less_retarded_wiki/how_to.md

# How To

WELCOME TRAVELER

{ Don't hesitate to contact me. ~drummyfish }

Are you tired of [bloat](bloat.md) and can't stand [shitty](shit.md) software like [Windows](windows.md) anymore? Do you want to [kill yourself](suicide.md)? Do you hate [capitalism](capitalism.md)? Do you also hate the [fascist alternatives](tranny_software.md) you're being offered? Do you just want to create a genuinely good [bullshitless](bullshit.md) technology that would help all people? Do you just want to share knowledge freely without [censorship](censorship.md)? You have come to the right place.

Firstly let us welcome you, no matter who you are, no matter your political opinions, your past and your skills, color or shape of your genitalia, we are glad to have you here. Remember, you don't have to be a programmer to help and enjoy LRS. LRS is a lifestyle, a philosophy. Whether you are a programmer, artist, educator or just someone passing by, you are welcome, you may enjoy our culture and its fruit and if you want, you can help enrich it.

## What This Article Is About

OK, let's say this is a set of general advice, life heuristics, pointers and basics of our philosophy, something to get you started, give you a point of view aligned with what we do, help you make a decision here and there, help you free yourself. Remember that by definition **nothing we ever advice is a commandment** or a rule you mustn't ever break, that would be wrong in itself. Some things also may be yet a "thought in progress" and change.

### How To Read This How To

Use your eyes to read the letters from left to right and top to bottom. If this is too hard read a how to read a how to read a how to.

### Required Time To Read

Depends on how fast you read.

### What You Will Learn

You will learn things that are both:

- written here and
- you didn't know before

### Prerequisits

- brain
- eyes (not needed if you're using TTS)

### Where To Go Next

Wherever you want, this is no dictatorship.

## Moderacy (Middle Way) Vs Extremism

An important issue of many ideologies/philosophies/religions/etc. has shown to be striking the right balance between moderacy and extremism. Let's sum up the two stances:

- **extremism**: Being extreme in applying the ideas and principles, holding to one's ideals extremely strongly, many times resulting in blind orthodoxy, [shortcut thinking](shortcut_thinking.md), blindly following rules and commandments such as "I must never do X", "X implies Y" etc. Extremism is not bad per se, in fact it is many times preferred, advised and necessary, however one has to be aware of the dangers. It may lead to becoming a brainwashed religion follower whose pursuit of perfectionism and purism result in more bad than good.
- **moderacy**: Being moderate, holding to ideals only loosely, sometimes leading to pragmatism, "ends justify the means", hypocrisy, conveniently modifying rules on the go etc. Moderacy is also not bad as such, but also comes with many dangers. It may lead to becoming an immoral self-centered sheep conformist and even practically abandoning one's ideals, giving up ([everyone does it](everyone_does_it.md), "Yeah I don't really like capitalism, but that's how it is so I'll just play along for now."), lying to oneself ("I do so much good by setting an Ukrainian flag as my facebook profile picture!").

**Where does the balance lie?** TBH this is a very hard question and we don't know the correct answer so far, perhaps there is no simple answer. Figuring this out may be one of the most difficult parts of our philosophy. The first good step is definitely to realize the issue, become aware of it, and start considering it in making one's important decisions. Choosing one or another should, as always, be done by ultimately aiming for our ideals, not for one's own benefit, though of course as any mere living being one will never be able to be completely objective and free himself from things such as fear and self-preservation instincts. If you make a bad decision, don't bash yourself, you are just mere mortal, acknowledge your mistake, forgive yourself and move on, there is no use in torturing yourself. One should perhaps not try to stick to either extremism and moderacy as a rule, but rather try to apply a differently balanced mix of both to any important decision that appears before him -- when unsure about the balance, a middle way between is probably safest, but when you strongly feel one way is morally more right, go for it.

Examples from LRS point of view:

- Is it OK to ever use violence? Here LRS takes the extremist way of strongly saying no -- according to us violence is always bad and we define this as an [axiom](axiom.md), something without a need of proof, it is the very foundation of our movement and not acknowledging it would simply mean it's not LRS anymore. However a bit of moderacy may also appear here; if for example someone uses violence in a desperate attempt to protect one's child, though we won't embrace the action we won't condemn the man either -- he committed a "sin", did something wrong, but in his situation there was really no right thing to do, so what should we blame him for, for being a subject of unfortunate situation?
- Is it OK to sometimes use proprietary software? Here for example [Richard Stallman](rms.md)/FSF/[GNU](gnu.md) take the extremist stance and say no, proprietary software is the literal [devil](devil.md) and though shalt evade it for all cost (in fact GNU will put effort in purposefully breaking compatibility with proprietary software, which is borderline capitalist behavior similar to artificial obsolescence etc.). While we agree it is a good general rule to avoid software whose purpose is almost exclusively the abuse of its user, we may be more tolerant and allow breaking the rule sometimes, because to us proprietary software is nothing set in any axiom, it is just a symptom resulting from bad society. As a non-axiom it should be a subject to constant reevaluation against the main goal. A simple commandment of "NO TOUCH NOTHING PROPRIETARY" is a good tool for a newcomer, it is a simple to follow rule of thumb that teaches him to find free replacements and alternatives, however once one becomes advanced and eventually a master of the freedom philosophy, he sees things aren't as simple to be solved by one simple rule, just as a master of music knows when to break basic rules of thumb, when to leave the scale, break the rhythm to make excellent music. Here we see it similarly: When touching proprietary software doesn't result in significant harm (such as supporting its developer, becoming addicted to it, getting abused by it, ...) and when it does significant good (e.g. inspires creation of its free clone, reveals the mechanisms by which it abuses its users, ...), it may in fact be good to do so.
- Should you oppose your boss at work, deny to serve him in unethical practice because he is a filthy capitalist and so make trouble for yourself, possibly even get fired for it? Well, this is not so easy again; a strict extremist anticapitalist here would just stay without a job because he couldn't work as any work supports capitalism. On the other hand such a guy would just be homeless, rid of any practical opportunity to create and do good, and would probably die soon anyway. Here it's more or less a question of personal tuning, finding the "least harmful" job, minimizing time spent at it so as to be able to do good in spare time, opposing your boss sometimes but not every single time, not really building a career so that you may quit at any moment etc. Until we have [basic income](ubi.md) or something, you are more or less [doomed](doom.md) to suffer dealing with this on your own sadly.

