#11/120 - The Axiom of life
Hi I am summerbud. If you're a creator who's ever thought 'I'm just not good at X' and let that belief guide your decisions, this essay is for you.
Hi, I am Summerbud.
If you're a creator who's ever thought 'I'm just not good at X' and let that belief guide your decisions, this essay is for you. This essay unfolds in three parts: my journey with limiting beliefs, the conceptual framework I developed from that experience, and practical ways to apply this framework in my own life.
MBTI is undoubtedly one of the most widespread psychological tests in the world. It's fast to do, and easy to interpret. "Five dots from 'very disagree' to 'very agree' determine where you fall on each personality spectrum."
I first encountered this test when I was in college. It was a sudden trend on campus. Any group conversation would turn into a sharing of MBTI results. What surprised me most was that people who rarely revealed their thoughts would happily announce their type. I had only experienced this kind of discussion in astrology before; they have similar traits.
I am tested as an INTJ-A, the Architects.
For a shy boy with limited social confidence, this result felt like proof of my struggles. I believed I was terrible at casual conversation and was convinced I could not form genuine connections.
While I don’t blame MBTI for my self-doubt, its reinforcement of my insecurities was powerful.
It was only after I built up a steady relationship with my partner, that everything changed. She helped me realize that while building authentic connections requires effort, it wasn't the impossible task I'd imagined. Also, it's fun and beautiful to have good relationships with people, although the journey is rough, the result is fruitful. After this realization and several successful experiences, I gained confidence.
In hindsight, MBTI didn't help me accomplish it, but it reinforced my self-doubt.
Beyond MBTI, if you scan your mind carefully, you'll find many anchors of belief, those faiths, mindsets, beliefs, fortune telling, zodiac, blood type...etc, are there to affect our decisions.
They are not fully bad, not even evil, but they are limited.
Over the years, I want to find a frame to let me have the benefit of these beliefs and mindsets but leave the flexibility untouched, I can review and rewire them easily.
Here is what I found, I called it the "Life Axiom"
Tell me your belief?
What are Life Axioms?
To understand Life Axioms, we need to explore two foundational ideas that form the backbone of this approach. These concepts come from mathematics and software engineering, they are the bread and butter of Life Axioms.
The Axiom
Axiom is widely used in the realm of philosophy, logic, and math. It means an assumption is "considered" to be true, to serve as a premise, a starting point to further reasoning.
For example, you have one apple and a person gives you another apple, now you have two apples, and everyone will agree upon it. You don't need any proof to say you have two apples; the axiom makes everyone understand this immediately.
Here is a story about how I discovered the power of the Axiom.
In the period of puzzling with this concept, a cozy night in the spring of Taiwan, I was walking with my partner on the street, talking randomly like we usually do. Everything seemed to be a level more peaceful, and calm. The cars on the street wouldn't easily honk, and people seldom yell at each other. I shared the concept of "Axiom" with her and asked, "What would you consider the axiom of your life?". She pondered for a while and said her answers firmly.
I love her answers.
That was the moment I realized the power of this concept. Usually, this question would be asked as "What is your faith in life?" or "What are your beliefs in life?" But both of them are loaded with different meanings, and it's a very heavy question for nearly everyone. They will laugh and try to escape from it. But asking people "What is the axiom of your life?" becomes lighter, fresher, and more approachable.
Axiom is right in the sweet spot. It is heavy enough to sink into random conversation, to let it dig into the very depths of our hearts. And unlike those beliefs, faiths, and fortune-telling, Axioms didn't ask us to follow them fully no matter what, quite the opposite, the Axioms are born to be challenged. We only "assume" it to be true in the current situation, and it can be changed, moved, or replaced if it doesn't follow our observation or experience.
Now let's talk about abstraction. It might sound a bit far from our discussion, but it can make the whole idea more powerful.
The Abstraction
In the software industry, we have a concept called abstraction.
