30 Cheat Codes to Beat Every Level of Life

DDaniel Pink
경영/리더십결혼/가정생활정신 건강

스크립트

00:00:00Video games have cheat codes. Up, up, down, down, and suddenly you've got 30 extra lives.
00:00:05Well, after six decades on this planet, I've discovered that life has cheat codes too.
00:00:10It's just that nobody ever hands you the list. So, I made one.
00:00:15I've written seven books about human behavior, raised three children, stayed married for three decades,
00:00:20and made, conservatively, 10,000 mistakes.
00:00:24What survived are 30 cheat codes in five levels. How to decide, how to deal with people, how to get things done,
00:00:32how to work, and how to live. One might require avoiding your relatives, and the most important one, one glass.
00:00:39Let's start the game.
00:00:40Quick note before we start, I cover a lot in this video, so I put all 30 cheat codes on a single page
00:00:47that you can download for free. The link is below.
00:00:51Level one decisions. Code number one. Make your decisions using an ordinary Tuesday, not a fantasy Saturday.
00:00:59When you're choosing a house, a job, a city, any big thing, don't select it based on its best day.
00:01:05Hey, that house has an amazing entertainment space you'll use four times a year.
00:01:09That job comes with a glamorous conference in Lisbon.
00:01:12That sounds great, but what will the commute feel like on a Tuesday?
00:01:17What will you actually be doing on the job at 2.30 on a Tuesday afternoon?
00:01:22What will it feel like to cook in that kitchen on a regular Tuesday night?
00:01:27When I left working in the White House to work for myself, this was the standard I used.
00:01:32Sure, I'd give up a few days each year of extreme excitement, but 51 out of 52 Tuesdays would be better.
00:01:40Code two.
00:01:41For reversible decisions, decide fast.
00:01:43Don't spend three weeks agonizing over something you can undo in three minutes.
00:01:47Some decisions are one-way doors.
00:01:50Once you walk through, there's no easy return.
00:01:53Those deserve time and care.
00:01:55But most decisions are two-way doors.
00:01:58Take the class.
00:01:59Go on the date.
00:01:59Accept the brief gig.
00:02:00If it doesn't work, walk back through.
00:02:03Save your agonizing for decisions that actually deserve it.
00:02:07Number three.
00:02:08Ask, what would change my mind?
00:02:11If your answer is nothing, you're not thinking.
00:02:14You're defending.
00:02:15Before starting an important project, taking a new job, or moving to a new city, find one smart person who thinks it's a terrible idea.
00:02:23You don't have to obey them, but you do have to hear them.
00:02:26Number four.
00:02:27Before deciding what to do, ask what happens if you do nothing.
00:02:33Inaction itself is a decision, one with consequences.
00:02:36But some problems disappear when you stop feeding them.
00:02:39Some conflicts resolve themselves.
00:02:41Some opportunities become clearer with time.
00:02:44That's why, in certain situations, the best advice isn't, don't just stand there and do something.
00:02:49It's, don't just do something.
00:02:51Stand there.
00:02:52Number five.
00:02:52Make lots of small bets.
00:02:54Take risks whose upside could change your life and whose downside won't ruin it.
00:03:00Launch the side project.
00:03:01Submit the article.
00:03:02Check out the conference.
00:03:03Try the idea on a small scale.
00:03:05You don't always find the big thing through one heroic leap.
00:03:09Sometimes you find it through a portfolio of small experiments.
00:03:13Most of life is shots on goal.
00:03:16And number six, judge decisions by how you made them, not only by how they turned out.
00:03:22A smart decision can produce a bad result.
00:03:25A dumb decision can get lucky.
00:03:27So, don't let one good outcome convince you that your process was brilliant.
00:03:32And don't let one bad outcome convince you that your process was flawed.
00:03:36Ask, did I use the information available?
00:03:38Did I consider alternatives?
00:03:40And did I understand the risks?
00:03:42You don't control the universe, but you do control the decision.
00:03:45Level one, complete.
00:03:47Level two is about people.
00:03:49And it opens with the mistake I've made more than any other.
00:03:53Seven.
00:03:54Before solving someone's problem, ask what they want from you.
