rules

Niven’s Laws

1.a. Never throw shit at an armed man.
1.b. Never stand next to someone who is throwing shit at an armed man.
2. Never fire a laser at a mirror.
3. Mother Nature doesn’t care if you’re having fun.
4. F × S = k. The product of Freedom and Security is a constant. To gain more freedom of thought and/or action, you must give up some security, and vice versa.
5. Psi and/or magical powers, if real, are nearly useless.
6. It is easier to destroy than create.
7. Any damn fool can predict the past.
8. History never repeats itself.
9. Ethics change with technology.
10. There ain’t no justice.
11. Anarchy is the least stable of social structures. It falls apart at a touch.
12. There is a time and place for tact. And there are times when tact is entirely misplaced.
13. The ways of being human are bounded but infinite.
14. The world’s dullest subjects, in order:
a. Somebody else’s diet.
b. How to make money for a worthy cause.
c. Special Interest Liberation.
15. The only universal message in science fiction: There exist minds that think as well as you do, but differently. (Niven’s corollary: The gene-tampered turkey you’re talking to isn’t necessarily one of them.)
16. Never waste calories (i.e., don’t eat food just because it’s available, or cheap; only eat food you’ll enjoy, because you have to limit overall calorie intake).
17. There is no cause so right that one cannot find a fool following it.
18. No technique works if it isn’t used.
19. Not responsible for advice not taken.
20. Old age is not for sissies.

Everything we know in aviation, every rule in the rule book, every procedure we have, we know because someone somewhere died.

Never reply when you’re angry. Never make a promise when you’re happy. Never make a decision when you’re sad.

Maxims of George Washington

• It is better to offer no excuse than a bad one.
• The most liberal professions of good will are very far from being the surest marks of it.
• Good company will always be found less expensive than bad.
• By acting reciprocally, heroes have made poets and poets heroes.
• When there is no reason for expressing an opinion, it is best to be silent.
• It is easy to make acquaintances but very difficult to shake them off.
• Too much zeal creates suspicion.
• Ridicule begets enmity not easy to be forgotten but easily avoided.
• Do not conceive that fine clothes make fine men any more than fine feathers make fine birds.
• Nothing is more useful for the formation of correct habits than the turning of our comments upon others, back upon ourselves.