Useful Definitions for Life
Definitions and anti-definitions I found useful for my life.
All of them are wrong because things are oftentimes defined better by overlapping similarities, not a single common essence.
However, they are still useful.
Definitions:
Life’s work = Building something in service of others to express who you are 1
One’s opinion on something = The quality of commentator x The quality of the thing x The interaction of the two 2
The occurrence of a behavior = Motivation + Ability + Trigger 3
Motivation = Meaning + Progress + Creativity + Social Influence + Loss Avoidance + Curiosity + Ownership + Scarcity 4
Ability = Time + Money + Physical Effort + Mental Effort + Social Norms + Routine 5
Health = SEER (Sleep + Eat + Exercise + Relationship)
How you see a situation = A function of what you are capable of doing in a situation 6
The maximum amount of information that can be stored in a space = Proportional to the surface area surrounding that volume (not the volume of space) 7
Suffering = Pain x Resistance 8
To suffer more = To suffer before it is necessary 9
Startup = Growth 10
Entertainment experience = Inherent Interest (natural appeal) + Poetry of Presentation (aesthetic quality) + Projection (audience immersion through empathy and imagination) 11
Sticky ideas = SUCCESs (Simple, Unexpected, Concrete, Credible, Emotional, and wrapped in Stories) 12
Emergence of Complex systems = Sufficient interacting parts + local autonomy + negative feedback loops + limited randomness 13
Engaging writing = Personal + Insightful + Playful 14
Addiction = Triggers -> Actions -> Variable Rewards -> Investments 15
Advertising = Salesmanship 16
Luxury = Necessity that begins where necessity ends 17
Design = How Things Work 18
Complete free trade of cultures = Monocultures that are all diverse in the same way 19
The long-term goal of an artist = Be in that wonderful state which makes art inevitable 20
Fulfilling life = Big ambitions x High standards x Low expectations 21
Deep connections between people = Ambition (Future) + Vulnerability (Past) + Intense shared emotion (Present) 22
