This is a collection of principles in work, finance, and life that I have learned and implemented. Not something deep (I am not a deep thinker), but just some simple principles that I find useful for me.

There is a space between what happens to you and how you react to it

Victor Frankl said, “Between stimulus and response there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our freedom.”

Your actions are a result of your choice. You can’t blame other people or any other than yourself for your actions.

You have to be proactive, not reactive.

Begin with the end in mind

Think about what you can achieve if you put your effort into it.

If you do not work on important problems, then it is obvious you have little chance of doing important things. (Richard Hamming, You and Your Research)

Put first things first

We all have 24 hours a day. The difference is how we use it.

  • Important and urgent: Deadlines, what you do for living, etc.
  • Important but not urgent: Learning, improving yourself, building relationships, etc. Allocate time for these things.
  • Not important but urgent
  • Not important and not urgent
  • If something you can complete it in 5 minutes, do it now.

Less is More

  • Example 1: When tutoring in Deep Learning Unit, sometimes I feel hard to explain all the content in one lab session. Several times, I tried to just go through all the content quickly and then let the students do the lab by themselves. However, I found that with this approach the students did not understand much and were not interested in the lab. Then I tried to explain less content but in more details, which was more effective.

Find a pattern that works and repeat it

Don’t make things complicated, don’t wait to be perfect, just repeat what works.
Play iterated games. All the returns in life, whether in wealth, relationships, or knowledge, come from compound interest.

  • Example 1: I find myself more productive when I write this blog. It provides me a platform to organize my thoughts, log what I have learned and reflect myself. So I will try to write more often.

Put things in context, see from different perspectives

  • Example 1: When seeing a financial advice in YouTube (e.g., like this), think about the context of the advice. Is it applicable to your situation, your country, your age, your financial situation, risk tolerance, your financial goal? Also try to see from different perspectives. And to be able to do that, you need to grasp diverse knowledge and experience (i.e., Wordly Wisdom proposed by Charlie Munger). The perspective also can be a view from different people (similar as the principle “Seek first to understand, then to be understood” in the book “7 habits of highly effective people” by Stephen Covey).

You are not what you did, you are what you did repeatedly

  • Single failure in the past does not define you.

Working with attention is all you need (copy from Lucidrains)

Idea is cheap, execution is expensive

Knowing what you don’t know is more useful than being brilliant

Most people spend their lives wrestling with the consequences of poor decisions. But the truth is it’s much easier to avoid stupidity than try to be smart.

Admit you know nothing. Remove ego from the equation.

The best thing a human being can do is help another human being know more

The best way to live your life is in service to other people. Especially now with the online opportunities.

Be generous with your ideas. Share what you know and help others win.