## Tech

Here are some extremely basic steps to take regarding technology and the technological aspect of LRS:

- **Learn about the most essential topics and concepts**, mainly [free software](free_software.md), "[open-source](open_source.md)", [bloat](bloat.md), [minimalism](minimalism.md), [kiss](kiss.md), [capitalism](capitalism.md), [capitalist_software](capitalist_software.md), [suckless](suckless.md), [LRS](lrs.md), [less retarded society](less_retarded_society.md), [anacho pacifism](anpac.md), [type A/B fail](fail_ab.md) etc. You will also need to open up your mind and re-learn some toxic concepts you've been taught by the system, e.g. [we do NOT fight anything](fight_culture.md), we do NOT create any [heroes](hero.md), "leaders" or celebrities (we follow ideas, not people), admit [work](work.md) is shit, older is better than "[modern](modern.md)" etc.
- **Install [GNU](gnu.md)/[Linux](linux.md)** operating system to free yourself from shit like [Windows](windows.md) and [Mac](mac.md) (you can also consider [BSD](bsd.md) and similar free OSes but you're yet probably too noob for that at this point). Do NOT try to switch to "Linux" right away if it's your first time, it's almost impossible, you want to just install "Linux" as [dual boot](dual_boot.md) (alongside your main OS) or on another computer (easier). This way you'll be using both operating systems, slowly getting more comfortable with "Linux" and eventually you'll find yourself uninstalling Windows altogether. You can also just try "Linux" in a [virtual machine](vm.md), from a live CD/flash drive or you can buy something with "Linux" preinstalled like [Raspberry Pi](raspberry.md). **Which "Linux" to install?** There are many options and as a noob you don't have to go hardcore right away, just install any [distro](distro.md) that [just werks](just_werks.md) (don't listen to people who tell you to install [Gentoo](gentoo.md) tho). Remember, perfect distro doesn't exist, all tech is shit nowadays, just choose something and go with it. You can try these:
  - [Devuan](devuan.md): Nice, [LRS](lrs.md) approved distro that respects your [freedom](free_software.md) that just works, is easy to install and is actually nice. Good for any skill level.
  - [Debian](debian.md): Like Devuan but uses the evil [systemd](systemd.md) which doesn't have to bother you at this point. Try Debian if Devuan doesn't work for any reason.
  - [Mint](mint.md): More noob, [bloated](bloat.md) and mainstream distro that only mildly cares about freedom, but is extremely easy and works almost everywhere. Try this if Debian didn't work for you.  
  - [Ubuntu](ubuntu.md): Kind of like Mint, try it if Mint didn't work.
  - [Puppy](puppy.md) Linux: Tiny kind of a "toy" distro that uses very little resources.
- **Learn a bit of [command line](cli.md)** ([Unix](unix.md) utils, [bash](bash.md) etc.). No need to become a hacker right away, just get familiar with this essential Unix environment.
- **Free yourself technologically**, i.e. make yourself depend as little as possible on capitalist technology; this step if crucial, you can't really live well or achieve anything while being a slave. This includes firstly leaving proprietary platforms such as [Facebook](facebook.md), [Google](google.md)'s platforms such as [YouTube](youtube.md), [reddit](reddit.md) etc. Also stop being dependent on proprietary programs ([MS](microsoft.md) office, [photoshop](photoshop.md) etc.), and proprietary consumer devices such as a [smartphone](smartphone.md). Again, it's impossible to free yourself 100% immediately, go slowly and try to get more freedom even if you can't achieve 100% freedom. This means either stop using harmful software/services/devices and engaging in bad habits (social media etc.) or at least minimize their use, and/or use more freedom-friendly alternatives such as different [search engines](search_engine.md) (e.g. [searx](searx.md), ...), a [dumbphone](dumbphone.md) or at least [free](free_software.md) OS smartphone rather than capitalist [smartphone](smartphone.md), freedom friendly laptop (e.g. an old [thinkpad](thinkpad.md)) rather than iShit or consumerist gayming PC, start using **[FOSS](foss.md) programs**, e.g. [GIMP](gimp.md) instead of Photoshop, [LibreOffice](libreoffice.md) instead of MS Office etc, [invidious](invidious.md) or [Peertube](peertube.md) instead of [YouTube](youtube.md) etc. Remember, it is best if you can stop using something altogether, the second best thing is to stop being dependent on a single entity, try to use a decentralized and/or [suckless](suckless.md) [FOSS](foss.md) alternative but do not try to just mimic your old habits in the FOSS world, you have to learn new ways of computing (for example start using multiple search engines instead of relying on one, it's not good to just drop-in replace one search engine for another). Avoid falling to traps of shit like [distrohopping](distrohopping.md), this just enslaves you in a different way.
- If you want to program [LRS](lrs.md), **learn [C](c.md)** (see the [tutorial](c_tutorial.md)). Also learn a bit of [POSIX shell](posix_shell.md) and maybe some mainstream [scripting](script.md) language (can be even a bloated one like [Python](python.md)). Learn about [licensing](license.md) and [version control](vcs.md) ([git](git.md)). As you advance, start studying deeper topics such as [history](history.md) or [hacker culture](hacking.md) etc.
- Optionally make your own minimal [website](web.md) (or even a [gopherhole](gopher.md)) to help reshare ideas you like (static  [HTML](html.md) site without [JavaScript](javascript.md)). This is very easy, and the site can be hosted for free e.g. on [git](git.md) hosting sites like Codeberg or GitLab. Get in touch with us.
- **Start creating**: either programs or other stuff like [free art](free_culture.md), educational materials etc. Remember, creating is the most important thing to do, it is more important than setting up a perfectly free suckless LRS system, don't fall to the trap of becoming obsessed and paralyzed by hopping, ricing etc. Your system is just a tool, it is worth nothing if it's not used for creating something, and it doesn't really matter which text editor or operating system you used to write your program.
- profit???

