10 Commandments of a Narrow-Minded Life

Greetings, seekers of an intolerant life! You’ve come to the right place if you’re looking for a life devoid of learning, growth, and personal development. This guide offers you 10 Commandments that guarantee a blissfully narrow-minded existence. Embrace these steps, and you’ll become a shining example of intolerance in no time!

Commandment 1: Defend Your Ego at All Costs

When someone criticises you, don’t just ignore them—go on the offensive! Attack their appearance, speech, or any other irrelevant aspect (⚔️). Ad Hominem, Eminem. Remember, the best defence is a good offence, especially when defending your ego.

Commandment 2: Abandon Intellectual Pursuits

📚 Historical books, philosophy, or any literature that’s withstood the test of time—forget about them. Replace those with mind-numbing television shows and sensational tabloids. You’ll never grow if you’re constantly exposed to unintellectual content.

Ignore the insights of the past. History doesn’t rhyme, and it certainly doesn’t offer any guidance for the present. Forge ahead, unencumbered by the wisdom of those who came before you.

Commandment 3: Revel in Sensationalism

Immerse yourself in the current news cycle, engage in heated debates, and devour clickbait headlines. WhatsApp should become your primary source of “knowledge.” Let the algorithms feed your confirmation bias while you sit back and enjoy the ride.

Commandment 4: Build Your Personal Echo Chamber

Unfollow accounts or people you disagree with, and surround yourself with like-minded individuals. There’s no need to expose yourself to diverse ideas or opinions—why bother with intellectual growth when you can remain comfortably stagnant?

When you encounter someone with a different opinion, engage in an endless argument on social media. Your time and energy are best spent convincing others of your infallibility, not learning from their perspective.

Commandment 5: Selectively Gather Evidence

Find research and articles that confirm your existing ideas, and disregard any evidence to the contrary (🧐). The challenge is for those who can’t handle the warm embrace of cognitive bias.

Commandment 6: Assert Dominance in Conversations

When others attempt to share their thoughts, talk over them. Focus on promoting your own ideas—after all, you are the foremost authority on everything, aren’t you? Authority bias and standing on the shoulders of intellectual giants is for irrational losers.

Commandment 7: Embrace Binary Thinking

View everything in black-and-white terms. If someone doesn’t fully support your ideologies, they must be your enemy. Nuance is for the weak-minded. A continuum of thoughts doesn’t exist. You are either left or right wing. For or against!

Commandment 8: Bask in Self-Assuredness

You don’t need to learn because you already know everything. Mistakes are for others; you’re simply incapable of being wrong.

Don’t waste time trying to understand others’ feelings or experiences. Your own perspective is the only one that matters.

Commandment 9: Exude Unfounded Confidence

Confidence is key, even when it’s unfounded. Steadfastly cling to your beliefs, regardless of evidence or reason.

It’s a shameful act to accept that you are wrong. Instead, stand your ground. Never doubt yourself.🫡

Commandment 10: Stay Secure in Your Comfort Zone

Stay within your comfort zone: New ideas and experiences are threatening. Remain in your safe, familiar bubble, where growth and change can’t reach you.

Preach these 10 Commandments to your friends. If you’re not growing, why should anyone else? Keep your friends and loved ones firmly entrenched in their narrow-minded ways.

The Path to Learning and Growth (For Fools)

As we reach the end of our journey and learn the 10 Commandments of a narrow-minded life, it is also critical to consider the concept of inversion, as explained by Charlie Munger in his famous 1986 speech delivered to Harvard School students¹.

Inversion is the practice of reversing a situation or problem to gain new insights and perspectives. Study how to create X by turning the question backwards, that is, by studying how to create non-X.

🧠 Instead of thinking about how you can achieve something, think about what would prevent you from achieving it. Charlie couldn’t tell the graduating class how to be happy, but he could tell them from personal experience how to guarantee misery.

As Charlie always says, “invert, always invert!”.

So, if you’ve come this far and for some reason, still wish to lead a life of learning and growth like a fool, here’s the 11th Commandment: Invert these 10 Commandments (💡).

Embrace learning, listening, curiosity, humility, and empathy. Build a toolkit of thinking tools. By doing so, you’ll embark on a path to self-improvement, fostering a mindset that’s open to new ideas and experiences. 😇

It’s counterintuitive that you go at the problem backward.

If you try and be smart, it’s difficult. If you just go around and identify all of the disasters and say, ‘What caused that?’ and try to avoid it, it turns out to be a very simple way to find opportunities and avoid troubles.
Charlie Munger

Celebrate Your Narrow-Minded Life

But, of course, that’s not what you’re here for, is it?

You’ve embarked on a journey to close your mind and live a life of intolerance. So, let us celebrate your unwavering commitment to stagnation with a fitting send-off: May you ascend to the pinnacle of ignorance, relishing each day of your narrow-minded life, basking in the glory of unenlightened bliss.

Footnotes:

1
Read the full speech transcript here.