Pithy Advice

1. If you’re unhappy with some aspect of your life then change. Don’t do it (change) to be better than someone else but just to be better. On that note: if something doesn’t work don’t keep doing it over and over hoping that it will eventually work. Change something and observe. is there any improvement? Yes? You win a prize. No? Change something else. Repeat this process until you win the prize. See number 12.

2. Have the courage to commit to the long road ahead when you set a goal for yourself. that confidence is one of the two things that distinguish mediocrity from greatness. A good work ethic is the other thing. but setting intermediary goals helps.

3. There’s nothing that differentiates an arbitrary successful person from you but a good work ethic and time. They’ve just put more hours into it, that which they’re successful in. it is most definitely not some amorphous ill-conceived concept like IQ, which is apparently defined for you at age 10 and doesn’t change until the day you die; that’s just an excuse to be lazy.

4. You are only as good as how many (and which) problems you’ve solved, poems you’ve written, routes you’ve run, or opponents you’ve bested. This doesn’t mean you’re bad if you haven’t written “the great American novel”, it means go write more and eventually you’ll be good.

5. Practice really does make perfect but it has to be efficient practice. If you can’t do something then build up to it by practicing approximations of that thing e.g. if you can’t run 10 miles then run 1 mile until it’s easy, then 2, then 3, and so on. The lack of this strategy is the reason why most people fail at anything they attempt. now that you have it in your toolkit you can be awesome at anything.

6. Schedule your practice sessions. Literally take a piece of paper, divide up each waking day, block out the time, and then post it somewhere prominent in your home . At first it will take honest discipline and willpower to start the sessions but eventually you’ll be trained like the Pavlovian dog you are and you’ll automatically practice. the routine will keep you committed.

7. Six only works if you keep regular sleeping hours so fucking keep regular sleeping hours! You know how you can’t remember ever needing a stimulant like coffee to make you clear and sharp when you were a kid? That’s because going to school every day forced you to sleep regularly. 

8. Don’t look up to, or look down on, people. because there’s no metric against which we’re all being judged. your only duty in life is to be happy and you’re accountable, for that, only to yourself.

9. Don’t be insecure. there are countless reasons why not to be but the most salient is that it’s utterly pointless.

10. Words like smart and dumb only serve to discriminate. if you call someone smart the only thing it means is that by juxtaposition you’re dumb, and therefore different. moreover smart implies some unalterable innate quality on which one can have no effect. hence not only are you different but forever so. bullshit. see 3.

11. If you have a revelation but don’t implement it in your life then you’re willfully ignorant. so never say something like “i know should ____ but...”. this statement only assuages your guilt about not doing ____.

12. Do experiments; they’ll teach you shit about life.

13. Make it through enough fuck ups and you come to understand that life persists despite almost anything. People tend worry too much about what they eat and how many carcinogens they’re breathing in. It’s true that all these things might, in aggregate, be deleterious but you’re certainly happier having faith (that you'll survive). I’ve had diarrhea for a month but now it’s passing (I hope) and I’m stronger for not taking a palliative; my constitution is stronger.

14. The hardest thing about being alive and emoting is being unable to make someone relate to you in whatever it is you’re feeling. Maybe that’s a fault of my own in that I’m a terrible writer and orator but still it seems like it’s a hopeless cause. The words will never adequately describe or convey what I feel. Maybe that’s what relationships are for. Maybe that’s what sex is for. Maybe that’s what love is for. I doubt it. If I had the power to share poignant emotions with people and to make them as poignant for others as they are for me I’d be a god. This is the secret to charm.