Would you like to create [LRS](lrs.md) but don't have enough spare time/money to make this possible? You can check out [making living](living.md) with LRS.

### How To Make A Website

{ If you REALLY want something dead simple to quickly make a site, try https://rentry.co. Making a real custom website is still better if you can. ~drummyfish }

Making your own tiny independent website is pretty simple and a very good thing to do for being able to share opinions and files relatively freely -- using "social networks" for sharing non-mainstream stuff will not work as these get hardcore censored (yes, even the "FOSS" ones like [Mastodon](mastodon.md) etc.). By making your own website you also help decentralize the [web](www.md) again, take a bit of control from the [corporations](corporation.md), and you can greatly help others by sharing useful information with them. See also [smol internet](smol_internet.md). Watch out though, getting into controversial topics on your site will nowadays greatly complicate your life, so firstly set up some "neutral" site and once you get into it, look for ways to somehow add [free speech](free_speech.md) to that. Even if you keep using mainstream social media, it's good to also have your own site and have a link to it on your profile.

Also please take a look at [gopher](gopher.md) (a much better alternative to web) and how to make your own gopherhole -- mainstream web is really becoming unusable, uninhabitable and will die soon, moving to gopher (or hosting your site both on the web and gopher, which is the best option possibly) is a good thing to do, you will not only simplify your life and avoid a lot of censorship but you will also support this smaller network. Another way of sharing your stuff is through things like [torrents](torrent.md), [IPFS](ipfs.md) and so on. But back to websites now.

Here we will quickly sum up how to make a **[static](static.md), single page plain [HTML](html.md) website without TLS (https)**, which should suffice for most things (sharing opinions, contacts, files, multimedia, simple blogging, ...). Once you get more advanced you can do fancy stuff like this wiki (multi-page wiki written in [Markdown](markdown.md), compiled to HTML with a shell script etc.).

**NOTE on TLS (https)**: most sites on the web nowadays use encryption for MUH SECURITY obsession and also web browsers kinda prefer such sites etc. (in the future it will probably be required but by then we'll already be elsewhere) -- such site addresses are prefixed with `https://`, as opposed to normal non-encrypted `http://`. [Encryption](encryption.md) is huge [bloat](bloat.md) and mess to set up, normally you need to pay extra money to get a [certificate](certificate.md) for it (though services like Let's Encrypt provide certificates for free) etc. -- basically you only need encryption if you have an interactive site where passwords or other sensitive info gets sent, a purely static site basically doesn't need encryption at all, however if your site doesn't support encryption it may get some penalty by search engines and browsers as they won't "trust it as much", it's just a form of internet bullying for not conforming to latest encryption hysteria. All in all if you can set up encryption easily (e.g. with a single button on your web hosting provider site), do it just for the sake of normies; if you are experienced and can set it up yourself easily, also do it, but if not, just don't care about it and run your site on `http://` only, at least for now until you get into this stuff. Also very importantly **always support plain unencrypted http** even if you set up https, otherwise you're bullying simple browsers that don't implement encryption.

Now **do NOT follow mainstream tutorials on making website** (Wordpress, PHP, static generators, ...) -- these are absolute horseshit and just follow ugly capitalist ways, you will just get brain cancer. Also do NOT use any frameworks; **do NOT even use static site generators** -- these are not needed at all! All you really need for making a small website is:

