English edition · 34 chapters · 640 advices

How to Live Better

A cost–benefit guide to living longer, wasting less and staying out of trouble, translated from the Chinese open book HowToLiveBetter. Each advice states what it costs, what it buys back and how strong the evidence is. Click any advice to see the details and my own verdict on it.

Evidence level (from the book)

  • Evidence AQuantified evidence from meta-analyses, large cohorts or randomized trials, or the explicit text of a law or regulation.
  • Evidence BResearch support that is hard to quantify, or comes from small or single studies.
  • Evidence CAuthor experience or general consensus, with no direct literature.
  • disputedThe book flags counter-evidence in the notes.

My validity score (A–F)

  • ASound, well-supported advice. Following it is clearly worthwhile.
  • BReasonable, with caveats: modest effect, weaker evidence or context-dependent.
  • CPlausible but weakly supported, overstated, or partly outdated.
  • DQuestionable: likely wrong or misleading for most people.
  • FWrong or harmful. (No advice in this book scored D or F.)

Much of the law-based advice applies to mainland China specifically. Source text © eternity4719, CC BY 4.0. Most of the English wording comes from the community translation by dlgrv (CC BY 4.0). Claude translated the 48 advices that had changed upstream since that translation. Citations are left in their original form so they can be checked. The validity scores are Claude's own assessment and are not medical, legal or financial advice.