The Wisdoms we live by

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Would anyone care share the wisdoms they see as most relevant in their lives? Please provide an explanation why such wisdom is relevant in your life. I greatly appreciate hearing from you. Thanks.

Here are mine (ranked from most to least relevant):

1. The sunken cost rationale - this reasoning tells us not to use past loss ("sunken loss") to affect the best decision going forward.
As ASD people, we likely suffered many setbacks in our lives, we could dwell on those setbacks, and allow them to affect our thinking, or we could apply the sunken cost rationale and realize that dwelling on loss, and letting it affect our thinking, is not likely to lead us to the best decisions going forward.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sunk_costs

2. Determinism
I believe in "hard core" determinism. This means I have no regrets. Regrets don't make sense to a determinist. Everything happened as it had to happen. This wisdom provides me with peace.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Determinism

3. "You eventually get what's coming to you", "Karma is b****",
We will run into people who do rotten things to us. We could get angry, or respond unkindly, or do something in response, however, my first response is to remind myself that this person will eventually "get what's coming to them". Eventually the person will repeat the behavior to someone who will "serve out the justice".

4.Let others do the talking
This is a practical wisdom for me. It makes it easier to function around others, and it makes other people like me. Ask questions of other people, treat them like a book, extract information from them. They will actually like you for taking a personal interest in them, however, really I am satisfying my own curiosity to gather information.

5. Please / thank you
I always say, "please/thank you" when interacting with people who are doing me a service. People can spit in your food or worse. People can "go the extra mile for you". People can offer you specials if they like you.

6. "It's not what you can make, but what you can lose"
In risk taking, this is an important wisdom to remember.

1, 4, 5 - I live by
1 is very important

Throw away holiness and wisdom,
and people will be a hundred times happier.

Some guy

As someone who's been through a lot, any philosophic view like that held at a distance might have some impact on how things go well when they're going well (so long as your life philosophy's not utterly self defeating) but in hard times they're not likely to cut muster.


Some of the philosophies that have been serving me well to date:

1) Stay busy - keep learning, dedicate yourself to processes, and enjoy showing up. It got me through undergrad with highest honors, it has me still going strong almost eight years in a mixed filipino-southern chinese martial arts system, and it's also helped me in keeping to the meditation path.

2) Put integrity first. I don't mean that in terms of the social posture. I mean try to understand your own drives, motivations, and beliefs as much as possible. Decompartmentalize your views of yourself and your life wherever you can. Acknowledge the places where some uncomfortable beliefs are demanded just by how the world is and what it demands from you but take note of wherever you have the ability to throw out shoddy heuristics in your thinking or at least sub out mediocre heuristics for better ones wherever possible.

3) Reduce internal friction to a minimum. Do challenge yourself in good ways but, like above with the point on integrity, if you have two clashing belief systems grinding against each other that's a lot of maintenance and it's energy going down the drain. Similarly if you're doing things you hate just to please other people or conform - that's something to look at more closely. Also particularly with negative or pessimistic thinking, some situations may call for self-disciplining, being hard on yourself, or stating hard realities in your life clearly. You may not have a better tool but put it away as quickly as possible when you're in a situation that doesn't require it. Life will give you plenty of opportunities to grind your own gears - make a game of reducing that grind to boiler plate levels and keep seeing if you can lower it further. Also any sort of voluntary annoyances - road rage, fuming over someone's absent mindedness at a store or restaurant, etc.., it's really best to deflect that stuff.

4) Find what works for you and go with it. Sometimes a person has the surroundings and talents come together to do something really prestigious with, most people don't. That means for most us the crux of our life struggles is between us and ourselves. Regardless of where you're at constantly think about what would make you a more highly functional, consistent, healthy, and happy adult. Sometimes it's taking a bit more leisure time or developing a hobby, sometimes it's making it to the gym a bit more often, other times it's taking part in a charitable organization of some kind or finding some similar ways to both enrich yourself and give back.

5) Avoid getting wrapped up in politics, sports, religious battles, or any of the stuff that pulls you into other people's crap. Know enough about politics to know how you'd vote or where you'd donate and why. With religion know enough about what you believe or don't believe as well as why and avoid getting into semantic battles over it.

As for all the ontological questions - they'll probably change through the course of your life if you're actively questioning them. Anyone too invested gets stuck. I think the biggest concern to have is make sure that your beliefs aren't doing persistent damage in your daily life and, if they are, try to figure out a different angle of engagement with that belief that would allow you a better grip on what it means to you.

The most succinct thing would be this:

"The sleep of reason brings forth monsters." (Goya)

Have something to live for. That keeps one foot stepping ahead of the other in my case.