Just Do the Opposite for a Great Life

The opposite heuristic

"The wise man corrects his own errors by observing those of others".
— Publilius Syrus, Sayings, 242

“Just do the opposite of what most people do,” is a surprisingly useful heuristic for navigating the modern world.

As with any heuristic, there are numerous exceptions, but it’ll get you further than you might expect. When considering your options, it’s always worth asking: “What do most people do, and how’s that working out for them?”

Let’s explore and then get into what’s really happening.

Relation With The Digital Realm

• Majority: Throw yourself into the algorithmic dopamine pit whenever you have a spare moment.

• Opposite: Use the internet with intention. Back away when its use becomes habitual, thoughtless, or distracts you from what’s important. Find yourself a mast and handcuff yourself to it.

Self Examination:

• Majority: Don’t.

• Opposite: Journal like a philosopher. Meditate. Consider your patterns, biases, and drives so that you might — as Socrates thought critical — know thyself.

Diet:

• Majority: The US median intake is 0.9 cups of fruit and 1.4 cups of vegetables per day. The US diet is mostly animal foods, processed junk, and sugar water with 14–16 grams of fiber per day.

• Opposite: ≥ 50 grams of fiber and mostly whole or lightly processed foods. 1.2-1.6 g/kg of protein per day. Anti-obesity principles, if necessary.

Spirituality/Religion:

• Majority: Either a means to a better afterlife, a tool to experience fleeting bliss and transcendent experiences, or ridiculous fairy tales to be avoided by rational people.

• Opposite: The religious practice you willingly handcuff yourself to is where most of the value lies, and it can keep you from going off the rails in life.

Focus:

• Majority: Your attention is so hijacked by stimuli and a bombardment of interruptions that you’re rarely able to sink into undistracted focus.

• Opposite: You set aside time to enter pleasurable flow states, train your attention, and practice “prosochē” to keep yourself in line with your values.

Purpose and Values:

• Majority: Nothing matters (nihilism) or it’s all relative. Do what feels good or what calls to you in the moment without regard to a value framework, because those are historical anachronisms, imposed, or subjective. Whatever values you hold are absorbed from society/family without examination.

• Opposite: How you live is of critical importance. Align your thoughts, words, and deeds with a higher standard you ascribe to. Virtue is the keystone practice.

Exercise:

• Majority: Don’t move if you can help it.

• Opposite: Move lots without obsessing or forming your identity around fitness.

The Past:

• The Majority: The past and its people are at best irrelevant, and often a bad influence on us because of the primitive state of historical morals, mores, and political opinions. Or the past was a golden age we should try to return to.

• The Opposite: Never romanticize the past, but realize its exemplars and lessons are valuable. Those who study history and its best minds can’t predict the future, but they have a fuller understanding of the human condition and how they’re related to it, what’s likely, and what sort of societal shifts can be achieved. Being stuck in the evernow leads to a sad myopia.

Comfort:

• Majority: Seek comfort and convenience at every opportunity. Avoid discomfort.

• Opposite: Utilize conveniences that serve you, but seek discomfort when it improves you.

Politics:

• Majority: Sign up for team blue or team red and let your politics into your identity so you can’t think about them critically. Or decide it’s all a farce and ignore politics completely.

• Opposite: You vote for the lesser evil and stake out the uncomfortable but ethical middle ground. You’re not living in Plato’s Republic, but political participation matters.

After Work Time:

• Majority: TV, social media, blue screens, video games, and other distractions till bed.

• Opposite: You create a void free of mindless distractions and fleeting pleasures and fill it wisely.

After Waking:

• Majority: Roll over and grab your phone and check emails/texts/social media so your brain is hijacked before you’ve had a chance to think a single uninfluenced thought.

• Opposite: Wake up and work on the most important thing (not the most urgent) for at least a few minutes before the torrent of the external world barrels you over.

Money:

• Majority: Spend all you earn, even when you’re making boatloads of cash. The Median American couldn’t handle a $500 emergency expense, and 76% don't have enough savings to cover one month of expenses.

• Opposite: You’ve stepped off the hedonic treadmill so you you can live below your means and buy yourself security and freedom with savings and investments. You realize spending has a limited ability to buy you happiness, but its ability to buffer you from unexpected shocks and protect you from shitty work environments provides considerable psychological benefits and the freedom to live virtuously without anxiety. Money also gives you a tool you can wield for the good of your community.

Identity:

• Majority: Your identity has a semi-permeable membrane. You freely let your religion, political party, cultural practices, and all associated ideas pass in so questioning them results in painful cognitive dissonance that makes you desist immediately. Your beliefs are true.

• Opposite: You keep most things out of your identity, which leaves you free to constantly test ideas and discard the losers without cognitive dissonance. You use loosely held working hypotheses to navigate the world, but you’re suspicious of their universality.

Anxiety:

• Majority: There’s lots to fear and I’m fragile. The bad political party might come to power. The stupid people will thwart me. The world is going to hell and there’s nothing to live for. Someone might say something I don’t agree with on campus and that shouldn’t be allowed.

• Opposite: You’re antifragile, so live each day and each moment in the now to pass through anxiety. Love your fate. Control what’s in your control and let go of the rest. Put existential threats in perspective, and remember the story of the old farmer. You use gratitude hacks for the good things and the hard things. Each day, remember to be lucky.

Sports

• Majority: Obsess over and bet on sports you have no connection to. Make sure you wear the names of men and team logos on your shirt to signal your vassalage to highly profitable franchises.

• Opposite: Play backyard/local/pickup sports and do other physically vigorous activities all year. Attend sporting events when you know the players personally.

What You Know:

• Majority: You have strong opinions about many things, most of which you don’t know much about. Authority figures have helpfully signaled most of the right opinions.

• Opposite: You have hypotheses and have developed a few areas of expertise, but hold all these ideas lightly.

Reading:

• Majority: Rarely or never read books. If you do, make sure it’s nothing that pushes you morally or intellectually.

• Opposite: Devote an hour or more to reading each night and plow through 24-48 books a year without trying hard. Along with entertainment reading, choose some books that push you to be better, like these.

What’s Really Going On?

“You are scared of dying, but tell me, is the kind of life you lead really any different from being dead?” — Seneca, Epistles, Letter 77.

I had notes on a dozen other “correct opposites,” but this piece is going long so I’m wrapping up. But why does the majority frequently go astray? Are these Andrew’s subjective hot takes?

I don’t claim this is a natural dichotomy. No immutable universal law forces the majority to make mistakes; blindly embracing the opposite isn’t guaranteed to turn out well.

What’s at play is the simple fact the ancient Stoics and countless others have noted: virtue is hard. “The opposite,” better lines up with wisdom, justice, courage, and moderation, the four Stoic virtues. Though there’s always a subjective application of virtue, the majority aren’t even trying because they’ve got a different playbook.

The majority go with:

• What’s easiest

• What our many cognitive biases route us toward

• What society has normalized

• What leads to the most short-term pleasure

It’s always going to be challenging to bring wisdom, justice, courage, and moderation to your thoughts, words, and deeds when these forces push us in the opposite direction. Vice is tempting and pleasurable, though it saps long-term happiness.

You just have to decide what you’re living for. If you think virtue matters, than the path of the majority will rankle. It’s a step down from your aspirations you can’t stomach.

What you aspire to be is up to you.

I talk more about the benefits of virtuous living here:

Five Ways Stoicism Improved My Life

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