- **[Plain text](plain_text.md) editor** (gedit, [geany](geany.md), [vim](vim.md), [emacs](emacs.md), [ed](ed.md), ...). This is easy, just download it. Just don't use a [rich text](rich_text.md) editor (MS Office, Libreoffice, ...), ok? That doesn't work!
- **Static site hosting**, i.e. a publicly accessible web server to store your site on, which will serve the site to clients. You have several options here:
  - There exist free static site hosting services, e.g. those on many [git](git.md) hosting platforms like [GitLab](gitlab.md) or [Codeberg](codeberg.md) (even [GitHub](github.md), but avoid that one if possible), on [pubnix](pubnix.md) or sites like [neocities](neocities.md). You may just search for *free web hosting* on [wiby](wiby.md) or something. Here you may still encounter some censorship, but it can be a good start. Just search their site for details on how to host a site there -- usually you will get an [FTP](ftp.md) or [SSH](ssh.md) access and just upload your website there. Some have normie friendly web interface so you don't even have to deal with [command line](cli.md), but it's better to not rely on them, learn to do it properly.
  - You may host your site at home, typically using [Raspberry Pi](rpi.md). This doesn't really cost anything as the weaker Raspberrys (e.g. 3B) consume negligible amount of electricity, and for non-extreme traffic you won't even need a super high speed connection (especially considering you will make a very tiny, efficient website). This is a very good option as practically no one will be able to censor you (only police and ISP), but it's also a tiny bit more difficult to set up because firstly you need to set up a webserver ([Apache](apache.md) is usually installed on any GNU/Linux distro though, it's really easy to do) and secondly you NEED A PUBLIC [IP ADDRESS](ip_address.md) (as typically you will be behind a [NAT](nat.md) so that computers from outside can't reach your server, but if you have an IPv6 IP address you may already be publicly accessible!): you will probably have to ask your [internet provider](isp.md) for it (maybe you already have it, maybe they will give it to you for free, maybe you'll have to pay some small fee; just ask). Then you will also need to set up port forwarding on your [router](router.md) so that the requests from the outside are redirected to your web server computer (Raspberry Pi) -- this is just done in router settings by entering the IP address of the webserver computer somewhere. It is possible to **self host even without public IP (if you're behind NAT)** using tunneling -- it's not hard, don't worry, you don't have to mess with DNS or firewalls -- check out e.g. the [localtunnel](localtunnel.md) project, http://localhost.run/ etc., you can find these by looking up e.g. "public localhost", "hosting behind NAT" and so on. Usually this works by you running a program which connects to someone else's public server which will assign you some subdomain and accessing that subdomain will make the public server redirect the traffic to your computer (the catch may be e.g. in that your subdomain will be randomly generated and may change each time you restart the program).
  - You may also pay for a web hosting (i.e. a server computer a company runs for you and which you access remotely) or a [VPS](vps.md) (basically renting a server for more generic use). VPS  has basically the same advantages as having your own home server (i.e. you can often do many things like host game servers, dynamic websites, [gopher](gopher.md) sites etc.), but it's a lot more expensive than just web hosting (i.e. renting a hosting space only for a website); if you ARE looking for VPS, look for UNMANAGED VPS (unmanaged means they won't handhold you and it's a lot cheaper). Price of really basic web hosting may even go as low as $2 or $1 per month, however an issue arises if you want to host **controversial and/or NSFW content**, for example politically incorrect site, criticizing mainstream politics, questioning soyence and history (covid vaccines, Holocaust, 9/11, ...) supporting "conspiracy theories", having gore or porn etc. It is really hard to find a host for that, keywords to search for are *free speech offshore web hosting*; however though many boast by hosting free speech, they actually don't or are scammers, ALWAYS read their terms of service and see what they allow etc. You may be forced to host at home here, but then your ISP may start bullying you in the same way, so really you may even need to use [Tor](tor.md) or something. We won't cover this here much more, it's a pretty complex stuff.
- Optionally buy a domain name (search web for domain registrars), for example *mycoolsite.party*. If you are using a free hosting service, you will get a subdomain for free and don't have to care about this (but can still also use your own domain if you have it and want to). If you have your own home server, you probably want to buy a domain because otherwise people would have to connect to your site by literally typing an IP address to the browser. Once you have the domain, you want to edit the [DNS](dns.md) records of your domain to point to the IP address of your server (i.e. you want to add an "A record"): how exactly to do this depends on the registrar (they will have some kinda online system to edit the records).

For starters try to go the easiest way: use some free static site hosting without a domain name. Later, once you get comfortable, you may transition to self-hosting with your custom domain.

Now you have to make the actual website in [HTML](html.md). For that create a new file and name it `index.html` (the name has to be such as this is the default page name for websites). In it copy-paste the following:

```
<html>
<head>
</head>

<body>

<h1> My Awesome Website </h1>

</body>
</html>
```

This is really a bare-minimum testing website -- to expand it see the article on [HTML](html.md).

Now you have to upload this html file to the hosting server -- check out the details of your hosting server on how to do this (you may e.g. need to use [git](git.md) or [ftp](ftp.md) to upload the file). And that's basically it, the rest is just expanding your site, making scripts to automatize uploading etc.

### How To Make A Wiki Like This One

Do NOT use wikifarms (sites that allow you to easily set up your own wiki) like fandom: all are [bloated](bloat.md) and most importantly [censored](censorship.md). Also you will tie yourself to their shitty formats, clouds and databases and won't be able to easily migrate. Just avoid this.

First step to do is set up some kind of independent "online presence" like a website or gopherhole described above. Then you may either go the mainstream way and set up e.g. MediaWiki (the software used by [Wikipedia](wikipedia.md)) OR, better, do something like our [LRS wiki](lrs_wiki.md) does, i.e. [keep it simple](kiss.md) and start writing articles in some super simple format like [Markdown](md.md), plain [HTML](html.md) or even [plain text](plain_text.md). To convert these articles into a wiki you basically just make a small [shell](shell.md) script that just converts the format you write the articles in to a format you publish them in (so for example Markdown to HTML pages) and possibly automatically creates things like a list of all articles or a simple navigation bar on top of each page. You don't have to know any advanced programming at all, the script can literally be like 5 lines that just invoke [CLI](cli.md) utilities that convert formats and copy files.

