I spent four years writing Choose Hard, Live Easy which is filled with over 70+ mental models. And throughout the entire process, one ominous warning from Aldous Huxley echoed in my head:
“There will be, in the next generation or so, a pharmacological method of making people love their servitude, and producing dictatorship without tears, so to speak, producing a kind of painless concentration camp for entire societies, so that people will in fact have their liberties taken away from them, but will rather enjoy it.”
Huxley was terrifyingly right. We are living in a society violently addicted to the scripted illusions of comfort–most of which are perfectly legal.
The “pharmacological method” Huxley warned us about? How exactly do you RSVP to this concentration camp of the living dead?
It happens when you Choose Easy.
And Hard is the antidote, one of the mental models that gives you your permanent exit visa from the camp.
The following 26 mental models are maxims you can carry with you for life. They are foundational pieces of wisdom you can use to make choosing hard, easier.
26 Mental Models – Maxims of Wisdom
1. THE MAXIM OF FREE
If the service is free, you are the product. You are paying with your attention, your data, and ultimately, your behavior.
2. THE MAXIM OF OUTRAGE
Outrage is a profitable industry. The news media doesn’t sell information; they sell your emotional reactions to advertisers. Tuning into the news is like strapping on an IV of anger- and anxiety-spiking cortisol.
3. THE MAXIM OF COMPLEXITY
Complexity is often a scam. Intentional confusion is an adverse mental model. Wall Street, legal systems, and bureaucracies intentionally overcomplicate things to justify their fees and keep you dependent on their “expertise.” Fan of the flat tax? The IRS and the entire accounting industry depend on the Maxim of Complexity to survive.
4. THE MAXIM OF BEHAVIOR
Ignore what someone says about who they are. Their actions will show you and always override words. Always believe the behavior. In Choose Hard, I mentioned a friend who loudly proclaimed his entrepreneurial success. Then at 2 AM, I saw him waiting tables at Denny’s, serving Grand Slam breakfasts. Behavior > Words.
5. THE MAXIM OF CHANGE
People don’t change until the pain of staying the same is worse than the pain of changing. Hitting “rock bottom” can compel a bounce… and that bounce is change.
6. THE MAXIM OF TIME
Wealth isn’t about money; it’s about time. The ultimate flex of wealth isn’t buying a Lamborghini, it’s owning every moment of your day. Free time over indentured time. If that Lambo steals free time and creates indentured time, it’s a bad choice. Do you own your day? Or does your house? Cars? Your job? You can always make more money, but you can’t make another minute. Treating time like an infinite resource is the ultimate human travesty.
7. THE MAXIM OF FUTURE YOU
One of the mental models you must lock in for life: “Future You” must pay for the sins of “Past You.” Future You is not nebulous, but a reality you will endure and suffer, or enjoy and savor. Make decisions that “Future You” will thank “Present You” for.
8. THE MAXIM OF DEBT
Debt is a time machine that steals options from “Future You” to pay for your present self’s impatience. Debt doesn’t just borrow money from a bank; it borrows time from “Future You.”
9. THE MAXIM OF EXECUTION
The market rewards Acting, Assessing, and Adjusting, or the 3As, as featured in my books. Swimming for 1 hour beats reading 10 books on swimming. Execution is king. Reading another book is EASY. Executing that book? HARD.
10. THE MAXIM OF PRICE
Price is what you pay, value is what you get. When value exceeds price, it drives revenue and hiring. When price exceeds value, you get employee turnover, customer churn, and exits.
11. THE MAXIM OF MOTIVATION
Personal growth is not a function of motivation, but discipline. Motivation is unreliable and waits to “feel” like doing it. Discipline does it regardless of the feeling, knowing it is an investment in “Future You.”
12. THE MAXIM OF THE SAVIOR
No one is coming to save you. Life is a gift, but the cavalry isn’t coming to gift you your best life. If you want a different outcome and a different life, you need to make different choices. Hope is not a plan.
13. THE MAXIM OF “SOMEDAY”
Someday means never. “Someday” is a disease that pacifies your dreams until the grave is closer than the dream. The rest is history.
14. THE MAXIM OF OPEN DOORS
Of all mental models, the most obscure. Every person in your inner circle is a new, open door to opportunity or ruin. Choose your social circle as if your life depends on it, because your trajectory does. What kind of new door is opening with this new friend? What doors in your family or social sphere do you refuse to close?
15. THE MAXIM OF COMFORT
Comfort is a cozy coffin. Choosing EASY guarantees a persistent HARD reality tomorrow.
16. THE MAXIM OF FAILURE
Failure isn’t a funeral; it’s a critical part of the feedback loop. It’s the hidden step in between the ASSESS and the ADJUST. Treating a failure like a permanent death sentence is the fastest way to bench yourself in the game of life.
17. THE MAXIM OF HISTORY
History generally repeats itself because history is a function of human behavior. And human behavior is generally predictable, like the predictability of the human mind to seek comfort and efficiency.
18. THE MAXIM OF CONVENTION
Of all mental models, the most counterintuitive. If you want to live a conventional life, follow conventional wisdom.
19. THE MAXIM OF HAPPINESS
Happiness is a choice, often caused by recognizing what you have (gratitude) while misery is about what you don’t have.
20. THE MAXIM OF MARKETING
When it comes to marketing and attracting attention, what works today rarely works tomorrow. This field is so dynamic that most books on the subject are outdated the moment they get to print. What persists, however, is the basic human behavior of self-interest, or “what’s in it for me?”
21. THE MAXIM OF LEGALITY
Just because something is “illegal” doesn’t mean it is wrong. Just because something is “legal” doesn’t mean it is right.
22. THE MAXIM OF TRADITION
Tradition imbues lazy thinking. “It’s always been done this way” cancels critical thinking. What traditions have you accepted without deep critique or investigation?
23. THE MAXIM OF THOUGHT
Your life is directly correlated to your thoughts, which then become choices. If you want to change your life, change your thoughts, as those will change your choices.
24. THE MAXIM OF ENDURANCE
Time ultimately reveals the truth. Wait long enough, and the truth will find its way into reality. This is why a 22-year-old longevity influencer who recommends bacon double cheeseburgers is a joke. The influencer doesn’t have to be accountable to the Maxim of Endurance and won’t be until he turns 60 or 70, assuming he even survives his own advice. Look at Nikola Tesla: he died penniless, ostracized, and dismissed as a raving madman by the elites of his era. Yet today, time has vindicated him as one of history’s greatest minds. The Maxim of Endurance always finds the truth.
25. THE MAXIM OF COMMAND
You are the CEO of your life. Act like it, and you’ll get paid like it. Act like the janitor, and you’ll get paid like a janitor. You choose how you command your life.
26. THE MAXIM OF CULTURE
Culture is not your friend, and prefers you broke, diseased, and wanting. Terence McKenna said it best: “Culture is not your friend. Culture is for other people’s convenience and the convenience of various institutions, churches, companies, tax collection schemes, and what have you. It is not your friend.”
Carry these Maxims with you throughout life, and the Hard Choice becomes easier.
Ignore them, and a concentration camp awaits.
MJ DeMarco
Want to discuss this topic? Visit the Fastlane Entrepreneur forum and chat about it! What mental models have served your life righteously?
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