Jordan Peterson

Principles are our summary of their public statements.

• Decompose Problems Into Solvable Units

  Productivity

  Break complex problems down into the smallest possible components to ensure a high probability of success during implementation.

  Supporting quotes

  • “I've always tried to read history as a perpetrator rather than as a hero or a victim. And I'm very interested in trying to understand why these ideas have such a grip on people.”

    “You look at the world through a framework. You can't help it because the world is unbelievably complicated. It's so complicated that, technically, you shouldn't even be able to perceive it.”

  1 more supporting quote is in the member records.

• Beware of Ideological Creep

  Leadership

  Leaders should be wary of departments that claim the right to determine ethical propriety, as they can quickly accumulate power and enforce pathological ideologies.

  Supporting quotes

  • “I've always been careful in what I said, but I'm way more attentive to what I say now than I was because, well, for about a year and a half, I was one slip away from disaster.”

  2 more supporting quotes are in the member records.

• Resist Low-Resolution Labels

  Brand

  Avoid letting others put you in a box with simple labels, as this allows them to stop thinking critically about your actual ideas and contributions.

  3 more supporting quotes are in the member records.

  Source Jordan Peterson on Mythology, Fame, and Reading People (Ep. 60 - Live), 2018  (opens in a new tab)

• Assume audience intelligence

  Marketing

  Content creators should treat their audience as smart and capable of following complex, long-form arguments thanks to the availability of digital archives.

  2 more supporting quotes are in the member records.

  Source Jordan Peterson on Mythology, Fame, and Reading People (Ep. 60 - Live), 2018  (opens in a new tab)

• Recognize the Default Pagan State

  Learning

  Human nature naturally defaults to being pulled by competing motivational states, similar to polytheistic gods, until integrated through maturation.

  Supporting quotes

  • “if you're fighting with someone you love, you might want to defeat them or even hurt them independently of the fact that you actually love them. Well, then you think, well, you're gripped by these impulses. No, no. You're inhabited by the spirit of rage.”

  2 more supporting quotes are in the member records.

• Distinguish True from False Adventure

  Focus

  Avoid 'false adventures' like addictions that mimic the drive for transformation but fail to hit the target of social and psychological integration.

  Source Dr. Jordan Peterson: How to Best Guide Your Life Decisions & Path, 2024  (opens in a new tab)

• Maturity Enables Voluntary Aim

  Mindset

  A mature mind moves beyond reflexive reactions to stimuli and gains the ability to voluntarily choose and maintain its targets.

  Source Dr. Jordan Peterson: How to Best Guide Your Life Decisions & Path, 2024  (opens in a new tab)

• Prioritize Facts Through Narrative

  Leadership

  Raw facts are overwhelming without a story to organize them; leaders must provide a narrative that tells people which facts matter most.

  Source Dr. Jordan Peterson: How to Best Guide Your Life Decisions & Path, 2024  (opens in a new tab)

• Prioritize the Quest Over Results

  Mindset

  Meaning is found in the pursuit of solving difficult problems rather than the final outcome. A genuine commitment to exploration attracts others and resolves existential crises.

  Source Dr. Jordan Peterson: How to Best Guide Your Life Decisions & Path, 2024  (opens in a new tab)

• Embrace Intellectual Humility

  Learning

  Effective learning and leadership require admitting that you do not know enough. Asking the same questions the audience wants answered creates a deep, perennial connection.

  Source Dr. Jordan Peterson: How to Best Guide Your Life Decisions & Path, 2024  (opens in a new tab)

• Seek Conceptual Unity for Progress

  Strategy

  Large-scale cooperation and progress require a shared conceptual framework or a 'monotheistic' unity of ideas.

  Source Dr. Jordan Peterson: How to Best Guide Your Life Decisions & Path, 2024  (opens in a new tab)

• Use Play to Counter Tyranny

  Leadership

  Playfulness is the natural opposite of rigid control and tyranny; a functional hierarchy is built on play rather than force.

  Source Dr. Jordan Peterson: How to Best Guide Your Life Decisions & Path, 2024  (opens in a new tab)

• Treat Content as Permanent Records

  Content

  Digital video makes the spoken word as durable as text, so founders should treat their public output as a permanent, verifiable archive of their values.

  Source Dr. Jordan Peterson: How to Best Guide Your Life Decisions & Path, 2024  (opens in a new tab)

• Use Dialogue for Mutual Transformation

  Learning

  Effective communication involves a struggle to clarify ideas where both parties transform each other toward a higher good.

  3 more supporting quotes are in the member records.

  Source Wikiquote: Jordan Peterson  (opens in a new tab)

• Learn Through Voluntary Death

  Learning

  True learning requires the willingness to let old, insufficient parts of oneself die to make room for new growth.

  3 more supporting quotes are in the member records.

  Source Wikiquote: Jordan Peterson  (opens in a new tab)

• Bargain with the future

  Strategy

  Humans minimize suffering by sacrificing current desires to secure a better future outcome.

  Supporting quotes

  • “If you don't know what the next thing you should do is, then there are 50 things you should do. Then, how are you doing to do any of them? You can't. You have to prioritize.”

  2 more supporting quotes are in the member records.

• Promote Competence Hierarchies

  Strategy

  Social and professional structures should recognize and reward competence to remain functional and desirable.

  Supporting quotes

  • “Beauty reminds you that there is lesser and greater value. Many things make life worth living: love, play, courage, gratitude, work, friendship, truth, grace, hope, virtue, and responsibility.”

  2 more supporting quotes are in the member records.

• Strive for intellectual density

  Writing

  Great writing should be so dense with meaning that every sentence is worth attending to and offers something new to the reader.

  3 more supporting quotes are in the member records.

  Source Transcript for Jordan Peterson: Nietzsche, Hitler, God, Psychopathy, Suffering & Meaning | Lex Fridman Podcast #448 - Lex Fridman, 2024  (opens in a new tab)

• Unify Goals to Reduce Anxiety

  Focus

  A coherent, valid unifying idea decreases anxiety and increases motivation by preventing internal goal conflict.

  3 more supporting quotes are in the member records.

  Source Transcript for Jordan Peterson: Nietzsche, Hitler, God, Psychopathy, Suffering & Meaning | Lex Fridman Podcast #448 - Lex Fridman, 2024  (opens in a new tab)

• Constraints Facilitate Maturation

  Leadership

  Setting boundaries and constraints on behavior helps individuals overcome primordial impulses and develop civilized, mature character.

  Source Transcript for Jordan Peterson: Nietzsche, Hitler, God, Psychopathy, Suffering & Meaning | Lex Fridman Podcast #448 - Lex Fridman, 2024  (opens in a new tab)