The World's Best Book Summaries
In 12 Rules for Life, Jordan Peterson cites philosopher Nietzsche often. And no surprise – Nietzsche had plenty of guidance on how best to live your life. Here are Jordan Peterson’s 3 best quotes from Nietzsche.
12 Rules for Life is one of the bestselling books in recent times. Famous author Jordan Peterson lays out 12 simple rules on how to conduct your life. The key point: individual responsibility. Take responsibility for your own life. Don’t worry about other problems – fix your own first. If everyone did this, many society-level problems would be solved. Learn the key points of the 12 Rules for Life rule list, and get a summary of each of the 12 Rules below.
In 12 Rules for Life, Rule #12 is “Pet A Cat When You Encounter One On The Street.” What does Jordan Peterson even mean here? Like most of Jordan Peterson’s 12 rules, this is more of a metaphor for how to live life. In summary, life is tough. It hurts at times. This pain gives life meaning. Take time to enjoy the little pleasures in life. Pet a cat when you see one on the street. We’ll cover Rule 12 in Jordan Peterson’s 12 Rules for Life in much more detail.
In 12 Rules for Life, Rule #2 is “Treat Yourself Like Someone You Are Responsible for Helping.” What does this mean? Why would you not treat yourself like you’re helping yourself? Why do you treat other people better? This is what Jordan Peterson’s Rule 2 covers.
In 12 Rules for Life, Rule #9 is “Assume That The Person You Are Listening To Might Know Something You Don’t.” What does this mean? How should you behave so that you believe the other person knows something you don’t? In essence, Jordan Peterson’s Rule 9 instructs you to go into every conversation believing that you have something to learn. Let the other person talk. Don’t just spend your time waiting to respond – actually listen. We’ll cover 12 Rules for Life‘s Rule 9 in much more detail below.
In 12 Rules for Life, Rule #10 is “Be Precise In Your Speech.” What does this mean? In summary, Jordan Peterson’s Rule 10 instructs you to define problems exactly. Don’t just leave a problem as a vague, diffuse issue. This will keep you irritated and anxious. Instead, put your problem into specific words. Give form to your problem – only then will you be able to deal with it. Below, we’ll cover in much more detail Rule 10 in Jordan Peterson’s 12 Rules for Life.
In 12 Rules for Life, Rule #4 is “Compare Yourself To Who You Were Yesterday, Not To Who Someone Else Is Today.” What does this mean? Why is it so bad to compare yourself to other people? According to Jordan Peterson’s Rule 4, the only person you should compare yourself to is yourself. As long as you’re getting better day by day, then you should be happy with yourself. Learn more about Rule 4 below.
Life is full of expectations, ones we have for ourselves and ones other people have for us. How do you respond to expectations? Do you fulfill them, or resist them? When, and why?
Gretchen Rubin has developed The Four Tendencies, a simple yet powerful personality test based on expectations. What are the Four Tendencies? What does it mean to be each tendency? We’ll explain it all here.
Is the world really getting worse? Are things really as bad as they seem? The negativity bias makes us think so. But what is the negativity bias? And how do you overcome it? Find the definition of negativity bias, with plenty of examples and statistics, here.
What is the Questioner tendency from Gretchen Rubin’s Four Tendencies like? How do they behave, and what’s the Questioner Personality? Learn more about Questioners here.