How to Live Better
Trade the least money, time, energy and willpower for the most lifespan, money, time and personal freedom. 33 chapters, 601 entries; each states its cost, benefit, evidence grade and original sources. Benefits are tiered by who receives them: you, your spouse and immediate family, friends and coworkers, strangers - the lower the tier, the smaller the expected payback and the more carefully the risks are spelled out. This is the English translation of the Chinese original (高性价比人生指南); chapters on Chinese law, benefits and services stay China-specific.
Filtering on this page needs JavaScript. You can read the text directly: the table of contents in README.md, chapters under book/.
- Don't Die Early: traffic, fires, gas, poisonous mushrooms, drowning, falls, vaccines, cancer screening, mental-health crisis, home emergency kit
- Don't Die Slowly: smoking and drinking, exercise, sleep, diet, prolonged sitting
- Don't Waste Energy: sleep, interruptions, multitasking, decision fatigue, relationship debt
- Don't Waste Time: sunk costs, procrastination, meetings, commuting
- Don't Waste Money: subscriptions, lotteries, interest, insurance, fund fees, housing-fund withdrawals, car insurance, prepayments, livestream sales, medical-insurance personal accounts
- The Negative List: things that look cost-effective but aren't
- How to Live When You're Broke: unemployment insurance, labor arbitration, relief stations, subsistence allowance, medical insurance, job hunting
- Don't Get Yourself in Trouble: traffic accidents, freezing fraudulent transfers, bride price, pre-marital property, guarantees, anti-fraud, enforcement and the defaulter list, dog-owner liability
- Legal Red Lines Ordinary People Trip Over: rumors, money-laundering side gigs, forged loan materials, objects thrown from height, secret filming, gambling
- Is Dating and Marriage Worth It: search strategy, harassment red lines, long distance, registration, premarital checkups, health math, money math, exit costs
- Red Lines for Programmers and Tech Workers: game cheats, scrapers, deleting the database, taking source code, non-competes
- Starting and Running a Business: capital, guarantees, entity choice, registration, licenses, tax filing and zero-filing, tax scams, hiring, exit
- Emergencies: What to Do First: cardiac arrest, major bleeding, anaphylaxis, seizures, hypoglycemia, electric shock, carbon monoxide, chemical burns, fires, drowning, getting lost, hypothermia, snakebites, earthquakes, lightning, altitude sickness
- Account and Information Security: two-factor authentication, passwords, SIM cards, lost phones, app permissions, access and deletion rights
- Renting and Buying a Home: deposits, forced eviction, agents collecting rent, escrow, sale doesn't break lease, transaction escrow accounts, partitioned rooms
- Living With a Chronic Disease: medication adherence, cross-province outpatient settlement, follow-ups, long-term prescriptions, complication screening
- When You Have Elderly Parents: voluntary guardianship, will formats, accounts and scripts, long-term care insurance
- Is Having Children Worth It: childcare subsidies, maternity leave and allowance, time math, money math
- Employment, Leaving a Job, and Work Injuries: overtime, annual leave, probation; hazard disclosure and checkups, dust and noise protection; severance, payment in lieu of notice, 2N, keeping evidence; work-injury deadlines, capacity assessment, death benefits
- Caring for a Newborn: safe sleep, the first hepatitis B shot, breast milk and solids, formula water temperature, fever red lines
- Travel Abroad and Overseas Safety: advisory levels, the 12308 hotline, limits of consular protection, overseas medical insurance, overseas job scams, foreign driver's licenses
- How to Unwind: Entertainment Venues and Stress Relief: emergency exits, posted prices, drug red lines, things strangers hand you, real-name internet cafes; exercise, mindfulness, breathing, socializing, green space
- Which Skills Are Worth Learning: returns to education, fake certificates, training subsidies, automation-resistant skills, skill levels
- Seeing a Doctor: Spend Less, Take Fewer Wrong Turns: tiered care and referrals, deductible continuity, reimbursement gaps, reserved slots, out-of-town care, keeping records
- What to Do After Someone Dies: basic funeral services, price violations, agent registration, housing-fund balances and social-insurance benefits, the deceased's data rights
- Building a Website or Platform: payment red lines, ICP licenses and filings, livestream and audiovisual permits, platform verification and tax reporting, content governance, real-name rules, minors, notice-and-takedown, data export, server choices