Megan McArdle offers her own 12 rules for life:
- Be kind. Mean is easy; kind is hard.
- Politics is not the most important thing in the world. It’s just the one people talk about the most.
- Always order one extra dish at a restaurant, an unfamiliar one.
- Give yourself permission to be bad.
- Go to the party even when you don’t want to.
- Save 25 percent of your income.
- Don’t just pay people compliments; give them living eulogies.
- That thing you kinda want to do someday? Do it now.
- Human beings are often splendid, the world is often glorious, and nature, red in tooth and claw, also invented kindness, charity and love. Believe in that.
- Don’t try to resolve fundamental conflicts with your spouse or roommates.
- Be grateful. No matter how awful your life seems at the moment, you have something to be grateful for.
- Always make more dinner rolls than you think you can eat.