Thanks a lot for your input from article 1:

It was great to have so much feedback and help, asking for “strong logic”, rule #10. It’s a subject that fascinates me and excited strong emotions, the way poetry can do. In fact there is a kind of poetry in sweet logic, don’t you think?

I see thousands of you were on the case and over a hundred good ideas were posted.

The commonest suggestion was “If it ain’t busted, don’t fix it”. Certainly basic logic there. But that’s my #1 in disguise. If something is working, do more of it. Thing is, the tendency that people have is to change things, even if it’s working. So you lose the good; maybe it stops working altogether.

I have written elsewhere that everyone has taken the first step to millionaire. You sold something, right? Well, if you had kept on and on and on doing just that, you could have processed $millions. But you stopped!

It’s sort of a joke; but it sort of isn’t either!

The other favorite is “Leave it to God”. Why ever would you do that? We were given the power of mind and choices. It’s an insult to The Almighty not use them, fully. Such a response is devoid of all logic.

The other repeated error was the supposition that somehow my #1, #2 and #9 were all the same. That’s not true.

Let me spell it out here:

When something is working, you don’t change the essential nature of what you are doing, just pile on the coals. Do MORE of it. If you do something different in character, you risk losing what you’ve got.

The exact reverse of that is that—if it isn’t working, you had better change something. Do less of it and/or do something different. One of the jokey definitions of insanity is to go on doing the same old thing and expecting a different outcome.

Now #3 and #4 are about timing and causality. They tell you where to look… the point is that everything has a cause; things don’t “just happen”. If you can find what caused an improvement or decline, then it’s only logical you reinforce the improvement (a bit like #1). If it’s a bad change, remove it. The significant change will be at or just before the point where you noticed a shift in trend, up or down. Yes?

Number #9 is really evidence for workability. I see no connection between it and #1.

Honorable Mention!

One or two I thought were good but not the ultimate super-logic I was looking for:

“If it works for others, it can work for you,” like the gravitational law.
“You get what you settle for!” From the movie “Thelma & Louise”.

And this last one isn’t exactly logical but it makes a great motto for the rhinoceros mentality!

Never admit failure until you’ve made your last attempt. Never make your last attempt until you’ve succeeded.

Could we combine a couple of these into something like: “Compromise is not a destination”? That brings up the issue of task-orientation vs. people-orientation and I have some strong views on that, posted here: The Supreme Test

What Did I Choose As Basic Logic #10?

The shortest track wins. All things being equal, the fewer steps, the faster your success, whether it’s getting a product to market before your competitors, or winning a girl against the wooing of a rival!