Feb 1, 1999 12:00 PM

Rules Are for Making

NEW ECONOMY

Maybe you've noticed too: These days, any self-help business preacher worth his or her gestalt is throwing a rule book at the new economy. In the 17 months since Wired executive editor Kevin Kelly suggested "12 dependable principles for thriving in a turbulent world" (Wired 5.09, page 140), his New Rules for the New Economy has been joined by New Rules for a New Economy, Information Rules, and New World, New Rules – not to mention Forbes publisher Rich Karlgaard's "Digital Rules" column and start-up mags touting "New Rules" on their covers.

While awaiting the sequels (and by the ruling parties' own logic, there will have to be sequels, since the one precept everyone agrees on is a variation on "Rules are made to be broken"), welcome Apple champion Guy Kawasaki to the ruler derby. This month sees the arrival of his new book Rules for Revolutionaries, the "capitalist manifesto for creating and marketing new products and services." In it, he offers three imperatives, shares 10 chapters of advice and exercises, and includes such bong-headed silliness as "Flow with the Go." Dude.

Lines like this are usually enough to send a review copy straight into an editor's recycling bin, but Kawasaki has a special place in my heart. Along with Steves Jobs and Wozniak, he has given the baccalaureate address at Palo Alto High, my alma mater. In fact, Kawasaki's 1995 speech, which I first encountered completely at random in my email box 18 months ago, had – count 'em – 10 "hindsights" for that day's grads.

Here, then, is how his Letterman-esque hindsights for teens stack up against his new rules for revolutionaries.

| Hindsights, 1995| Rules for Revolutionaries, 1998

| Live off your parents as long as possible | Don't worry, be crappy

| Pursue joy, not happiness | Make evangelists, not sales

| Learn to speak a foreign language | Break down the barriers

| Continue to learn | Churn, baby, churn

| Embrace the unknown | Cogita differenter (think different)

| Learn to like yourself | Don't let bozosity grind you down

| Don't get married too soon | Avoid death magnets

| Play to win, and win to play | Eat like a bird, poop like an elephant

| Obey the absolutes | Think digital, act analog

| Enjoy family & friends before they are gone | Don't ask folks to do what you wouldn't