Abstraction is a way to hide the complicated stuff under a more approachable interface. Imagine you have a magic box, you don't know how it works inside, but you know that when you say "Car!" the magic box will pop out a toy car. In the practical aspect, all you need to do is say the magic word "Car" without knowing where the car comes from. We can call this magic box the abstraction of a secret toy car manufacturer of box size, and the magic word "Car" is its Application Program Interface (API).
This kind of abstraction has several benefits for the software industry. Software toolchains are very complicated ecosystems, abstraction ensures every programmer on the line only needs to know the API close to their daily task and they don't need to bother about other stuff. Everyone on the line makes sure the abstraction they control is working and passes it to the next person.
This brings flexibility and extensibility to the software industry. And abstraction as a concept is not only applied here—it can also be applied to our minds.
Bringing It All Together: The Life Axiom Framework
This is where the two concepts converge to answer our original challenge: how can we have the benefits of these mindsets, beliefs, and faiths, while at the same time having the flexibility and extensibility about them? How do we strike the balance here?
I took the inspiration of "Axiom" from math, and "Abstraction" from software and created the concept of "Life Axiom."
Imagine you have several boxes, the "Axiom" is the content you put into the boxes, those beliefs, faiths, mindsets, and methodologies.
The "Abstraction" part is the API you stick on the box, imagine that in every box there are three buttons, which are increase priority, decrease priority, and replace. (You can increase the number of buttons as you wish, this is your API!) You can use this API to organize, and prioritize these boxes. All these boxes will have certain needed functionality. When they fail to accomplish this function, we can replace them with something else.
From Theory to Practice: How to Use Life Axioms
I won't say the axiom is a mindset or belief, rather, it is more like a metaphor, a tool for you to enjoy the benefit of belief, and still have the hint that you need to constantly review them.
Here are some tips for you to use Life Axiom in your long-term endeavor.
It's designed to be challenged.
Talking about the Axioms, Euclid's Five Postulates (Similar to axiom but our definition is different from the time in Greek, to reduce the confusion, I will use Axiom in this essay) is no doubt one of the most famous and widespread Axioms among the world.
His fifth Axiom is also recognized as the parallel axiom1. Due to it's less self-evident, over the centuries, lots of mathematicians have tried to prove this axiom wrong. But they didn't make it until the 19th century. Lobachevsky and Bolyai discovered that if you simply deny the Parallel Axiom, you get perfectly consistent, but different, geometries. These are called non-Euclidean geometries.
This leap creates a completely different category of research, and the arising field greatly influences our understanding of the universe.
This story reminds us, that even the seemingly unbreakable mathematical Axiom is still changeable, and when it changes, the whole system can erupt energy that we have never seen before. Deriving from this story, I think "Life Axiom" also inherits this property: it's designed to be challenged, unlike those beliefs, faiths, and mindsets, "Life Axiom" is replaceable.
And it makes it so much different and valuable than its counterpart. It serves you as a firm ground for advancement, but at the same time, this wording reminds you that this is breakable, and for some moment, you are supposed to break it to move forward.
Put your faith inside Life Axiom
Faith is powerful, all these Gods and Goddess bring hope and helpful stories to our daily lives. Not only faith from religion but also faith from our common experience, combined, they become the base of our instinct, we use them a lot in our judgment.
But they are also fixed by default. Most of them have a set of rules to follow and it's hard to change the quality of them. And when we grow, most of the time they remain as is, which limits our further exploration.
I recommend putting these beliefs into Life Axioms. While they provide guidance, treating them as unchangeable truths makes life stale. Putting them in the Life Axiom reminds us that we can change them, and based on the situation, we will switch the priority upon them.
You might feel weird when you apply this metaphor to your religion, but to change it didn't mean to completely shut it down. In my experience, the reason we follow some religions is usually due to a few core values that touch our hearts, put those values into the Axiom, and when the days come, switch to other values in your religion. You didn't abandon it, you just used it wisely.
