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68 Bits of Unsolicited Advice

477 points by ericzawo 6y ago

Err_Eek 6y ago
This reminds me a lot of that "wear sunscreen" chain mail https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wear_Sunscreen https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wear_Sunscreen These folksy wisdom thingies, especially from accomplished people, come off as patronizing to me.
- ncmncm 6y ago
  Here's a full refund.
- _Microft 6y ago
  Advice #1: "• Learn how to learn from those you disagree with, or even offend you. See if you can find the truth in what they believe."
  - Err_Eek 6y ago
    I will make sure never to get myself in a land war in Asia
    - AlwaysForward 6y ago
      Why? Are you American? The European powers have won many land wars in Asia over the centuries.
      - Cthulhu_ 6y ago
        Nothing in recent history; you're probably thinking of the colonizers, there was a much bigger power and technology skew back then. And I'm mainly thinking of India there; they only really managed to colonize Hong Kong in China for example. disclaimer: not a history buff
        AlwaysForward 6y ago
        In China you have Macau, Hong Kong, Shanghai, Tianjin and Kunming were all either explicitly or implicitly under the control of European Powers and those are just the one's off the top of my head, then you have Indonesia, Philippines, Vietnam, Cambodia, Malaysia, Borneo, Myanmar, Singapore (the list goes on and we are only in East Asia) that were all under Western control until the 20th century
      - Err_Eek 6y ago
        Actually I'm European. Though on European powers winning land wars in Asia -- I think it's a question of what are the boundaries of Europe, both in time and in space. And Kevin Kelly was wise not to get into that debate.
      - nobody0 6y ago
        Majorly in 19th century, when the west industrialized first.
  - knolax 6y ago
    Advice #0: "Sometimes if it sounds like bullshit, it is bullshit"
ggm 6y ago
There is a lot to be said for "never get involved in a land war in Asia"
- delaaxe 6y ago
  Like what? This is one of the few bits that I honestly didn't understand because it felt so specific and without further explanation. Can you elaborate?
  - dcminter 6y ago
    It's a quotation from "The Princess Bride" so mostly a joke. The land war the movie is referring to is Vietnam, not generally considered an American success story. In the movie the humour comes from the incongruity of the fantasy setting with the knowing political aside.
    - fnord123 6y ago
      >The land war the movie is referring to is Vietnam From Hansard: https://bit.ly/2V7BgbK https://bit.ly/2V7BgbK > The next war on land will be very different from the last one, in that we shall have to fight it in a different way. In reaching a decision on that matter, we must first be clear about certain rules of war. Rule 1, on page I of the book of war, is: "Do not march on Moscow". Various people have tried it, Napoleon and Hitler, and it is no good. That is the first rule. I do not know whether your Lordships will know Rule 2 of war. It is: "Do not go fighting with your land armies in China". It is a vast country, with no clearly defined objectives, and an army fighting there would be engulfed by what is known as the Ming Bing, the people's insurgents.
      - TeMPOraL 6y ago
        And then the next paragraph goes: > The more I study the problem of future war, which I do a good deal, the more I reach the conclusion that air power and sea power will provide the main offensive punch in an unlimited nuclear war of the future. Their offensive power must be mobile. Land power will be essential as a direct "stop" on the ground, in order to protect vital territories and peoples. But the strategy of those who fight on land will be defensive, since any considerable movement will not be possible owing to the terrific destruction caused to communications by nuclear bombardment, as well as by the movement of refugees. This latter is a terrific problem, and during the ten years in which I served in Supreme Headquarters in Europe, we never could get the refugee problem seriously tackled. The sea must be exploited increasingly to give surface strategical mobility, and to provide mobile launching sites for nuclear weapons. At which point I'm starting to feel sick in my stomach and decide to abandon reading whatever it is that I was just reading. I'm already in a bad head space thanks to COVID-19, I don't want to contemplate the realities of a world in the middle of a war in which nuclear weapons are used as actual weapons.
iobug 6y ago
Now this, is GOLD
quickthrower2 6y ago
I love the advice, there is some I'd tell as an 'old man' to younger people. and there is some there I'm thinking "Oh shit... yes!"
fraktl 6y ago
I've no words to express how strongly these resonated with me, this is the only article I re-read 5 times in a row and read it slowly. Thank you for your wisdom.
helsinkiandrew 6y ago
> Learn how to take a 20-minute power nap without embarrassment I've found the lockdown great for trying this - a run, lunch then 15 minutes on the sofa. It's like rebooting the day.
- saagarjha 6y ago
  If only doing the same at work was this easy…
  - icelancer 6y ago
    > If only doing the same at work was this easy… Never understood employers who had a problem with this. I have people scheduling a small conference room we have to take 30 minute naps, or going to their car, or sleeping under their desk. Why should anyone care about that as long as they are generally productive and get the work done? (probably should note I don't overwork my employees, make them keep 80 hour schedules or anything - a couple of them get up at like 4:30 AM to go to the gym / shoot hoops before coming in, and want to take a nap around lunch before the 2nd part of their day)
    - saagarjha 6y ago
      Well, there’s one part where it’s kind of awkward to ask to take a nap or have a coworker find you sleeping (“should I wake them up or wait to get my PR reviewed?“) but another part of it is that it’s not really comfortable to sleep at work unless there are ample soft couches or something. At home I can just jump into bed…
      - as1mov 6y ago
        Eh I think you can leave someone undisturbed for 15-20 minutes unless it's something truly important. 99% of PRs can wait that long, unless you are working on a production issue (where the likelihood of someone sleeping in the middle of is pretty small anyway). > it’s not really comfortable to sleep at work I actually find it easier to take short naps on desk, just cross my arms and use them as a pillow to bury my head into. The position just comfortable enough that you will sleep easily for 15 minutes and then wake up. On the other hand, getting into a bed I could see myself sleeping from anywhere between 30 minutes to 3 hours :/
splatzone 6y ago
This page really is a goldmine. In the spirit of not being afraid to ask stupid questions, I don't understand a couple of them - anyone care to explain? > When you die you take absolutely nothing with you except your reputation. Is this saying that your reputation dies with you? I don't get this, surely people will remember how you acted when you were alive. I'm probably taking it too literally. > Don’t ever respond to a solicitation or a proposal on the phone. The urgency is a disguise. A disguise for what? I'm not sure I get what they mean by this. I'm guessing the author is advising that you don't let yourself be rushed into agreeing to something over the phone, think about it and take your time, don't be pressured
- blm 6y ago
  >> Don’t ever respond to a solicitation or a proposal on the phone. The urgency is a disguise. > A disguise for what? I think: Something not quite right or something worse. It's easier to get away with things when they aren't face to face. People often know when they are trying to get away with something and leak the truth or information about the truth in body language. Also it is quicker to communicate over the phone. If they are desperate they can deliver a proposal( ask for stuff?) over the phone within a quicker time frame.
- delaaxe 6y ago
  > When you die you take absolutely nothing with you except your reputation. What I understood is that when you die, the only thing about you that will stay is your reputation. I agree it could have been worded better
- jerrre 6y ago
  >> When you die you take absolutely nothing with you except your reputation. >Is this saying that your reputation dies with you? I don't get this, surely people will remember how you acted when you were alive. I'm probably taking it too literally. I interpret this the other way around: nothing you gain in life matters/retains value/sticks (to you?) after you die except your reputation
  - splatzone 6y ago
jonasvp 6y ago
> Don’t say anything about someone in email you would not be comfortable saying to them directly, because eventually they will read it. Absolutely - I've learned this the hard way and it's giving me new appreciation for phone calls. It's amazing how many people do _not_ remember that an email chain of several hundred pages _will_ contain something incriminating or embassaring if forwarded to someone outside the original circle of recipients.
- MaxBarraclough 6y ago
  It's not just email. New joiners may be able to read old posts on chat threads or forums.
- JoeAltmaier 6y ago
  Sometimes even that isn't enough. You have to read it twice. I was having a text exchange with a manager on the road. Hard to come to a consensus that way. So I wanted to talk when he got back to the shop. I texted "We can talk some more when you get it." One letter. The issues it caused lasted for years.
  - MauranKilom 6y ago
    Sorry, I don't see the one letter change that fixes the message. What did you intend to say?
    - mattkrause 6y ago
      "Get in" -> arrive here (i.e., let's continue the discussion in person) "Get it" --> understand (i.e., you need to take some time to realize why I'm right).
  - crankylinuxuser 6y ago
    Damn. Sure would have been nice if they assumed a automiscorrect rather than a nasty comment.
    - 6y ago
zvrba 6y ago
> Before you are old, attend as many funerals as you can bear, and listen. Nobody talks about the departed’s achievements. The only thing people will remember is what kind of person you were while you were achieving. Or visit a graveyard and read the tombstones.
- TeMPOraL 6y ago
  Where I live, most tombstones have one of the few popular sayings or Bible verses on them. I'm sure the choice of a particular one was deeply meaningful to the person making that choice, but it gives zero information (above "probably wasn't an atheist") to an outside observer.
londons_explore 6y ago
I can confirm that one shouldn't trust all-purpose glue. Bought a tube of it a year ago, and out of about 10 times I've tried to use it, I don't remember a single one not needing re-gluing with something else later. All except your fingers of course - glue them, and they're sticky for weeks.
- danielscrubs 6y ago
  Thought about Kafka... Hahaha
- GuB-42 6y ago
  Cyanoacrylate (super glue) works best on fingers. So well in fact that it can be used as an alternative to stitches. Medical grade cyanoacrylate is a bit different (less irritant) but in an emergency, the regular household kind can be used.
  - jacquesm 6y ago
    I did that after a metalworking incident (large greasy shaft with a burr slipped through my fingers), you can't even see the scar and my finger was cut open all the way to the bone.
