Embarking on life's journey often leaves us yearning for guidance. '68 Bits of Unsolicited Advice' serves as a beacon, illuminating the path with wisdom and insights. Let's delve into these nuggets of knowledge, each one a stepping stone towards a more enlightened existence.
68 pithy bits of unsolicited advice to the younguns
Learn how to learn from those you disagree with, or even offend you. See if you can find the truth in what they believe.
- Being enthusiastic is worth 25 IQ points
- Always demand a deadline
- Don’t be afraid to ask a question that may sound stupid because 99% of the time everyone else is thinking of the same question and is too embarrassed to ask it
- Reading to your children regularly will bond you together and kickstart their imaginations
- Never use a credit card for credit. The exchange value of most things diminishes or vanishes the moment you purchase them
- Extraordinary claims should require extraordinary evidence to be believed
- Hangout with, and learn from, people smarter than yourself. Even better, find smart people who will disagree with you
- Rule of 3 in conversation. The purpose of a habit is to remove that action from self-negotiation. You no longer expend energy deciding whether to do it or not, you just do it.
- Gratitude will unlock all other virtues and is something you can get better at
- Saving and investing and saving money are both good and bad habits
- The Golden Rule will never fail you. It is the foundation of all other other virtues.
How to apologize
Quickly, specifically, sincerely
- Don’t ever respond to a solicitation or a proposal on the phone. The urgency is a disguise
- When someone is nasty, rude, hateful, or mean with you, pretend they have a disease. That makes it easier to have empathy toward them which can soften the conflict
Some additional unsolicited advice:
Following your bliss is a recipe for paralysis if you don’t know what you are passionate about.
- Buying tools: Start by buying the absolute cheapest tools you can find. Upgrade the ones you use a lot.
- Over the long term, the future is decided by optimists. To be an optimist, you have to imagine improving your capacity to solve problems.
If you are not falling down occasionally, you are just coasting
The more you give to others, the more you’ll get
- Friends are better than money
- Almost anything money can do, friends can do better
- A friend with a boat is better than owning a boat
When you die, you take nothing with you except your reputation
Attend as many funerals as you can bear
- When crisis and disaster strike, don’t waste them
- Go to the most remote place on your itinerary first, bypassing the cities
- Think like your boss
- Art is in what you leave out
- Rule of 7 in research
- You can find out anything if you are willing to go seven levels
- If the first source you ask doesn’t know, ask them who you should ask next