00:03:58Advice, help, or just company.
00:04:01Not every problem somebody tells you about is an invitation to solve it.
00:04:05Yeah, sometimes they want an answer.
00:04:07But many times, they just want to be heard.
00:04:12So, before going into superhero problem-solving mode, ask.
00:04:17Number eight, assume incompetence before malice.
00:04:21What looks like hostility is often distraction, disorganization, or somebody having a terrible day.
00:04:27Yeah, yeah, yeah.
00:04:28Some people are jerks with bad motives, no question.
00:04:31But the world contains fewer enemies and more overwhelmed people than we think.
00:04:35So, begin with the more generous explanation.
00:04:39You can always revise it if the evidence changes.
00:04:42Number nine, notice who asks you questions.
00:04:45Curiosity is an underrated diagnostic for friendship, for romance, for collaboration.
00:04:50So, pay attention to who is genuinely curious about you.
00:04:55And pay even closer attention to who never is.
00:04:58Number ten, don't keep score in relationships you want to keep.
00:05:04I called last time.
00:05:05I paid for dinner.
00:05:06I helped her move.
00:05:07He still hasn't thanked me.
00:05:08Careful.
00:05:09Generosity stops being generosity when you maintain a spreadsheet.
00:05:14Strong relationships become roughly reciprocal over time, but they aren't always equal in every moment.
00:05:21Number eleven, build an infrastructure for friendship.
00:05:25Hey, let's get together sometime.
00:05:27That's how people slowly disappear from your life.
00:05:30So, make recurring plans with people you care about.
00:05:33A monthly dinner, a Saturday morning walk, a standing phone call.
00:05:36I have a regular gathering with six good friends where we eat, drink, and offer one another advice.
00:05:41Without a recurring date, I suspect we'd see one another twice a year and spend half the evening saying,
00:05:48Hey, we should do this more often.
00:05:49And when you do want to see somebody, make a specific invitation.
00:05:54Let's have a beer Thursday at six beats, let's get together.
00:05:58One is a plan.
00:06:00The other is goodbye in slow motion.
00:06:03Number twelve, eliminate toxic people.
00:06:07If someone consistently diminishes you, damages you, or poisons your life, get rid of them.
00:06:14Unfortunately, this includes relatives.
00:06:17Shared DNA isn't a license to treat you poorly.
00:06:20Distance isn't always cruel.
00:06:22Sometimes distance is an act of wisdom.
00:06:26Okay, deep breath.
00:06:28Level three is lighter.
00:06:30It's about actually getting things done.
00:06:32Level three, productivity.
00:06:34Number thirteen, define done before you begin.
00:06:37Otherwise, every project quietly becomes an infinite undertaking.
00:06:41What will finished look like?
00:06:43Decide that first.
00:06:44And when you're near the end, close to the finish, take a page from Lorne Michaels, the creator of Saturday Night Live.
00:06:51He once said, we don't go on because we're ready.
00:06:55We go on because it's 11.30.
00:06:58So many times when I'm writing something or working on a speech or a video, I just say to myself, dude, it's 11.30.
00:07:05Number fourteen, make the first step embarrassingly small.
00:07:10Don't write the book.
00:07:12Write three sentences.
00:07:13Don't get in shape.
00:07:14Put your shoes by the door.
00:07:16Don't organize the house.
00:07:17Clean one drawer.
00:07:19The size of the first step and the odds of taking it are inversely related.
00:07:23Make the first move so small, you'd be embarrassed not to do it.
00:07:29Fifteen, let it be easy.
00:07:33Difficulty is not evidence of virtue.
00:07:36Use the rotisserie chicken.
00:07:38Listen to the audio book.
00:07:40Buy the pre-cut vegetables.
00:07:41Take the shortcut when the shortcut actually works.
00:07:44Somewhere along the way, we absorb the idea that if something isn't excruciatingly hard, it doesn't count.
00:07:51That's just self-inflicted pain with a superiority complex.
00:07:56Number sixteen, prepare tomorrow's first move tonight.
00:08:00Make starting so easy that your morning self, who, let's be honest, you cannot trust, has almost no decisions to make.
00:08:08Open the document.
00:08:09Set out the running clothes.
00:08:10Put the unpleasant task on your calendar with a day, a time, and a place.