  - kortex 6y ago
    It's also one of the few things that readily stops a bleeding nail if you are clipping a pet's nails and hit the quick (blood vessel region). Corn starch is supposed to, but I find CA is faster for deep cuts.
  - TeMPOraL 6y ago
    Yeah, I added one to my first-aid kit just for really emergency emergencies. I also love cyanoacrylate because it stops sticking when you apply water to it. I don't worry about my fingers, because whenever I work with this family of glues, I just keep a glass of water on my workbench, into which I dip the fingers if I notice I spilled some glue on them. The glue immediately polymerizes, and you can pull/scratch it off.
hyperpallium 6y ago
> When an object is lost, 95% of the time it is hiding within arm’s reach of where it was last seen. Search in all possible locations in that radius and you’ll find it. Yup, look closely in the place you expected it to be. Something may be on top of it, or it may have fallen off.
- JoeAltmaier 6y ago
  And pull an image of it into your mind. Then glance around. Your brain's mighty correlation/association engine may find it for you! It will seem to pop out of the clutter.
  - mnsc 6y ago
    As someone with Aphantasia I am TriGgeReD! ;)
  - thomk 6y ago
    That's a good way to look for a person in a crowd too. Think of what, exactly they were wearing and look for that, not their face.
- Leherenn 6y ago
  Also look where you don't expect it to be. Quite a few times I have said "It can't be in there." and it was in fact there...
- m463 6y ago
  I was trying to find exceptions and came up with balloons, pets, and dry ice.
nunorbatista 6y ago
> Optimize your generosity. No one on their deathbed has ever regretted giving too much away. Not sure if I agree completely. I've seen people regret giving their life to the service of others and not noticing they were not living their own life until too late.
- fraktl 6y ago
  You don't have to take it in as black or white. It does not mean "give away everything you have and be miserable". The way I read it was: don't hoard, make others happy. It does not mean I should live a miserable life in hope that someone, whom I'm giving to, will recognize it. The wisdom can escape you if you take what's written literally letter for letter, as if you're a computer.
  - nunorbatista 6y ago
    "giving too much away" is not only material stuff. You can give too much time away, mainly taking care of others that should be able to find a way to take care of themselves (obviously not talking about elderly people). I'm married to a nurse, and I know a lot of people on the field. I'm constantly amazed how they are wired to take care of others before themselves.
- goodcanadian 6y ago
  The key word is "optimize." Note that the author didn't say "maximize."
  - nunorbatista 6y ago
    Agree, but my comment is more on the second part of the phrase: "No one on their deathbed has ever regretted giving too much away." - I'm not sure this is completely true.
  - glangdale 6y ago
    Like most of these these platitudes, it can mean whatever you want it to mean. "Optimize" - you mean "do the ideal thing"? Good thing that's so easy to figure out at the time...
asar 6y ago
My personal favorite >Following your bliss is a recipe for paralysis if you don’t know what you are passionate about. A better motto for most youth is “master something, anything”. Through mastery of one thing, you can drift towards extensions of that mastery that bring you more joy, and eventually discover where your bliss is.
- m463 6y ago
  statements like that are very powerful. He's teaching people how to teach people, which is like wisdom^2
pjc50 6y ago
> The purpose of a habit is to remove that action from self-negotiation. This is very powerful. Reminds me of the "system 1 vs system 2" discussion, and some descriptions of e.g. ADHD and depression causing what could be described as "failure to terminate in self-negotiation".
- TeMPOraL 6y ago
  Indeed. I've also been realizing recently that my #1 failure mode with procrastination is this: by the time I stared a distracting activity (e.g. reading HN, watching something on Netflix), the self-negotiation is already lost. My mind will drag the argument ad infinitum while continuing to do the thing it's currently doing, i.e. procrastinating.
  - tbugrara 6y ago
    Maybe I'm wrong but I think self-negotiation here means: when I put my dishes away after dinner, I attempt to negotiate with myself if I have to do it right now. A habit instead terminates this attempt at negotiating and gets you to just do it without thinking if you should or shouldn't.
    - TeMPOraL 6y ago
      What you describe and "should I get back to work or view just one more comment thread on HN" is the same mental process.
- Torwald 6y ago
  scheduling also works for that. (if you keep your schedule)
MaxBarraclough 6y ago
> Talent is distributed unfairly, but there is no limit on how much we can improve what we start with. That's just not true. I will never be an Alan Turing or a John von Neumann, and I dare say neither will you, dear reader. The reason isn't that we're just too lazy. See also the legend (myth?) of Antonio Salieri's jealousy of Mozart's natural talent: When confronted with the limitations of his own mediocre talent, Antonio Salieri, Mozart's nemesis, believes God has cheated him, while a vulgar, undeserving brat seems to possess divinely inspired musical gifts. (Taken from https://www.oakpark.com/News/Articles/2-17-2009/Mozart-vs.-Salieri:-Genius-vs.-jealousy/ https://www.oakpark.com/News/Articles/2-17-2009/Mozart-vs.-S... )
- gspr 6y ago
  > > Talent is distributed unfairly, but there is no limit on how much we can improve what we start with. > That's just not true. I will never be an Alan Turing or a John von Neumann, and I dare say neither will you, dear reader. The author doesn't claim this either. I believe he means that you shouldn't discount how much you can improve yourself.
  - MaxBarraclough 6y ago
    Which would be solid advice, but he put there is no limit. That's the part I'm questioning. You'll never get anywhere without self-improvement, of course, but there's no sense pretending we can all be a prodigy like von Neumann - whose natural intelligence was shocking even to the top professors of his day - if we just work hard enough. There very much is a limit, but one need not be deluded to be motivated or successful. edit Perhaps the point is meant to be read as 'you can always improve yourself further', rather than 'there is no ceiling on your abilities'. Which seems far more reasonable.
    - Aeolun 6y ago
      There is no limit on your ability to improve yourself, but the effect can be described as a log function.
glangdale 6y ago
Shakespeare knew what to do with people who proffer great quantities of unsolicited advice; look what happened to Polonius. A bunch of these are good, a bunch are just... OK, and some are questionable or just a matter of simple opinion. A lot just reek of "truthiness"; a sort of middle-brow confidence about art/business/doing stuff that's manages to frequently just pass off made-up bullshit as authoritative. The "rule of 7 in research", "Pros are just amateurs who know how to gracefully recover from their mistakes", "Talent is distributed unfairly, but there is no limit on how much we can improve what we start with" - a lot of these don't make a lick of sense on sober examination.
- Aeolun 6y ago
  They make a lot of sense, they’re just not necessarily literally true.
- wpietri 6y ago
  Those make sense to me. Like all maxims, they're overcompressed; they imply a context that the reader has to be able to fill in. But I think they're useful in context. E.g., the phrase "It is what it is" is on the surface tautological and useless. But in context, it's a valuable reminder about coping with some of the flaws in human consciousness.
  - glangdale 6y ago
    They "make sense", but they aren't really true. They are not such much "overcompressed" as subject to whatever interpretation makes them sensible, but as such, they are dependent more on the good sense of the person unpacking them than on their inherent virtue. So, for example, the "Rule of 7" is a ludicrous exaggeration (by the time you actually go through a chain of 7 people you're talking to a random stranger and weeks have passed), but someone who had done some research might mentally fix this to a rule of 3 (which would be a pretty reasonable thing). However, a maxim that's on the face of it pretty dumb until you fix it up is Not Good. Similarly, the one about "pros" vs "amateurs" is Just Plain Made Up - it's easy to conjure up situations where it seems clever, but in general it doesn't make a lick of sense. I suppose I'm perennially annoyed - one might even say "triggered" - by these kind of wildly variable mixes of folksy wisdom, mild common sense and Just Plain Opinion. No-one has any business mixing fairly reasonable ideas about how to find a missing object or get a cable while traveling with Deep Wisdom About How To Live Your Life; the net effect is to anesthetize our critical facilities through sheer volume. Putting your advice as to what constitutes a meaningful life on the same level as advice on how not to get into credit card debt is a serious category error; at worst it's banal, at best it's a way of smuggling a bunch of unexamined values in as universals.
GuB-42 6y ago
> Don’t be the best. Be the only. No, if you are "the only" you are going to do that for the rest of your life. Also, it is at odds with the second previous point "Hangout with, and learn from, people smarter than yourself". You can't have people smarter than yourself if you are the only. And it is at odds with all the other points promoting sharing and generosity too. If you are the only, it means you didn't share your knowledge.
- fraktl 6y ago
  Maybe you're reading it wrong. It makes no sense to provide wisdom that clashes with other points. So.. you might be applying it wrong. You could be the only love of someone's life. Or the only that made a difference. Or the only father. Or brother. I didn't read it in terms of competition, where you STRIVE to be the only. It's a matter of perspective.
  - brlewis 6y ago
    > It makes no sense to provide wisdom that clashes with other points Sometimes when there's a tradeoff to be made, it's best to present the opposing principles one at a time. Yes it's worthwhile to seek to go beyond being the best and be the only. Yes it's good to surround yourself with people smarter than your. These are in tension. You have to figure out the balance for yourself.
- keiferski 6y ago
  What is the purpose of a pedantic comment like this? The meaning is clearly supposed to be something like, “don’t directly compete with other people, but be the best as something new/different.” Scott Adams and Peter Thiel have echoed similar sentiments.
  - hyperpallium 6y ago
    But if it works, soon you're not the only, just have a headstart.
- apk-d 6y ago
jstanley 6y ago
> Pros are just amateurs who know how to gracefully recover from their mistakes. This is very true. Last year I saw a motorcycle stunt display in the Isle of Man. It was all very impressive, and the chap had extremely good control of the bike, but the time that his skill was most apparent was when he had the rear wheel of the bike on a car bonnet and it started sliding off to one side. I thought he was for sure going to crash because there's no possible way to save it when his feet are so far from the ground. Somehow he managed to wriggle around and force the wheel back to the centre. I still don't know how. But that was the bit that showed me how skilled he was: not the amazing bike control that he wanted to display, but the way he recovered from a seemingly-unrecoverable mistake.
