Schopenhauer's 10 Rules for Life | #24

Pessimism, health, and valuing what you have.

Author

Tom Harari
June 03, 2023

10 Rules For Life

No. 24 — read time 4 minutes

Welcome to The Soloist, a weekly newsletter where I share timeless ideas and insights about life, business, and art.

Today at a glance

  • 10 Rules for Life from German Philosopher Schopenhauer

  • Tweet: From Failure To Fearless

  • Article: Why We Make Lousy Life Choices

10 Rules for Life

Last week, I completed a course on writing called Write of Passage which is taught by David Perell and a host of other amazing writers.

My biggest takeaway was the permission to explore more. To diver deeper into rabbit holes to see where my curiosity takes me.

Those excavations led me to the writings of Arthur Schopenhauer, a German Philosopher from the early 1800s.

Schopenhauer was a young philosopher at the University of Berlin around the same time as another great philosopher, Hegel.

As I’ve been reading his work I came across his manual for living a happy life, titled Lehre von der Glückseligkeit (Doctrine of Happiness).

In total there’s about 50 rules laid out but the following 10 best summarize his world view.

1. Avoid Envy

Envy is a sinister feeling that not only robs us of our joie de vivre (joy of life), it blocks us from building our own life of happiness.

2. Stop Looking For Happiness

Didn’t we just say to avoid envy in order to build our own happiness? Schopenhauer, like the Buddha, argues that avoiding unhappiness is a more worthwhile pursuit.

This sounds obvious yet how many times do we put ourselves in situations that we know will make us unhappy.

Charlie Munger, the famous investor and right-hand man of Warren Buffett, shared a similar idea when he said “all I want to know is where I'm going to die so I'll never go there”.

Chasing happiness on the other hand is like trying to catch a butterfly, according to Henry David Thoreau. The more we chase the more it evades us. Only when we stop to have a look around does it land on our shoulders.

3. Know Yourself

A fish swims in water. A bird flies in the air. And a mole lives underground.

So too should we as humans learn what best suits our needs through experience. You want to free yourself from chasing impossible goals that go against your nature.

Only through experience and self-reflection can we uncover who we are and how to put ourselves in the best position to succeed in life.

4. Don’t Crave Possessions

We are never content with what we have. A Harvard study asked millionaires how much more money they’d need to be a 10 on the happiness scale. For each group the answer was double what they currently had.

“Wealth is like seawater” Schopenhauer says. “the more you drink, the thirstier you get.”

5. Never Sacrifice Your Health

A healthy man has 1,000 wishes. A sick man only 1.

Sacrificing your health for material gain is one of the worst trades you can make in life.

6. Be Compassionate With Yourself

The first form of compassion is to yourself. Learn from your mistakes, hold yourself to a high standard, but be kind. The inner critic is our worst enemy.

7. Love Your Destiny

Most people have heard the phrase Memento Mori (remember death), a popular Stoic saying. A less popular though just as profound is Amor Fati (love of fate).

We don’t control outcomes, we only control the inputs.

Life is full of chance which is out of our control. Instead, love the effort and process you take and let the chips fall where they may.

8. Pessimism Is Better Than Over-Optimism

Being overly-optimistic is a recipe for disappointment when things don’t work out the way you hope. A healthy dose of pessimism, or at least realism, allows us to be on guard for the worst.

And when the worst doesn’t happen, we are delighted and happy.

9. Value What You Have

We tend to miss things once they’re lost. But how often do we stop to practice gratitude for what we have while we still have them.

Our health, a roof over our head, a mind to observe and enjoy the world.

See Rule #4.

10. Respect Time And It’s Passage

George Bernard Shaw, an Irish playwright, once wrote “Youth is the most precious thing in life; it is too bad it has to be wasted on young folks.”

Getting old is a part of life. We won’t be able to do certain things as we age but our desire to look back prevents us from respecting the fact that time moves in one direction and we ought to prepare for our future.

Those who prepare for old age will experience that phase of life better.

Tweet on turning failure into fearlessness:

Walt Disney is a legend. But to become the powerhouse we know today, he had to fail miserably and learn a hard lesson on why location matters. Billy’s stories are wonderful and this one is worth a read.

Article on why we make lousy life choices:

Thinking we’re awesome has tons of benefits. But blaming others when they do something bad misses the point that we also screw up. Why do we do this?

Nir Eyal is excellent at dissecting the human condition and exploring why we behave so irrationally. This article is a good primer on the Fundamental Attribution Error and how it distorts our reality.

I’ve been wanting to write more about psychological conditions and how they impact us. If you’d like to read this piece, reply YES to this email.

Till next week,

-Tom

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