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  • Name: 12 Rules for Life
  • Author: Jordan Peterson
  • Type: #literature/book
  • Source: #source/book
  • Link: Goodreads
  • Annotation:

Notes

The world is made up of Order and Chaos

Our ancestors interpreted the world through dramatic story of order vs chaos rather than historical and scientific fact - The stories are a traversal through the forces of order and chaos. - Order is the state, culture, the known territory, rules - Chaos is the unknown, powerful potential, mother nature - Chaos and order are the fundamental components of lived experience. Much more than scientific fact. - Living on the edge of order and chaos is "the way", it is a burdened existence pregnant with potential and change. - It is a sacrifice to live this way. - One foot in order keeps us grounded, one foot in chaos keeps us in potential. Human potential is unbounded in the upper regions. - Human beings naturally gravitate towards rule making in society. This leads us to the development of a moral system of some sort, whether spoken or unspoken. - These belief systems can cause huge conflict in inter-tribe encounters - Living properly entails the courage to shoulder the burden of existence and take responsibility for the world around you.

Stand up straight and with your shoulders back

  • Dominance hierarchy
  • it is a deeply engrained phenomenon of evolution, it is older than trees.
  • how you posture yourself in the world has an effect of your physiology as well as your psychology.
  • the more you have the more you get
  • your posture spirals you towards the top of the dominance hierarchy

Do not let children do anything that makes you dislike them

  • we as adults/parents/teachers are responsible for perpetuating culture
  • if we abdicate on this responsibility, society falls into chaos.
  • culture = order
  • a child is encultured around 4. Sharing, being kind etc leads the kid on an upward trend of friends, purpose, support. Not knowing how to do this at a young age stunts their social development for decades.

Set your house in perfect order before you criticize the world

  • be trusted with something small before you can be trusted with something large.
  • your home is the places from which you exist, from which your relationships exists. if it is not in order, it is most likely that you are not in order.
  • your family and your home are your central relationships, if you cant get them right then what are the chances of you getting other relationships right?
  • Don't criticise others for something that you are not even doing yourself.
  • Take responsibility for the world around you

Pursue what is meaningful not what is expedient

  • happiness is not the goal, it is a by-product
  • sacrifice as a revolutionary concept - I can do something that I do not want to do today so that tomorrow is better.
  • we as humans can sense/feel a general rule or idea before we can articulate it.
  • animal sacrifice was the acting out of this belief before it could be articulated.
  • we as humans act out our beliefs before we can articulate them.
  • stories are an encoding of fundamental truths without complete articulation - we can "feel" truth before we can understand it.
  • the future as a judgemental father
  • the successful sacrifice - delay gratification
  • "No tree can grow to heaven unless its roots reach down to hell" - Carl Gustav
    • We cannot go up unless we are willing to go down.
    • Christ willingly took personal responsibility for the depravity of human kind.
    • He genuinely considered the darkest malevolent elements of human nature in the desert
    • Enlightenment is rare
  • Aim high, live properly, fix what can be fixed, pay attention, have an ideal and strive for the ideal, NEVER lie.
  • Follow meaning, not what you want. Meaning is what happens when you turn chaos into order.

Tell the truth or at least don't lie.

  • lies change your inner being
  • truth = transformation in the moment for whoever you are being truthful to (including yourself)
  • truth = aim
    • if you are not speaking truth then you are not aiming up
  • a big lie starts with a little lie

Be precise in your speech

  • when we look at a computer we do not see the plastic moulded case, the mines that the metal was collected from, the theories of computing, the countless millions of hours poured into R & D, the manufacturing plants etc. we see a tool. what you see in your computer is like a single leaf, on a tree, in a forest
  • when we look at the world we do not see complexity we see utility.
  • we ignore most of what we see (99%) for our own sanity. WE CANNOT COMPREHEND EVERYTHING
  • thus we must be precise in our aim. our aim determines what that 1% focusses on.
  • the chaos of the world is a constantly constricting force
  • precision in speech allows us to keep the chaos at bay
  • speak truth into chaos
  • articulate your desires, speak what you want into the world, help focus other peoples vision