🌱 103 Bits of Advice I Wish I Had Known

Once that resonated with me (not saying I follow or agree, but resonate)

• About 99% of the time, the right time is right now
• Dont ever work for someone you dont want to become
• Dont keep making the same mistakes; try to make new mistakes.
• Anything you say before the word “but” does not count.
• When you forgive others, they may not notice, but you will heal.
• Whenever there is an argument between two sides, find the third side.
• Efficiency is highly overrated; Goofing off is highly underrated
• Criticize in private, praise in public.
• If winning becomes too important in a game, change the rules to make it more fun. Changing rules can become the new game.
• Productivity is often a distraction. Don’t aim for better ways to get through your tasks as quickly as possible, rather aim for better tasks that you never want to stop doing.
• Immediately pay what you owe to vendors, workers, contractors. They will go out of their way to work with you first next time.
• Your growth as a conscious being is measured by the number of uncomfortable conversations you are willing to have.
• Speak confidently as if you are right, but listen carefully as if you are wrong
• Making art is not selfish; it’s for the rest of us. If you don’t do your thing, you are cheating us.
• The best way to get a correct answer on the internet is to post an obviously wrong answer and wait for someone to correct you.
• You’ll get 10x better results by elevating good behavior rather than punishing bad behavior, especially in children and animals.
• The advantage of a ridiculously ambitious goal is that it sets the bar very high so even in failure it may be a success measured by the ordinary.
• A great way to understand yourself is to seriously reflect on everything you find irritating in others.
• Keep all your things visible in a hotel room, not in drawers, and all gathered into one spot. That way you’ll never leave anything behind. If you need to have something like a charger off to the side, place a couple of other large items next to it, because you are less likely to leave 3 items behind than just one.
• Denying or deflecting a compliment is rude. Accept it with thanks, even if you believe it is not deserved.
• What you do on your bad days matters more than what you do on your good days.
• Make stuff that is good for people to have.
• When you open paint, even a tiny bit, it will always find its way to your clothes no matter how careful you are. Dress accordingly.
• You cannot get smart people to work extremely hard just for money.
• When you don’t know how much to pay someone for a particular task, ask them “what would be fair” and their answer usually is.
• 90% of everything is crap. If you think you don’t like opera, romance novels, TikTok, country music, vegan food, NFTs, keep trying to see if you can find the 10% that is not crap.
• You will be judged on how well you treat those who can do nothing for you.\
• We tend to overestimate what we can do in a day, and underestimate what we can achieve in a decade. Miraculous things can be accomplished if you give it ten years. A long game will compound small gains to overcome even big mistakes.
• You cant reason someone out of a notion that they didn’t reason themselves into.
• Your best job will be one that you were unqualified for because it stretches you. In fact only apply to jobs you are unqualified for.
• You can be whatever you want, so be the person who ends meetings early.
• A wise man said, “Before you speak, let your words pass through three gates. At the first gate, ask yourself, “Is it true?” At the second gate ask, “Is it necessary?” At the third gate ask, “Is it kind?”
• Take the stairs.
• What you actually pay for something is at least twice the listed price because of the energy, time, money needed to set it up, learn, maintain, repair, and dispose of at the end. Not all prices appear on labels. Actual costs are 2x listed prices.
• Average returns sustained over an above-average period of time yield extraordinary results. Buy and hold.
• It’s thrilling to be extremely polite to rude strangers.
• It’s possible that a not-so smart person, who can communicate well, can do much better than a super smart person who can’t communicate well. That is good news because it is much easier to improve your communication skills than your intelligence.
• Dont believe everything you think you believe
• To signal an emergency, use the rule of three; 3 shouts, 3 horn blasts, or 3 whistles.
• Spend 1/3 of your time on exploring and 2/3 time on deepening what you know.
• When introduced to someone make eye contact and count to 4. You’ll both remember each other.
• Take note if you find yourself wondering “Where is my good knife? Or, where is my good pen?” That means you have bad ones. Get rid of those.
• When you are stuck, explain your problem to others. Often simply laying out a problem will present a solution. Make “explaining the problem” part of your troubleshooting process.
• Dont bother fighting the old; just build the new.
• Your group can achieve great things way beyond your means simply by showing people that they are appreciated.
• When someone tells you about the peak year of human history, the period of time when things were good before things went downhill, it will always be the years of when they were 10 years old — which is the peak of any human’s existence.
• Habit is far more dependable than inspiration. Make progress by making habits. Dont focus on getting into shape. Focus on becoming the kind of person who never misses a workout.
• When negotiating, dont aim for a bigger piece of the pie; aim to create a bigger pie.
• If you repeated what you did today 365 more times will you be where you want to be next year?
• You see only 2% of another person, and they see only 2% of you. Attune yourselves to the hidden 98%.
• Your time and space are limited. Remove, give away, throw out things in your life that dont spark joy any longer in order to make room for those that do.
• Our descendants will achieve things that will amaze us, yet a portion of what they will create could have been made with today’s materials and tools if we had had the imagination. Think bigger.
• For a great payoff be especially curious about the things you are not interested in.
• If your opinions on one subject can be predicted from your opinions on another, you may be in the grip of an ideology. When you truly think for yourself your conclusions will not be predictable
• Aim to die broke. Give to your beneficiaries before you die; it’s more fun and useful. Spend it all. Your last check should go to the funeral home and it should bounce.

Hard not to quote the entire list