If you've ever had to live through some shit, principles are born as a way to stay alive when shit hits the fan. They aren't simple rules of thumb for the people who live them.
Heh, the ones that sound good are the ones that people spent time refining and proving to themselves. For example, the one I primarily live by is “Do whatever you want as long as you are willing to pay the price and deal with the consequences.” It’s quite nuanced, in reality, because there are always unforeseen consequences in any action, and there may also be hidden costs.
This principle is a bit weird to frame some kinds of decisions around, it ignores that fact that inaction also has a cost and consequence, and ignores the fact that there are unknown unknowns.
That’s why to anyone else, it is simply a “rule of thumb” because internally, there are simply certain kinds of decisions this doesn’t make any sense for and there are two other principles that come into play.
We all eventually come up with our own “truth” and principles to live by. Eventually. I think it’s just a product of getting older and especially going through things largely outside of your control.
Good points. The reason I equated "Rule of Thu8mn" with "Principle" is that neither is always correct. They are abstractions that cannot list all possible details, therefore they apply in many or most situations but not all.
People say they "live by their principles" but I don't think that always is the case for them, in every situation anyway.
Rule-of-Thumb comes from electro-magnetism I believe and it's point is it makes something more complicated easy to remember.
