The Code of the Extraordinary Mind: 10 Unconventional Laws to Redefine Your Life and Succeed On Your Own Terms
by Vishen Lakhiani
January 22, 2021 — February 5, 2021
Los Angeles, CA
A gift from Paris Hajali
While I’ve read several books that discuss the concept of a meaningful life or lay out a roadmap of success, without coming off as a cliche self-help book, this book was truly unique. It preaches being a nonconformist to general society, by escaping the culturescape or the beliefs that are held true that limit us and to break the “brules” (bullshit rules). The computational thinking style in which the ideas are presented is interesting as the author compares the mind to a computer that can be re-engineered. I’ve known Paris for a while, I’ve always seen Paris thrive professionally and personally in his life. We discuss (and argue about) a variety of topics and ideas frequently, Paris always brought in a unique perspective on life and work; that being said, reading this book really made me tap into his mindset even more and understand what he used to pitch or say in the past. While this book provides a recipe to thrive and reach what you want in life by creating your own path, it’s not for everybody, because in my belief there are specific roles that require you to conform to society.
The Unconventional Laws can be summarized as so: There are several beliefs that we are raised with or born into that have limited us, a lot of them are truly bullshit but we continue to blindly follow them. We do need to think about everything we do or believe in and question it, selecting which rules and conditions to follow and ignore. Our growth depends on the conscious engineering of our models of reality (hardware) that we are to rewrite and our systems for living (software) that we are to upgrade. We should be able to bend our reality, while we have a vision for the future we should not tie our happiness to these visions, being happy throughout our journeys since happiness is the fueling component to achieving everything. This vision for our future should be our own decision, free from society’s expectations and focused on our end goals, we shall not seek validation from outside opinion or through the attainment of goals, or as the author pitches it as being “unfuckwithable.” Being fearless and immune to criticism or praise, which I associate with having “BDE.” We do not have careers, instead, we have a calling in life which embarks us on a quest to create a positive change or contribution in the world.
Reading this book made me think a lot about my life, what I believe in and why, and reminded me of my calling. I’ve always been deemed as unorthodox, my revolution led me to my success and where I am today. Paris recommended it to me during a speedbump in my life and work, I realized it was because I was put down by following the status-quo heavily and as a result, not moving forward. However, I’ve come to terms with myself and realized I wasn’t following my own path to my true calling, developing Egypt. But, now I’m back and I’m going to re-ignite the revolution I once led.