00:08:14A few weeks ago, I scheduled clean my top dresser drawer for $2.30 on a Wednesday.
00:08:20And at half past two on that Wednesday, I opened that drawer and removed roughly 47 mismatched socks.
00:08:26I was very proud of myself.
00:08:27Willpower is usually unreliable.
00:08:30Appointments are usually unavoidable.
00:08:33Number seventeen, keep a waiting for list.
00:08:36I learned this one from David Allen's Getting Things Done.
00:08:38We're usually pretty good at tracking what we need to do, but we're much worse at tracking what other people owe us.
00:08:44The proposal somebody is reviewing.
00:08:46The document somebody promised to send.
00:08:48The answer you need before you can move forward.
00:08:51Write those things down in one place.
00:08:53Otherwise, your brain will keep trying to remember them, usually at three in the morning.
00:08:58Number eighteen, treat constant busyness as a warning, not a status symbol.
00:09:04When I ask someone, hey, how are you?
00:09:06And they answer, oh, I'm so busy.
00:09:08I become suspicious.
00:09:10Sometimes busyness means your life is full, but sometimes it means you're refusing to make choices.
00:09:15You're ignoring priorities, or you're just feeding your own ego.
00:09:19When everything feels urgent, stop adding, subtract, cancel something, decline something,
00:09:27leave some white space for a walk, a strange book, or an unexpected conversation,
00:09:31or just 15 minutes of staring out the window.
00:09:34Not every square on the calendar needs to produce something.
00:09:37Now, that's the machinery of getting things done, but most of us don't do it alone.
00:09:42Level four, work.
00:09:44Nineteen, send the recap email.
00:09:47After an important meeting, send a short note.
00:09:50Here's what we decided.
00:09:51Here's who is doing what.
00:09:53Here's when it's due.
00:09:54This helps everybody else.
00:09:56But it also helps you, because translating a conversation into writing forces you to understand
00:10:02what actually happened.
00:10:03Now, AI can help organize that note, but don't let it do all the thinking.
00:10:08The thinking is part of the benefit.
00:10:11Number twenty, make your boss's life easier.
00:10:15Here's a lesson from every workplace ever.
00:10:18Bosses divide employees into two categories.
00:10:21People who make my life harder, and people who make my life easier.
00:10:26Especially early in your career, make sure you're in the second category.
00:10:31Understand what your boss is trying to accomplish.
00:10:33Help her achieve her goals.
00:10:35Take useful things off her plate.
00:10:37That's how you become indispensable.
00:10:39Number twenty-one, ask for the deadline, then ask for the real deadline.
00:10:44When do you need this, and when will somebody actually use this?
00:10:48Those are two very different questions.
00:10:51One answer might be Friday.
00:10:53The other might be the board meeting three Thursdays from now.
00:10:57Deadlines matter.
00:10:59But fake deadlines create unnecessary work and unnecessary panic.
00:11:03And once you understand that, you'll get the work done at the right time, and, just as important, you won't inflict unnecessary deadlines on other people.
00:11:13Number twenty-two, lead with the request and bring a recommendation.
00:11:17Don't begin an email with seven paragraphs of throat clearing.
00:11:22Tell people what you need.
00:11:24And, if you're bringing somebody a problem, try to bring a proposed solution, too.
00:11:30Diagnosis is useful.
00:11:31Prescription is essential.
00:11:33Instead of, this isn't working, try, this isn't working, here's what I think is causing it, and here's what I recommend we do next.
00:11:41Number twenty-three, get good at something valuable that everybody else avoids.
00:11:46The spreadsheet nobody wants to own.
00:11:48The presentation nobody wants to give.
00:11:50The difficult conversation everybody keeps avoiding.
00:11:53Neglected skills have very little competition, because everyone is fighting for the glamorous territory.
00:11:59But the neglected territory is sitting there, undefended.
00:12:02And number twenty-four, for anybody who leads anybody, don't be the boss you had.
00:12:07Be the boss you should have had.
00:12:09Remember what your worst managers did, then do the opposite.
00:12:13Then remember what you desperately needed from them and never got.