- 9nGQluzmnq3M 6y ago
  This is true in many fields, including IT. Anybody can install a piece of software by repeatedly clicking OK, and most of the time it'll go fine, but you'll need the expert when the install/upgrade goes horribly wrong with a slew of incomprehensible error messages.
  - jimmydddd 6y ago
    Agreed. Reminds me of a friend in finance who oversees reconciling the transactions at the end of the day. He says that most days he does almost nothing, but every once in a while, at the end of the day, the department can't track down where some $300 milion transaction ended up. That's when his expertise comes into play.
- keiferski 6y ago
  > The hood (North American English) or bonnet (Commonwealth English excluding Canada) is the hinged cover over the engine of motor vehicles that allows access to the engine compartment In case anyone else wasn't familiar with the term.
- oldsklgdfth 6y ago
  While doing some home improvement with a friend I kept trying to get everything just right. My friend's response was "A craftsman is someone that can cover up their screw ups".
projektfu 6y ago
"Hire for aptitude, train for skills" is a very software development oriented view. Training on its own is difficult and most available employees outside of engineering don't have a habit of self teaching. I've done a lot better with experienced people in my hires in my profession.
- ashtonkem 6y ago
  Software is also weird when it comes to skills. While the total domain knowledge possible in software is absolutely massive, the set of baseline skills required to rapidly learn new domains and perform is surprisingly small. Any good programmer can learn a new language and a new portion of the stack within at least year, probably less, because the core skills of the profession are very very small. It’s not clear to me how common this is in human endeavors.
  - jacquesm 6y ago
    That's dated. This used to be true, absolutely. But the size of various eco-systems is such that if you want to really master something now you have to invest a lot of time and if you bet on the wrong horse then you can lose a lot of time and effort for little return. Front end is especially brutal in this sense.
    - Aeolun 6y ago
      Anecdotally, I started out working with JS and React about 2 years ago, and while it was extremely easy to get started in terms of architecture and general coding (based on 10 previous years of experience with other languages), we’re also still dealing with bad decisions made because of idiosyncrasies in the language/libraries.
    - timw4mail 6y ago
      That's because "front-end development", especially with JavaScript frameworks, is a popularity driven hype cycle.
      - 6y ago
TopHand 6y ago
The mark of a true champion is to come back from behind!
ValentineC 6y ago
Would anyone mind sharing their take on this? > • Trust me: There is no “them”.
- Leace 6y ago
  There is no separation of "us" vs "them" and if for your own benefit everyone should be satisfied. See also "Think win-win" from 7 habits: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_7_Habits_of_Highly_Effective_People#4_-_Think_win-win https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_7_Habits_of_Highly_Effecti...
- Communitivity 6y ago
  It is both the hardest bit of advice on the list to follow, and the most profound. Many religions have some version of a holy man/woman going to a mountain/cave/ocean/forest and coming back with divine/enlightened wisdom. What they all have in common is some version of 'Unity: we are one'. It makes violence much harder, among other things. What left hand wants to shoot the matching right hand? Pragmatically, this means whenever you are thinking with the us vs them mentality you can try to realize that there is some value of us which includes you and the ones you consider 'them', a common ground. A possible first rule is that this is the key step in any negotiation. A possible second rule is that everything is a negotiation.
  - Aeolun 6y ago
    Ultimately, you can say everyone is human. But some humans are more human than others, at least in my system of ethics. I don’t necessarily blame the bad apples, but in the same way that I don’t blame my infected finger. It’s still going to require a strong dose of antibiotics.
    - TeMPOraL 6y ago
      That's already shifting the way you look at things. You'll still have to deal with the infection, but you aren't hating your finger.
- tke248 6y ago
isoprophlex 6y ago
These are amazing, and worthy of being deliberated upon often. I'm going to add these to the message-of-the-day thing I keep.
tom-thistime 6y ago
Stunningly accurate but greatly exceeds promised 68b limit.
- enobrev 6y ago
  9,976 Bytes of Unsolicited Advice
- ramshanker 6y ago
  I did not count but I guess he is counting each bullet point as one bit.
- CivBase 6y ago
  Shame. I was really looking forward to how he would achieve that last half-byte. Maybe 8 ASCII characters and a 4-bit flag for formatting?
  - Torwald 6y ago
    that's the sort of thing you would expect from that URL
- m463 6y ago
  maybe it was 68UaB
newswasboring 6y ago
Just a question, and I know it is completely dependent on culture, do people really believe > Trust me: There is no “them”. I feel like there is constantly a them. The way I interpret it is that you should not modify your behavior based on other people's opinion. Or is it about people who don't matter? How do you know people who don't matter? I have never known from the beginning of a relationship that this person will end up mattering.
- __s 6y ago
  This one's ambiguous. It may be referring to "they say" "who's they?", or "them" as the invisible enemy. Maybe "them" is illuminati/reptillians/etc. Or maybe he's rejecting non binary gender, who knows Might as well try & say you have a definitive interpretation of the lyrics to "It's Them" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eyw_IdBlbKs https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eyw_IdBlbKs
- 9wzYQbTYsAIc 6y ago
  > In sociology and social psychology, an in-group is a social group to which a person psychologically identifies as being a member. By contrast, an out-group is a social group with which an individual does not identify https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/In-group_and_out-group https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/In-group_and_out-group
  - newswasboring 6y ago
    Are you implying that the out group is them? But that will mean that there is no out group, everyone is in the in group and thus we should listen to everyone's opinion and give it credence.
    - 9wzYQbTYsAIc 6y ago
      Correct, “them” is always an out-group. “Us” is always an in-group. Everyone is human, we all bleed red, death is a part of life, and all that. That doesn’t necessarily mean that we should attribute everyone with credibility, however. But we should certainly attribute everyone with humanity. Unless “them” identify as non-human, I guess.
anthony_r 6y ago
> Never use a credit card for credit. The only kind of credit, or debt, that is acceptable is debt to acquire something whose exchange value is extremely likely to increase, like in a home. The exchange value of most things diminishes or vanishes the moment you purchase them. Don’t be in debt to losers. While true on credit, I would like to point out that the statement "something whose exchange value is extremely likely to increase, like in a home" can only be made by someone who doesn't know history beyond their lifespan and beyond their country (or maybe even beyond their county). The long term value of homes basically doesn't increase. People in their 60s are especially prone to not knowing this, having lived through the greatest asset appreciation period in the history of America, and perhaps in the history of the world. Forced savings may be worth it, but it is forced at the expense of crazy leverage and severe tail risks. 10% downpayment is 10x leverage, 20% downpayment is 5x leverage - would you ever leverage stocks or any other personal investment even by 3x?
- barbegal 6y ago
  Yeah I completely disagree with this sentiment that debt = bad. You should use debt where it acts as an investment (in the true sense of the word investment, rather than speculation). If you need to take on debt to buy that car that saves you an hour walk to work every day then that is good debt. Is it a good idea to use debt to purchase a house? If we believe in free markets then ownership should have roughly the same cost as renting. But ownership allows you to have more certainty that you won't get evicted x years down the line and that may be a worthy thing to invest in.
  - globular-toast 6y ago
    It's only a good debt if you have something useful to do with that hour you save. If it's just to spend more time watching TV then walking to work is the better investment by far.
  - theandrewbailey 6y ago
    Debt is risk. What happens when you lose all your income (as millions are right now)? Payments can't get made, and repossessions happen. If losing a job doesn't sound like a disaster to you, you've probably never experienced it, and/or you have the privilege of having a career in an in-demand field.
9wzYQbTYsAIc 6y ago
> The purpose of a habit is to remove that action from self-negotiation. You no longer expend energy deciding whether to do it. Pure gold.
JoeAltmaier 6y ago
Here's one I heard elsewhere, and isn't in the list. If you're searching for something important, search until you find one that satisfies all your requirements. Then, don't stop, keep searching until you find a better one. Then stop. This raises you maybe a whole standard deviation in quality, without taking exponential time. Works for all sorts of things. A new pair of shoes; a favorite dish in a restaurant; a spouse.
- sojournerc 6y ago
  Good luck searching for your next spouse while you have one ;)
  - beckingz 6y ago
    Better than job searching while you currently have one?
- Etheryte 6y ago
  This is one piece of advice that sound true and insightful, but in my opinion doesn't really hold up to scrutiny. An example of what I mean is the saying "perfect is the enemy of good", which directly conflicts with the above. Since I'm from the north, outdoor gear is a good example of this — there is no hardshell jacket in the world that ticks every box in my checklist. I've been through the lineup of both known and obscure companies item by item, from cheap shells to the ones that command a ridiculous premium. Finding this out has been a fun little hobby over a number of months, but realistically I don't think I'd be worse off if I just got the first one that was "good enough".
  - PaulDavisThe1st 6y ago
    a number of months? I'm 56 and have spent some fraction of my entire life devoted to the hardshell question. For me, my current Berghaus (bought while visiting the UK) ticks every box. Just perfect. But that took 40+ years to get to, not a few months.
    - 6y ago
Autowired 6y ago
> Everyone is shy. Other people are waiting for you to introduce yourself to them, they are waiting for you to send them an email, they are waiting for you to ask them on a date. Go ahead. Maybe take this one with a grain of salt.
