Win the life game

concept · updated Jul 31, 2026

A compact set of life-operating principles I keep returning to. The unifying idea: the scarce resource is time, so bias hard toward meaning and toward acting now.

The three rules

Win the life game (Graham Weaver, life principles):

Play the game that stirs your blood — do what you love.
Play with people you admire — choose who you spend your life around.
Play the game now — the worst answer is “not now” (so when?).

These three are the external game. Weaver’s own later talk argues the external game is only half of it and that the half most people skip is the interior one — see win without crushing your soul.

Live on a clock

The 2-year rule (Angela Trimbur, cancer survivor): live like you only have two years left (life principles).
Memento mori as a tool (Jack Dorsey, source): think about death a few times a year as a prioritization instrument — “I have one hour; is this how I’m going to use it?” The ultimate clarifier.
No one on their deathbed says “I wish I’d worked more.” Recurs across advice to my younger self and the work-life-balance reading.
“The point of the flight is just the flight” (Graham Weaver): the point of being a young parent was never to move the kids up a grade, and the point of the flight was never to reach Detroit. The corollary to playing now is noticing you’re already in the good old days.

Advice worth compounding

From advice to my younger self:

Get an audience about anything you care about (blog, YouTube, Twitter).
Build side projects — they don’t have to be technical.
Make real friends and keep them; surround yourself with people you admire; cut toxic people; don’t be a dick.
Don’t work for people you don’t like, and don’t do it only for money.
Pick a sport you’ll still enjoy in decades; avoid sugar; sunscreen daily.
Experiences over savings from 18–35; invest the leftover in index funds (see building wealth).

Every one of those is a compounding bet — the theme of luck & compounding.

Change the paradigm, not just the behavior

Minor change comes from tweaking attitudes and habits; quantum change requires reworking the underlying paradigm — how you see the situation (Stephen Covey, 7 Habits). And “when we describe what we see, we describe ourselves.”

Win without crushing your soul · What makes us happy · Fit over passion · Luck & compounding · How much is enough

Citations

tags: principles purpose life