A boy once asked Charlie Munger, “What advice do you have for someone like me to succeed in life?” Munger replied: “Don’t do cocaine. Don’t race trains to the track. And avoid all AIDS situations.”
It’s often hard to know what will bring joy but easy to spot what will bring misery. Building a house is complex; destroying one is simple, and I think you’ll find a similar analogy in most areas of life. When trying to get ahead it can be helpful to flip things around, focusing on how to not fall back.
Here are a few pieces of very bad advice.
Allow your expectations to grow faster than your income
Envy others’ success without having a full picture of their lives.
Pursue status at the expense of independence.
Associate net worth with self-worth (for you and others).
Mimic the strategy of people who want something different than you do.
Choose who to trust based on follower count.
Associate engagement with insight.
Let envy guide your goals.
Automatically associate wealth with wisdom.
Assume a new dopamine hit is a good indication of long-term joy.
View every conversation as a competition to win.
Assume people care where you went to school after age 25.
Assume the solution to all your problems is more money.
Maximize efficiency in a way that leaves no room for error.
Be transactional vs. relationship driven.
Prioritize defending what you already believe over learning something new.
Assume that what people can communicate is 100% of what they know or believe.
Believe that the past was golden, the present is crazy, and the future is destined for decline.
Assume that all your success is due to hard work and all your failure is due to bad luck.
Forecast with precision, certainty, and confidence.
Maximize for immediate applause over long-term reputation.
Value the appearance of looking busy.
Never doubt your tribe but be skeptical of everyone else’s.
Assume effort is rewarded more than results.
Believe that your nostalgia is accurate.
Compare your behind-the-scenes life to others’ curated highlight reel.
Discount adaptation, assuming every problem will persist and every advantage will remain
Use uncertainty as an excuse for inaction.
Judge other people at their worst and yourself at your best.
Assume learning is complete upon your last day of school.
View patience as laziness.
Use money as a scorecard instead of a tool.
View loyalty (to those who deserve it) as servitude.
Adjust your willingness to believe something by how much you want and need it to be true.
Be tribal, view everything as a battle for social hierarchy.
Have no sense of your own tendency to regret.
Only learn from your own experiences.
Make friends with people whose morals you know are beneath your own.