1/N Rule

1/N Rule sounds like something a clerk would stamp on a file. In truth it is a small instrument for thinking clearly.

The number is a fence. On one side lies intention, on the other side lies habit. Most of us live on the wrong side and write poetry about it. This rule simply asks you to climb the fence.

The idea is simple, and like most simple ideas it is easy to nod at and hard to use. The nod is free. The use costs attention, every day, in small change.

At the cremation ground, every speech is honest and every ambition sounds smaller. Then the bus takes everyone back to the city, and by Tuesday the lesson is negotiable again.

In the end, life asks only whether we were awake while it happened. Print it on a card if you like. Better: print it on a habit.