HowToLiveBetter

1. What is HowToLiveBetter?

HowToLiveBetter (Chinese title 高性价比人生指南, "The Best-Value Life Guide") is not software. It is an open book of short, practical recommendations, published on GitHub (a site that hosts code and documents). Its aim is to show which habits and decisions cost the least money, time and effort while giving back the most health, money and safety.

The book has about 650 recommendations in 34 chapters: not dying early, first aid when someone collapses, account security, not wasting money, things not to buy, renting, raising children, learning a trade and more. Every recommendation lists:

• Cost: the money, time and effort it takes.
• Plain-language summary: one sentence on what you gain.
• Benefit: the figures from the research.
• Evidence grade: A (strongest, from meta-analyses or large trials), B or C.
• Sources: only journal papers and official documents, with links so you can check them yourself.

The book is free. The text is licensed CC BY 4.0: you may read, share and translate it as long as you credit the author, eternity4719. The author also says plainly that it is a menu to choose from, not a to-do list: picking one or two items that fit your life is enough.

Important: the book is written for people in mainland China. The chapters on law, health insurance, social insurance, tax and emergency phone numbers (such as 120) follow Chinese rules and do not apply elsewhere. Use your own country's emergency number (112 in the EU, 911 in the US, 115 for an ambulance in Vietnam). Most of the health, first-aid, account-security and money-habit advice travels well, but it is not a substitute for advice from your own doctor.

A good fit if:

• You want a list of small, worthwhile habits for your health and your wallet, each with clear sources.
• You read English (or Chinese) and like checking the evidence yourself.

Not a good fit if:

• You need legal, tax or insurance advice for a country other than China.
• You need a diagnosis or a treatment plan: ask a doctor.

2. What do you need?

• A phone or computer with a web browser (Chrome, Edge, Safari, Firefox). No app, no account, no cost.
• To read offline: about 2–8 MB of free space for one book file (HTML about 2 MB, PDF about 7 MB, EPUB about 1 MB).
• Chrome if you want to translate the original Chinese site with a couple of clicks. Download it at https://www.google.com/chrome/
• Only if you want to ask an AI assistant questions answered from the book (Step 5, optional): Claude Code (Anthropic's coding assistant, which needs a paid Claude plan or an API key) or OpenAI's Codex. Beginners can skip this.

3. Opening and reading it, step by step

Because this is a book, "installing" just means choosing how to read it. Start with Step 1; the rest are optional.

Step 1: Open the English translation

A community translator (dlgrv) maintains English, Russian, Spanish and Portuguese versions at https://dlgrv.github.io/HowToLiveBetter/en/

• You should see the title "The Best-Value Life Guide" and numbered recommendations, starting with chapter 1, "Do not die early".
• Tap the three-line icon at the top left to open the chapter list. Switch languages with the EN button at the top right.
• This translation is maintained by someone else and can lag behind the original by a few days. When the two differ, the Chinese original is authoritative.

Step 2: Or open the original Chinese site

1. Go to https://eternity4719.github.io/HowToLiveBetter/
2. On a computer the chapter list is on the left, the recommendations in the middle and the search box at the top.
3. To translate it in Chrome on a computer, right-click an empty part of the page and choose "Translate to English". On Android, tap the three dots at the top right, then "Translate...".

You should see the chapter titles change language. This is machine translation, so some sentences read awkwardly; for any figure that matters, check that recommendation's "Sources".

Step 3: Download a copy to read offline

The author publishes three files that are rebuilt every time the book changes (the download links stay the same):

If you want to	Download	Notes
Read on a computer with search and filters, no internet needed	https://github.com/eternity4719/HowToLiveBetter/releases/download/epub-latest/HowToLiveBetter.html	Double-click the file to open it in your browser
Print it or read it on a phone	https://github.com/eternity4719/HowToLiveBetter/releases/download/epub-latest/HowToLiveBetter.pdf	A4, over 200 pages, with a table of contents
Read on a Kindle or e-reader app	https://github.com/eternity4719/HowToLiveBetter/releases/download/epub-latest/HowToLiveBetter.epub	Send it to a Kindle with Send to Kindle

These three files are in Chinese. A file you have downloaded does not update itself; download it again for the latest version.

