8 things I've learned that bring me joy.

1. Be willing to believe. Life is Good CEO Bert Jacobs spoke to us recently about seeking out optimists. Optimists believe in the possible. Optimists invented ice cream.

2. Do nice things. Ayn Rand famously claimed that altruism doesn’t exist. This is the kind of dumb thing that only a super-smart person would believe. The most effective leaders in history are servants to those whom they lead.

3. Be surprised by order, not chaos. Life is chaos. I am chaos. Work is chaos. My family and friends and the lady at the store are chaos. Small changes today lead to large changes over time. A small dose of goodwill goes a long, long way.

4. There is nothing so risky as the riskless. Famed investor Joel Greenblatt cheerfully says that his investing strategy works because it fails from time to time. @DavidGFool basic investing philosophy could probably be boiled down to the words “surprise me.”

5. You may be painfully smart. But every person you meet knows more about at least one thing (and probably lots of things) than you. People who disagree with you are neither dumb nor evil, nor, necessarily wrong.