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PaperclipPerfector  8mo ago (text post)   3205 thread views

Small-Scale Question Sunday for September 8, 2024

Do you have a dumb question that you're kind of embarrassed to ask in the main thread? Is there something you're just not sure about?

This is your opportunity to ask questions. No question too simple or too silly.

Culture war topics are accepted, and proposals for a better intro post are appreciated.

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You have the oppprtunity to give each person on earth the same advice and rules. You wish to improve the world as much as possible. What would be your universal set of advice and/or rules which ensure the most Good? Presume that each person will listen intently, not magically assent and obey immediately.

A few thoughts that came immediately to mind (as opposed to a deeply thought out reply):

  1. Taking good care of your mind and body is absolutely the best use of your time, because it influences everything else.
  2. Taking good care of your mind and body is at least a decade-long learning process (and probably more), because (a) even minor changes can take months to show whether they’re working, (b) there are always multiple confounding factors over any short term period, and (c) all long term improvement comes from small changes that compound over time.
  3. The whole point of taking good care of yourself is that you can take good care of other people. We are effectively nothing without the closeness of family, friends and the countless people who might benefit (directly and especially indirectly) from our care-taking.
  4. Time and money are usually seen as the most important resources but energy is the foundation resource that sits beneath both, because without energy, time and money are worthless. Therefore, studying energy in all its forms, from calories to coal, psychology to sunshine, physiology to physics (and investing time and money to do so!) is a rest-of-life pursuit that will positively impact every moment of your life.
  5. The best and most important things in life might not be free, but all are intangible. They include love, respect, beauty, wonder, truth, awe, poetry and art. (Michelangelo’s David and Velazquez’s Las Meninas might be tangible but their vitality is profound and spiritual / metaphysical / intangible.)

That’s my back of the envelope answer. Thanks for the question.

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