Created by Jakub Hejhal
I suppose I do have a free will, because if I don't, I cannot lose anything by believing that I do have a free will.
On the other hand, I can lose The Game by doubting my freedom and ability to change things.
If I don't believe I can change the course of history, I won't even try.
This is it. I've got only one shot, so why not?
Never learn from past mistakes
Even if you are above-average mentally strong, you have only limited amount of willpower. It is a limited resource.
Therefore, if you can, save your willpower for situations, when it really matters.
Change your environment, such that it's more willpower-friendly. Remove distractions, temptations etc.
You are responsible for The Game's outcome
Okay, okay, you can't win, The Game result is not discrete.
But how to set the highscore, the new record? How to be the best player I can be?
The question of course is, what should be the metric?
How is your Game score computed.
Sometimes called The "Good-Evil" scale
Play your game, otherwise you will play a game of somebody else.
Have a clear game-plan, even if it will change frequently.
Thought-out game-plan is a safeguard against impulsive, unwise decisions, that have to be made quickly in some situations.
Compile your plan to machine-code, such that you can act on it without too much thinking.
There isn't anything Universally "Good" or "Bad".
Goodness in a traditional sense is necessarily subjective. With that in mind, is there something trully Universal?
Philosophers argue whether there exists any Universal value.
I would argue that such value is order, the opposite of chaos and destruction.
In some sense order corresponds to the physical notion of entropy.
If my comfort zone is not regularly worked upon, if it isn't being enlarged frequently, it has a tendency to keep shrinking around me.
Before I know it, I become a prisoner of my own comfort.
If you don't risk anything, you're risking even more. You're risking wasting your only life.
Don't get dragged into their games, you'd be losing your precious time
Doing a lot of Good necessarily entails collaborating with other people. There is only so much I can accomplish on my own.
We can think of "having an impact" in 2 ways:
I can have power over others by:
Entropy in The Universe is always increasing. Whenever useful work is done and energy is spent, entropy increases.
But we can create isolated safe havens of order and low entropy at the expense of increasing entropy outside even more. We can fight-off the inexorability of our Universe for a little while, even if the heat-death of The Universe is inevitable.
Let's scale up (sustainably) these safe havens, that seemingly defy fundamental laws of thermodynamics. This is what separates life from non-living things. The ability to use and gain from disorder. Let's play our best game, let's put up a hell of a fight.
Each one of us has only ~100 year for this fight, so let's be as efficient as possible. Our minds give us powers to constantly improve the efficiency of our entropy fight. We use automation, clever design, we delegate and develop other mental and physical tools to improve the efficiency.
So let's use all the tools we have, let's be smart, wise and creative. Let's be brave and persistent. Let's be kind, fair with others, positive and optimistic.