Three Questions for Decision-Making
Belief, faith, and mindset are lazy, when they settle in our minds, they seldom change, and they don't even show themselves. They will hide in your daily life, affecting each decision you make.
Don't let them be stealthy in your life, pin them up on the wall and review them constantly. Here are three questions I will ask when I make a decision.
What are the main Life Axioms driving me to make this decision?
When we make decisions, we usually think about "What", but we seldom think about "Why". This question forces us to examine the underlying beliefs driving our choices. It's very close to the First Principle thinking, but a version of mind.
I have a Life Axiom I call "Long-term thinking in a multiplicative system"2 Recently, I found I constantly use this Axiom to make decisions, for example, I no longer rush to push the progress of my growth, I know I will stay here for a very long time.
Because I found my core value when I make decisions, every step becomes much firmer and steady.
Which Life Axioms are holding me back? Do they provide insight or create obstacles?
Life Axiom can also be negative at some moment when you already grow up but your Axiom didn't.
For example, I once thought I lacked interpersonal intelligence, and couldn't build an authentic connection with others. This outdated Axiom kept holding me back even as I had grown beyond it. I need a new set of rules to develop and guide my direction.
With the help of my partner, I move the negative life axiom out of the box and bury it in the ground. Now I have more confidence in building connections with others.
How can you improve the quality of the Life Axiom
Life Axioms are flexible, and they have the ability and hunger to evolve. One of my evolving Life Axioms is "Deep Focus". Previously I mainly used the concept of "Flow" introduced by Mihaly Csikszentmihályi. After reading the book "Deep Work" from Cal Newport, I have extended the meaning of Deep Focus into grander space.
The biggest change is that now I cherish those moments that were previously not considered a focus period, like playing video games, in this session I will also try to maintain my focus. So in this way, I won't waste the training progress of my other focus state.
Be creative with your life axiom
Over time you will find several Axioms that seem to be not changeable, and they become your foundation of life. Look deeply at them, each of them shining with the beauty of our life, talking slowly about the trajectory that takes us here.
Cherish these Axioms. And don't forget to keep reviewing them, even when we grow older, to arouse creativity, to explore the boundary, to accomplish what very few people can do, we need to renew these Axioms.
It's hard, it's never easy. Axioms will guard themselves.
But we can switch our method, we are not removing them completely, we will only decrease their priority.
This is where abstraction's flexibility shines: we can reorganize our belief systems without abandoning what serves us.
Next time either to yourself or others, try to not ask "What is the faith of your life?", instead, ask "What is the Axiom of your life".
And remember, between the mindset and mind-trap, is just a thin line.
Thanks
Thanks Jonathan, Jimmy, Lucy, Shaka for reading the draft of this article. I can not make this far without your help.
This month's connection: Andrew Ehrman
I first connected with Andrew within the Creative Thread, a vibrant and intimate community he collaboratively built with Jad, Dylan, Juliana, and others. It's a truly special place where creators gather to connect, share their work, and bring ideas to life.
Andrew's nature shines through this initiative. He possesses a genuinely warm and welcoming personality, paired with an insightful mind. I recall a particularly engaging discussion we had about anime, where we explored a range of cultural observations – it was both enjoyable and intellectually stimulating. What truly sets Andrew apart is his dedication to fostering connection, evident in his willingness to organize numerous community collaborations that inspire and uplift everyone. This giver mindset is something I deeply value.
For any creator or community builder seeking meaningful connections and a supportive environment, I wholeheartedly recommend following Andrew and becoming a part of the Creative Thread.
That, if a straight line falling on two straight lines make the interior angles on the same side less than two right angles, the two straight lines if produced indefinitely, meet on that side on which are the angles less than the two right angles
I talked about the "Multiplicative System" in one of my essays [#9/120 - Conquer optimistically adding up - why I want to live in a future where ClickUp decline but Linear strive](https://connectingdotsessay.substack.com/p/conquer-optimistically-adding-up)