glucolte

/principles

I am starting to realize how important it is to have principles to anchor decisions. This page is my attempt to write them down — not as achievements, but as goals to build toward. They are simple, sometimes hard to follow, but I hope keeping them visible will keep me honest.

1. Clarity Wins

Clarity in thinking, communication, and planning removes friction. Writing things down sharpens ideas and prevents confusion. Structure and documentation turn chaos into direction, enabling better collaboration and more effective problem-solving.

2. Design the Path Before Walking It

Without structure, priorities scatter and energy leaks. Planning provides direction, creates guardrails, and prevents you from running in circles. A clear plan doesn’t remove uncertainty, but it ensures every step builds toward something larger.

3. Inputs Over Outcomes

Focus energy on actions that are within personal control—such as consistent learning, deliberate practice, and outreach—rather than on outcomes that depend on external factors like promotions, politics, or recognition. Mastering inputs ensures progress even when results are uncertain.

Even when you’re taken off something you deeply cared about, focus on what’s still in your control: learning, building, and improving your craft. Projects may come and go, but skill and discipline remain.

4. Protect Energy

Energy is the foundation of productivity. Without health, sleep, and rest, skills and opportunities cannot be fully leveraged. Protecting physical, mental, and emotional energy is not optional—it is the base upon which sustainable performance is built.

5. Bias for Creation

Progress comes from building, shipping, and putting ideas into the world. A rough but real result today beats a perfect plan tomorrow. Execution creates feedback, feedback drives learning, and learning refines direction.

6. The Power of Compounding

Small, steady efforts—whether learning a new skill, improving a habit, or building relationships—accumulate into significant impact over time. Momentum grows not from intensity in bursts but from consistency across months and years.

7. Relationships as Leverage

Career growth is multiplied through people. Trust, reputation, and generosity compound like skills. Building authentic relationships provides opportunities, accelerates learning, and creates resilience during setbacks.

8. Gratitude Grounds Ambition

No one climbs alone. Appreciate those who help you—through mentorship, collaboration, or simple kindness. Say thank you, be polite, and acknowledge effort. Gratitude keeps ambition grounded and turns colleagues into allies.

9. Align Personal Growth with Shared Goals

Seek opportunities where your own growth and the company’s success overlap. Every project has trade-offs: ask what you gain, what the team gains, and how both can align. Sustainable careers are built when personal ambition and organizational goals move in the same direction.

10. Work on the System, Not Just in It

Execution delivers results, but systems make results repeatable. Always seek to improve workflows, tools, and habits. Invest in better ways of working, not just in completing tasks.

11. Seek Many Voices, Not Just One

No single mentor has all the answers. Surround yourself with multiple perspectives—mentors, peers, and advisors across different domains. Ask for advice, compare viewpoints, and develop judgment by synthesizing diverse inputs. Networking is not opportunistic—it is a discipline of curiosity, generosity, and dialogue.

12. Presence Defines Value

Time itself cannot be wasted — every moment passes either way. What gives it value is how fully you inhabit it.

Be immersed in what you do: focus, use your best capabilities, and let each moment be an opportunity to learn or grow. Whether it’s work, rest, or play, it matters if you’re truly there for it.

The true waste is not in the activity itself, but in half-living it — doing one thing while wishing you were elsewhere, distracted, or regretting.

13. Responsibility Anchors Freedom

One has to decide they must do something. Without that decision, freedom drifts into suffering. Responsibility is not just imposed from outside — it is chosen. To pursue any ideal — family, wealth, or a simple, carefree life — you must accept the responsibilities that sustain it.

The wrong responsibilities crush, but the right ones give life weight and direction. Decide what you will carry, and let it anchor the life you want to build.

From Principles to Practice

Principles provide direction, but they are still broad. In difficult moments, choices are rarely between “good and bad,” but between two paths that both feel uncertain.

One of the voices I return to often is Kazuo Inamori, a Japanese entrepreneur and philosopher. He expressed this tension through a set of paradoxical maxims — reminders that clarity often comes from choosing the harder, more disciplined option:

愛するか愛さないかで迷ったら、愛さない方を選べ。
行くか行かないかで迷ったら、行く方を選べ。
買うか買わないかで迷ったら、買わない方を選べ。
言うか言わないかで迷ったら、言わない方を選べ。
与えるか与えないかで迷ったら、与える方を選べ。
食べるか食べないかで迷ったら、食べない方を選べ。
やるかやらないかで迷ったら、やる方を選べ。
— 稲盛和夫

Translated:

💡 These aren’t rules for comfort — they are rules for clarity. They turn broad principles into concrete pivots for decision-making.

For everyday, specific habits (like “Don’t open Slack after hours”), see rules.