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

Your 20s are the perfect time to do a few things that are unusual, weird, bold, risky, unexplainable, crazy, unprofitable, and look nothing like “success.” For the rest of your life these experiences will serve as your muse.

Let someone know you remembered their name and they won’t ever forget yours. To help remember their name repeat it on first hearing.

You cannot get smart people to work extremely hard just for money.

Making art is not selfish; it’s for the rest of us. If you don’t do your thing you are cheating us.

Your growth as a mature being is measured by the number of uncomfortable conversations you are willing to have.

Productivity is often a distraction. Don’t aim for better ways to get through your tasks as quickly as possible. Instead aim for better tasks that you never want to stop doing.

Efficiency is highly overrated; goofing off is highly underrated. Regularly scheduled sabbaths, sabbaticals vacations, breaks, aimless walks and time off are essential for top performance of any kind. The best work ethic requires a good rest ethic.

It is much easier to change how you think by changing your behavior than it is to change your behavior by changing how you think. Act out the change you seek.

You don’t need more time because you already have all the time that you will ever get; you need more focus.