How to be happy:

Learn your true preferences. Life becomes much more pleasant once you stop chasing the preferences of others.

Try new things, take what works, and throw away the rest.

Treat your life as an adventure, not a competition. A good life is a story you’re proud of. There’s no score.

Happiness is about getting in the flow. For most things, go with intensity over consistency. Balance your life at the macro level, not the micro.

The purpose of work (after securing basic necessities) is to support your preferred lifestyle. If working hard is degrading your life, what’s the point?

The best things in life are free, and they’re not worth sacrificing for the possibility of the getting the second best things.

As soon as you can afford to, optimize your life for maximum enjoyment. The deferred lifestyle is too risky.

As soon as you can afford to, only work on what gives you energy. Only intrinsic motivation lasts.

Procrastination is information. Don’t fight it, embrace it.

Take risks, but don’t put yourself at risk. Never risk anything you can’t tolerate losing.

Decouple your self-worth from anything you don’t control.

Understand that the only thing you truly control is how you react to things. Live with dignity.

Do not play victim. Do not complain.

Add beauty to your life. Aesthetics matter.

Quit all the wrong things. The good things happen on their own.

“If you’re on the wrong train, every stop is the wrong stop.” @GuruAnaerobic No matter how much you’ve invested in your current path, you must be willing to jump off the wrong train, and write it all off. Otherwise you’ll be stuck enduring an existence full of wrong stops.

Add excitement to your life, not expectations. Happiness is governed by expectations, not outcomes.

Realize that the physical world is sacred. We are built to roam the real world, to have physical ownership, to make physical objects, to meet people in person. This is the only real life, and there can never be a digital substitute. Digital is only a supplement.