- ardit33 6y ago
  Yeah, the author is projecting here. Assuming others feel/think the same as he does or did at some point.
  - mbrameld 6y ago
    It doesn't say ALL other people are waiting for you to introduce yourself to them. I think the point is more that you miss 100% shots you don't take so don't let your fear of rejection prevent you from trying.
- TeMPOraL 6y ago
  Then again, maybe not. Reminds me of the rejection therapy[0] - a self-help game in which you try to get rejected every day. To play, you have to purposefully make requests for things others can provide you, that are outside your comfort zone. Like, asking for a discount at the market. Or asking that person you like out. Etc. The point of that game is that it's surprisingly hard to get rejected (unless you ask for something completely silly and/or impossible). So if you need something, you may as well ask for it, and stop feeling so afraid and vulnerable about being rejected. Other people turn out to be happy to help or accommodate you (just like you are, if someone asks you for something). I've tried this in the past with some small things, I don't think I've managed to get one rejection. A surprisingly large number of people, myself included, are just more shy than it's optimal. -- [0] - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rejection_Therapy https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rejection_Therapy
globular-toast 6y ago
> Don’t be the smartest person in the room. Hangout with, and learn from, people smarter than yourself. Even better, find smart people who will disagree with you. I've often struggled with this one. It might sound arrogant, but I am 90% of the time the smartest person in the room. This is a frequent cause of unhappiness as I just feel I'm carrying others and I'm not able to learn anything myself. I've changed jobs many times to try to combat it but before long I find that I am, once again, the smartest person in the room. The only time I never felt like this was with my PhD supervisor who was definitely always the smartest person in the room.
- wenc 6y ago
  Try moving to a different field, especially a high-value one where raw intelligence is less important than "street smarts"/intuition/flair. There are many fields where the smartest person in the room doesn't have a Ph.D. or impressive academic/technical credentials. I often try to reinvent myself every couple of years. Moving from technical fields that I'm comfortable with into less technical fields where I'm forced to be a beginner has helped remind me what it's like to ramp up from an ignorant state. It's uncomfortable but worth it. The analytical mindset (which cerebral people tend toward) is disproportionately powerful for tackling various problems, but there are many open-domain problems--laden with tons of uncertainty--that only yield to heuristic approaches and trial-and-error. It's useful to learn what it actually feels like to be engaged with problem domains where analytical approaches aren't as effective. Here's something to consider: take a sampling of large multinational U.S. companies and look at the biographies of their executives. You'll likely find that most of them only have a bachelor's degree and often from middling schools, yet they are at the helm of these large corporations. It's tempting to think all of them got to where they were because they knew how to play the politics game in their orgs -- which is true in part -- but having worked with folks of this ilk, I would submit that there are some non-technical skills that these folks have that we tech folks don't often recognize.
  - thomk 6y ago
    Like?
sametmax 6y ago
> Don't trust all purpose glue I'm a Python dev, damn it.
YetAnotherNick 6y ago
No shit sherlock.
KuriousCat 6y ago
Many happy returns of the day, thanks for sharing this.
ibiza 6y ago
> Buying tools: Start by buying the absolute cheapest tools you can find. Upgrade... Strong "no" on this one. Always buy quality tools. These are priced at a premium, but unlike "inexpensive" tools will: • Do the job expected of them w/o creating a new problem • Be enjoyable to use • Last a long time (often, a lifetime)
- steveklabnik 6y ago
  You cut out the meat of the advice. The point is that you may not need the tools to last a lifetime; you buy a cheap set first, and then replace the ones you actually use with the quality ones, for the reasons you explain. This prevents you from spending excess money on tools you don't use.
  - wpietri 6y ago
    Exactly. Buying pro-grade anything before you have proven need is a giant waste. A while back I was thinking I wanted a standing desk. My first urge was, "Find the best and buy it!" Instead I prototyped something out of an ironing board and a highly adjustable laptop stand. That's been adequate for months, and it's taught me a lot about what will work for me, and what "best" actually means. Eventually I'll get around to buying something professional. But it won't be the thing novice me thought was the right one. And it could have easily turned out that I didn't need one at all.
    - caseysoftware 6y ago
      Sounds like you "shipped" an MVP, figured out what did/didn't work, and iterated. Amazing how this works, huh? ;) I wonder if people arguing against the "cheapest thing that will work, then learn" also argue in favor of over engineering systems to address requirements that may come months or years from now.
      - m463 6y ago
        "cheapest thing that will work, then learn" ah, that addresses it. Your mind is the best tool and you can upgrade it.
yamrzou 6y ago
Could someone elaborate on "Being enthusiastic is worth 25 IQ points" ?
- wpietri 6y ago
  IQ is, at best, a measure of raw capacity. But what matters in practice is how you apply that capacity. If somebody is enthusiastic then they are alert to details, excited to try things, and resilient in iterating. That means they're going to end up with a smarter end product than somebody who is smart but not really into it.
- GCA10 6y ago
  Cheerful people regroup faster and are still going strong on the 3rd/4th attempt to solve a problem. The higher-IQ person is more likely to get it right the first time. But there won't be much conviction on try No. 2, and after that, his/her position will be: "It doesn't work. Can't be done. Dumb idea." In a lot of work that I see, the IQ adjustment might be more like 10-15 points. For gnarly problems, we might still get better results with the really smart guy who's not 100% invested. And even grouchy geniuses can get enthused once they see that their ideas might work in a problem that has most other people stumped. Still, for problems that just require a lot of different attempts until something clicks, well-aimed enthusiasm can work wonders.
nimbius 6y ago
>Don’t be the best. Be the only. Speaking from experience in an automotive repair shop, Thats a great way to make sure you're the only guy who does lube jobs and rotor turns, and the most hated guy on the team. Branch out and learn new things. you dont need to be perfect, but if youre just one thing to one shop then you get missed (and replaced) about as quickly as a lug nut.
heavenlyblue 6y ago
This is what happens when you reach a certain age when you need to deliver on your said “experience”. All of what was said is true, but it is also comparable to saying “be what you want to be” to your child, forgetting that the hard part is in actually following this advice, rather than giving it.
iancmceachern 6y ago
Ha, "Never get involved in a land war in Asia"
PTOB 6y ago
I honestly thought he was just going to write "STOP IT!" I know it's only 64bits, but I was hoping for something interesting at the end.
11235813213455 6y ago
> When you are young spend at least 6 months to one year living as poor as you can, owning as little as you possibly can, eating beans and rice in a tiny room or tent, to experience what your “worst” lifestyle might be. That way any time you have to risk something in the future you won’t be afraid of the worst case scenario. Done it around my 24, I lived 2 years without spending any money, except for my room rent (I was paying by cheques, since you don't really need a credit-card anymore in my case). I ate from student restaurants bread leftovers, markets ends (lots of fruits/vegs), and sometimes supermarket bins with other persons You change dramatically after that, it's like a new life, with new values, minimalism, endurance, you know much more yourself. Why I did so? I don't know, I started for a few days, a week, then I didn't stop, there was some intent to save money, but the benefit was of course different, you actually risk to lose money, by losing your job, luckily it didn't happen, but I wasn't very productive
jmgpeeters 6y ago
I was expecting 62 bits of advice in the information theory interpretation. :/
perilunar 6y ago
"Old men are fond of giving good advice, to console themselves for being no longer in a position to give bad examples." — La Rochefoucauld
drudru11 6y ago
Who wrote this?
luord 6y ago
> Rule of 3 in conversation. To get to the real reason, ask a person to go deeper than what they just said. Then again, and once more. The third time’s answer is close to the truth. This is one where I see how it can be very helpful, but I don't have the first clue on how to go about it. Simply asking to "go deeper" is often met with a "what?" > Before you are old, attend as many funerals as you can bear, and listen. Nobody talks about the departed’s achievements. The only thing people will remember is what kind of person you were while you were achieving. This one might be true for funerals, but definitely not for obituaries. > Art is in what you leave out. As an aspiring writer of fiction, this was the only one I could not understand at all, yet really, really wish I did. > You really don’t want to be famous. Read the biography of any famous person. True, but I believe there's a difference between "fame" and "distinction". Striving for the latter might not be all that bad.
- prawn 6y ago
  I think "go deeper" is replaced with a contextual question that shows you understand so far and invite the person to speak further. On simplifying your art, I assume they're getting at leaving readers to fill in parts with their imagination. There is some notorious shredding of Dan Brown writing I've seen which might help convey it. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/books/authors/dont-make-fun-of-renowned-dan-brown/ https://www.telegraph.co.uk/books/authors/dont-make-fun-of-r... i.e., describe rough hands to infer a life of manual labour or a deliberate pace to imply age, rather than just tell people the age, job title and so on. A landscape photographer I know advises looking at the scene and finding a way to simplify it. Then again. And again. So, recomposing the scene to avoid an extra tree, or more rocks or something else distracting. When editing a digital image, it can involve spot-removing rocks from sand or blemishes that only distract the eye. Found this on Reddit: As Dr Seuss said: "A man with two heads must have two hats and two toothbrushes. Don't give him hair of purple seaweed and live fireflies for eyes."
gdy 6y ago
"Friends are better than money. Almost anything money can do, friends can do better. In so many ways a friend with a boat is better than owning a boat." But if everyone of your friends follows this advice, you'll be a bunch of poor people without a boat unable to help each other when a boat is needed.