If you want, just literally take this wiki and make it your own, you can get the source code (there is link to the git repo somewhere nearby) and it's completely legally [public domain](public_domain.md). It works basically as just described -- you write articles in markdown and convert them to HTML or TXT with a bash script, then you just upload this all to you online hosting (possibly with another script) and voila, it's done.

### How To Learn Compsci/Programming

TODO: some kinda way/plan to learning this from start to finish

Some articles with tutorials and how tos related to this:

- [programming](programming.md)
- [C tutorial](c_tutorial.md)
- ...

## How To Live, Dos and Don'ts

This is a summary of some main guidelines on how an LRS supporter should behave in general so as to stay consistent with LRS philosophy, however it is important that this is shouldn't be taken as rules to be blindly followed -- the last thing we want is a religion of brainwashed NPCs who blindly follow orders. One has to understand why these principles are in place and even potentially modify them.

- If you want, **get in contact with like minded people**, for example [us](lrs.md) :) It's OK not to, not everyone is social, but it's nice to be part of a group where people understand each other, support each other, inspire each other, ... Even lurking helps many times. **Where to find such people?** Definitely not on mainstream platforms, they are mostly in the [underground](underground.md): as a tech minimalist search for "platforms" you would yourself use -- that's where you will likely find people like yourself. Good places to start are for example [gopher](gopher.md), [wiby](wiby.md), [suckless](suckless.md), [IRC](irc.md), [mailing lists](mailing_list.md), obscure online libre [games](game.md) etc. If you set up a website (or gopher hole) where you publish nice stuff, people will find you and contact you themselves. { I found many friends in [Xonotic](xonotic.md) and [OpenArena](openarena.md), as well as thanks to writings and programs I put on the internet. ~drummyfish }
- **Do NOT [fight](fight_culture.md)**, do NOT say you fight something. Fighting and rhetoric centered around "fighting something" is part of harmful [fight culture](fight_culture.md), most people don't even realize they take part in it. It is important to unlearn this. We do not want to defeat anyone, we want to convince by means of rationality, nonviolence and love. However note that what is unacceptable to do to a living being may be completely acceptable to do to non living object (for example destroying a corporation is OK, in fact it is very desirable). We often take actions that common people would call a "fight" (for example we may organize a strike), however it is important that we don't call it a fight -- a point of view is sometimes as important as the action itself as it will determine our future direction. Remember that [naming is important](name_is_important.md). **Watch out for [A/B fails](fail_ab.md)**.
- **Do NOT worship or create [heroes](hero_culture.md), don't become one**. Watch out for [cult of personality](cult_of_personality.md). It is another common mistake to for example call [Richard Stallman](rms.md) a "hero of free software" and to even worship him as a celebrity. The concept of a hero is [harmful](harmful.md), rightist concept that is connected to war mentality, it goes against [anarchist](anarchism.md) principles, it creates social hierarchy and given some people a power to deceive. People are imperfect and make mistake -- only ideas can be perfect. Respect people but don't make anyone your moral compass, you should rather subscribe to specific ideas, i.e. rather than worshipping Stallman subscribe to and promote his idea of [free software](free_software.md).
- **Do not [identify](identity.md) with specific groups and organizations** -- this one is tricky because there is a fine line between many people together agreeing on an idea (good) and those people creating a formal hierarchical group which sooner or later inevitably becomes [fascist](fascism.md) or at the very least corrupt, eventually to the degree of betraying its original beliefs (bad). Remember principles of [anarchism](anarchism.md): loosely associate with others but do not create power structures and hierarchies. An example here may be supporting [free software](free_software.md) (good) vs supporting the (now greatly corrupt) [Free Software Foundation](fsf.md) (bad). Free software as an idea is pure and good, in merely supporting the idea we will not create any hierarchy of people, power structures or attach other unrelated ideas to ride on the free software wave (e.g. that of [political correctness](political_correctness.md) now promoted by the FSF). They say there is strength in unity, that is true, but there are different kinds of unity, and if perhaps one kind of unity (the bad one) is momentarily stronger, it is so because it's the "dark side of the force": yes, it may be stronger, but it is evil. Resist this urge. For this we also don't want to start any formal [LRS](lrs.md) group.
- **CREATE, do NOT waste your life on [bullshit](bullshit.md), do NOT get too obsessed with tools and hopping** such as [distrohopping](distrohopping.md), [githopping](githopping.md) [audiophilia](audiophilia.md), hardware consumerism, 100% minimalist perfectionism etc. The perfect is the enemy of the good. Remember, the goal of your life is to create something new and better; too many people just get stuck doing nothing but switch distros, rant about which editor is best, making sure their OS has zero bloat and zero proprietary code etc. If that's all you do, it's completely useless, your life is completely wasted. Dedicate time to creating art that will last, e.g. programming [LRS](lrs.md) (creating source code text) or making free cultural art -- it doesn't matter whether you create it with Ubuntu or Gentoo.
- **Lead an example**, this is the best way to spread our values, however be also extremely careful not to become a worshipped [authority](hero_culture.md). Know the difference between a humble intellectual authority and an authoritative self-centered celebrity who uses his fame for deception. The more famous you are, the more humble you should become.
- **Be [loving](love.md), even towards opposition** -- remember: hate and revenge towards people perpetuates the endless circle. [Love](love.md) leads to more love, understanding, good deeds, friendship, happiness, collaboration and all the other positive things. **Do not confuse love with [political correctness](political_correctness.md)**. You may get angry or frustrated, just don't get violent against, rather try to break something, write your anger out, play some video game etc.
