# How to Live Better
How to live longer and get sick less, and what to do first when an accident happens. How to waste less money, which things get you scammed or sued. What you can claim when you have no job and no money, and what paperwork a shop, a company or a website needs. Also dating, marriage and children, going abroad, and learning a trade.
601 recommendations, each stating what it costs, what it buys back, and how hard the evidence is - sources are journal papers and official documents only.
You don't have to do all of it: this is a menu ranked by value, not a to-do list - taking one or two entries counts, and the author hasn't done most of them either.
[](https://aeiouvcode.github.io/how-to-live-better/)
[](#contents)
[](#evidence-grades)
[](https://github.com/eternity4719/HowToLiveBetter/tree/main/docs/%E6%A0%B8%E5%AE%9E%E8%AE%B0%E5%BD%95)
[](LICENSE)
**[Open the searchable page](https://aeiouvcode.github.io/how-to-live-better/)** · [Contents](#contents) · [Glossary](#reading-the-numbers-glossary) · [Verification records (Chinese)](https://github.com/eternity4719/HowToLiveBetter/tree/main/docs/%E6%A0%B8%E5%AE%9E%E8%AE%B0%E5%BD%95) · [Is marriage worth it (long-form)](docs/is-marriage-worth-it.md) · [Home emergency kit list (long-form)](docs/home-emergency-kit-list.md) · [Should you stop for a stranger in trouble (long-form)](docs/should-you-stop-for-a-stranger.md) · [Licenses for running a platform (long-form)](docs/licenses-for-running-a-platform.md) · [Body clock and night shifts (long-form)](docs/body-clock-and-night-shifts.md)
**This is the English translation of [高性价比人生指南](https://github.com/eternity4719/HowToLiveBetter) by [eternity4719](https://github.com/eternity4719), released under the Unlicense (public domain), as is this translation.** Chapters on Chinese law, benefits and services stay China-specific on purpose: the statutes, hotlines, agencies and amounts are China's, translated but not localized away. Where the original author marked an item unverified (TODO), the mark is kept.
---
## The questions this book answers
| Question | Where to look |
| --- | --- |
| Which nearly-free things noticeably cut the chance of dying early? | [1. Don't Die Early](book/01-dont-die-early.md) |
| How much life do smoking, drinking, sitting still and staying up actually cost, and how exactly do you quit smoking and drinking? | [2. Don't Die Slowly](book/02-dont-die-slowly.md) |
| Not enough energy every day, constant interruptions - how do you fix it? | [3. Don't Waste Energy](book/03-dont-waste-energy.md) |
| Where does the time go, how do you do fewer zero-return things, how do you treat procrastination? | [4. Don't Waste Time](book/04-dont-waste-time.md) |
| Where should savings sit so interest, fees and scams don't eat them? | [5. Don't Waste Money](book/05-dont-waste-money.md) |
| Which supplements, checkup packages and IQ taxes can you simply not buy? | [6. The Negative List](book/06-the-negative-list.md) |
| Out of a job, owed wages, no money left - what can you claim, where do you ask for help? | [7. How to Live When You're Broke](book/07-living-with-no-money.md) |
| Who owns the bride price, pre-marital property and large transfers during a relationship; what's the first step when someone reports you to the police or files a fabricated accusation; how much does turning yourself in reduce a sentence; can you pursue and claim afterwards? | [8. Law and Property Safety](book/08-dont-get-yourself-in-trouble.md) |
| Which "side gigs" and casual favors turn an ordinary person into a criminal defendant? | [9. Legal Red Lines Ordinary People Trip Over](book/09-legal-red-lines-for-ordinary-people.md) |
| Should you cast a wide net or commit to one person, can long distance work, what do you bring to register a marriage? | [10. Is Dating and Marriage Worth It](book/10-is-dating-and-marriage-worth-it.md) |
| Which code and which freelance gigs get you a prison sentence? | [11. Red Lines for Programmers and Tech Workers](book/11-red-lines-for-programmers.md) |
| Before borrowing money to open a shop or a company, what must you think through first? | [12. Starting and Running a Business](book/12-starting-a-business.md) |
| Someone is down and not breathing, bleeding heavily, a fire, lost in the wild - what comes first? | [13. Emergencies: What to Do First](book/13-emergencies.md) |