477 points by ericzawo 6y ago

This reminds me a lot of that "wear sunscreen" chain mail https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wear_Sunscreen https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wear_Sunscreen These folksy wisdom thingies, especially from accomplished people, come off as patronizing to me.

ncmncm 6y ago
Here's a full refund.
_Microft 6y ago
Advice #1: "• Learn how to learn from those you disagree with, or even offend you. See if you can find the truth in what they believe."
- Err_Eek 6y ago
  I will make sure never to get myself in a land war in Asia
  - AlwaysForward 6y ago
    Why? Are you American? The European powers have won many land wars in Asia over the centuries.
    - Cthulhu_ 6y ago
      Nothing in recent history; you're probably thinking of the colonizers, there was a much bigger power and technology skew back then. And I'm mainly thinking of India there; they only really managed to colonize Hong Kong in China for example. disclaimer: not a history buff
      - AlwaysForward 6y ago
        In China you have Macau, Hong Kong, Shanghai, Tianjin and Kunming were all either explicitly or implicitly under the control of European Powers and those are just the one's off the top of my head, then you have Indonesia, Philippines, Vietnam, Cambodia, Malaysia, Borneo, Myanmar, Singapore (the list goes on and we are only in East Asia) that were all under Western control until the 20th century
    - Err_Eek 6y ago
      Actually I'm European. Though on European powers winning land wars in Asia -- I think it's a question of what are the boundaries of Europe, both in time and in space. And Kevin Kelly was wise not to get into that debate.
    - nobody0 6y ago
      Majorly in 19th century, when the west industrialized first.
- knolax 6y ago
  Advice #0: "Sometimes if it sounds like bullshit, it is bullshit"

ggm 6y ago

There is a lot to be said for "never get involved in a land war in Asia"

delaaxe 6y ago
Like what? This is one of the few bits that I honestly didn't understand because it felt so specific and without further explanation. Can you elaborate?
- dcminter 6y ago
  It's a quotation from "The Princess Bride" so mostly a joke. The land war the movie is referring to is Vietnam, not generally considered an American success story. In the movie the humour comes from the incongruity of the fantasy setting with the knowing political aside.
  - fnord123 6y ago
    >The land war the movie is referring to is Vietnam From Hansard: https://bit.ly/2V7BgbK https://bit.ly/2V7BgbK > The next war on land will be very different from the last one, in that we shall have to fight it in a different way. In reaching a decision on that matter, we must first be clear about certain rules of war. Rule 1, on page I of the book of war, is: "Do not march on Moscow". Various people have tried it, Napoleon and Hitler, and it is no good. That is the first rule. I do not know whether your Lordships will know Rule 2 of war. It is: "Do not go fighting with your land armies in China". It is a vast country, with no clearly defined objectives, and an army fighting there would be engulfed by what is known as the Ming Bing, the people's insurgents.
    - TeMPOraL 6y ago
      And then the next paragraph goes: > The more I study the problem of future war, which I do a good deal, the more I reach the conclusion that air power and sea power will provide the main offensive punch in an unlimited nuclear war of the future. Their offensive power must be mobile. Land power will be essential as a direct "stop" on the ground, in order to protect vital territories and peoples. But the strategy of those who fight on land will be defensive, since any considerable movement will not be possible owing to the terrific destruction caused to communications by nuclear bombardment, as well as by the movement of refugees. This latter is a terrific problem, and during the ten years in which I served in Supreme Headquarters in Europe, we never could get the refugee problem seriously tackled. The sea must be exploited increasingly to give surface strategical mobility, and to provide mobile launching sites for nuclear weapons. At which point I'm starting to feel sick in my stomach and decide to abandon reading whatever it is that I was just reading. I'm already in a bad head space thanks to COVID-19, I don't want to contemplate the realities of a world in the middle of a war in which nuclear weapons are used as actual weapons.

iobug 6y ago

Now this, is GOLD

quickthrower2 6y ago

I love the advice, there is some I'd tell as an 'old man' to younger people. and there is some there I'm thinking "Oh shit... yes!"

fraktl 6y ago

I've no words to express how strongly these resonated with me, this is the only article I re-read 5 times in a row and read it slowly. Thank you for your wisdom.

helsinkiandrew 6y ago

> Learn how to take a 20-minute power nap without embarrassment I've found the lockdown great for trying this - a run, lunch then 15 minutes on the sofa. It's like rebooting the day.

saagarjha 6y ago
If only doing the same at work was this easy…
- icelancer 6y ago
  > If only doing the same at work was this easy… Never understood employers who had a problem with this. I have people scheduling a small conference room we have to take 30 minute naps, or going to their car, or sleeping under their desk. Why should anyone care about that as long as they are generally productive and get the work done? (probably should note I don't overwork my employees, make them keep 80 hour schedules or anything - a couple of them get up at like 4:30 AM to go to the gym / shoot hoops before coming in, and want to take a nap around lunch before the 2nd part of their day)
  - saagarjha 6y ago
    Well, there’s one part where it’s kind of awkward to ask to take a nap or have a coworker find you sleeping (“should I wake them up or wait to get my PR reviewed?“) but another part of it is that it’s not really comfortable to sleep at work unless there are ample soft couches or something. At home I can just jump into bed…
    - as1mov 6y ago
      Eh I think you can leave someone undisturbed for 15-20 minutes unless it's something truly important. 99% of PRs can wait that long, unless you are working on a production issue (where the likelihood of someone sleeping in the middle of is pretty small anyway). > it’s not really comfortable to sleep at work I actually find it easier to take short naps on desk, just cross my arms and use them as a pillow to bury my head into. The position just comfortable enough that you will sleep easily for 15 minutes and then wake up. On the other hand, getting into a bed I could see myself sleeping from anywhere between 30 minutes to 3 hours :/

splatzone 6y ago

This page really is a goldmine. In the spirit of not being afraid to ask stupid questions, I don't understand a couple of them - anyone care to explain? > When you die you take absolutely nothing with you except your reputation. Is this saying that your reputation dies with you? I don't get this, surely people will remember how you acted when you were alive. I'm probably taking it too literally. > Don’t ever respond to a solicitation or a proposal on the phone. The urgency is a disguise. A disguise for what? I'm not sure I get what they mean by this. I'm guessing the author is advising that you don't let yourself be rushed into agreeing to something over the phone, think about it and take your time, don't be pressured

blm 6y ago
>> Don’t ever respond to a solicitation or a proposal on the phone. The urgency is a disguise. > A disguise for what? I think: Something not quite right or something worse. It's easier to get away with things when they aren't face to face. People often know when they are trying to get away with something and leak the truth or information about the truth in body language. Also it is quicker to communicate over the phone. If they are desperate they can deliver a proposal( ask for stuff?) over the phone within a quicker time frame.
delaaxe 6y ago
> When you die you take absolutely nothing with you except your reputation. What I understood is that when you die, the only thing about you that will stay is your reputation. I agree it could have been worded better
jerrre 6y ago
>> When you die you take absolutely nothing with you except your reputation. >Is this saying that your reputation dies with you? I don't get this, surely people will remember how you acted when you were alive. I'm probably taking it too literally. I interpret this the other way around: nothing you gain in life matters/retains value/sticks (to you?) after you die except your reputation
- splatzone 6y ago

jonasvp 6y ago

> Don’t say anything about someone in email you would not be comfortable saying to them directly, because eventually they will read it. Absolutely - I've learned this the hard way and it's giving me new appreciation for phone calls. It's amazing how many people do _not_ remember that an email chain of several hundred pages _will_ contain something incriminating or embassaring if forwarded to someone outside the original circle of recipients.

MaxBarraclough 6y ago
It's not just email. New joiners may be able to read old posts on chat threads or forums.
JoeAltmaier 6y ago
Sometimes even that isn't enough. You have to read it twice. I was having a text exchange with a manager on the road. Hard to come to a consensus that way. So I wanted to talk when he got back to the shop. I texted "We can talk some more when you get it." One letter. The issues it caused lasted for years.
- MauranKilom 6y ago
  Sorry, I don't see the one letter change that fixes the message. What did you intend to say?
  - mattkrause 6y ago
    "Get in" -> arrive here (i.e., let's continue the discussion in person) "Get it" --> understand (i.e., you need to take some time to realize why I'm right).
- crankylinuxuser 6y ago
  Damn. Sure would have been nice if they assumed a automiscorrect rather than a nasty comment.
  - 6y ago

zvrba 6y ago

> Before you are old, attend as many funerals as you can bear, and listen. Nobody talks about the departed’s achievements. The only thing people will remember is what kind of person you were while you were achieving. Or visit a graveyard and read the tombstones.

