Rules for the flighty-souled

[This post is labeled בבל, meaning it's especially experimental. See: בבל disclaimer]

  1. Never take your phone out while you're walking. Unless it's an emergency or you're going to take notes (but voice notes are preferable).  

  2. Never take your phone out while you're with someone. Ever. Unless you explicitly take a break from being together. If they take their phone out first, it's less bad, but still never do it.

  3. Never wear clothing with words or images. Especially not logos or branded symbols.

  4. Accept as little money as possible.

  5. Never be in photos, ever.

  6. When you're having a long-distance call, make it audio only, not video.

  7. Avoid being inside cars.

  8. Never go on a dating app.

  9. Don't go on Facebook, Twitter, or other similar networks.

  10. Never say the same thing twice.

  11. Never speak to more than three people at once. Preferably, never speak to more than one person at once.

  12. Never touch anyone unless you mutually have some type of love, or for logistical things like getting their attention or helping them up an energy gradient.

  13. Never trust anyone who is confident.

  14. Never trust anyone who is over 25.

  15. Never take on any kind of authority whatsoever, even if only implicitly. Especially not over a person.

  16. Never make a statement that has a high chance of being technically false.

  17. Never do anything with the intent of causing someone to have false beliefs.

  18. Never use personal connections to your advantage, or give someone else advantage because of personal connections, in a process that is supposed to track something objectively.

  19. Never let anyone read your notes.

  20. Never say the word "sorry".

  21. Never trust anyone who has a job or social role.

  22. Get out of the way on the street for old people and very young people, but not for people in between.

  23. If you respect someone too much, don't talk to them, especially not in person.

  24. Never dance where anyone might be able to see you. (Including yourself, in mirrors.) Dance however you like if alone. Exception: dances that are traditional and/or prescribe very stereotyped roles.

  25. Your phone should never ever make noise, unless it's a timed alarm, or you're expecting an emergency phone call or a phone call from a billionaire.

  26. Never be in a large group of people.

  27. Never read something because other people are reading it.

  28. No paying someone to cut your hair. Cut it yourself.

  29. No hiding stuff you're embarrassed about. You don't have to volunteer the info, and you can put an involved pre-amble, but no hiding it.

  30. No trying to make something look a certain way to a vague group of people.

  31. No selective shaving. You can shave to a certain length, but the length has to be uniform.

  32. If someone tries to recruit you to something, always say no.

  33. You can sometimes believe what people tell you, but if it affects any decision of yours that matters, you must assume that they are lying through their teeth in order to punish or exploit you.

  34. You can be self-deprecating, if it only involves you saying true things. But never trust anyone who therefore acts as though you're less worth working with compared to others who are less often truthfully self-deprecating.

  35. Never trust anyone who isn't married.

  36. Never read a book written in the past 50 years, unless it's a specialized technical book.

  37. Never treat someone differently from how you'd treat a fat 50-year-old man.

  38. Never have anyone who's relying on you.

  39. Never modify your body, e.g. with tattoos, piercings, botox, etc., unless for medical reasons.

  40. Never do something that irreversibly sabotages your future self's ability to change things.

  41. Never trust anyone who uses modality escape.

  42. Don't dress well.

  43. Never implicitly rely on anyone. Either stop the reliance, or make it explicit.

  44. Never say or write anything in a context where there's common knowledge that there's an audience that likes what you say or write.

  45. Don't talk to people who want you to think they know what you're trying to say.

  46. Never ignore anyone, in person.

  47. Never trust anyone who has ever ignored anyone, in person.

  48. Never participate in a ritual that didn't start as a non-ritual, or without knowing how it started as a non-ritual.

  49. Never go to school.

  50. If it's raining, you have to step outside.

  51. Never receive a gift.

  52. Never accept a favor.

  53. Never formally give a gift. If you give someone something, tell them you would have just thrown it away anyway.

  54. Never ever be the center of attention. If you're forced to be the center of attention, make it as short as possible, and don't behave in a way that is memorable but stereotyped. Either behave in a very generic way, or behave in a very confusing or surprising way, but not in between.

  55. Never accept a compliment from anyone who has any reason to be overly complimentary, e.g. they are unqualified to judge merit on the dimension of their compliment, or they want something from you, or they are trying to be nice or encouraging.

  56. Never give authority over yourself to anyone, even if only implicitly. If you've already done so, try to undo it, and stay away from them.

  57. Never use a photo of yourself as a profile picture.