This Codex Vitae, or “book of life”, is a collection of my beliefs and concepts that inform my decisions and life. It is a work in constant flux; as my understanding changes, so will my beliefs. The main purpose of this document is to
pull my (often normative) beliefs into the light where I can question them more effectively and
to share philosophies, concepts, tools, and inspiration that have been helpful to me.
It's about making things explicit.
Instructions
If you are Donna:
Develop a habit of using the Codex as a repository for beliefs that develop throughout the year.
Consider doing a monthly review of whether my life is in alignment with values and beliefs. If not, should my behaviour change or have my understanding and values changed?
Do a yearly review in January of the entire document, editing places where beliefs have changed. Expect beliefs and tactics to change — don’t hold on to them too rigidly.
If you are not Donna
Read this with the understanding that you are different from Donna — the way she lives her life is not the way you should live yours.
Consider creating your own Codex Vitae. Feel free to copy anything here that is helpful.
Table of contents
Meta-beliefs
Beliefs about beliefs, including where they originate and the application of these beliefs.
I look forward to the day when I can dismantle my meta-beliefs (November 2022)
My existing beliefs are mental models that, for me, sufficiently explain my perceived experiences
A belief is a mental model of causality
Humans have bounded rationality, thus we construct partial workable mental maps of reality
All beliefs are wrong, but some are useful
We inherit many of our mental models by osmosis and are mostly unoriginal in their construction (August 2024)
Evolution of my consciousness means being able to take more perspectives, embodying higher differentiation (increasing depth) and higher integration (wider range)
Consciousness is the continuous stream of interpreted reality
The overall trend of evolution is increasing differentiation and integration
The evolution of my consciousness is a fractal representation of the universe to which I belong
Previous beliefs that have served me well are most likely to become the constraints for the next stage of my conscious evolution
My beliefs are inviting change through new experiences and new perceptions/interpretations of previous experiences
Updating beliefs requires having at least a rough inventory of existing beliefs
New experiences and perceptions/interpretations can be accidental (always exposing myself to some random events/influences), but they can also come from intentional experiments: testing a belief by putting it into practice
The Codex Vitae is my tool for advancing these goals — I will mainly document beliefs which are high leverage (i.e. affect many other beliefs, and if turn revealed to be wrong, would lead to very different life decisions for me)
I am aware that I adopt new beliefs/update old beliefs on the following grounds
Congruence with external knowledge base and previous experiences: stability vs. stagnation
Personal experiences are imperfect learning tools, given the small size of the sample and the informality of the induction process, I will strive to give the due weight to evidence outside of my personal life (August, 2019)
The extent to which we can learn from others’ experiences depends on how their evidence is presented and interpreted — both encoder and decoder can affect this (August, 2024)
Demonstration of concern and care for myself and others: rights vs. responsibilities
There are more charitable beliefs than others: beliefs might be adopted not because they are true or false, but because what kind of morality they impose on us (August, 2024)
Reflection of the beauty of transient existence in a timeless universe: subjective vs. objective
There are beliefs that we adopt because of a matter of taste. Sometimes this can be an intuitive proxy for the true and good, but not always (August, 2024)
A superpower of mine is to actively choose beliefs that help me adopt the behaviour pattern I seek: I change identity first, then change behaviour (August, 2024)
Aside: The Codex Vitae probably appeals most to those, like me, have a meta-belief which endorses continuously updating one's beliefs. The application of this meta-belief is what I would call a meta-skill (See Ribbonfarm post on meta-skills).
The categories for beliefs that I have decided are roughly based on the AQAL framework from integral theory
The category On self care and own actions corresponds to the sphere in which I have most direct impact
The category On material and spiritual environment corresponds to the wider macro environment
The category At the confluence, as its name indicates, addresses issues that straddle these arbitrary divisions
On self care and own actions
Food
Food is my family’s love language. It is also mine. Therefore I cannot narrowly frame food in terms of body maintenance or hedonism (November 2021)
The lack of stability in nutritional advice shows that we don’t understand the body-food relationship. This is a warning against any early optimisation based on such advice (November 2021)
Food and smell are keys to my unconscious memories and I am always knowing on its door (August, 2024)
Physical fitness
Functional fitness is more important than appearance
However, insecurity over appearance can be a major obstacle to connecting with others/oneself
There is such a thing as exercise/personality fit and I am still experimenting with what my match could be (August, 2024)
Family
Independence from one's family of origin is necessary before re-integration into it
Ideal family relationships are narrated by cultures, individual families need to define their own
My fears and hopes around having children are driven by my perception of how relationships with others would be impacted, the deepening and drying out of connections (November 2021)
I think I can be a good enough parent. But that is not enough for me to be one (August 2024)
Friendship
Some of my best friends are dead authors — our relationships depend on asynchronous encoding and decoding that occur over entire lifetimes (August 2024)
Being an only child in a family system on the margins means in many ways I was home-schooled (August 2024).