TeMPOraL 6y ago
Where I live, most tombstones have one of the few popular sayings or Bible verses on them. I'm sure the choice of a particular one was deeply meaningful to the person making that choice, but it gives zero information (above "probably wasn't an atheist") to an outside observer.

londons_explore 6y ago

I can confirm that one shouldn't trust all-purpose glue. Bought a tube of it a year ago, and out of about 10 times I've tried to use it, I don't remember a single one not needing re-gluing with something else later. All except your fingers of course - glue them, and they're sticky for weeks.

danielscrubs 6y ago
Thought about Kafka... Hahaha
GuB-42 6y ago
Cyanoacrylate (super glue) works best on fingers. So well in fact that it can be used as an alternative to stitches. Medical grade cyanoacrylate is a bit different (less irritant) but in an emergency, the regular household kind can be used.
- jacquesm 6y ago
  I did that after a metalworking incident (large greasy shaft with a burr slipped through my fingers), you can't even see the scar and my finger was cut open all the way to the bone.
- kortex 6y ago
  It's also one of the few things that readily stops a bleeding nail if you are clipping a pet's nails and hit the quick (blood vessel region). Corn starch is supposed to, but I find CA is faster for deep cuts.
- TeMPOraL 6y ago
  Yeah, I added one to my first-aid kit just for really emergency emergencies. I also love cyanoacrylate because it stops sticking when you apply water to it. I don't worry about my fingers, because whenever I work with this family of glues, I just keep a glass of water on my workbench, into which I dip the fingers if I notice I spilled some glue on them. The glue immediately polymerizes, and you can pull/scratch it off.

hyperpallium 6y ago

> When an object is lost, 95% of the time it is hiding within arm’s reach of where it was last seen. Search in all possible locations in that radius and you’ll find it. Yup, look closely in the place you expected it to be. Something may be on top of it, or it may have fallen off.

JoeAltmaier 6y ago
And pull an image of it into your mind. Then glance around. Your brain's mighty correlation/association engine may find it for you! It will seem to pop out of the clutter.
- mnsc 6y ago
  As someone with Aphantasia I am TriGgeReD! ;)
- thomk 6y ago
  That's a good way to look for a person in a crowd too. Think of what, exactly they were wearing and look for that, not their face.
Leherenn 6y ago
Also look where you don't expect it to be. Quite a few times I have said "It can't be in there." and it was in fact there...
m463 6y ago
I was trying to find exceptions and came up with balloons, pets, and dry ice.

nunorbatista 6y ago

> Optimize your generosity. No one on their deathbed has ever regretted giving too much away. Not sure if I agree completely. I've seen people regret giving their life to the service of others and not noticing they were not living their own life until too late.

fraktl 6y ago
You don't have to take it in as black or white. It does not mean "give away everything you have and be miserable". The way I read it was: don't hoard, make others happy. It does not mean I should live a miserable life in hope that someone, whom I'm giving to, will recognize it. The wisdom can escape you if you take what's written literally letter for letter, as if you're a computer.
- nunorbatista 6y ago
  "giving too much away" is not only material stuff. You can give too much time away, mainly taking care of others that should be able to find a way to take care of themselves (obviously not talking about elderly people). I'm married to a nurse, and I know a lot of people on the field. I'm constantly amazed how they are wired to take care of others before themselves.
goodcanadian 6y ago
The key word is "optimize." Note that the author didn't say "maximize."
- nunorbatista 6y ago
  Agree, but my comment is more on the second part of the phrase: "No one on their deathbed has ever regretted giving too much away." - I'm not sure this is completely true.
- glangdale 6y ago
  Like most of these these platitudes, it can mean whatever you want it to mean. "Optimize" - you mean "do the ideal thing"? Good thing that's so easy to figure out at the time...

asar 6y ago

My personal favorite >Following your bliss is a recipe for paralysis if you don’t know what you are passionate about. A better motto for most youth is “master something, anything”. Through mastery of one thing, you can drift towards extensions of that mastery that bring you more joy, and eventually discover where your bliss is.

m463 6y ago
statements like that are very powerful. He's teaching people how to teach people, which is like wisdom^2

pjc50 6y ago

> The purpose of a habit is to remove that action from self-negotiation. This is very powerful. Reminds me of the "system 1 vs system 2" discussion, and some descriptions of e.g. ADHD and depression causing what could be described as "failure to terminate in self-negotiation".

TeMPOraL 6y ago
Indeed. I've also been realizing recently that my #1 failure mode with procrastination is this: by the time I stared a distracting activity (e.g. reading HN, watching something on Netflix), the self-negotiation is already lost. My mind will drag the argument ad infinitum while continuing to do the thing it's currently doing, i.e. procrastinating.
- tbugrara 6y ago
  Maybe I'm wrong but I think self-negotiation here means: when I put my dishes away after dinner, I attempt to negotiate with myself if I have to do it right now. A habit instead terminates this attempt at negotiating and gets you to just do it without thinking if you should or shouldn't.
  - TeMPOraL 6y ago
    What you describe and "should I get back to work or view just one more comment thread on HN" is the same mental process.
Torwald 6y ago
scheduling also works for that. (if you keep your schedule)

MaxBarraclough 6y ago

> Talent is distributed unfairly, but there is no limit on how much we can improve what we start with. That's just not true. I will never be an Alan Turing or a John von Neumann, and I dare say neither will you, dear reader. The reason isn't that we're just too lazy. See also the legend (myth?) of Antonio Salieri's jealousy of Mozart's natural talent: When confronted with the limitations of his own mediocre talent, Antonio Salieri, Mozart's nemesis, believes God has cheated him, while a vulgar, undeserving brat seems to possess divinely inspired musical gifts. (Taken from https://www.oakpark.com/News/Articles/2-17-2009/Mozart-vs.-Salieri:-Genius-vs.-jealousy/ https://www.oakpark.com/News/Articles/2-17-2009/Mozart-vs.-S... )

gspr 6y ago
> > Talent is distributed unfairly, but there is no limit on how much we can improve what we start with. > That's just not true. I will never be an Alan Turing or a John von Neumann, and I dare say neither will you, dear reader. The author doesn't claim this either. I believe he means that you shouldn't discount how much you can improve yourself.
- MaxBarraclough 6y ago
  Which would be solid advice, but he put there is no limit. That's the part I'm questioning. You'll never get anywhere without self-improvement, of course, but there's no sense pretending we can all be a prodigy like von Neumann - whose natural intelligence was shocking even to the top professors of his day - if we just work hard enough. There very much is a limit, but one need not be deluded to be motivated or successful. edit Perhaps the point is meant to be read as 'you can always improve yourself further', rather than 'there is no ceiling on your abilities'. Which seems far more reasonable.
  - Aeolun 6y ago
    There is no limit on your ability to improve yourself, but the effect can be described as a log function.

glangdale 6y ago

Shakespeare knew what to do with people who proffer great quantities of unsolicited advice; look what happened to Polonius. A bunch of these are good, a bunch are just... OK, and some are questionable or just a matter of simple opinion. A lot just reek of "truthiness"; a sort of middle-brow confidence about art/business/doing stuff that's manages to frequently just pass off made-up bullshit as authoritative. The "rule of 7 in research", "Pros are just amateurs who know how to gracefully recover from their mistakes", "Talent is distributed unfairly, but there is no limit on how much we can improve what we start with" - a lot of these don't make a lick of sense on sober examination.

Aeolun 6y ago
They make a lot of sense, they’re just not necessarily literally true.
wpietri 6y ago
Those make sense to me. Like all maxims, they're overcompressed; they imply a context that the reader has to be able to fill in. But I think they're useful in context. E.g., the phrase "It is what it is" is on the surface tautological and useless. But in context, it's a valuable reminder about coping with some of the flaws in human consciousness.
- glangdale 6y ago
  They "make sense", but they aren't really true. They are not such much "overcompressed" as subject to whatever interpretation makes them sensible, but as such, they are dependent more on the good sense of the person unpacking them than on their inherent virtue. So, for example, the "Rule of 7" is a ludicrous exaggeration (by the time you actually go through a chain of 7 people you're talking to a random stranger and weeks have passed), but someone who had done some research might mentally fix this to a rule of 3 (which would be a pretty reasonable thing). However, a maxim that's on the face of it pretty dumb until you fix it up is Not Good. Similarly, the one about "pros" vs "amateurs" is Just Plain Made Up - it's easy to conjure up situations where it seems clever, but in general it doesn't make a lick of sense. I suppose I'm perennially annoyed - one might even say "triggered" - by these kind of wildly variable mixes of folksy wisdom, mild common sense and Just Plain Opinion. No-one has any business mixing fairly reasonable ideas about how to find a missing object or get a cable while traveling with Deep Wisdom About How To Live Your Life; the net effect is to anesthetize our critical facilities through sheer volume. Putting your advice as to what constitutes a meaningful life on the same level as advice on how not to get into credit card debt is a serious category error; at worst it's banal, at best it's a way of smuggling a bunch of unexamined values in as universals.

GuB-42 6y ago

> Don’t be the best. Be the only. No, if you are "the only" you are going to do that for the rest of your life. Also, it is at odds with the second previous point "Hangout with, and learn from, people smarter than yourself". You can't have people smarter than yourself if you are the only. And it is at odds with all the other points promoting sharing and generosity too. If you are the only, it means you didn't share your knowledge.

fraktl 6y ago
Maybe you're reading it wrong. It makes no sense to provide wisdom that clashes with other points. So.. you might be applying it wrong. You could be the only love of someone's life. Or the only that made a difference. Or the only father. Or brother. I didn't read it in terms of competition, where you STRIVE to be the only. It's a matter of perspective.
- brlewis 6y ago
  > It makes no sense to provide wisdom that clashes with other points Sometimes when there's a tradeoff to be made, it's best to present the opposing principles one at a time. Yes it's worthwhile to seek to go beyond being the best and be the only. Yes it's good to surround yourself with people smarter than your. These are in tension. You have to figure out the balance for yourself.
keiferski 6y ago
What is the purpose of a pedantic comment like this? The meaning is clearly supposed to be something like, “don’t directly compete with other people, but be the best as something new/different.” Scott Adams and Peter Thiel have echoed similar sentiments.
- hyperpallium 6y ago
  But if it works, soon you're not the only, just have a headstart.
apk-d 6y ago

jstanley 6y ago

> Pros are just amateurs who know how to gracefully recover from their mistakes. This is very true. Last year I saw a motorcycle stunt display in the Isle of Man. It was all very impressive, and the chap had extremely good control of the bike, but the time that his skill was most apparent was when he had the rear wheel of the bike on a car bonnet and it started sliding off to one side. I thought he was for sure going to crash because there's no possible way to save it when his feet are so far from the ground. Somehow he managed to wriggle around and force the wheel back to the centre. I still don't know how. But that was the bit that showed me how skilled he was: not the amazing bike control that he wanted to display, but the way he recovered from a seemingly-unrecoverable mistake.