Step 4: Bookmark what you need

There is nothing else to install. Bookmark the page you prefer (the English translation or the original) so you can come back to it when a situation comes up, such as a lost phone or a relative's new diagnosis.

Step 5 (optional, for Claude Code users): ask an AI assistant using the book

The project includes a "skill" (a set of instructions for an AI assistant) called life-decision-guide. Ask something like "should I co-sign a loan for a friend?" and the assistant looks up the relevant recommendations in the book first, then answers with the chapter and item number; if the book has nothing on it, it says so.

This command is copied from the project's documentation. Run it in Terminal on macOS or Linux, or in Git Bash on Windows, as a single line:

mkdir -p ~/.claude/skills/life-decision-guide && curl -fsSL -o ~/.claude/skills/life-decision-guide/SKILL.md "https://raw.githubusercontent.com/eternity4719/HowToLiveBetter/main/skills/life-decision-guide/SKILL.md"

Then open Claude Code and ask your question, or say "use life-decision-guide to answer". You can ask in English and ask for the answer in English. The skill fetches the book from GitHub when it needs it, so you must be online.

4. First use

A five-minute tour to see what the book is good for:

1. Open the English translation (Step 1) or the translated original (Step 2).
2. Open chapter 13 (emergencies). The first recommendation: if someone collapses and is not breathing, start chest compressions at once and have someone call an ambulance and find an AED (defibrillator).
3. Open chapter 14 (account and information security): turn on two-step verification for email, payment and social accounts, use an email password you use nowhere else, and the order of things to do when your phone is lost.
4. Open chapter 6 (things to avoid): things many people pay for that the evidence says are not worth it, such as multivitamins taken to live longer.
5. Use the filters on the site: by evidence grade (A, B, C), by value (the top level is "very high"), by what you get back (lifespan, money, time and energy, personal freedom) and by cost (money, time and willpower needed). Filters can be combined; use the clear button to remove them all.

When you read a recommendation, read the plain-language summary first, then the "Notes": the author usually says who should not follow it (for example people with kidney disease) and where the evidence is disputed.

5. Common problems and fixes

What you see	Why	Fix
The page is all Chinese and there is no translate option	Your browser has no translation feature, or you opened it inside an app (TikTok, Facebook, Instagram)	Choose "Open in browser", use Chrome, then repeat Step 2, or use the English translation in Step 1
The translation is confusing	Machine translation from Chinese	Use the English translation (Step 1); for important figures, check the sources
A downloaded HTML file opens blank	You opened the project's index.html, not the book file	Download HowToLiveBetter.html from Step 3; that file works offline
The PDF is very slow on a phone	It is about 7 MB and over 200 pages	Use the online site, or open the PDF in a PDF reader app instead of the browser
Legal or insurance advice does not match your situation	Those chapters follow Chinese law	They do not apply outside China; ask a local professional
Step 5 says command not found or mkdir fails on Windows	The command is written for a Linux/macOS-style terminal, not PowerShell or CMD	Run it in Git Bash (installed with Git: https://git-scm.com/downloads) or skip Step 5
Claude Code does not use the skill	The file is in the wrong folder, or Claude Code was already open before you installed it	Check that SKILL.md is in .claude/skills/life-decision-guide in your home folder, restart Claude Code, then say "use life-decision-guide"

6. Removing or updating it

• Online site and English translation: nothing is installed, so there is nothing to remove. The online site is always the latest version.
• Downloaded files (HTML, PDF, EPUB): delete the file to remove it. For a newer version, download it again from the links in Step 3 (the links do not change; the files are rebuilt after every update).
• Claude Code skill: delete the life-decision-guide folder in .claude/skills in your home folder to remove it. Run the Step 5 command again to update; it overwrites the old file.

7. Frequently asked questions

Does it cost anything? No. Reading online and downloading the PDF, EPUB or HTML are free and need no account. Only Step 5 needs Claude Code or Codex, which have their own costs.

Can I trust it? Every recommendation shows its evidence grade and links to its sources so you can check. According to the project's README, about 428 recommendations are grade A. It is still a reference: ask a doctor about your health and a local professional about the law where you live.

Do I have to do all 650 things? No. The author says it is a list ranked by value; picking one or two items is already worthwhile.

Can I share or translate it? Yes, under CC BY 4.0: credit the author and link to the original project at https://github.com/eternity4719/HowToLiveBetter