Was reading this article and got inspired to formulate my own version.

The 3 Constants, in no particular order of importance, are:

1. Hard Work. Doing quality work greases the wheels of the universe and makes good things happen, dreams come true, and plans reach fruition. On a deeper level, it also helps you sidestep the perils of identity-based thinking as opposed to becoming by doing. Do something, do not be something. Tell a story with action. Stack up those accompliments and merits by working for them.

2. Exercise. The mind and the body are inextricably connected. Want to look good, feel good, and live longer? If you can do only one thing in a day, make it exercise.

3. Enjoy every moment of life. Something I am struggling to do, but a good signpost to follow. The reason being that if you don't enjoy your life, you tend to start overanalyzing and over-planning in order to finally crack the puzzle and get to Happiness. Enjoy life, have some plans but don't overcomplicate, and work hard. Without enjoyment of the now, you will not be able to work with focus because you will want to go and rehaul your plans all the time. Classic procrastiplanning pattern.

A structural fix is something that you pay for up-front and which then continues to serve your life with zero or little in the way of ongoing maintenance costs.

Some examples, feel free to add more:

-If your computer is swapping (you hear the hard drive churning) during normal usage, get more RAM! Getting an SSD hard drive is also a good idea. Swapping out to disk is like sending a sailboat across the Atlantic to fetch your stuff, whereas RAM is like getting it from your pocket.

-Buy everything you can find that can optimize your sleep. Some ideas: blackout curtains for your sleeping quarters, Zeo device, supplements known to aid sleep (melatonin, zinc, stuff like that), Philips Golite, earthing mat, etc.

-Get a good digital scale with bodyfat measurements and all that jazz. Make a habit to enter it into a suitable tracking tool. Hacker's Diet is good for weight. Even better if it auto-tracks the data for you.

This is one important concept I've learned from Sebastian. It used to be a central message on his "About" page.

I would like to unpack it a bit, though. I hope SM himself will chime in here.

What does it mean to demand to be treated well? What are the ramifications? What does it mandate that YOU do in return?

One obvious example would be Sebastian's going mano-a-mano with Cathay Pacific and coming out at least somewhat victorious.

One example from my own life: there is a chain of grocery stores in Sweden called ICA. I had been going to my local ICA regularly for, oh, 20 years or so. During the last few years or so I started noticing that the staff were being consistently rude/hostile to me. They would be gruff at the check-out and they would do little passive-aggressive things like just plonking the change down instead of handing it to me. They would treat the next customer in line differently: smile and hand the change in hand. Maybe I did something to deserve this. Beats me what it could be, though. I didn't really consider this of great import - after all, I try to be above petty shit like that -  until I realized that I could leverage this for personal growth. So I made a decision that I will not shop there anymore. I rather spend an extra hour to go the supermarket, or I pay ridiculous prices at the gas station. Doesn't matter, it's the principle that counts. By so doing I am (hopefully) starting a pattern of ruthlessly culling things from my life that don't serve me, even if it's uncomfortable for me to do so. And I think THAT is a useful habit to develop.

For me:

The Non-Designer's Design Book - Robin Williams

The Eight-Circuit Brain: Navigational Strategies for the Energetic Body - Antero Alli

Angel Tech - Antero Alli (parts of it, as part of assignments in the above book)

The Lean Startup - Eric Ries

In primitive economies, there is little or no specialization of the labor force. Everyone has to farm, raise kids, gather herbs, fight, heal wounds, entertain, carry & transmit knowledge, transport, do logistics, cook, make shelter, etc. This is necessary just to survive. There are essentially no silos in this economy; everyone is more or less on the same page, knowledge-wise.

On the other end of the spectrum, we have an extremely specialized society with lots of vertical occupations. Someone can make a living doing only one thing. Examples might be organic blueberry farmer, special needs kindergarten teacher, chemical researcher, Navy SEAL, hand surgeon, stand-up comedian, Phd, bike messenger, operations manager, sushi chef, architect, etc. Each one of these can trade their work for wealth that rivals that of the King of France in the 17th century (in some way).

This economy is extremely silofied - its drawback is that it becomes insular and cross-talk becomes more and more difficult. The reign of tunnel-sighted experts ensues.

This situation cries out for a return of generalists. People who can understand a little bit of everything and make new connections. People who can synthesize. People who grok enough of the entire tech stack to utilize experts like instruments and create a bigger picture.

How do we become Type 2 generalists?

You probably get a lot of cool ideas, thoughts that juice you up and feel Just Right for you and your circumstance. I am willing to bet you typically write down the idea, talk about it with friends, think about  it for a few days, then.... nothing. You forget about it or it loses its lustre. You move on. You probably have a mental shelf full of never-wases and could-have-beens, ideas that sparkled for a short while but never made it.

The idea is a seed. You need to plant it and germinate it before it's too late. If you don't - if you leave the seed on the shelf - it will start to lose its life and take rot. An idea not acted upon will seem dull two weeks later.

Whenever you feel juiced up by a brilliant new idea, immediately open a text file and dump everything you can think.of pertaining to that idea. Pack that initial inspiration into solid ground.

Paradoxically, this will rob you of that initial juice. You will feel "meh" about the idea for a little while. BUT... and this is big, you now have germinated the seed and over the coming weeks you will notice it growing. You will receive more and more inspiration and follow-on ideas and your text file will fill up. People will start suggesting things you could add.

This is when you go public with your idea and start saying self-concept building things like "I am currently writing a book / programming an app / starting a blog / etc". Because it will be true then, and it will fuel you.

1. Trust yourself

2. Break the rules

3. Don't be afraid to fail

4. Ignore the naysayers

5. Work your butt off