Principles

In the Harvard essay I promised to upload the 10 personal principles I developed over the course of 2022.

The initial list in January makes up the second half of the document, while the August update (which has more commentary) is the first half.

You can find it here.

I’ll re-do this sometime soon as this was a huge help for me, and to spare you the necessity of reading the entire 11-page document, I’ll list a few of my favorites below.

They’re nothing groundbreaking: that’s the point!

Principle 5: Writing is Sanity

“Pen to paper forces oneself to actuate what has been felt and seen. You can only realize yourself through this ritual. Speech is a close second (perhaps even first), but writing is its own endeavor. You need dialogue between the different versions of yourself that are fighting for airtime, fighting to be seen and heard. They will otherwise tear each other to shreds without an honest assessment of the due owed to each. Just as words explain to others what you have thought, those same words also reflect past versions of yourself that you are still interacting with today. Many of the conversations I’ve had with myself on paper then are the same exact ones I’m having with myself now. Perhaps I know a few more words and have seen a few more things, but the battles are the same. Unlike speech, writing leaves itself behind as an artifact to be studied and re-evaluated at a later time, where more information and more maturity can unlock its true meaning. A person is never a static thing, but always under their own microscope. “Traumatic experiences” sometimes turn out only to be traumatic over a certain time period, where a reflective period can transform those into truly proud or strong moments that reveal one’s character. When you fail to write, you rob a future version of yourself of this clarity, and my memory is only getting worse, too. Concrete words are of utmost importance. Only then can we truly glean what a younger me may have been thinking at that moment.”

Principle 8: You’re never as smart or dumb as you think you are

“Stay humble and stay encouraging. Nothing is good or bad, just IS. All is perspective. This sort of mindset is full of generosity: not only does it graciously accept knowledge (or even judgment) from others, it also forgives you for your own mistakes. Be lenient in your own judgment. Give the benefit of the doubt. I would much rather be labeled a naive optimist than to be a pessimist or continue to hate myself for my mistakes, or think others are worthless for theirs. Recognize that intellect (or anything you consider valuable) is just one aspect of what a human is in all of their glorious complexity. People are valuable for just being themselves. They don’t have to prove anything to anyone to show their value. They can just BE. And that goes for you, too, my friend. Boring? Dumb? Dull? We’re all of those things, too. All of us can be anything sometimes. When you label someone as “attractive” or “smart,” for example, you’re carrying around assumptions of what those words mean. I doubt you have the full picture to make this call…”

Principle 10: Life is short

“Man, a whole year has gone by in Boston. I’m not remotely the same person I was when I got here, which is both scary and exciting. I’ve changed a lot, but even more so when I consider my journey with math starting back in undergrad. What an amazing thing, that we can say what we want, get it, and see its positive effects radiate in our life. At the same time, life moves on all around us. Friends get married, people settle down or move to new cities or even die. Nothing will stop for us. We get older, dreams wither or become refined versions of themselves, and reality caves in on us. At times we feel totally alone or incapable of moving forward. We wonder what others would think about us if we failed, or if they’d abandon us if we succeeded. Fear! We become paralyzed by fear. We stress too much, ride ourselves too hard, and forget those values that brought us to the heights we’ve climbed to. Every moment we don’t take to soak it all in is a moment lost in time forever. Every dream not shared is burned in the furnace, lost to all of humanity. We are here for only one reason: to share what we have with others. Sometimes we feel that we have nothing to share, but this isn’t true. As long as we are alive, we can share ourselves. We can smile at people when they look at us on the street. We can laugh off the difficult waitress or the late bus. We can tell a dumb joke and have people laugh at us for a few moments on a tough day. We can listen and truly care about what others have to say. All of that makes you the man you are and could be. Life is short. There’s no time to be miserable, to hate, to be bitter, to despair. There’s no time to bullshit, or to pretend to care about the meaningless noise that is now becoming so loud today. There’s no substitute for spending a sunny, 80 degree day with a beautiful woman or an old friend. No money, no degree can guarantee that. The woman and the friend might not always be there for you to enjoy, nor you for them. Life moves on regardless, and it will move on for all of those after me just as it did for those before me. When I think back on these principles, I think of gratitude for Being itself. Any laughter I can cause, any warmth, any sanity I can provide: let me feed it to others, and them to me. Life is short. Make it count.”