Of Modern Wisdoms, not Eternal No Brainers.

Any browse of a quotes dictionary for topics like kindness, honesty, wisdom, morality and positivity will always reveal a collection of, I think,  eight types of Principles Of Wisdom.


And any comparison of, who said what will show that these eight core POWs (or happy-ninja skills) are found in all the great belief systems of the world; often in uncannily similar senses.


Take one of the core suggestions/instructions, ABK. This is found in the great littérateurs time and time again:

  • The highest form of wisdom is kindness - The Talmud
  • Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a harder battle - Plato
  • In faith and hope the world will disagree, but all mankind's concern is charity - Alexander
  • Forget injuries, never forget kindnesses - Confucius
  • Love Your Enemies - Jesus
  • My religion is very simple. My religion is kindness.- Dalai Lama
  • Deeds of kindness are equal in weight to all the commandments - The Talmud
  • No act of kindness, no matter how small, is ever wasted - Aesop
  • What wisdom can you find that is greater than kindness? Rosseau
These are just some the Eternal No Brainers...

What I find is interesting is that pretty much all of the POWs are ENBs, that is to say, there are not many new principles of universality when it come to wise suggestions. So Far I can just think of three Modern No Brainers, these are:

  • Crocker's Law
  • To Two Minute Rule (from GTD)
  • Archive Or Delete
  • (There is a fourth, perhaps in the 80% Rule/Pareto Principle?)


I don't think it was that the ancients were necessarily much wiser than us, they just had a bit of a head start, and probably ate a healthier diet of seafood, olives, fruit and qworn which gave them special abilities to see the obvious:)


MMH! 
:)+:)=:):):)