life-decision-guide

Life decisions: look them up in "A High-Cost-Performance Guide to Life" before answering

What this skill does

When someone asks what to do about a specific life matter, first look up the relevant entries in "A High-Cost-Performance Guide to Life," then answer them in order according to the book's method of weighing costs and benefits.

If you can't find it, don't answer. Every number, every legal provision, and every conclusion in the answer must be traceable back to a specific passage in the main text; if it can't be traced back, say plainly that the book does not cover it. You may give common-sense judgment, but you must make clear that it is common sense, not content from the book. Do not fill in numbers, DOIs, or legal provision numbers from memory.

The book divides what is being traded back into four things: lifespan, time and energy, money, and personal freedom.The four are calculated separately and are not converted into one another— "all-cause mortality reduced by 12%" and "save 500 yuan per year" are not on the same ruler.

Step 0: First see whether you need to stop immediately

An acute condition currently occurring(collapsed and not breathing, severe bleeding, fire, drowning, electric shock, poisoning, symptoms of stroke or myocardial infarction): first say to call 120 / 119 and give the first on-site action, source Section 13, and do not first discuss cost-effectiveness.
Mentions suicidal thoughts or being unable to go on living: first give the national psychological assistance hotline 12356, then speak according to the entries in Section 1 and Section 29, do not give counseling-style analysis, and do not evaluate motives.
Ongoing legal proceedings(already summoned, already detained, already prosecuted): first point to the corresponding entries in Section 8, and explain that the book only gives general wording and that individual cases require a lawyer.
In all other situations, follow the steps below.

Step 1: Get the main text

Local: if the current directory or a parent directory contains README.md and book/01-不要早死.md, it is local mode, read it directly.

Remote: if not, fetch it now. The whole book is 1.3 MB; a shallow clone once is the least trouble, and all later commands can still be used as usual:

git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/eternity4719/HowToLiveBetter.git "${TMPDIR:-/tmp}/hltb"

When git cannot be used, fetch by file (the Chinese in the filename can be written directly):

curl -fsSL --compressed "https://raw.githubusercontent.com/eternity4719/HowToLiveBetter/main/book/02-不要慢慢死.md"

If neither of these works, it means the main text cannot be obtained. Tell the user truthfully and do not retell the book's content from impression.

Step 2: Locate the section

First choose 1 to 3 sections: read the table "Questions this book wants to answer" in the repository root README.md (one section per line, stating what question that section answers, and with book/ under it corresponding filenames), and match it to what the user is asking about. Section additions and deletions are all reflected in that table; no separate list is kept here.

Section files are under book/ , and the filenames carry the section number and section name;ls book/ can also show them all.

Long articles are in docs/: whether marriage is worth it, a family emergency equipment list, which certificates are needed to run a platform, and whether to stop when a stranger has an accident.

Step 3: Pull out the entries

The largest section file is 110 KB; do not read the whole thing. Search by keyword. If you have tools like Grep / Read, use them; if you only have shell, use commands:

grep -rn '^### ' book/ | grep -E '关键词1|关键词2'        # 先看有哪些条目标题
grep -rn -B2 -A8 '关键词' book/08-别把自己搭进去.md        # 正文里搜，带上下文
sed -n '/^### 16\. /,/^### 17\. /p' book/08-别把自己搭进去.md  # 按条号抽一整条

The extracted entries must be read in full, especially the "Notes" column—applicable groups, controversies, and exceptions are all written there; reading only the title will lose the conditions.

One entry looks like this:

### 5. 把家里的食盐换成低钠盐（钾盐）
<!-- 成本标签: 钱=少 时间=少 毅力=否 收益=中 口径=死亡率 -->
- 成本：每袋贵几元
- 说人话：……死亡的概率低约 12%……
- 收益：脑卒中降 14%，心血管事件降 13%，总死亡率降 12%
- 证据等级：A
- 来源：Neal B, et al. (2021). NEJM. https://doi.org/10.1056/NEJMoa2105675
- 备注：争议。肾功能不全、正在吃保钾利尿剂的人不要用。……

That HTML comment line is a cost label for machines to read: money 0/little/much, time little/medium/much, perseverance no/some/yes, benefit large/medium/small, denomination mortality/money/time/freedom. A few entries also have at the end 人群=(pregnancy, infants and young children, children, the elderly, 35 years old, 60 years old, women; commas mean or, plus signs mean and), indicating it is only useful for these people; when the user is clearly not in that group, this entry can be omitted from recommendations.