00:12:16Whether that's clarity, encouragement, honest feedback or a second chance.
00:12:20Now, go provide that to somebody else.
00:12:23Level four, done.
00:12:24One level left.
00:12:26It's where all of this either adds up to a life or it doesn't.
00:12:30And the code I told you I saved for last is waiting for you at the end.
00:12:34Twenty-five, design your environment around your behavior.
00:12:38Store things where you use them, not where they're supposedly meant to go.
00:12:42Keep the medicine near the coffee maker if you take it with breakfast.
00:12:45Put the book on your pillow if you want to read before bed.
00:12:48And embrace strategic duplication.
00:12:51Two chargers.
00:12:52Two umbrellas.
00:12:53Six pairs of reading glasses.
00:12:55Redundancy beats self-discipline.
00:12:57Number twenty-six, spend money eliminating recurring misery before buying occasional pleasure.
00:13:04Fix the terrible mattress before booking the fancy weekend.
00:13:07Replace the shoes that hurt your feet.
00:13:09Buy the second monitor that makes every workday easier.
00:13:13Pay to remove regular annoyances.
00:13:15The weekend in Antigua lasts three days.
00:13:17The mattress is every night of your year.
00:13:20Number twenty-seven, create traditions on purpose.
00:13:23Sunday dinners.
00:13:24Birthday breakfasts.
00:13:26The same ridiculous photo every Thanksgiving.
00:13:29Rituals turn passing time into a life you can actually remember.
00:13:33In our house, we celebrate every New Year's Day by making something called lucky pudding.
00:13:37The tradition began more than 20 years ago almost by accident.
00:13:40Now it has taken on the significance of a sacred religious rite.
00:13:45Don't wait for traditions to form on their own.
00:13:47Build them.
00:13:48Number twenty-eight, stop trying to be normal.
00:13:52Normal is crowded.
00:13:53Conformity is boring.
00:13:55Every interesting person I know is interesting precisely at the spots where they stopped asking,
00:13:59is this normal?
00:14:01And started asking, is this right for me?
00:14:04The parts of you that don't fit may be the parts most worth keeping.
00:14:09Number twenty-nine, compete with yourself, not with somebody else.
00:14:14Social comparison is a rigged game.
00:14:16You're comparing their outsides with your insides.
00:14:19Their carefully selected victory or curated profile with your entire chaotic,
00:14:25messy, unedited life.
00:14:27So, change the opponent.
00:14:30Was I better today than yesterday?
00:14:31Am I better at this than I was six months ago?
00:14:34Did I handle that situation more wisely than I would have before?
00:14:37Don't aim for an Olympic medal in somebody else's event.
00:14:42Aim for a personal best.
00:14:45And the final code, number thirty, avoid unnecessary suffering, accept necessary suffering.
00:14:51Use that rotisserie chicken.
00:14:53Take the shortcut when it works.
00:14:55Eliminate friction that proves nothing.
00:14:56Don't expect achievement, love, creativity, or a meaningful life to cost you nothing.
00:15:01Anything worthwhile will demand effort, discomfort, criticism, uncertainty, and sacrifice.
00:15:07Lots of it.
00:15:08When you encounter those costs, don't automatically assume you're doing something wrong.
00:15:12You might simply be paying the price of admission.
00:15:16Eliminate the suffering that gets you nothing, accept the suffering that moves you closer to something
00:15:22meaningful.
00:15:23So, here they are, thirty cheat codes.
00:15:24Choose for Tuesdays, give friendship and infrastructure, get good at something others avoid, build traditions,
00:15:30and learn which difficulties to remove and which to accept.
00:15:33But cheat codes only work if you enter them.
00:15:36So, don't try all thirty.
00:15:38Pick two.
00:15:38One that would remove hassle from your life, and one you've been resisting.
00:15:42Use both this week.
00:15:44And, because I'm certain I missed some, tell me this.
00:15:46What's one life cheat code you had to learn?
00:15:49Put it in the comments.
00:15:50I read every single one, and that comment section might end up being even more useful than this video.
00:15:55Once again, if you want the whole list in one place, all thirty codes are on that one-page cheat sheet.
00:16:01It's free.
00:16:01The link is below.
00:16:03And, it's a lot easier than rewinding this video.

