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Famous lists · No. 3

Rutger Bregman wrote a whole book about humankind. Then he turned it into a list.

In Humankind, Bregman spends hundreds of pages asking whether people are good at heart. His answer: mostly, yes. Right at the end, he sums it all up in ten rules to live by. No groceries, no deadlines. Just the hardest list there is to tick off.

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The original

Ten rules to live by

  1. When in doubt, assume the best
  2. Think in win-win scenarios
  3. Ask more questions
  4. Temper your empathy, train your compassion
  5. Try to understand the other, even if you don't get where they're coming from
  6. Love your own as others love their own
  7. Avoid the news
  8. Don't punch Nazis
  9. Come out of the closet: don't be ashamed to do good
  10. Be realistic
Humankind, epilogue

From Humankind (2020). The Dutch original, De meeste mensen deugen, came out in 2019.

As a list in Stipp

Ten rules to live by Life
When in doubt, assume the best
Even with the colleague who hasn't replied in three days.
Think in win-win scenarios
Ask more questions
Good idea. Why, though?
Temper your empathy, train your compassion
Try to understand the other, even if you don't get where they're coming from
Love your own as others love their own
Avoid the news
Ticked off at 7:42. Checked the headlines at 7:43 anyway.
Don't punch Nazis
He explains in the book why this one had to be on there. Managed it today, at least.
Come out of the closet: don't be ashamed to do good
Today
So go ahead and mention you called your grandma.
Be realistic
After nine idealistic rules. Nice ending.

Why this list is special

Bregman became world-famous overnight in 2019, when he told a room full of billionaires at the World Economic Forum in Davos that the conversation should simply be about taxes. The same year his book came out in Dutch as De meeste mensen deugen. It has since been translated into dozens of languages.

This list is different from Johnny Cash's or Elon Musk's. You're never done with it. You tick off “avoid the news” today and face the same choice tomorrow. It isn't really a to-do list. It's a list you read again every morning.

Rule ten

Be realistic.

The smartest rule is at the bottom. You'll never tick off all ten rules to live by, and you don't have to. Put them in a note in Stipp and only turn what works today into an action. Tomorrow you choose again. The note stays put.

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Sources: Rutger Bregman, De meeste mensen deugen (2019) and Humankind: A Hopeful History (2020); Scroll.in; NPR. The Stipp version and Stippy's comments are ours.

Stipp has nothing to do with Rutger Bregman or his publisher. We just like a good list.