- **Don't be [politically correct](political_correctness.md)**, never use gender neutral pronouns (always use "he" as the default pronoun), don't be afraid to say forbidden words like [nigger](nigger.md), never use any [code of coercion](coc.md), "personal pronouns" etc. Even if you think you're moderate in views and that it "can't hurt" to just "play along" a little bit, IT DOES HURT, you are approving of fascism and carrying its flag, remember that Nazism only got so big thanks to a nation of moderate people who just "played along" to avoid trouble. There is always only very few true extremists, a great evil relies on masses of people who just want to get by and will make no trouble in conforming. Remember that staying silent often means supporting status quo, so the more deceit you see in society, the more you should try to not stay silent and the more you should try to tell the truth.
- **Try to do [selfless](selflessness.md) things** -- TRULY selfless ones. Help those in need without expecting any kind of repay, do not even seek attention or gratitude for it, only your good feeling. Create selfless art, whatever it is you enjoy doing -- computer programs, 3D models, music, videos, ... put them in the [public domain](public_domain.md) and let others enjoy them :) Try to **make doing good things a habit** -- some people smoke, drink, overeat and do other kinds of things harmful to themselves and their environment as means for relieving stress. If you exploit this natural human tendency and rather develop GOOD habits, such as writing free software or helping charities as a means of relaxing and relieving stress, you have won at life; doing good and feeling good will be natural and effortless. **The thing you dedicate your life to should be the thing you love, not the thing that earns you money** or benefits you in similar ways -- try to maximize doing what you love (which may and probably should be more than one thing) and also **try to love doing what is good** so that you can do it a lot. **If you love something, never do it for money**; then it becomes business and as we know, business spoils everything.
- **Protest in non-violent ways** -- this doesn't mean you should be passive; you should be exposing the truth, propaganda, corruption, boycotting corporations and state, promoting your values and expressing disagreement with certain ideas, but do not aim for destruction of those who stand in opposition -- if you're attacked, it is best if you do not fight back; not only is this the morally ideal thing to do, it also sends a very powerful message and makes the aggressor himself think.
- **Try to be so that if everyone was like that, the society would be good (in agreement with [LRS](less_retarded_society.md))** -- this is a good general [rule of thumb](rule_of_thumb.md) (and as such may also possibly fail sometimes, be careful) that can help you make some difficult decisions. DO NOT confuse this advice with the ["do unto others as you would have them do unto you"](do_unto_others.md) advice, that is indeed a [shitty](shit.md) one, supposing everyone likes the same things, i.e. for example a man who enjoys being [raped](rape.md) is advised here to go and rape others -- that's of course bad.
- **Do NOT support [pseudoleft](pseudoleft.md) ([LGBT](lgbt.md), [feminism](feminism.md), [Antifa](antifa.md), [soyence](soyence.md) ...)**, don't become [type A fail](fail_ab.md). Of course you should equally reject [rightism](right.md), but that goes without saying.
- **[Free](freedom.md) yourself from the system** (and generally from as many things as possible) -- similarly to how you free yourself technologically, free yourself also socially, live frugally and minimize your expenses. Stop consuming, stop living in luxury, stop spending money for shit (gyms, sports, clothes, car, streaming services, games, cigarettes, ...), use free things that people throw away and enjoy hobbies that are cheap (programming, reading books, going for walks, playing chess, collecting [rocks](rock.md), ...). **Stop watching news** (it's just brainwashing and distraction, what's really important will get to you anyway), stop engaging in fashion, stop talking to retards and watching tiktok manipulators. You need very little to live, you don't even need internet connection; with good computing you can hack offline and only connect to the internet once in a while on some public wifi to download emails and upload your programs. **Stop using [cellphone](phone.md)** (if you need it e.g. for banking, just use it for banking and don't carry it around with you, don't make it something you need with you). Make yourself self sufficient, prepare for the [collapse](collapase.md). If you can live somewhere in the woods and would enjoy it, go for it.
- **Adopt [defeatism](defeatism.md)**; [optimism](optimism.md) is harmful, learn to be [pessimistic](pessimism.md) -- this stops you from engaging in [fight culture](fight_culture.md) and makes you free to behave morally, you will seize to be the slave of bullshit necessary for winning the capitalist game and you'll no longer be working for [capitalism](capitalism.md).
- **Search for the [truth](truth.md)**. You won't find it easily, real truth is always censored and hidden (though often in plain sight), but you can train yourself to spot propaganda and see the red flags. You won't find truth through Google, use different sources, read old books, [encyclopedias](encyclopedia.md) and different points of view (e.g. contrast articles on [Wikipedia](wikipedia.md) with those on [Infogalactic](infogalactic.d)). Learn foreign and old langages such as [Latin](latin.md) so that you can read untranslated and first hand historical accounts. **Question EVERYTHING** (absolutely everything, even this statement). Do not fall into traps such as [pseudoskepticism](pseudoskepticism.md). Train your mind to think critically, avoid [shortcut thinking](shortcut_thinking.md), question your own biased beliefs and wishes.
- **Reject harmful things like [proprietary](proprietary.md) software, [capitalism](capitalism.md), [copyright](copyright.md), [bloat](bloat.md), [work](work.md) etc.** Use and promote the ethical equivalents, i.e. [free software](free_software.md), [free culture](free_culture.md), frugality, [anarchism](anarchism.md) etc.
