Thread by @doctorow

For his 68th birthday, @kevin2kelly (Whole Earth Review, Wired, Cool Tools, etc), has posted "68 Bits of Unsolicited Advice." As you might expect, it's a very provocative list!

kk.org/thetechnium/68…

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Here's my highlights list (not all are things I agree with, but they all made me think!):

• Always demand a deadline. A deadline weeds out the extraneous and the ordinary. It prevents you from trying to make it perfect, so you have to make it different. Different is better.

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* Being able to listen well is a superpower. While listening to someone you love keep asking them “Is there more?”, until there is no more.

* Gratitude will unlock all other virtues and is something you can get better at.

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* Pros are just amateurs who know how to gracefully recover from their mistakes.

* 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.

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* 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.

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* The purpose of a habit is to remove that action from self-negotiation. You no longer expend energy deciding whether to do it. You just do it. Good habits can range from telling the truth, to flossing.

* Promptness is a sign of respect.

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* Optimize your generosity. No one on their deathbed has ever regretted giving too much away.

* To make something good, just do it. To make something great, just re-do it, re-do it, re-do it. The secret to making fine things is in remaking them.

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* If you are looking for something in your house, and you finally find it, when you’re done with it, don’t put it back where you found it. Put it back where you first looked for it.

* If you are not falling down occasionally, you are just coasting.

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* Separate the processes of creation from improving. You can’t write and edit, or make and analyze at the same time. If you do, the editor stops the creator. While you invent, don’t select. While you sketch, don’t inspect. While you write the first draft, don’t reflect.

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* 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.

* When you die you take absolutely nothing with you except your reputation.

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* Be prepared: When you are 90% done any large project (a house, a film, an event, an app) the rest of the myriad details will take a second 90% to complete.

* You really don’t want to be famous. Read the biography of any famous person.

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* 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.

* A vacation + a disaster = an adventure.

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Image:
Christopher Michel
commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Kevi…

CC BY
creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.…

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