Living Better Life with More Happiness
Adopted from “The Art of The Good Life, by Rolf Dobelli”
Have you ever feel mad to pay a parking lot, or you start losing a goal and feel your life is empty or you feel like nothing makes your life happy anymore ? Then this summary is for you, for someone who wants to simply live a happier life and make a wiser decision throughout their entire life.
The Art of The Good Life is written by Rolf Dobelli and it has 52 chapters. Honestly I would rate this book 4.5/5 this book is small, easy to carry around, but it teaches so much new way of thinking. Well of course there are no such thing as perfect book. To get the most out of this summary, you should not only read but also think. I’m pretty sure out of these 52 life lessons, there are things that you may disagree with and that is fine. Take what is good and leave what is bad. Nonetheless you should empty your cup of tea so it may be filled again (it means opening yourself to new ideas or something new).
1. Mental Accounting
How to Turn a Loss into a Win
Mental accounting is an act which you trick your own mind to spend money more wisely and just be happier. One example of this is if you get ticketed, just treat the ticketed money like you are giving away donation, you will feel much happier. Another example is to add 50% on things that you will buy, this way you will be wiser went spending your money especially on the things that you don’t need. There are many ways of thinking that can be counted as mental accounting. Another lesson that I get from this chapter is “Just think that you are already dead and everything that follows is a gift, so be grateful.”
2. The Fine Art of Correction
Why We Overestimate Set-Up
Most of the time our plans just won’t work, there are so many things that we can’t control. So the best way to make it work is “constant planning”. If things go wrong, we should plan it again and then move forward, repeatedly. The ability to self-correct from wrong to something right is the key to success. Just remember there’s no perfect business strategy nor an optimal stock portfolio. The truth is you just have to move and constantly adjust it according to what happens. “So don’t invest all of your resources into your set up. Instead, practice the art of correction by revising things that aren’t working without feeling any guilty.”
3. The Pledge
Inflexibility as a Stratagem
When it comes to an important issues, flexibility isn’t an advantage, it’s more like a trap. To reach a long term goal, we should not be flexible on things that we consider important otherwise it would be unrealizable. How so ? The first thing is flexibility make our brain work more to create decision. The number of decision we could make within a day is limited and this could create decision fatigue. The second thing, inflexibility is so valuable has to do with reputation. By being consistent on certain topics, you signal where you stand and establish an areas where there’s no room for negotiation. Some examples from this inflexibility is Christensen, a Harvard professor and also the writer of “The Innovator’s Dilemma”. Christensen pledge that he would not work at the weekends and to eat dinner at home with his family even if this means to work at three in the morning. Another example is from Warren Buffett, the legendary investor. Warren Buffett refuse on principle to negotiate. If you want to make an offer to Warren Buffett, you have exactly one try.
4. Black Box Thinking
Reality Doesn’t Care About Your Feelings; or, Why Every False Step Improves Your Life
Black box as we know in aviation, is an important recorder that saves what was happening in a flight. Everything that we know in aviation, every rule in the book, every procedure we have, we know because someone somewhere died, but with each crash, future flights become safer. This is the black box thinking principle. So before making big decision make sure you check your data recorder and analyze what can you do to prevent the previous mistake and why such mistake happened, you might remember something that you don’t like but at least you don’t make the same mistake twice. It’s okay to make every mistake here and there, the key is to discover why it happened and tackle the issue at its root.
5. Counterproductivity
Why Timesaver Are Often Timewasters
Before buying something that makes you thing you are more productive, think carefully whether that will make you more productive or not. For example if you are buying a car you have to take this into consideration 1) The number of hours you have to work in order to buy that car. 2) The number of hours you need to maintenance the car. 3) The time you spend travelling to work including sitting in a traffic jam. It might not worth it.
*This is not from the book, but in 2015, average speed of a car in Jakarta is 12–14 km/hour so consider buying a slow car rather than a high speed car if you really need it. Buying a high speed car might make you think you will go to your office faster while in reality it’s not that different than any other car but it makes you work more in order to buy it. This is what we called counterproductivity.
6. The Negative Art of The Good Life
Do Nothing Wrong and the Right Thing Will Happen
It is hard to describe what is our perfect life filled with happiness would be. Your temporary answer might be living without having to work, or when you can travel around the world without losing your wealth. But does that mean you are unhappy now ? Easiest thing to describe what is a happy life is probably by describing what isn’t a happy life. Another thing that might impact our good life is how many bad habits that we have. To live a good life just do nothing wrong (eliminate as much as your bad habit).
7. The Ovarian Lottery
Why You Didn’t Earn Your Successes
Being hard work is one of the key things to become successful, but another key thing is luck. If you are successful, don’t forget that it’s because of luck. The luck about where we are born is called ovarian lottery, as for myself I’m lucky to live in a world where conflict or war doesn’t happen just like in Afghanistan, and I’m also lucky to live in a region with internet connection and also a loving parent. So, remind yourself that a portion of wealth that you gain today is because you are lucky and blessed with good luck (so be grateful). Second, don’t forget to help people who are unlucky (donate and pay your taxes).
