Rule #0: Have rules

Rule 0: Make your own rules for life

"Everyone needs a code they can live by" - Shannon Gibbs

Why do vegeterians never eat meat? Why not just most of the time? Humans have a very complex set of values. Besides vegeterianism, they probably also value energy, money, social status, and novelty. Wouldn't the best decision always be an ad hoc situational analysis? Maybe the ideal balance of your values means only eating meat on nonrecurring special occassions or at this specific KBBQ place in LA. But despite being suboptimal in a specific situation, never doing something as a rule, habit, and default mode of being can be the best decision longterm.

Rules are easy. Easy to remember, understand, explain, and do. Instead of constantly making the decision to work out or never lie, you can just make one. One rule that becomes a cached thought, an answer always at the ready. Constantly making ad hoc decisions is costly effort biased towards short term concerns. Quick judgements can erode boundaries you should have had and the person you wanted to be. A good rule offers 90% of the benefit of ad hoc decisions while being easy to maintain and thus more practically effective. And there are better ways to spend your time then researching supply chains and reweighing animal consciousness outside a Wendy's.

Rules create clear boundaries. You can quickly recognize when lines are crossed and fierce rationalization won't change that. And given enough time, following the rules becomes the default and people rarely change the default. You forget how to lie or the taste of meat and your mind flinches from the thought. And your natural fear beyond your comfort zone becomes another benefical barrier maintaining a good rule for the future.

"All moral rules must be tested by examining whether they tend to realize ends that we desire." - Bertrand Russell