| Account stolen, phone lost - what's the first step? | [14. Account and Information Security](book/14-account-and-information-security.md) |
| Deposit withheld, landlord throwing you out, a long-term rental platform collapses - what now? | [15. Renting and Buying a Home](book/15-renting-and-buying-a-home.md) |
| Diagnosed with a chronic disease - how do you manage it long-term and spend less? | [16. Living With a Chronic Disease](book/16-living-with-a-chronic-disease.md) |
| How should guardianship, wills and money be arranged ahead of time for elderly parents? | [17. When You Have Elderly Parents](book/17-elderly-parents-at-home.md) |
| What can you claim for having a child, and how much time and money does it take? | [18. Is Having Children Worth It](book/18-is-having-kids-worth-it.md) |
| How are overtime and annual leave calculated, how much severance is a layoff worth, how is a work injury recognized and paid? | [19. Employment, Leaving a Job, and Work Injuries](book/19-employment-leaving-and-work-injury.md) |
| The baby is just born - what are the few most urgent things? | [20. Caring for a Newborn](book/20-caring-for-a-newborn.md) |
| Which countries to avoid right now, and how far does an embassy or consulate actually go when things go wrong? | [21. Travel Abroad and Overseas Safety](book/21-traveling-abroad-and-overseas-safety.md) |
| How to enjoy KTV, internet cafes and escape rooms without stepping on landmines, and what works best under stress? | [22. How to Unwind: Entertainment Venues and Stress Relief](book/22-how-to-unwind.md) |
| Welding, English, certificates - which ones actually pay back, and how do you learn faster? | [23. Which Skills Are Worth Learning](book/23-which-skills-are-worth-learning.md) |
| How much cheaper is the community clinic than the tier-3 hospital for the same disease; badly hurt - queue for registration or find the triage desk; afterwards, should you get a disability assessment and certificate? | [24. Seeing a Doctor: Spend Less, Take Fewer Wrong Turns](book/24-seeing-a-doctor.md) |
| Someone in the family has died - what do you do right away, which money can be claimed back, which fees can you refuse? | [25. What to Do After Someone Dies](book/25-what-to-do-after-a-death.md) |
| A website or platform that takes money - which licenses, and where do the servers go? | [26. Building a Website or Platform](book/26-building-a-website-or-platform.md) |
| Pregnant, about to give birth - what happens when, and which certificates do you get before leaving the hospital? | [27. Pregnancy and Childbirth](book/27-pregnancy-and-childbirth.md) |
| Want to lose weight, want to look better - which approaches wreck your body? | [28. Don't Wreck Your Body for Looks](book/28-dont-wreck-your-body-for-looks.md) |
| A death in the family, a layoff, a serious diagnosis - what matters most in the first few months? | [29. After a Major Blow](book/29-after-a-major-blow.md) |
| Once kids are in school, which physical and mental things can't wait until after the exams? | [30. School-Age Children](book/30-school-age-children.md) |
| After eighteen, besides more school and odd jobs, what paths are there and what does each require? | [31. Paths After Eighteen](book/31-paths-after-eighteen.md) |
| Studying abroad - what counts as an unbroken visa status, and will the degree be recognized back home? | [32. Studying Abroad: Status, Work, Insurance and Degree Verification](book/32-studying-abroad.md) |
| You or a family member becomes disabled - which complications to prevent first, which benefits to claim, and how school, work and guardianship work? | [33. Living With a Disability](book/33-living-with-a-disability.md) |
## How to read this
- **You don't have to do all of it**: this is a menu ranked by value, not a to-do list. Take one or two entries and it counts; leave the rest and come back when you need it. "Easier said than done" is a fair review - the author hasn't done most of these either; they were written down so they can be found when needed. For the effortless picks, see "only the most worthwhile" below.
- **To pick by criteria**: open the [searchable page](https://aeiouvcode.github.io/how-to-live-better/) and filter by keyword, chapter or evidence grade, or by the three costs - "does it cost money, how much time, does it take willpower" - which stack. The page reads its content straight from the text in book/; change the text and the page follows.
