39 Incontrovertible Facts of Life*: A Personal Manifesto

One of my favorite authors, James Altucher, recently published his “personal manifesto.” He encouraged his readers to try it for themselves.

That sounded like a good idea. So without further ado:

1. Is life to be taken seriously, or is it just a game? No. It’s both.
2. No matter what happens in my life, some people will always have it “better” than me. Some will always have it “worse.” So I try not to worry about either.
3. The pursuit of knowledge is its own reward.
4. Money is a means, not an end.
5. Nothing can hurt me unless I let it.
6. Our birth is but a sleep and a forgetting.
7. Star Wars is better than Star Trek.
8. If I can’t write clearly, I can’t think clearly.
9. Reading physical books is better than reading e-books and listening to audiobooks, but all of those are better than not reading at all.
10. I’m not better than anyone else. But they’re not better than me.
11. Remembering that is the hardest thing in the world.
12. Happiness is being interested.
13. Technology doesn’t make the world better, nor does it make the world worse. It makes the world different.
14. Everyone is an artist.
15. The world sucks. The world is awesome. I must believe both statements if I want to change it.
16. It’s not worth arguing with anyone. We’ll both be dead soon enough.
17. Curiosity is always better than disparagement.
18. If a picture is worth a thousand words, a song is worth a million pictures.
19. The best revenge is to not be like that.
20. The moment I act to prove somebody wrong, I’ve already proved them right.
21. I could have played in the NBA, I just didn’t want to bad enough.
22. My spirituality can only increase, never decrease.
23. Eternal life would be a real drag.
24. The best way to lead is by example.
25. Life without suffering is meaningless.
26. A house in the suburbs, two-point-five kids, and white a picket fence is hell on earth.
27. School is mostly a scam.
28. Doing nothing is often better than doing something.
29. If I don’t say what I think and what I mean, it builds up inside of me and prevents my body from working correctly. Just like cancer. Dishonesty is a disease.
30. Everything doesn’t happen for a reason. But I live as though it does.
31. Frequent travel is good.
32. 90% of people think they are better than average. 0% of people actually are. And 100% of people are better than average at being themselves.
33. There’s nothing inherently wrong with mind-altering substances. But a lot of people, including myself, use them to replace something.
34. Delayed gratification is merely a problem of discovering how to be gratified all the time.
35. If you don’t disagree with at least one of these, I’ll be sad.
36. Critics (including myself) don’t know shit.
37. If I don’t love myself, who on earth will?
38. Silence is better than talking.
39. Today’s problems are enough for today.

*These are merely the facts of my life, of course. Your mileage hopefully varies.

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