What can we all agree on? (with Bradley Tusk)

1. Maximize Productivity Formula

Apply Spencer’s productivity formula (hours x efficiency x value) to understand that simply working more hours is not the primary driver of increased output; focus on improving efficiency and the value of tasks instead.

2. Boost Work Efficiency

Improve your efficiency by preparing your environment, turning off notifications, dedicating time for deep work, and mastering the tools relevant to your tasks. This ensures you get more done per hour.

3. Align Tasks with Value

Maximize the ‘value’ factor in your productivity by deeply considering how each task contributes to your long-term objectives and what you intrinsically care about. This ensures your efforts are directed towards what truly matters.

4. Embrace Valuism Philosophy

Identify your intrinsic values—the things you fundamentally care about for their own sake—and then take effective actions to produce more of what you intrinsically value in your life.

5. Choose “Glad You Did” Activities

Replace ordinary, less fulfilling activities (like endless social media scrolling) with alternatives that satisfy the same underlying need for relaxation but leave you feeling glad in retrospect. This enhances long-term satisfaction from leisure time.

6. Find Doubly Rewarding Activities

Seek out activities that are both enjoyable in the moment and provide long-term benefits, such as finding a form of exercise you love. This makes the activity rewarding during and after completion, improving overall well-being.

7. Develop Life Principles

Formulate fundamental rules or principles to guide your decision-making, especially for difficult choices. This helps simplify complex decisions and ensures they align with your core values.

8. Understand Cognitive Biases

Learn to recognize when your gut instincts or intuition might lead you astray, as people are often overconfident in their predictions. This allows for more critical thinking and better judgment in important situations.

9. Counter Planning Fallacy

Be aware of the planning fallacy, where people consistently underestimate the time required for complex projects. Employ corrective strategies to make more accurate estimates, especially when accuracy is crucial.

10. Use Neutral Language in Discourse

When discussing political or social issues, consciously avoid terminology that signals allegiance to one side or the other. This approach helps remove polarization and can reveal broad consensus on many topics.

11. Advocate for AI Transparency

Support policies that mandate disclosure when content is produced entirely by AI and require large AI companies to provide tools for educators to detect AI-generated content. This addresses public concerns about authenticity and academic integrity.

12. Demand Consumer Protection

Advocate for policies that enhance consumer protection, such as requiring medicine side effect frequencies, allowing online cancellation of online purchases, and banning unsolicited calls from companies you haven’t done business with.

13. Support Political System Reforms

Back reforms like banning legislator stock trading, outlawing gerrymandering, implementing age limits for political office (e.g., 80 years old), and providing universal school meals. These measures aim to improve fairness and address public priorities.

14. Champion Mobile Voting Security

When advocating for mobile voting, emphasize robust security measures like biometric screening, multi-factor authentication, and end-to-end encryption. This addresses conservative concerns about election integrity while increasing accessibility.

15. Rigorously Test Policy Proposals

When developing new policies, stress test them by presenting both the pros and cons to the public. This helps confirm stable and robust support and prepares for potential counter-arguments in the public sphere.