An update to values

This is the updated list. The wording is same as before, the only difference is that I dropped two items from the original.

• Health over anything else. You got a long life ahead and only one body to spend it in. Eat healthy and stay fit.
• Intellectual stagnation is the worst. Be creative. Write more. Build products. Challenge yourself.
• Live below your means. Increase in income does not mean increase in expenses.
• Be kind and charitable. Make society better in whatever way you can. You can (and should) start small—perhaps with your immediate family, friends and coworkers.

What were the values I dropped and why?

The first one to go was:

Make genuine human connections. Be present in a relationship.

This is still something I believe in and is the right thing to do, but I don’t think this belongs in my personal values list. The purpose of values is to help make decisions, choosing between two distinct things that have different tradeoffs. I have not needed to make unauthentic, fake human connections. I am simply not that kind of person.

The other was:

Prefer experiences over possessions. Instead of chasing material things, life is better spent gaining flavor via experiences

This is a valid tradeoff for sure but I have come around to accept it’s not that simple. It doesn’t quite capture the messy details of life. I am not making a 180 here and somehow become a materialistic person. I still think of myself as a minimalist. But no longer do I believe that either point of view here has complete superiority over the other.