ALL YOU NEED TO KNOW

YOUR PERSONAL OPERATING SYSTEM

Your computer's operating system contains rules and instructions: what to do in certain situations, which programs get priority, and how to manage conflicts when resources run low.

People need an operating system too — we call those instructions principles. Principles act as interpreters of what’s happening around us, as filters to distinguish what matters from what doesn’t, and as rules for making decisions. If your principles are clear, you’ll notice more consistency in your choices, it’ll take less effort to make them, and you won’t constantly feel the need to reevaluate whether you did the right thing or not. Put simply: you’ll stress less about life.

This series of books is your personal operating system — a framework to help you make sense of, organize, and simplify the messy reality you face daily. It distills over three decades of learning and unconventional experience — lessons that have helped me compare ideas, break with convention, and hold on to what worked best.

IF I COULD SEND A BOOK TO MY PAST SELF, IT WOULD BE THIS ONE.