9nGQluzmnq3M 6y ago
This is true in many fields, including IT. Anybody can install a piece of software by repeatedly clicking OK, and most of the time it'll go fine, but you'll need the expert when the install/upgrade goes horribly wrong with a slew of incomprehensible error messages.
- jimmydddd 6y ago
  Agreed. Reminds me of a friend in finance who oversees reconciling the transactions at the end of the day. He says that most days he does almost nothing, but every once in a while, at the end of the day, the department can't track down where some $300 milion transaction ended up. That's when his expertise comes into play.
keiferski 6y ago
> The hood (North American English) or bonnet (Commonwealth English excluding Canada) is the hinged cover over the engine of motor vehicles that allows access to the engine compartment In case anyone else wasn't familiar with the term.
oldsklgdfth 6y ago
While doing some home improvement with a friend I kept trying to get everything just right. My friend's response was "A craftsman is someone that can cover up their screw ups".

projektfu 6y ago

"Hire for aptitude, train for skills" is a very software development oriented view. Training on its own is difficult and most available employees outside of engineering don't have a habit of self teaching. I've done a lot better with experienced people in my hires in my profession.

ashtonkem 6y ago
Software is also weird when it comes to skills. While the total domain knowledge possible in software is absolutely massive, the set of baseline skills required to rapidly learn new domains and perform is surprisingly small. Any good programmer can learn a new language and a new portion of the stack within at least year, probably less, because the core skills of the profession are very very small. It’s not clear to me how common this is in human endeavors.
- jacquesm 6y ago
  That's dated. This used to be true, absolutely. But the size of various eco-systems is such that if you want to really master something now you have to invest a lot of time and if you bet on the wrong horse then you can lose a lot of time and effort for little return. Front end is especially brutal in this sense.
  - Aeolun 6y ago
    Anecdotally, I started out working with JS and React about 2 years ago, and while it was extremely easy to get started in terms of architecture and general coding (based on 10 previous years of experience with other languages), we’re also still dealing with bad decisions made because of idiosyncrasies in the language/libraries.
  - timw4mail 6y ago
    That's because "front-end development", especially with JavaScript frameworks, is a popularity driven hype cycle.
    - 6y ago

TopHand 6y ago

The mark of a true champion is to come back from behind!

ValentineC 6y ago

Would anyone mind sharing their take on this? > • Trust me: There is no “them”.

Leace 6y ago
There is no separation of "us" vs "them" and if for your own benefit everyone should be satisfied. See also "Think win-win" from 7 habits: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_7_Habits_of_Highly_Effective_People#4_-_Think_win-win https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_7_Habits_of_Highly_Effecti...
Communitivity 6y ago
It is both the hardest bit of advice on the list to follow, and the most profound. Many religions have some version of a holy man/woman going to a mountain/cave/ocean/forest and coming back with divine/enlightened wisdom. What they all have in common is some version of 'Unity: we are one'. It makes violence much harder, among other things. What left hand wants to shoot the matching right hand? Pragmatically, this means whenever you are thinking with the us vs them mentality you can try to realize that there is some value of us which includes you and the ones you consider 'them', a common ground. A possible first rule is that this is the key step in any negotiation. A possible second rule is that everything is a negotiation.
- Aeolun 6y ago
  Ultimately, you can say everyone is human. But some humans are more human than others, at least in my system of ethics. I don’t necessarily blame the bad apples, but in the same way that I don’t blame my infected finger. It’s still going to require a strong dose of antibiotics.
  - TeMPOraL 6y ago
    That's already shifting the way you look at things. You'll still have to deal with the infection, but you aren't hating your finger.
tke248 6y ago

isoprophlex 6y ago

These are amazing, and worthy of being deliberated upon often. I'm going to add these to the message-of-the-day thing I keep.

tom-thistime 6y ago

Stunningly accurate but greatly exceeds promised 68b limit.

enobrev 6y ago
9,976 Bytes of Unsolicited Advice
ramshanker 6y ago
I did not count but I guess he is counting each bullet point as one bit.
CivBase 6y ago
Shame. I was really looking forward to how he would achieve that last half-byte. Maybe 8 ASCII characters and a 4-bit flag for formatting?
- Torwald 6y ago
  that's the sort of thing you would expect from that URL
m463 6y ago
maybe it was 68UaB

newswasboring 6y ago

Just a question, and I know it is completely dependent on culture, do people really believe > Trust me: There is no “them”. I feel like there is constantly a them. The way I interpret it is that you should not modify your behavior based on other people's opinion. Or is it about people who don't matter? How do you know people who don't matter? I have never known from the beginning of a relationship that this person will end up mattering.

__s 6y ago
This one's ambiguous. It may be referring to "they say" "who's they?", or "them" as the invisible enemy. Maybe "them" is illuminati/reptillians/etc. Or maybe he's rejecting non binary gender, who knows Might as well try & say you have a definitive interpretation of the lyrics to "It's Them" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eyw_IdBlbKs https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eyw_IdBlbKs
9wzYQbTYsAIc 6y ago
> In sociology and social psychology, an in-group is a social group to which a person psychologically identifies as being a member. By contrast, an out-group is a social group with which an individual does not identify https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/In-group_and_out-group https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/In-group_and_out-group
- newswasboring 6y ago
  Are you implying that the out group is them? But that will mean that there is no out group, everyone is in the in group and thus we should listen to everyone's opinion and give it credence.
  - 9wzYQbTYsAIc 6y ago
    Correct, “them” is always an out-group. “Us” is always an in-group. Everyone is human, we all bleed red, death is a part of life, and all that. That doesn’t necessarily mean that we should attribute everyone with credibility, however. But we should certainly attribute everyone with humanity. Unless “them” identify as non-human, I guess.

anthony_r 6y ago

> Never use a credit card for credit. The only kind of credit, or debt, that is acceptable is debt to acquire something whose exchange value is extremely likely to increase, like in a home. The exchange value of most things diminishes or vanishes the moment you purchase them. Don’t be in debt to losers. While true on credit, I would like to point out that the statement "something whose exchange value is extremely likely to increase, like in a home" can only be made by someone who doesn't know history beyond their lifespan and beyond their country (or maybe even beyond their county). The long term value of homes basically doesn't increase. People in their 60s are especially prone to not knowing this, having lived through the greatest asset appreciation period in the history of America, and perhaps in the history of the world. Forced savings may be worth it, but it is forced at the expense of crazy leverage and severe tail risks. 10% downpayment is 10x leverage, 20% downpayment is 5x leverage - would you ever leverage stocks or any other personal investment even by 3x?

barbegal 6y ago
Yeah I completely disagree with this sentiment that debt = bad. You should use debt where it acts as an investment (in the true sense of the word investment, rather than speculation). If you need to take on debt to buy that car that saves you an hour walk to work every day then that is good debt. Is it a good idea to use debt to purchase a house? If we believe in free markets then ownership should have roughly the same cost as renting. But ownership allows you to have more certainty that you won't get evicted x years down the line and that may be a worthy thing to invest in.
- globular-toast 6y ago
  It's only a good debt if you have something useful to do with that hour you save. If it's just to spend more time watching TV then walking to work is the better investment by far.
- theandrewbailey 6y ago
  Debt is risk. What happens when you lose all your income (as millions are right now)? Payments can't get made, and repossessions happen. If losing a job doesn't sound like a disaster to you, you've probably never experienced it, and/or you have the privilege of having a career in an in-demand field.

9wzYQbTYsAIc 6y ago

> The purpose of a habit is to remove that action from self-negotiation. You no longer expend energy deciding whether to do it. Pure gold.

