Excellent Advice for Living: Wisdom I Wish I'd Known Earlier

Whenever there is an argument between two sides find the third side.

Your goal is to be able to say on the day before you die that you have fully become yourself.

You have to first follow the rules with diligence in order to break them productively.

Expand your mind by thinking with your feet on a walk or with your hand in a notebook. Think outside your brain.

Invent as many family rituals as you can handle with ease. Anything done on a schedule —large or small, significant or silly— can become a ritual. Repeated consistently small routines become legendary. Anticipation is key.

When you are in the wrong be quick to chastise yourself more severely than the aggrieved might. Paradoxically, this can soften their ire.

Back up your backup.

try to make new 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 then once more. The third time’s answer is the one closest to the truth.

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 year when they were 10 years old— which is the peak of any human’s existence. Factor that into what they say.