- **[Don't argue with retards](cant_argue_with_idiot.md)** with the goal of convincing him or winning the argument so that you feel good (the meaning of retard here is simply someone disagreeing with LRS). It's literally wasted time/energy and it's bad for your mental health, it leads nowhere and achieves nothing but make your more suicidal than you already are. You literally can NOT convince anyone who is not open to being convinced, it is impossible, even if you have 100000 mathematical proofs, real world evidence, literature supporting you and anything you can imagine, you cannot logically convince someone who doesn't know how logic works or someone who simply emotionally isn't ready to change his mind. In 99.999999999999999% cases you can tell if it's worth to talk to someone after his first reaction -- you present an idea, such as LRS, and if he just expresses disagreement, there is no point in communicating further, by the disagreement he has taken a defensive stance and will hold it for the rest of his life now, you have to go find someone else. NO, not even if he's an "intellectual", has PhD and thirty Nobel Prizes, if he doesn't wanna see the truth, you cannot help him. As it's been said, trying to argue with an idiot is like trying to win a chess game against a pidgeon -- even if you're the world chess champion, the pidgeon will just shit on the board and think it's won. If you spot a retard, just leave -- don't try to have the last word or anything, even admit him "victory" in the argument and leave him in his world of delusion where he is the unappreciated Einstein, just do not waste an extra second on him, just leave and go do something better. { So many such idiots I have met I can't even count it -- pure stupid peasant aren't even that bad, the wost are the "above averge" intelligence reddit atheists who think they're smart. I literally had such people argue like "you like games therefore competition in society is good because games are part of society therefore society equals competition". Truly I'm not sure if those bastards are just trolling me into suicide or are really so fucking dumb :D ~drummyfish }
- Similarly **avoid [toxic](toxic.md) communities**, don't argue, just leave, it's better to be alone than in bad company. Basically anything with a COC, language filter, SJW vibe, rainbow etc. isn't even more worth checking out.
- **Be a [generalist](generalism.md), see the big picture, study the whole world, educate yourself**, do not become overspecialized in the capitalist way. Sure you may become an expert at something, but not for the price of making your view of the world too narrow. You may spend most of your time studying and programming computer compilers for example, but still do (and enjoy) other things, for example reading fiction, studying religions, languages, psychology, playing [go](go.md), making music, building houses, painting, doing sports, ... Learn to enjoy to educate yourself! Education (not necessarily formal) is one of the most valuable things you can get -- no one can take it away from you, it makes you see truth more clearly and though this itself makes you more depressed, it also frees you in many ways, for example knowing languages enables you to read more books and live in more places and talk to more people and you can get a comfy job as a translator if you need money, knowing chess makes you able to entertain yourself without a computer, knowing programming enables you to write your own programs if good ones aren't available, and so on. Education makes you see through other people's lies. It is fine to be retarded, remain ignorant and just play video games all days, your value as a living being will lower that way, but you will forever remain among the retarded majority manipulated by the tides of society, even if you have good opinions and correct views, you'll stay just another retard, you won't be able to help others, you'll be paralyzed, leaving the burden and joy of helping the world on others -- just decide if that is what you want. Have you always admired that someone can play a piano? Why not learn it then? Get some cheap keyboard and make it a habit to practice playing it at least 20 minutes every other day, see how good you become in a year. Were you always bad at chemistry? Why not fix it a bit? Get some chemistry for dummies book and read it every day before sleep, you will go from absolute chemistry retard to well above average soon. You can learn about start constelations, biology, history, train card games, memorize pi digits, run half marathon, learn juggling, write your own small book etcetc. A nice life hack is to **see life as an RPG game**, see yourself as a character you are improving, by improving skills you are unlocking new abilities, enabling new options, increasing your stats -- however be very careful to not become competitive or fall victim to the ["self-improvement" cult](productivity_cult.md)! The key is to not start comparing yourself to other, or rather to not have it as a goal to be better than someone else, the goal should be just your happiness of becoming a higher level living entity that has more abilities for helping other, enjoy the universe and so on.
- **Stop just bitching around and DO SOMETHING** -- don't get this wrong, bitching around and ranting is great, this whole wiki is just one huge wall of rage bitching, however if it's all you do, it literally achieves nothing, it won't convince a single man, no one will read that shit, you are just wasting huge part of your life by being angry on the Internet. First thing you have to do is DO SOMETHING, e.g. if you promote minimalism, go and make a minimalist game, show others it works, prove (even to yourself) the thing you believe in is good, bitching about the world is only to come as a supplement to your main work -- your rants aren't there to convince anyone, your art does that, your writings are there for the people who are already convinced to help them educate themselves further. Consider this: you may spend whole life writing 100 books about how minimalism is awesome, you may examine the whole history in detail, provide mathematical proofs of everything and suggest a completely working system that could be established to solve all the problems in the world -- no one is going to read this. Literally not a single man will give a shit. On the other hand you can take a year to program a minimalist operating system, one that is 1000 times smaller than Linux and is 10 times faster and is completely public domain and basically rapes Linux in every other way, you just post that somewhere and people just can't ignore it, you put before their eyes something they can literally see is infinitely better than what was there before, you instantly get thousands of people hooked and they start creating more art like this. You just changed the world significant for the better in just one year. Note this isn't an argument for chasing popularity at all, on the contrary, your actions will likely contradict the popular and even cause a lot of hate, however realize that words are just words, there are too many words everywhere, words can lie and they never achieve anything by themselves, good is achieved and proven by actions.
