This Wednesday: Lists of manifestos.

I love a good manifesto. I love Bob Sutton’s manifesto about work, and Madame X’s manifesto about money, and Frank Lloyd Wright’s manifesto for his apprentices.

Somehow, I’d never come across Google’s Ten things we know to be true manifesto, and I found it very interesting.

The Google site explains, “We first wrote these 10 things when Google was just a few years old. From time to time we revisit this list to see if it still holds true. We hope it does—and you can hold us to that.”

Focus on the user and all else will follow.

It’s best to do one thing really, really well.

Fast is better than slow.

Democracy on the web works.

You don’t need to be at your desk to need an answer.

You can make money without doing evil.

There’s always more information out there.

The need for information crosses all borders.

You can be serious without a suit.

Great just isn’t good enough.

Very thought-provoking. Though people might disagree about whether Google lives up to its manifesto, it’s nevertheless interesting to use it as a starting-point for discussion.

A few years ago, I wrote my own Happiness Manifesto, though I should probably re-visit it to see if I want to revise it.

Have you written a manifesto, a personal mission statement, or the like? What did you include? I think these kinds of exercises are very helpful, for gaining greater self-knowledge and identifying personal values.

From 2006 through 2014, as she wrote The Happiness Project and Happier at Home, Gretchen chronicled her thoughts, observations, and discoveries on The Happiness Project Blog.