A basic script to the art form of living life and a few of the philosophies that can benefit us all –– Inspired by Meditations from Marcus Aurelius

1. A Script to Life
By Daniel Hoisch
In an effort to decode my thoughts and develop a sense of order, I have decided
to create a list of what I deem to be the necessary rules and regulations to surviving life
and integrating into society. This list can neither be proven true nor false. This list is
strictly theoretical and is developed from my experience as a young adult in this
everchanging world. Therefore, this list is open to debate. This list cannot guarantee
improvement in life, but should still be viewed as a worthy piece of writing in an effort to
separate the moral from the immoral and create a sense of finality, fruitfulness, success,
and productivity. This list has been written as a means to dissuade doubt and to validate
certainty. It can be considered a product of scientific means if need be, though it was
not written under a scientific basis, but instead under a humanitarian one. It should
therefore be looked upon first and foremost as a product of philosophy. While the reader
can exercise all of the numbers, it will not be possible to calculate their complete
accuracy or effectiveness, as the laws of life and humanity do not operate within logic
alone, but instead transcend into a higher plane of irrationality and unpredictability. The
reader is urged to criticize and question this material as they move forward. For what is
theory without debate
1) Friendship is a give-and-take relationship. We relish the people in our lives for what
they can provide for us. Friendship is a mutual contract between partners to help the
each other achieve a sense of satisfaction in life and to provide fulfillment when it is
needed. A friend whose actions continue to violate these terms is not worthy of the title
“friend”.
2) Friendship is not simply a matter of materialistic benefit. Man is a social creature, and
as such, relishes in companionship. The very act of social interaction provides for an
unquantifiable sense of fulfillment and net-value that cannot be undermined.
Consequently, for the sake of true relatability, a sense of equality is necessary among
all social gatherings, even in the case of a conceived superior. This sense of relatability
creates the social satisfaction needed to fill the gaps left by material wealth and
achievement.
3) There is no need to feel sense of speech anxiety. You may speak when you feel that
you have something important to say. Silence is a fundamental element to collecting
your thoughts. It does not connote social anxiety, but merely a sense of reservation.
They are not one in the same.

2. 4) You must be sincere. There can be no lies about your character. An attempted
façade is bound to collapse at one point or another, and no relationship can be survive
on deception.
5) At the same time, every person has the right to withhold information with others.
Privacy is a necessary component to socialization. If every person knew every detail
about the people in their lives, the world would become a far lonelier and embittered
place. It is only through a gradual divulging of these details that a sense of trust and
companionship can be formed. A mutual respect to this privacy is the first step in
building a circle of trust.
6) Always try to distinguish yourself from the rest of the group. Do not fall completely in
with the minds of the masses. This will result in an inability to think for oneself, thereby
robbing yourself of your individuality. Remember that you are one in a number of minds,
and not a fraction of one.
7) Do not treat human beings as subjects. This is the mind of a thoughtless cynic at
work who is embittered and who isolates himself from the rest of the world behind a
glass window. Always be conscious of other people’s mentality and perspectives. Bear
in mind that there are as many perspectives as there are sentient organisms in the
universe, each one capable of generating new thoughts and ideas.
8) Fuck Modesty! Every person has the right to express their talents and put themselves
in the spotlight when they feel that they deserve a turn. However, as a token of respect,
it is necessary to step down when becoming a spectator. Do not upstage the person in
the spotlight. Give them praise when they deserve it; your time will eventually come.
9) You must be able to surround yourself with other social figures in a networked
relationship in order to benefit from exterior information. For what are we but a network
of experiences from multiple mediums. A true intellectual is both social and studious.
They do not lock themselves up in isolation every day, yet at the same time they do not
blind themselves with a continuous swarm of social activity. Instead, they are able to
achieve a balance between these attributes, therefore allowing for a complete
networked existence between multiple backgrounds and viewpoints that result in a well-
sculpted figure of self-improvement.
10) Do not sink into a permanent state of comfort. There will always be variables that
are unaccounted for in life. Events will transpire that are out of your control, and you will
have to improvise at the last moment, for you are not all-knowing. Alternatively, do not
think that you can constantly keep your guard up in a state of panic and fear. For this is
a miserable form of existence that will only result in embittered unhappiness and anger.

3. Do not think in terms of the worst-case-scenario, for there is always a brighter side to
any problem at hand. Furthermore, a short term view of the future can be a far more
pleasant form of temporality than a long-term view, which will result in a complicated
form of over-planning that is bound to backfire somewhere down the road. In many
instances, a vague plan will be the best plan, and can be improvised along the way.
11) It is not simply our modalities of logic and reasoning that we must learn to master,
but rather our emotional responses to the world around, for although we cannot master
control over the events within our lives, we can at least learn control over how we react
to those events from within. To blame an external force or drive for our misfortunes is
simply mask that we assume to avoid taking responsibility. One of the most difficult
lessons to learn in life is how and when to take accountability for our mistakes and to
admit that we are less than we thought we were, for by this very act of modesty and
humility, we attain greater enlightenment than before. More simply, it is not only the act
of awareness of fact that gives us power, but the application and performance of that
awareness in our day to day lives.
12) Every single action has an equal opposite reaction. There is no escaping the cause
& effect relationship of the world around us. To think in terms of event relations and
causality is one important element of genius that cannot be ignored. Always measure
the greater impact of your actions throughout the world around you so that they do not
return in painful force. Understand that it is the push and pull of numerous wills
throughout the world that are responsible for our current way of life, and that every
droplet of activity provides some contribution to the future in which we carve out for
ourselves and humanity.
13) Do not expose yourself to excessive intellectualism –– without accepting the
potential risk of social isolation from the crowd. Unfortunately, the intelligentsia is not an
abundant crowd within the greater scope of the human race. The common individual
does not embrace cognitive proficiency so much as day to day profit and basic acts of
comfort/survival. To be an intellectual is to be one of the elite, and to be one of the elite
is to live a lonely life of isolation. Hence, the importance of basic elementary thinking
cannot go unmentioned in this list if one is to connect with a wider audience and
achieve maximum influence.