핵심 요약

Applying thirty specific cheat codes across decisions, relationships, productivity, work, and lifestyle simplifies overcoming major life challenges using small bets and deliberate habits.

하이라이트

  • Make big life decisions based on an ordinary Tuesday rather than a fantasy Saturday.

  • Categorize decisions into two-way doors that can be undone quickly and one-way doors that require careful thought.

  • Define what finished looks like before beginning any project to avoid infinite undertakings.

  • Make the first step of a difficult task embarrassingly small, such as writing three sentences instead of a book.

  • Eliminate recurring misery before buying occasional pleasure by fixing daily annoyances first.

타임라인

Decision-making principles for realistic choices

  • Select homes, jobs, and cities based on ordinary Tuesday realities instead of ideal weekend scenarios.
  • Make fast choices for two-way doors that allow easy reversals.
  • Ask what would change your mind to avoid simply defending existing opinions.

Evaluating choices requires focusing on regular daily routines rather than exceptional highlights. Reversible decisions demand minimal hesitation, while permanent choices warrant deep deliberation. Testing assumptions against opposing viewpoints and recognizing the power of inaction prevent flawed outcomes.

Navigating human relationships and social dynamics

  • Ask individuals what they want from you before attempting to solve their problems.
  • Assume incompetence before malice when dealing with difficult behavior.
  • Build concrete infrastructure for friendship through recurring plans rather than vague intentions.

Interpersonal interactions improve by distinguishing between requests for advice and simple desires for emotional support. Generosity in strong relationships should operate without spreadsheets, and toxic individuals, including relatives, require healthy distance for personal well-being.

Productivity strategies and execution methods

  • Define the exact completion state before starting any project.
  • Make initial steps embarrassingly small to bypass hesitation and resistance.
  • Prepare tomorrow's first move tonight to reduce decision fatigue for the morning.

Productivity increases when tasks are simplified and friction is removed through deliberate preparation. Constant busyness serves as a warning sign of poor prioritization rather than a badge of honor, making strategic subtraction essential.

Workplace effectiveness and leadership tactics

  • Send recap emails following important meetings to clarify decisions and responsibilities.
  • Make your boss's life easier by actively helping achieve goals.
  • Master neglected skills and responsibilities that other people actively avoid.

Professional success stems from clear communication, practical problem-solving with recommended solutions, and distinguishing between formal deadlines and actual implementation timelines. Leadership improves by reversing negative experiences from previous managers.

Lifestyle design and personal fulfillment

  • Design physical environments around behavior by storing items where they get used.
  • Spend money to eliminate recurring daily misery before buying occasional pleasures.
  • Compete strictly against your past self instead of engaging in social comparison.

Meaningful living involves creating intentional traditions, embracing personal uniqueness instead of blind conformity, and accepting necessary suffering while eliminating useless friction. Selecting specific small adjustments each week initiates sustainable personal growth.

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