12 rules for life : an antidote to chaos / Jordan B. Peterson ; foreword by Norman Doidge ; illustrations by Ethan Van Sciver

Includes endnotes.

Foreword by Norman Doidge -- Overture -- Rule 1 : Stand up straight with your shoulders back. -- Rule 2 : Treat yourself -- Rule 3 : Make friends with people who want the best for you -- Rule 4 : Compare yourself to who you were yesterday, not to who someone else is today -- Rule 5 : Do not let your children do anything that makes you criticize the world -- Rule 7 : Pursue what is meaningful (not what is expedient) -- Rule 8 : Tell the truth - or, at least, don't lie -- Rule 9 : Assume that the person you are listening to might know something you don't -- Rule 10 : Be precise in your speech -- Rule 11 : Do not bother children when they are skateboarding -- Rule 12 : Pet a cat when you encounter one on the street -- Coda -- Acknowledgemnets / Endnotes / Index .

"Rules? more rules? really? isn't life complicated enough, restrictiong enough, without abstract rules that don't take our unique, individual situations into account? And given that our brains are plastic, and develop differently based on our life experiences, why even expect that a few rules might be helpful to us all?