JoeAltmaier 6y ago

Here's one I heard elsewhere, and isn't in the list. If you're searching for something important, search until you find one that satisfies all your requirements. Then, don't stop, keep searching until you find a better one. Then stop. This raises you maybe a whole standard deviation in quality, without taking exponential time. Works for all sorts of things. A new pair of shoes; a favorite dish in a restaurant; a spouse.

sojournerc 6y ago
Good luck searching for your next spouse while you have one ;)
- beckingz 6y ago
  Better than job searching while you currently have one?
Etheryte 6y ago
This is one piece of advice that sound true and insightful, but in my opinion doesn't really hold up to scrutiny. An example of what I mean is the saying "perfect is the enemy of good", which directly conflicts with the above. Since I'm from the north, outdoor gear is a good example of this — there is no hardshell jacket in the world that ticks every box in my checklist. I've been through the lineup of both known and obscure companies item by item, from cheap shells to the ones that command a ridiculous premium. Finding this out has been a fun little hobby over a number of months, but realistically I don't think I'd be worse off if I just got the first one that was "good enough".
- PaulDavisThe1st 6y ago
  a number of months? I'm 56 and have spent some fraction of my entire life devoted to the hardshell question. For me, my current Berghaus (bought while visiting the UK) ticks every box. Just perfect. But that took 40+ years to get to, not a few months.
  - 6y ago

Autowired 6y ago

> Everyone is shy. Other people are waiting for you to introduce yourself to them, they are waiting for you to send them an email, they are waiting for you to ask them on a date. Go ahead. Maybe take this one with a grain of salt.

ardit33 6y ago
Yeah, the author is projecting here. Assuming others feel/think the same as he does or did at some point.
- mbrameld 6y ago
  It doesn't say ALL other people are waiting for you to introduce yourself to them. I think the point is more that you miss 100% shots you don't take so don't let your fear of rejection prevent you from trying.
TeMPOraL 6y ago
Then again, maybe not. Reminds me of the rejection therapy[0] - a self-help game in which you try to get rejected every day. To play, you have to purposefully make requests for things others can provide you, that are outside your comfort zone. Like, asking for a discount at the market. Or asking that person you like out. Etc. The point of that game is that it's surprisingly hard to get rejected (unless you ask for something completely silly and/or impossible). So if you need something, you may as well ask for it, and stop feeling so afraid and vulnerable about being rejected. Other people turn out to be happy to help or accommodate you (just like you are, if someone asks you for something). I've tried this in the past with some small things, I don't think I've managed to get one rejection. A surprisingly large number of people, myself included, are just more shy than it's optimal. -- [0] - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rejection_Therapy https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rejection_Therapy

globular-toast 6y ago

> Don’t be the smartest person in the room. Hangout with, and learn from, people smarter than yourself. Even better, find smart people who will disagree with you. I've often struggled with this one. It might sound arrogant, but I am 90% of the time the smartest person in the room. This is a frequent cause of unhappiness as I just feel I'm carrying others and I'm not able to learn anything myself. I've changed jobs many times to try to combat it but before long I find that I am, once again, the smartest person in the room. The only time I never felt like this was with my PhD supervisor who was definitely always the smartest person in the room.

wenc 6y ago
Try moving to a different field, especially a high-value one where raw intelligence is less important than "street smarts"/intuition/flair. There are many fields where the smartest person in the room doesn't have a Ph.D. or impressive academic/technical credentials. I often try to reinvent myself every couple of years. Moving from technical fields that I'm comfortable with into less technical fields where I'm forced to be a beginner has helped remind me what it's like to ramp up from an ignorant state. It's uncomfortable but worth it. The analytical mindset (which cerebral people tend toward) is disproportionately powerful for tackling various problems, but there are many open-domain problems--laden with tons of uncertainty--that only yield to heuristic approaches and trial-and-error. It's useful to learn what it actually feels like to be engaged with problem domains where analytical approaches aren't as effective. Here's something to consider: take a sampling of large multinational U.S. companies and look at the biographies of their executives. You'll likely find that most of them only have a bachelor's degree and often from middling schools, yet they are at the helm of these large corporations. It's tempting to think all of them got to where they were because they knew how to play the politics game in their orgs -- which is true in part -- but having worked with folks of this ilk, I would submit that there are some non-technical skills that these folks have that we tech folks don't often recognize.
- thomk 6y ago
  Like?

sametmax 6y ago

> Don't trust all purpose glue I'm a Python dev, damn it.

YetAnotherNick 6y ago

No shit sherlock.

KuriousCat 6y ago

Many happy returns of the day, thanks for sharing this.

ibiza 6y ago

> Buying tools: Start by buying the absolute cheapest tools you can find. Upgrade... Strong "no" on this one. Always buy quality tools. These are priced at a premium, but unlike "inexpensive" tools will: • Do the job expected of them w/o creating a new problem • Be enjoyable to use • Last a long time (often, a lifetime)

steveklabnik 6y ago
You cut out the meat of the advice. The point is that you may not need the tools to last a lifetime; you buy a cheap set first, and then replace the ones you actually use with the quality ones, for the reasons you explain. This prevents you from spending excess money on tools you don't use.
- wpietri 6y ago
  Exactly. Buying pro-grade anything before you have proven need is a giant waste. A while back I was thinking I wanted a standing desk. My first urge was, "Find the best and buy it!" Instead I prototyped something out of an ironing board and a highly adjustable laptop stand. That's been adequate for months, and it's taught me a lot about what will work for me, and what "best" actually means. Eventually I'll get around to buying something professional. But it won't be the thing novice me thought was the right one. And it could have easily turned out that I didn't need one at all.
  - caseysoftware 6y ago
    Sounds like you "shipped" an MVP, figured out what did/didn't work, and iterated. Amazing how this works, huh? ;) I wonder if people arguing against the "cheapest thing that will work, then learn" also argue in favor of over engineering systems to address requirements that may come months or years from now.
    - m463 6y ago
      "cheapest thing that will work, then learn" ah, that addresses it. Your mind is the best tool and you can upgrade it.

yamrzou 6y ago

Could someone elaborate on "Being enthusiastic is worth 25 IQ points" ?

wpietri 6y ago
IQ is, at best, a measure of raw capacity. But what matters in practice is how you apply that capacity. If somebody is enthusiastic then they are alert to details, excited to try things, and resilient in iterating. That means they're going to end up with a smarter end product than somebody who is smart but not really into it.
GCA10 6y ago
Cheerful people regroup faster and are still going strong on the 3rd/4th attempt to solve a problem. The higher-IQ person is more likely to get it right the first time. But there won't be much conviction on try No. 2, and after that, his/her position will be: "It doesn't work. Can't be done. Dumb idea." In a lot of work that I see, the IQ adjustment might be more like 10-15 points. For gnarly problems, we might still get better results with the really smart guy who's not 100% invested. And even grouchy geniuses can get enthused once they see that their ideas might work in a problem that has most other people stumped. Still, for problems that just require a lot of different attempts until something clicks, well-aimed enthusiasm can work wonders.

nimbius 6y ago

>Don’t be the best. Be the only. Speaking from experience in an automotive repair shop, Thats a great way to make sure you're the only guy who does lube jobs and rotor turns, and the most hated guy on the team. Branch out and learn new things. you dont need to be perfect, but if youre just one thing to one shop then you get missed (and replaced) about as quickly as a lug nut.

heavenlyblue 6y ago

This is what happens when you reach a certain age when you need to deliver on your said “experience”. All of what was said is true, but it is also comparable to saying “be what you want to be” to your child, forgetting that the hard part is in actually following this advice, rather than giving it.

iancmceachern 6y ago

Ha, "Never get involved in a land war in Asia"

PTOB 6y ago

I honestly thought he was just going to write "STOP IT!" I know it's only 64bits, but I was hoping for something interesting at the end.

11235813213455 6y ago

> When you are young spend at least 6 months to one year living as poor as you can, owning as little as you possibly can, eating beans and rice in a tiny room or tent, to experience what your “worst” lifestyle might be. That way any time you have to risk something in the future you won’t be afraid of the worst case scenario. Done it around my 24, I lived 2 years without spending any money, except for my room rent (I was paying by cheques, since you don't really need a credit-card anymore in my case). I ate from student restaurants bread leftovers, markets ends (lots of fruits/vegs), and sometimes supermarket bins with other persons You change dramatically after that, it's like a new life, with new values, minimalism, endurance, you know much more yourself. Why I did so? I don't know, I started for a few days, a week, then I didn't stop, there was some intent to save money, but the benefit was of course different, you actually risk to lose money, by losing your job, luckily it didn't happen, but I wasn't very productive

jmgpeeters 6y ago

I was expecting 62 bits of advice in the information theory interpretation. :/

perilunar 6y ago

"Old men are fond of giving good advice, to console themselves for being no longer in a position to give bad examples." — La Rochefoucauld

drudru11 6y ago

Who wrote this?

luord 6y ago

> Rule of 3 in conversation. To get to the real reason, ask a person to go deeper than what they just said. Then again, and once more. The third time’s answer is close to the truth. This is one where I see how it can be very helpful, but I don't have the first clue on how to go about it. Simply asking to "go deeper" is often met with a "what?" > Before you are old, attend as many funerals as you can bear, and listen. Nobody talks about the departed’s achievements. The only thing people will remember is what kind of person you were while you were achieving. This one might be true for funerals, but definitely not for obituaries. > Art is in what you leave out. As an aspiring writer of fiction, this was the only one I could not understand at all, yet really, really wish I did. > You really don’t want to be famous. Read the biography of any famous person. True, but I believe there's a difference between "fame" and "distinction". Striving for the latter might not be all that bad.

prawn 6y ago
I think "go deeper" is replaced with a contextual question that shows you understand so far and invite the person to speak further. On simplifying your art, I assume they're getting at leaving readers to fill in parts with their imagination. There is some notorious shredding of Dan Brown writing I've seen which might help convey it. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/books/authors/dont-make-fun-of-renowned-dan-brown/ https://www.telegraph.co.uk/books/authors/dont-make-fun-of-r... i.e., describe rough hands to infer a life of manual labour or a deliberate pace to imply age, rather than just tell people the age, job title and so on. A landscape photographer I know advises looking at the scene and finding a way to simplify it. Then again. And again. So, recomposing the scene to avoid an extra tree, or more rocks or something else distracting. When editing a digital image, it can involve spot-removing rocks from sand or blemishes that only distract the eye. Found this on Reddit: As Dr Seuss said: "A man with two heads must have two hats and two toothbrushes. Don't give him hair of purple seaweed and live fireflies for eyes."

gdy 6y ago

"Friends are better than money. Almost anything money can do, friends can do better. In so many ways a friend with a boat is better than owning a boat." But if everyone of your friends follows this advice, you'll be a bunch of poor people without a boat unable to help each other when a boat is needed.