How should one live?

maximize pleasure
minimize pain

just b urself :")

Have a family, morals, and hobbies. The rest will sort out itself.

Well, I don't feel like I'm an authority on the topic, but personally I've been trying to live like if I was a big brother to myself, caring and loving about everything I do, trying to look at things from the outside.
I keep the whole existential idea of trying to have an authentic life, so whenever I notice that I do/say something I don't feel comfortable doing/saying or if I think that it's not my true self, I try to purge it away. I don't try to identify with anything, just let things come and go based on if it makes me feel good/strong or "virtuous".

Keeping an objective to focus has also worked wonders lately, I decided that all I want in life is having a good wife and making a loving healthy family to raise children, buying a house in the country while working in a decent job on the town, and raising my kids while teaching them about books/philosophy, sports, movies and everything I know. It's not too ambitious, but it makes me wake up everyday happy knowing that I might reach it.

Also, I keep as a rule that whatever I do I must have a clean conscience afterwards, never trying to feel guilty about what I do.

>wake up
>read book
>practice instrument
>grab alcohol
>read again

>life
>serious
nice meme

Holding a STEM job while reading and writing on your free time :^)

im too much of a poonani to talk to strangers and make friends or even open up to the friends i do have. should i actively work to change this behavior or do i continue living a lonely life with only shallow relationships

fuck if i know, i spend my life browsing imageboards and jerking off lol

As simply and easily as possible.
My hope is to graduate, pursue a PhD, and live somewhere small and close to nature where I can teach, write, maybe raise a family.

I think buying less stuff, browsing the internet less, and staying out of major cities is a pretty universal way to feel happier and more fulfilled.