I most enjoy meeting people in structured group activities and one-on-one conversations because establishing social order (feeling each other out) is outsourced to the structured setting.
I most enjoy the company of others when we experience emotional resonance, which may or may not be based on intellectual resonance (August, 2019)
I find it very difficult to forgive people I do not respect, but forgiveness does not have to mean I condone their actions.
I respect people who are trying the best they can and are self-aware around their circle of competence, laziness and hubris are both unbecoming (August, 2024)
On material and spiritual environment
Self-expression
The purpose of art is to change myself by calling new ideas into being (August, 2024)
There are areas of self-expression where I am merely a curator, happy to outsource the creation to others: this usually involves physical objects. This is an area where I am most prone to consumerism.
I see living my own life as the ultimate means of self-expression
Money
Money is an important means to remove constraints (especially on time) but not an end.
Money is the score — when you focus on the game, the score takes care of itself (August, 2024)
I should allocate money based on how much attention I want to be spending on watching my investment (August 2024)
Being wealthy is not a sin (strong wording...) but human nature (evolutionary morality) abhors inequality
Work
Being paid for my work is not the only but an important external validation of the value I contribute
The money one’s work creates is a key benchmark of one’s judgement (August, 2024)
However, I need to be mindful of the role of the value that I contribute
Am I creating new value or helping rent-seeking behaviour?
How is the value created distributed?
Everyone everywhere is managing a pipeline, of money, of people, of ideas. You are in my pipeline and I am also in yours. Sourcing, prioritisation, closing is the basic dance (November 2021)
There is a hierarchy of work, certain work is more high leverage because it lays out the destination and playing field for other forms of work, and I am always seeking to go further upstream (August 2024)
Community
I believe my unique vantage role is to connect otherwise unrelated currents (August, 2019)
I would like to know and love my community in specific, not my community in abstract (November 2021)
I gravitate toward communities of practice instead of communities of purpose (August 2024)
At the confluence
Intimacy
The most impactful sharing of vulnerabilities occurs in real-time: acknowledging the possibility of being wrong in the present conversation, as opposed to some ancient mistake (August, 2019)
Early crystallisation in a relationship prevents us from seeing the partner as they truly are, a type of mauvaise foi, thus it should be avoided
Attraction: balance of the familiar and the unknown
Sense of power is experienced as a substitute for connection for some, it is a dangerous trade-off (November 2021)
Purpose and transcendence
Purposes are a special type of belief that anchors the self-narrative, helpful construct but beware when it gets out of hand
A person always comes before an idea
Personality theory and astrology are frameworks that attempt to describe different archetypes of self-narratives
The most personal is the most universal
Impact
The impact of our actions is rarely the ones that we have planned
It is futile and a waste of energy to worry about the realm over which we have no control
The type of impact I care about most is in the quality of relationships around me
Learning
Learning can occur within the same decision-making rule set or on the rule set
Single loop learning does not question method or goal
Double loop learning may involve changing the problem statement
In the process of learning we deconstruct the assumptions which have assisted us thus far, the whole thing is comparable to bootstrapping
There is a difference between intellectual understanding and embodied understanding
Life is a succession of lessons which must be lived to be understood
But, be careful with overfitting theory to experience! (August, 2019)
Influenced by ...
Concepts
Unconditional positive regard
Live players
The Antilibrary
Negative capability
Books
2006: 莲花
2007: Oblivion
2009: The Adolescent Diaries of Karen Horney; The Second Sex
2010: The Unbearable Lightness of Being
2011: I am a Strange Loop; Escape from Evil
2012: Paris Stories, Games People Play
2013: The Evolving Self; Sex, Ecology, Spirituality
2016: Homo Deus, Sapiens
2018: The Patterning Instinct
2021: The Effective Executive
2022: Power
2023: Consolations, Good Strategy Bad Strategy
2024: The Science of Storytelling, The Fifth Discipline
Quotations
"True listening, total concentration on the other, is always a manifestation of love."
“The curious paradox is that when I accept myself just as I am, then I can change.” ― Carl R. Rogers
"God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference." ― Reinhold Niebuhr
Inspirational Lives
People whose lives or work inspire me in mine.
Simone de Beauvoir
Eileen Chang
Italo Calvino
Mavis Gallant
Yuval Noah Harari
Karen Horney
Milan Kundera
Anais Nin
David Foster Wallace
庆山
Josh Waitzkin