- **Entries point at each other** ("see entry 16 of chapter 8"): on the search page these references carry a dotted underline. Tap one and the referenced entry's title and TL;DR appear in place; press "Jump there" to actually go. If that entry is hidden by your filters, the page clears them for you. Reading the raw text on GitHub, the references don't click, but each one names its target ("see entry 18 (write an IOU when lending money)"), so you know what it points at without turning there.
- **To read in order**: entries within each chapter run from best value to worst; start from the first few of each chapter.
- **To have an AI look things up for you**: the original Chinese repository ships a skill ([skills/life-decision-guide](https://github.com/eternity4719/HowToLiveBetter/tree/main/skills/life-decision-guide)) that Claude Code and Codex can install. It answers questions like "should I guarantee a friend's loan" by pulling the relevant entries, ranking them the book's way, and citing chapter and entry numbers - and says so when the book has no answer. It is in Chinese.
- **If the numbers look like gibberish**: every entry has a "TL;DR" line. It rewrites the research-speak of the "Benefit" field into plain words - "about 20% less likely to die in the same period", "so many days of detention, such a fine". It only restates what "Benefit" already says and adds no new numbers; that one line is enough to decide. "Benefit" keeps every number as written, for anyone who wants to check.
- **Only the hardest conclusions**: on the search page, tick evidence grade A to keep the 405 entries backed by concrete numbers from meta-analyses or large trials.
- **Only the most worthwhile**: tick value "Top" for the 104 entries that cost no money, no time and no willpower and still land in the biggest benefit tier. Stack a "What it buys" filter on top and you have the priority list for that lens.
- **Chapter titles starting with "Don't" are not a warning**: the title names what the chapter is trying to prevent (don't die early, don't waste time), not what every entry tells you to do. The action is in each entry's title, which always starts with a verb and says for itself whether it is "do this" or "don't do this". The same chapter has both: chapter 4 has both "write 'plan to do' as 'at what time, where, do what when something happens'" and "don't watch TV or rolling news". Read the entry titles, not the chapter title's mood.
Each recommendation looks like this:
```markdown
### 5. Swap your table salt for low-sodium salt (potassium salt)
- Cost: A bag costs a few yuan more than regular salt. Swap it in while shopping - no extra time. The taste barely changes.
- TL;DR: In a randomized trial of twenty thousand people, those who swapped their household salt for low-sodium salt were about 12% less likely to die within five years and about 14% less likely to have a stroke. Randomized into two groups, this is more trustworthy than numbers from follow-along observation.
- Benefit: A randomized trial in rural China with 20,995 people - all stroke survivors or hypertension patients over 60 - followed for 4.74 years. Result: the low-sodium group had about 12% lower mortality risk than the regular-salt group (RR 0.88). Stroke about 14% lower (RR 0.86). Major cardiovascular events about 13% lower (RR 0.87).
- Evidence: A
- Sources: Neal B et al. (2021). Effect of Salt Substitution on Cardiovascular Events and Death. NEJM. https://doi.org/10.1056/NEJMoa2105675
- Notes: Disputed. The subjects were high-risk elderly people; healthy young people gain much less from switching. People with kidney insufficiency, or on potassium-sparing medication, should ask a doctor before switching.
```
## Run your own copy
Most people don't need to deploy anything: the [searchable page](https://aeiouvcode.github.io/how-to-live-better/) is already up.
To run it on your own machine or server:
```bash
git clone https://github.com/aeiouvcode/how-to-live-better.git
cd how-to-live-better
python -m http.server 8000
```
Then open `http://localhost:8000/` in a browser. The search page is purely static - `README.md` and `book/` are its data; there is no backend, no database, no dependencies, and dropping the directory onto any static host (Nginx, GitHub Pages, object storage) works the same. Note that `index.html` must be served over http: opened as a local file it stays blank, because browsers don't let pages read local files.
## The four resources
This book tries to help you keep more than lifespan - four things in total:
- **Lifespan**: live longer, die less from avoidable causes
- **Time and energy**: don't spend your living time on zero-return things, and don't let each day's attention and stamina drain away for nothing
- **Money**: waste less of it, spend it where the return is certain
- **Personal freedom**: don't land yourself in a detention cell because you didn't know a red line
Every recommendation answers two questions: what does it cost (money / time / energy / willpower), and what does it buy back (change in all-cause mortality / a drop in a specific cause of death / time and energy saved / money saved / safety nets and personal freedom). Entries are ranked by value, not by category: whatever costs almost nothing and buys back a lot goes first.
