kennethreitz.org/data/values.md

A Concise List of Personal Values

This is a concise list of my personal values. These values have evolved over years of personal growth, professional experience, and philosophical exploration—including insights gained from both human relationships and AI collaborations. I iterate on them, from time to time.

• Trust and verify. Adapted from Reagan's approach to nuclear treaties, this applies to code reviews, relationships, and any system where verification protects trust.
• As above, so below. The Hermetic principle suggesting patterns repeat at different scales—from code architecture to cosmic structures, from personal healing to societal change.
• Creativity is crafted from strife.
• Full, 180° turns are encouraged. Complete perspective changes can reveal new solutions. Sometimes the opposite approach is exactly what's needed.
• Communicate intent, always. Never stop.
• Life is not a race, but there's no speed limit either.
• Watch yourself closely and learn from your mistakes. Self-reflection and honest acknowledgment of errors—in code, relationships, and decision-making—accelerates genuine learning.
• Reality exists, regardless of your emotional support of it.
• There's a big difference between judgement and discernment. Judgment carries emotional charge and condemnation; discernment is clear-eyed evaluation without attachment to being right or wrong.
• Organize for peacefulness, love others, and craft meaningfulness — always.
• Negative atmospheres are toxic. Remove yourself from them.
• All things in the Universe are self–referential in Nature.
• Drink copious amounts of water—every day.
• Often, the best way to learn is to teach. Teaching forces you to understand concepts deeply enough to explain them clearly—whether in documentation, mentoring, or open source contributions.
• Everything is an expression of its opposite.
• Please be cordial, or please be on your way.
• Everything's going to be okay.
• Be gentle with yourself.
• Inspire. Stay inspired.

Attention is the only currency we have in life. Thanks for gifting me yours.