Where do principles come from?

Where do principles come from?

Kevin Kelly has a similar system to what I call a Service Design Library, he wrote a book with 400+ pieces of advice called Excellent Advice for Living.

In the episode 166 of the Knowledge Project podcast hosted by Shane Parrish, he explains from where do these pieces of advice come from. Here are some quotes of what he said about that:

"So just to back up the general thing of what I was doing was in a curious way, I was writing these bits of advice for myself.

I found that I could make a habit out of something by reducing the idea of it to a little capsule and give it a handle so I could repeat it to myself.

I could remind myself of it. And so I wanted some way to take a lot of big weighty, large advice and reduce it into a proverb that I could repeat.

So that's sort of the origins. I was kind of doing that in my head. I would hear something and I would repeat it to me to remind myself of it.

And so these things have the origin in a sense of like, did they work for me? Do they work for me first? And then I can pass it on.

And then this idea of what I should pass it on. So the second element of this was my three kids, they're all kind of adult now.

(…)

And so, so what I'm doing, that when I'm trying to write down, I'm thinking of a way to kind of encapsulate a lot of information and advice and wisdom into a little tiny device that I can hold on to.

And so, trying to give it a general advice is definitely not about precision. It's about a general, what I call a direction.

It's about moving in the right direction."

Q&A: Service Design Principles Library

Buy nowLearn more

The basics of Service Design Principles

  • ▶️ What's a Service Design Principle?
  • ▶️ Are Service Design principles metaphors or literal?
  • Where do principles come from?
  • What makes a good Service Design Principle?

Writing Service Design Principles

  • How to write a Service Design Principle?
  • How to write a good Service Design principle title
  • How to find the right level of depth for a Service Design Principle?
  • ▶️ How many Principles can you extract from one story?
  • ▶️ I don't like to write, how to write a Service Design Principle?
  • ▶️ How do I edit the text of my Service Design Principles
  • How can I make it easier to come back and edit a Service Design Principle?
  • ▶️ What are apps that make it faster to write Service Design Principles?
  • ▶️ What are apps that help write clearer Service Design Principles?
  • How do Service Design Principles evolve over time?
  • How to name your Service Design Principles?
  • ▶️ What are ethical considerations when building a Service Design Principles Library?
  • ▶️ Where can I find Service Design Principles ideas and inspirations?
  • How long should my principles be?
  • Should my principles be opinionated?
  • What’s a smart way to illustrate a Service Design Principle?

Building a principles library

  • ▶️ What is a Service Design Principles Library?
  • ▶️ Why should I create my own principles library?
  • How to start your own Service Design Principle library?
  • ▶️ What's the minimal version of a Service Design Library?
  • ▶️ How does a Service Design Principle Library look like?
  • ▶️ What are the different types of Service Design Libraries?
  • ▶️ What are the different profiles of people creating a Service Design Library?
  • ▶️ What's the mindset of someone who builds his own Service Design Principles Library?
  • ▶️ How to organize your Service Design Principles Library?
  • ▶️ What tools to use to create your own Service Design Principles Library?
  • How do I manage the references of my Service Design Principles?
  • ▶️ What are recommended books to start your Service Design Library?

The habit of collecting Service Design Principles

  • What are metrics you can track in your service design principle library?
  • ▶️ What are healthy goals to have for a Service Design Principles Library?
  • ▶️ What are daily practices I could have to build my own Service Design Library?
  • ▶️ How can you create your writing routine?
  • ▶️ How hard should you work on your Service Design Principles Library?
  • ▶️ How to keep the motivation when building a Principles Library over years

Shared Principles Library and Library for teams

  • How to pitch the value of Service Design principles?
  • What are the advantages of writing your Service Design Principles in the open and how to do it?
  • ▶️ Should you co-create service design principles?
  • ▶️ How to define principles for a project?
  • ▶️ How to build a Service Design Library Principles for a team?
  • ▶️ How can you make a Service Design Principles Library that is useful for others too?