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Posts Tagged ‘Kevin Kelly’

Some of my favourites:

Don’t save up the good stuff (fancy wine, or china) for that rare occasion that will never happen; instead use them whenever you can.

Try to define yourself by what you love and embrace, rather than what you hate and refuse.

You can become the world’s best in something primarily by caring more about it than anyone else.

When you are stuck or overwhelmed, focus on the smallest possible thing that moves your project forward.

In a museum you need to spend at least 10 minutes with an artwork to truly see it. Aim to view 5 pieces at 10 minutes each rather than 100 at 30 seconds each.

You have no obligation to like everyone, and you are free to intensely dislike a person. But you owe everyone—even those you dislike—basic respect.

Discover people whom you love doing “nothing” with, and do nothing with them on a regular basis. The longer you can maintain those relationships, the longer you will live.

Write your own obituary, the one you’d like to have, and then everyday work towards making it true.

The highest form of wealth is deciding you have enough.

A good sign that you are doing the kind of work you should be doing is that you enjoy the tedious parts that other people find tortuous. 

Being envious is a toxin. Instead take joy in the success of others and treat their success as your gain. Celebrating the success of others costs you nothing, and increases the happiness of everyone, including you.

Get good at being corrected without being offended.

Slow progress is still a million times better than no progress. 

Recipe for greatness: expect much of yourself and little of others.

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The book contains 450 advice/wisdom Kevin Kelly wishes he’d known earlier. Below are some I hope to remember/follow:

Listening well is a superpower. While listening to someone you love keep asking them “Is there more?” until there is no more.

Hatred is a curse that does not affect the hated. It only poisons the hater. Release a grudge as if it were a poison.

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.

Calm is contagious. Be calm to help others.

Children totally accept — and crave — family rules…In fact, “I have a rule for X” is the only excuse you need for your own personal policies.

Every person you meet knows an amazing lot about something you know virtually nothing about. It won’t be obvious and your job is to discover what it is.

Whenever you can’t decide which path to take pick the one that produces change.

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

This is the best time ever to make something. Non of the greatest, coolest creations 20 years from now have been invented yet. You are not late.

You can eat any dessert you want if you take only three bites.

Be frugal in all things except in your passions. Select a few interests that you gleefully splurge on. In fact, be all-around thrifty so that you can splurge on your passions.

Experience are fun and having influence is rewarding but only mattering makes us happy. Do stuff that matters.

Greatness is incompatible with optimizing in the short term. To achieve greatness requires a long view. Raise your time horizon to raise your goal.

For every good thing you love ask yourself what your proper dose is.

Spending as little as 15 minutes on improving how you do your thing, is the most powerful way to amplify and advance your thing.

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.

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Your 20s are the perfect time to do a few things that are unusual, weird, bold, risky, unexplainable, crazy, unprofitable, and looks nothing like “success.” The less this time looks like success, the better it will be as a foundation. For the rest of your life these orthogonal experiences will serve as your muse and touchstone, upon which you can build an uncommon life.

His full interview with Noah Smith. I look forward to his upcoming book: Excellent Advice for Living: Wisdom I Wish I’d Known Earlier.

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