Tomorrow is a new
day.
What if you really
believed it?

We all love the idea of
fresh starts and
second acts, but
people rarely do it.

Ok, so let's get warmed up with
some aphorisms

Every man should
be born again on the
first day of January.
Start with a fresh
page.
Henry Ward Beecher

Failure is the
opportunity to begin
again more
intelligently.
Henry Ford

So long as you
have courage
and a sense of
humor, it is
never too late to
start life afresh.
Freeman Dyson

Man starts over again
everyday, in spite of all
he knows, against all he
knows.
Emil Corian

Once you're done you can
throw it away
The Cult of Done Manifesto
1. There are three states of being. Not knowing, action and completion.
2. Accept that everything is a draft. It helps to get it done.
3. There is no editing stage.
4. Pretending you know what you're doing is almost the same as knowing
what you are doing, so just accept that you know what you're doing
even if you don't and do it.
5. Banish procrastination. If you wait more than a week to get an idea
done, abandon it.
6. The point of being done is not to finish but to get other things done.
7. Once you're done you can throw it away.
8. Laugh at perfection. It's boring and keeps you from being done.
9. People without dirty hands are wrong. Doing something makes you
right.
10. Failure counts as done. So do mistakes.
11. Destruction is a variant of done.
12. If you have an idea and publish it on the internet, that counts as a
ghost of done.
13. Done is the engine of more.

Do what you can,
with what you have,
where you are.
Theodore Roosevelt

Two things led me to think about
starting fresh
1.Psychology research on self-
compassion
1.Mind-uploading science
fiction

Self-compassion sounds like a lame
idea but is actually important

Everyone understands self-esteem
• How much do I like myself?
• How worthy am I?
• How unique and special am I?
Few understand self-compassion
Be compassionate to yourself
because all people deserve
compassion

Self Compassion
• Be kind to yourself
o Be understanding
o Perspective
• Recognize common humanity
o Acknowledge failings
o You can't always get what you want
o Perspective
• Be mindful
o Don't suppress or exaggerate
o Perspective

What self compassion is not about
Slide shamelessly stolen from Kristin Neff

Compassion != Pity / Indulgence
These emotions are self-centered and involve
isolating yourself.
This is the human experience, others are
experiencing the same thing. Step back and
have perspective.

Self-Esteem vs Self-Compassion
Low self-esteem is bad,
but...optimizing for self-esteem can
be dicey too
o Anger and aggression
o Lying/hiding/distorting
o Avoiding thinking about
shortcomings

Self-compassion is Actually Hard
Ruminate over mistakes
OR
Avoid facing them
I am naturally better at being compassionate to
other people

So I Have Tried A Different
Approach
Think of the things I did in the past as
being done by someone else

The Rapture for Nerds -
Mind Uploading

Futuristic tech is not the topic,
but it could have been...
What if you could:
1. Save the state of your mind
1. Die
1. Boot your mind into some new hardware

Sleep, those little slices
of death — how I loathe
them.
Edgar Allan Poe

Sleep
1. Go to sleep
(brain maintains state)
1. Lose consciousness
(feels like death to Poe)
1. Wake up in different hardware
(slightly older)

Sleep, those little slices
of death — how I LOVE
them.
Jesse Snow Alexander Bridgewater

Every Morning I Try to Start Life
Again
•
• I can be critical of past actions without
getting discouraged
• Avoid getting stuck in fights and
disagreements
• Reassess what I want, not what yesterday's
me wanted

This Motivates Me
v14400 was a different person.
Compassion for v14400's mistakes
Look closely and do things the way I want to
v14400 had his time, it's my time now
Once you're done you can throw it away

14,401 Lives / Uploads So Far
I try not to take my past or future too
personally.
Past successes were great
I am the heir to that wealth
(Thanks v60xx for deciding to study physics and computer science.)
Someone else made those embarrassing
mistakes and failures. Keep going.

How to spend my next 14000 lives
Do what I can,
with what I have,
where I am.