12 Rules for Life In English episodes:

• January 03, 2025What shall i do with my newfound pen of light?

  Coda

  WHAT SHALL I DO WITH MY NEWFOUND PEN OF LIGHT?

  In late 2016 I travelled to northern California to meet a friend and business

  associate. We

  spent an evening together thinking and talking. At one pointhe took a pen

  from his

  jacket and took a few notes.

  ...more

  

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• January 02, 2025Pet a Cat When You Encounter

  RULE 12

  PET A CAT WHEN YOU ENCOUNTER ONE ON THE STREET

  DOGS ARE OK TOO

  I am going to start this chapter by stating directly that I own a dog, an

  American Eskimo,

  one of the many variants of the basic spitz type.

  ...more

  

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• January 01, 2025Do Not Bother Children

  RULE 11

  DO NOT BOTHER CHILDREN WHEN THEY ARE SKATEBOARDING

  DANGER AND MASTERY

  There was a time when kids skateboarded on the west side of Sidney Smith

  Hall, at the

  University of Toronto, where I work. Sometimes I stood there and watched

  them. There

  are rough, wide, shallow concrete steps there, leading up from the street to

  the front

  entrance, accompanied by tubular iron handrails, about two and a half

  inches in diameter

  and twenty feet long. The crazy kids, almost always boys, would pull back

  about fifteen

  yards from the top of the steps.

  ...more

  

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• December 31, 2024Be precise in your speech

  RULE 10

  BE PRECISE IN YOUR SPEECH

  WHY IS MY LAPTOP OBSOLETE?

  What do you see, when you look at a computer—at your own laptop, more

  precisely? You

  see a flat, thin, grey-and-black box. Less evidently, you see something to

  type on and look

  at. Nonetheless, even with the second perceptions included,what are you

  seeing is hardly

  the computer at all. That grey and black box happens to be a computer

  right now, right

  here and now, and maybe even an expensive computer.

  ...more

  

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• December 30, 2024Assume that the Person

  RULE 9

  ASSUME THAT THE PERSON YOU ARE LISTENING TO MIGHT KNOW

  SOMETHING YOU DON’T

  NOT ADVICE

  Psychotherapy is not advice. Advice is what you get when the person

  you’re talking with

  about something horrible and complicated wishes you would just shut up

  and go away.

  Advice is what you get when the person you are talking to wants to revel in

  the

  superiority of his or her own intelligence.

  ...more

  

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• December 28, 2024Tell the truth—or at least, don't lie

  RULE 8

  TELL THE TRUTH—OR, AT LEAST, DON’T LIE

  TRUTH IN NO-MAN’S-LAND

  I trained to become a clinical psychologist at McGill University, in

  Montreal. While doing

  so, I sometimes met my classmates on the grounds of Montreal’s Douglas

  Hospital,

  where we had our first direct experiences with the mentally ill.

  ...more

  

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• December 28, 2024Pursue What Is Meaningful

  RULE 7

  PURSUE WHAT IS MEANINGFUL (NOT WHAT IS EXPEDIENT)

  GET WHILE THE GETTING’S GOOD

  Life is suffering. That’s clear. There is no more basic, irrefutable truth. It’s

  basically what

  God tells Adam and Eve, immediately before he kicks them out of Paradise.

  Unto the woman he said, I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy

  conception; in sorrow thou shalt bring forth

  children; and thy desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over

  thee.

  ...more

  

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• December 27, 2024Set your house in perfect order before you criticize the world

  RULE 6

  SET YOUR HOUSE IN PERFECT ORDER BEFORE YOU CRITICIZE THE

  WORLD

  A RELIGIOUS PROBLEM

  It does not seem reasonable to describe the young man who shot twenty

  children and six

  staff members at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut,

  in 2012 as a

  religious person. This is equally true for the Colorado theatre gunman and

  the Columbine

  High School killers.

  ...more

  

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• December 26, 2024Do not let your children do anything that makes you dislike them

  RULE 5

  DO NOT LET YOUR CHILDREN DO ANYTHING THAT MAKES YOU

  DISLIKE THEM

  ACTUALLY, IT’S NOT OK

  Recently, I watched a three-year-old boy trail his mother and father slowly

  through a

  crowded airport. He was screaming violently at five-second intervals—and,

  more

  important, he was doing it voluntarily. He wasn’t at the end of this tether.

  ...more

  

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• December 25, 2024Compare Yourself To Who You Were Yesterday, Not To Who Someone Else is Today

  RULE 4

  COMPARE YOURSELF TO WHO YOU WERE YESTERDAY, NOT

  TO WHO SOMEONE ELSE IS TODAY

  THE INTERNAL CRITIC

  It was easier for people to be good at something when more of us lived in

  small, rural

  communities. Someone could be homecoming queen. Someone else could

  be spelling-bee

  champ, math whiz or basketball star. There were only one or two

  mechanics and a couple

  of teachers. In each of their domains, these local heroes had the

  opportunity to enjoy the

  serotonin-fuelled confidence of the victor. It may be for that reason that

  people who were

  born in small towns are statistically overrepresented among the eminent.

  ...more

  

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