**Who an entry's benefit lands on is tiered.** Ranked by "how likely is this benefit to come back to you": ① **yourself**; ② **spouse and immediate family** (parents, children, grandparents, grandchildren); ③ **friends, coworkers and other relatives** - reciprocal relationships, where help given may come back; ④ **strangers** - the lowest tier, but not zero: the chance of payback is small, you don't know the other person's character, and there is a side of being framed, bitten back, or retaliated against. Tiers are never added together; when an entry reaches tier ④, the benefit and the risk are written together.
Read the first-aid chapter this way: of 38,227 out-of-hospital cardiac arrests in China, 79.2% happened at home - learning compressions is first of all for pressing on your own family. Rules like "don't go into the water yourself when someone is drowning" and "don't wade into a street fight to break it up" are self-protection rules: they keep you from turning from bystander into casualty number two. Whether to act for a stranger is your own call; the entries spell out the liability shields, the self-protection moves and the risk surface, and don't count it as an obligation for you.
Mortality numbers, time-and-energy numbers, money numbers and legal consequences each stand on their own and are never converted into each other. These are the four "What it buys" filters on the search page, and they are never ranked against each other.
## Evidence grades
Every recommendation carries an evidence grade:
| Grade | Meaning |
| --- | --- |
| A | A concrete number you can look up, from a meta-analysis combining many studies, a large cohort following many people for years, or a randomized controlled trial (RCT), able to say by how much (HR, RR, percentage reduction) |
| B | Supported by research, but no exact number can be given; or only small samples or a single study behind it |
| C | The author's own experience, or a generally accepted practice, with no direct research literature |
Of the 601 entries, 407 are grade A, 144 grade B and 50 grade C; another 55 are marked disputed and 37 carry TODO unverified marks. Disputed A/B entries are marked "Disputed" and list the counter-evidence. All sources are primary literature only (journal papers with a DOI or PubMed link, or reports from official bodies such as the WHO, CDC or the National Bureau of Statistics) - no secondhand retelling. Numbers the author couldn't verify are marked "unverified".
## The value tiers
The evidence grade only answers "can this number be trusted", not "is this worth doing". So each entry also carries two more marks: benefit size (how big the gain is) and lens (which kind of thing it buys back). The search page combines those two with the three costs into a value tier:
| Dimension | Values | How it's set |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Lens | Buys lifespan / buys money / buys time & energy / buys freedom | What the entry mainly buys back. **No comparisons across lenses** - "all-cause mortality down 12%" and "500 yuan saved a year" are not on the same ruler |
| Benefit size | Big / medium / small | Read off the entry's own "Benefit" field against pre-set boundaries, not by feel: for lifespan, the percentage reduction (≥20% big, 10-20% medium, <10% - or only a surrogate marker rather than the final outcome - small); for money, the amount (tens of thousands of yuan big, hundreds to thousands medium, tens small); for freedom, the consequence (avoiding criminal liability big, avoiding detention or administrative punishment medium, avoiding a civil dispute small); for time & energy, how much is saved (hours a day big, hours a week medium, a one-off saving small) |
| Value | Top / high / fair | Big benefit with all three costs at zero = Top; big benefit with modest costs, or medium benefit at zero cost = High; everything else = Fair |
Of the 601 entries, 104 (17%) are Top, 274 (46%) High and 223 (37%) Fair. The middle tier being crowded is deliberate: benefit size only comes in big, medium and small, and slicing finer would be fake precision.
**This tier is the author's own judgment, not evidence** - by this book's own standard it is itself grade C; it and the evidence grade are separate things and neither moves the other. An entry can be grade A yet only Fair value (the shingles vaccine has 97.2% efficacy in a phase-3 RCT, but the two shots cost three to four thousand yuan and shingles rarely kills), and an entry can be grade C yet Top value (sending your itinerary to family before going abroad). "Fair" does not mean don't do it - every entry in the book is a recommendation; it only means you have to weigh that expense yourself.
## Reading the numbers (glossary)
The text sticks to everyday wording, but quoting research makes a few statistical terms unavoidable. Look them up here; on the search page, hovering over (or tapping) a dotted term shows the same explanation.