- **Should you go vote?** The safe answer is no, most likely you shouldn't vote, not voting is in 99.99% cases the best thing as you can just avoid all noise and stress of watching politics at all, you won't waste your time and you also actively vote against the current system by not voting: you decrease the voter turnout, decreasing trust in the system -- there is a reason all politics agree on the one thing that "you should go vote" -- they do because that sustains trust that gives them power, so as it's mostly the case, mainstream clearly pushing you to something basically means it's the one thing you should almost definetely NOT do. A deeper answer to the question of voting is again that you should weight all pros and cons, but you will conclude the pros are so unlikely to prevail that only in an extremely rare situation it would make sense to go vote. You should go vote only if there appears a "party" that's extremely based -- this party should be extremely aligned with LRS, wanting to end all work, military, money, police, all by strictly peaceful ways and eventually end even state and itself too -- something we have practically a zero chance of seeing in the next few hundred years, and even if such "party" appeared in theory and you went vote for it, it almost definitely won't win as normies just won't vote for it, so you change nothing anyway. Definitely do NOT go vote for lesser evil, that's just strengthens the system. Just stop watching politics and let the system destroy itself, you won't be able to influence it by voting in any way no matter what, even if your voting power was multiplied by one million, it just doesn't even matter which party is ruling nowadays. Stop caring about current politics, spend the time on better things. If the base party appears, the news will get to you anyway.
- **Live your life as you want**, don't let someone else control your life and manipulate you, e.g. with feelings of guilt -- this often happens with your parents, partner, friends, culture, laws, ... This isn't an argument for self interest! On the contrary, most people nowadays will try to push you to following self interest or fascist goals that will also benefit them. You only have one life, others have theirs, so listen to advice but remember to always make your own decisions in important things. If you feel you don't want to go to school or that you don't want to work or that you want to do something that people despise or you want to do something that you've read is wrong, just do what you feel is best, even if it's a let down for your family or if it contradicts what the whole society is telling you.
- **Publish everything immediately**, don't wait for your project "to be ready" for a release, make it public right now! You don't have to advertize it, just make it public. Some reasons are for example: you aren't behaving strategically like a capitalist, you get early feedback from others (important so you don't spend a lot of time on shit), you let others know what you're working on so they don't waste time working on the same thing, even an incomplete project may be useful to someone (parts of it may already be useful to someone), and also, very importantly, if you hesitate YOU WILL NEVER RELEASE THE PROJECT, you will become obsessed with perfectionism and ashamed to ever release the project. YES YOU WILL, I have seen it about 10000000 billion times. You think you will release it but you won't, every additional day you hesitate the chance of release decreases by 10%, so after 10 days it's already certain you will never release it, further on the chance even gets negative.
- **NEVER, NEVER go into debt**: Even if you should live under a bridge, if you aren't in debt you're still good -- better than most people probably. Debt is how the system enslaves you, so never take any loans or make unplanned children you would be obliged to pay for etc., it will force you to bow to the system, take unethical jobs, forget your morals. If you're already in debt, make it number one priority to pay it off ASAP. If you're in debt that would take too long or forever to pay off, your only option is just to burn your ID and run off to the woods, the system will now see you as a free slave, someone who can be forced to labor without sleep or just killed, you can no longer rely on any help from it.
- PRO TIP: A great [heuristic](heuristic.md) for making life decisions is to **usually do the exact opposite of what the society tells you to do** -- it works because society only wants to exploit you, so it pushes you towards bad decisions. This doesn't hold always, of course, don't just blindly act in opposites (there may be "double bluffs" also..., but mostly there aren't as most people just follow direct orders), but it's a good decision helper in about 99% cases. For example if society tells you "increase your social media presence", you should really completely leave social media, if it tells you "boost your carrier", you should stop working, if it tells you "go vote", you shouldn't go vote etcetc.
- PRO TIP: **Get yourself [banned](ban.md) on toxic platforms** like [Wikipedia](wikipedia.md), [GitHub](github.md), [Steam](steam.md), [4chan](4chan.md) etcetc., it has many advantages -- you gain [freedom](freedom.md) (no longer having to care about platform you are banned on), the platform loses one user/slave (you), you stop being abused by the platform, it's also [fun](fun.md) (just find some creative way to get banned, possibly cause uprising on the platform, make mods angry and waste their time on cleaning up your mess), it will make you become more self sufficient and you help decentralize the Internet again (can't edit Wikipedia? Just make your own :-]), it will make you find better places, you may also help bring the toxic platform down (others will see the platform utilizes censorship, some may follow you in leaving...) etcetc.
- ...

## How Not To Get Depressed Living In This Shitty Dystopia

I don't know lol, you tell me. Becoming more independent of this system really helps though, just accept everything will get destroyed in a few years -- yes, all you ever liked is basically already dead, just deal with it and find new things to like such as reading books instead of scrolling through facebook etc. Unconditional love and [altruism](altruism.md) helps too, just let go of the hate and fight, help people selflessly without expecting rewards.

## Other

Here are links to some other articles that may contain their own *how to*:

- **[how to make living](living.md)**
- **[C tutorial](c_tutorial.md)**
- **how to learn [programming](programming.md)**
- **how to learn [3d modeling](3d_model.md)**
- **how to play [chess](chess.md)**
- ...