Mind and feeling
Benjamin Franklin
Thirteen virtues, compounded
Benjamin Franklin (1706–1790 · Boston and Philadelphia) — Thirteen virtues, compounded.
What actually happened?
He had an opponent in the Pennsylvania Assembly, a man of standing whom he had no realistic way of winning over directly. Hearing that the man owned a scarce and curious book, Franklin wrote asking to borrow it for a few days. It came at once. He returned it a week later with a warm note. At their next meeting in the House the man spoke to him — which he had never done — and with great civility, and they were friends for the rest of his life. Franklin's own summary: he that has once done you a kindness will be more ready to do you another than he whom you yourself have obliged. Asking for a small favour is not taking on a debt. It hands the other person evidence that he likes you.
The thirteen-virtue operating system
Temperance, silence, order, resolution, frugality, industry, sincerity, justice, moderation, cleanliness, tranquillity, chastity, humility. The list is not the point; the execution is. One virtue a week, a small book with a page each, a mark against every breach, thirteen weeks to a course and four courses a year. He kept at it for fifty years — the earliest habit tracker there is, turning character into an engineering problem with iterations.
Zeng Guofan's daily disciplines are startlingly similar. Two of the most self-managed men in either hemisphere independently invented one method: record daily, work one point at a time, iterate for life.
Appeal to interest, not to reason
He worked from interest rather than from argument. People are rarely moved by being shown the reasoning; they are moved by what a thing costs and pays them. Persuading the colonies to unite, persuading France into the war, he did not plead the higher cause. He totalled up the other side's account.
Selling, raising money and getting another department to help are all the same operation: translate what I need you to do into what you get out of it.
Compounding, applied to a life
Money is of a prolific generating nature. Money can beget money, and its offspring can beget more. He was the earliest to carry compounding out of finance and into everything else — knowledge, credit, relationships, habits all obey the same law. His will left a thousand pounds each to Boston and Philadelphia on condition that it sit for two hundred years. It came out in the millions.
Naval Ravikant's case for compounding wealth and judgement together traces straight back to this.
The Junto
At twenty-one he organised twelve men into the Leather Apron Club, meeting Friday evenings to discuss morals, politics and science, and introducing each other to business. That small group went on to produce America's first subscription library, its first volunteer fire company, and the academy that became the University of Pennsylvania. Do not grind away alone. Organise the capable people and you become the node.
A standing group of a dozen people who meet on a fixed evening will out-produce any amount of individual networking, because the meeting happens whether or not anyone feels like it.
How do I use it today?
Turn self-improvement from resolve into a system. Pick one behaviour for this week, mark every day, and change one thing at a time. Build relationships by asking for small favours rather than agonising over what gift to send. And when you state a view, swap it is certainly for I am inclined to think — it costs nothing and halves the resistance.
Deep read
Read alongside
Further
Lines to keep
Never leave that till tomorrow which you can do today.
It is hard for an empty bag to stand upright.
Well done is better than well said.