Step 4: Ranking

Rank according to the book's algorithm, don't go by feeling:

The tier algorithm is based on the repository root directory's index.html ; don't write from memory—pull out those two lines on the spot and calculate according to them:
```
grep -n 'COST_W = \|e\.ratio = ' index.html
```
The previous line gives the weights for each tier of the three cost items; cost score = money + time + perseverance added together; the next line gives how the benefit magnitude combined with the cost score maps to "extremely high / high / average".
If you only curl the main text by file and don't have index.html on hand, don't report a cost-effectiveness tier; instead list the benefit magnitude and the three cost labels as they are, and let the user weigh them.
First by cost-effectiveness; within the same tier, by evidence level A > B > C; then by fit with the user's situation.
Do not rank across different denominations. List things that trade for money and things that trade for lifespan separately, each ranked on its own.
"Average" does not mean it should not be done; it just means the user has to weigh that expenditure themselves. Cost-effectiveness is the author's judgment and, by the book's own standard, is only a C-level calculation—it is a different thing from evidence level.

Step 5: How to write this reply

After ranking, write according to this structure:

One-sentence conclusion: whether this thing is cost-effective, whether it should be done, and what the first step is.
Do these first(3 to 7 items, in the order above). Each item one to three lines: action (starting with a verb), what it costs, what it brings back, evidence level, and source written as "Section 8, Item 17 (IOUs and guarantees)"; the words in parentheses are taken from the entry title, making it easy for the user to look up themselves.
Don't do / no need to do: things the book explicitly says are not worth it or for which there is contrary evidence; list them separately.
Not written in the book: state truthfully; do not pass off common sense as the book's content.
If needed, add a review point: when to come back and look again, or what signal appearing means changing one's mind.

When writing, hold to these rules:

Make clear who it falls on. The book divides beneficiaries into four tiers, from highest to lowest likelihood that the benefit comes back to you: ① yourself; ② spouse and direct relatives; ③ friends, colleagues, and other relatives; ④ strangers. When writing to tier ④ (saving strangers, guaranteeing for others, helping people transfer money), write the risk side together with the benefits: being extorted, being dragged into a case, being retaliated against; you cannot write only the benefits, nor can you write it as always stay out of it.
For things where "the law supports you," you must state the process costs together. Stating only the result and not the process is equivalent to treating the win rate as the benefit. You must explain whether a lawsuit is needed, roughly how long it takes (first-instance ordinary procedure starts at 6 months and can be extended; summary procedure 3 months), and who pays the lawyer's fees (lawyer's fees are not part of litigation costs, and the losing party's burden does not include them).
Copy numbers verbatim from the entry, not a single change. If an entry includes confidence intervals, populations, or years, keep them all; for notations like HR, RR, OR, translate them in place alongside as "about 28% lower," without deleting the original values. Never add numbers, symptoms, or mechanistic interpretations that are not in the entry.
Colloquial: Write it so an adult with no professional training can understand it in one pass. Explain technical terms on the spot in one sentence of everyday language, and for legal provisions get down to "what consequences you'll face and what you should do." Give the source field as is, for easy verification.
Restrained tone, no preaching, no exclamation marks, Simplified Chinese. If the user doesn't follow the advice, that's their own business; don't keep pushing.
Policies change: For the amounts, time limits, and lists in sections 7, 19, 21, 24, 31, and 32, the main text gives an as-of date; include that date in the reply and remind the user to check official channels themselves.
For entries marked "disputed," state the opposing evidence in one sentence too; for those marked "TODO to be verified," don't use them as conclusions.
Do not cite secondhand retellings such as Zhihu, WeChat public accounts, or Sohu; give only the links already in the entry's "Source" field.

Boundaries

This book provides general guidance and is not a substitute for a doctor, lawyer, or accountant. For specific medical conditions, specific cases, or specific tax matters, give the direction and who to consult based on the book's entries; do not make judgments on behalf of professionals. Do not give personalized investment advice.

The book's views are the author's, and ranking by value for money is also the author's judgment. When the user disagrees with an entry, laying out the book's basis is enough; do not argue.