Tomorrow is a new

day.

What if you really

believed it?

We all love the idea of

fresh starts and

second acts, but

people rarely do it.

Ok, so let's get warmed up with

some aphorisms

Every man should

be born again on the

first day of January.

Start with a fresh

page. Henry Ward Beecher

Failure is the

opportunity to begin

again more

intelligently. Henry Ford

So long as you

have courage

and a sense of

humor, it is

never too late to

start life afresh.

Freeman Dyson

Man starts over again

everyday, in spite of all

he knows, against all he

knows. Emil Corian

Once you're done you can

throw it away

The Cult of Done Manifesto

1. There are three states of being. Not knowing, action and completion.

2. Accept that everything is a draft. It helps to get it done.

3. There is no editing stage.

4. Pretending you know what you're doing is almost the same as knowing

what you are doing, so just accept that you know what you're doing

even if you don't and do it.

5. Banish procrastination. If you wait more than a week to get an idea

done, abandon it.

6. The point of being done is not to finish but to get other things done.

7. Once you're done you can throw it away. 8. Laugh at perfection. It's boring and keeps you from being done.

9. People without dirty hands are wrong. Doing something makes you

right.

10. Failure counts as done. So do mistakes.

11. Destruction is a variant of done.

12. If you have an idea and publish it on the internet, that counts as a

ghost of done.

13. Done is the engine of more.

Do what you can,

with what you have,

where you are.

Theodore Roosevelt

Two things led me to think about

starting fresh

1.Psychology research on self-compassion

1.Mind-uploading science fiction

Self-compassion sounds like a lame

idea but is actually important

Everyone understands self-esteem

Few understand self-compassion

• How much do I like myself?

• How worthy am I?

• How unique and special am I?

Be compassionate to yourself

because all people deserve

compassion

Self Compassion

• Be kind to yourself

o Be understanding

o Perspective

• Recognize common humanity

o Acknowledge failings

o You can't always get what you want

o Perspective

• Be mindful

o Don't suppress or exaggerate

o Perspective

What self compassion is not about

Slide shamelessly stolen from Kristin Neff

Compassion != Pity / Indulgence

These emotions are self-centered and involve

isolating yourself.

This is the human experience, others are

experiencing the same thing. Step back and

have perspective.

Self-Esteem vs Self-Compassion

Low self-esteem is bad,

but...optimizing for self-esteem can

be dicey too

o Anger and aggression

o Lying/hiding/distorting

o Avoiding thinking about

shortcomings

Self-compassion is Actually Hard

Ruminate over mistakes

OR

Avoid facing them

I am naturally better at being compassionate to

other people

So I Have Tried A Different

Approach

Think of the things I did in the past as

being done by someone else

The Rapture for Nerds -

Mind Uploading

Futuristic tech is not the topic,

but it could have been...

What if you could:

1. Save the state of your mind

1. Die

1. Boot your mind into some new hardware

Sleep, those little slices

of death — how I loathe

them.

Edgar Allan Poe

Sleep

1. Go to sleep

(brain maintains state)

1. Lose consciousness

(feels like death to Poe)

1. Wake up in different hardware

(slightly older)

Sleep, those little slices

of death — how I LOVE

them.

Jesse Snow Alexander Bridgewater

Every Morning I Try to Start Life

Again

•

• I can be critical of past actions without

getting discouraged

• Avoid getting stuck in fights and

disagreements

• Reassess what I want, not what yesterday's

me wanted

This Motivates Me

v14400 was a different person.

Compassion for v14400's mistakes

Look closely and do things the way I want to

v14400 had his time, it's my time now

Once you're done you can throw it away

14,401 Lives / Uploads So Far

I try not to take my past or future too

personally.

Past successes were great

I am the heir to that wealth (Thanks v60xx for deciding to study physics and computer science.)

Someone else made those embarrassing

mistakes and failures. Keep going.

How to spend my next 14000 lives

Do what I can,

with what I have,

where I am.