are wisdom, courage, justice, and temperance. You should always demonstrate virtue.

4. Prepare yourself to deal with sickness, death, hunger, poverty, and the loss of everything. We are all mortal, and we will all die. Be prepared for those things so you can remain effective and useful when they happen. Think about them to appreciate the life you have and make the best of it.

5. You are responsible for the results in your life. When obstacles appear, you must adapt. When luck goes badly, you must recover and press on. You control your reactions to chance. You control the direction of your life. If you are moving in the right direction, you will get closer to your goals.

What about science?

Hell Yes! Taking useful concepts from a variety of religions and ancient philosophy is a great starting point (Think of it as my initial positioning.), but there are no guarantees that they will meet the needs of the future. Adopting a scientific approach and willingness to experiment and learn has led directly to the most success our species has ever seen. A great rule of thumb is to learn from the most successful. Science has the best track record by far.

I’ve spent years studying formal Decision Science and have published my first book “A Concise Guide To Better Decisions”. Decision science gives us the most reliable course for making difficult and important decisions, but it takes far too much time and effort for routine choices that could still benefit from an upgrade.

How about handling my day-to-day defaults and habits? Rules of thumb?

Having a guide for the big decisions in life is great, but we all face hundreds of routine choices that could be improved. If 80 to 90 percent of your choices are routine and you could improve the average outcome of those choices by just 10 percent, imagine how the trajectory of your life would improve over time.

“Avoiding stupidity is easier than seeking brilliance”

- Charlie Munger

I’ve been collecting, evaluating, and curating the most effective rules of thumb I can find. The simple act of thinking about what rules of thumb apply best to a situation helps me slow down and engage the logical part of my mind. There are thousands of commonsense rules that experience has taught in the only school that truly educates us all… life.

• Summary: Building a personal “operating system” for me starts with basic concepts

  • from religion - “Thou shalt not kill", “Thou shalt not steal”, etc.

  • from philosophy - Pursue the Stoic virtues.

  • from science - The scientific method and Decision Science,

  • from mathematics - Probability and game theory.

  • from experience - Rules of thumb, heuristics, and commonsense.

In my next post, I’ll begin a deeper dive into how I select the rules of thumb and some of the personal rules I commit myself to follow.

Until then a good rule of thumb to remember is “Treat others as they would want to be treated”.

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