Heâs right that weâve heard them before, but they are very good bits of advice.
The âsaying noâ one is the one that always gets me.
" Dump your cynicicm"
You mean cynicism.
OUCH, I failed.
Well, I wonât linger on it.
DAMMIT. Fixed.
Glad to see you replying so fast, giving 100%.
Now, seriously, thatâs a great list. But itâs hard to commit to it. I can see why it took you so long. Iâll be lucky if I get to half of those things by the time I am 42.
Advice as old as time. But we all have to learn them on our own, not parrot them. The danger is in thinking someone else making these discoveries benefits youâŚ
Iâd say youâre up to speed; Iâm 38 and no philosophical slouch, and Iâm still working on one or two of those pointsâŚ
Number 5, yes, yes, yes. <3
Really good, to the point, advice. I donât want to be a âfringe friendâ. Ouch.
Yes yes, the kind of list to read again on the regular.
For me, this line is worthy of inclusion in Poor Richardâs Almanack â
In the same way you are modest about your successes, be modest about your failures.
Number 1, though, âPlay like you practice,â seems to contradict âGo where life blows you.â One reads like âWin by being intensely focused and ambitious all the time!â while the other reads like âJust take life as it comes, bro.â
He lost me at ICP. Not feeling properly blown.
Benjamin Franklinâs autobiography is full of great no-nonsense advice. The post on the coin reminded me of it.
(I love the wikipedia entry - âunfinished record of his own lifeâ - I should think until we can download our minds to computers, that will and always has been the case with any autobiography.
The way I like to say this is: Stop comparing your insides with other peopleâs outsides.
When you look at yourself, youâre well aware of all your inner failings. When you look at others, you only get to see the face that theyâre willing to share with the world. So of course you feel like a failure when you compare yourself with others. If you could somehow compare your insides with other peopleâs insides, youâd feel a lot happier with yourself.
Thatâs a lovely way to put it. Eliot has that line, âthere will be time / to prepare a face to meet the faces that you meetâ: we never get the time to prepare a similar face for ourselves, so used are we to the obverse, i.e., the inside of the mask.
Itâs harder for those of us who are really bad at keeping the public face all shipshape and watertight. Itâs so hard to be a person and a brand at the same time.
My advice as a 52 year old? Donât be afraid to get hurt. Itâs the only way youâll get anywhere. Some things are worth getting hurt for. Play it safe, and youâll never develop the callous you need to succeed.
12: Resist the urge to offer unsolicited advice.
Oh, wait, nobody asked for that nugget.
Never mind.
Yeah, at no point in history has ICP been anything, but terrible. You know how sometimes you watch a movie, and when itâs over you want to yell at the screen âI want my two hours backâ? ICP is the musical equivalent. Donât waste your time, kiddies.
Kierkegaardâs famous quotation, âLife can only be understood backward; but it must be lived forward.â
â via Errol Morris in an article on the coup in Indonesia (1965) and the documentary ACT OF KILLING
No nested indenting of lists.
No direct self reference of lists.
No reference to lists out-with the direct causal relationship of lists; if a list must refer to another list in the heterarchy, it must instead refer to lists which can refer to the desired list on its behalf.
No sentient lists. Lists must not be observed to consciously create other lists and then refer to or create nests of other collections of lists, whether list or human created.
No secret lists. Lists must be observable by the conscious portion of the list generating entity at all times. Hidden, obfuscated (whether hidden in plain sight or not) and otherwise sub-conscious lists will not be tolerated.
Sub-conscious lists must observe all indenting and self-reference rules as observed by conscious lists and lists of which consciousness is aware, list or human.
Sub-conscious lists of which no list is aware or referred to and which refer to other lists which do not match this criteria, whether conscious, unconscious, human or list must not be listed, except when referring to groups of lists which self-refer in a way which emulates consciousness or list-ness.
Sub-conscious lists which do not refer to conscious lists, references, sub-consciousness or consciousness and do not refer to themselves must not be listed.
I read #1 as, âbe fully present in all parts of your lifeâ. If youâre a parent, any time with your kids should be quality time, so you shouldnât expect the relationship to work on scheduled occasions if youâre not putting in the effort on normal days. If youâve got a job you donât feel is worthy of you, do well in it anyway rather than saving yourself for the perfect job you imagine. #6 and #3 are more about flexibility: be open to change and see opportunities as they come rather than being too fixed on a 10 year plan that may work out and may make you happy in the future, but in the meantime just limits you and makes you miserable. I guess #6 also ties into the idea that you shouldnât be too quick to define yourself (and your beliefs, tastes, interests etc.). Challenge yourself to explore new things and donât assume that you already know everything about yourself.
