Beyond Order: 12 More Rules For Life

These notes are old and were written while reading — they don’t necessarily reflect my current views.

One of his main concepts is the balance between order and chaos, with this book he tries to make the case for chaos, as the last book focused on order.

Rule one states that social institutions are necessary but insufficient. He recaps a couple of arguments why a functioning hierarchy is desirable and then goes on to describe that rules should only be obeyed if they are not conflicting with a higher moral principle. If they do, you are competent to point that our, you should.

Rule 2: Imagine who you could be and then aim single-mindedly at that. In order to make progress, you need to face your fears and step into the unknown. In this rule he highlights the importance of active will to shape your environment

Rule 3: Do not hide unwanted things in the fog. When things makes you feel uncomfortable, you can and should change them. It is not productive to avoid conflicts when it is an issue that annoys you.

Rule 4: Notice that opportunity lurks where responsibility has been abdicated. He again states that you should start with small productive things that you can do and that will be appreciated. This is the easiest way to work yourself up. Strive higher. Difficult is necessary. It’s not fun if you can do anything and there are no stakes. One should always push yourself. Don’t be scared to aim high in fear of failure.

Rule 5: Do not do what you hate. If something seem absolutely immoral to you, stand up to it. No not blindly accept what is told to you.

Rule 6: Abandon Ideology. He again attacks ideology (especially on the left). He grants them that part of the theories of the ideology might explain some phenomena, but making it a priori true is the problem. Think for yourself.

Rule 7: Work as hard as you can on one thing and see what happens next. He goes on about the commandments and that the highest of laws is to love the one god.

Rule 8: Make one room as beautiful as possible. This continues the clean up your room advice from the first book. The point here is that you not just need your environment to be ordered, but also that when that order is achieved, you need to reorder it in a better way. Peterson places a great importance on artists and their ability to push society forward. I really liked his way of describing how painters toughed society to see in new beautiful ways.

Rule 9: If old memories still upset you, write them down carefully and completely. Memories are always formed contextually. This means that if they were formed a long time ago it is often good to reframe them from your current perspective, in order to make them applicable to your current self.

Rule 10: Plan and work diligently to maintain the romance in your life. Romance and active commitment to it are very important for a happy life. He makes the case for monogamy and marriage as desirable life situations.

Rule 11: do not allow yourself to become resentful deceitful or arrogant. There is the previous described balance we need to strike between chaos and order. As described in Maps of meaning, this not only omnipresent in society but also in cultural representation. Even when life is hard, try not to become resentful, as it is much more constructive to face your issues instead of playing the victim. Deceit can be trough omission, this means we just don’t do things we know that would probably be right. The real long-term consequences of deceit don’t justify the behaviour.

Rule 12: Be grateful in spite of your suffering. It’s very similar to the last rule, but still very productive to read.