Never have I ever seen so many platitudes in one post. Makes me think of the Flemish “Bond Zonder Naam”[1], who monetise these kinds of uninspiring sayings where I live. In Dutch also called “tegelwijsheden”, because your grandma would have these sappy and dull ‘wisdoms’ painted on a tile in their kitchen. Apparently some people also see money in it[2].
It's hard to not be cynical when you read stuff like "Envy is like drinking poison expecting the other person to die." which is like 2 different inspirational quotes taped together, I heard this one about hatred rather than envy.
Yeah, when I read lists like this, I mostly just think: "That's it?" It's very trite and uninteresting, and frankly if I make it to 72 and my advice is similar to this, I will feel like something has gone terribly wrong. If all the wisdom I've acquired in life is indistinguishable from a Hallmark card, then I probably lived a pretty boring life.
People change due to criticism all the time, it really works. If criticism didn't work we wouldn't have so strong urges to do it, the feeling to criticize others is something we evolved to have.
Criticism might not change people the way you want however, it is like punishment vs rewards, you can change people by punishing them or rewarding them, both works to change people but in different ways and often punishment makes the person resent you so you should do it sparingly.
This is wrong in an important way (that's quite relevant to message boards like this one, about which you'll often hear that arguing about controversial subjects is pointless because nobody ever changes their mind). Basically, nobody ever individually changes their mind in the moment, so it appears as though debates are ineffectual. But that's only because people change their minds slowly, in private, in response to thousands of inputs.
And it might not even be the person you're talking to who eventually changes their mind. It might just be a reader, a thousand of whom exist for every one person visibly contributing.
You can't see the mind changing, but it's wrong to conclude that therefore it never happens.
I wish the author a happy birthday. But - and I hope this is taken in a spirit of constructive kindness - the post is fairly generic and bland advice. I'm sure it is well meant, but I hope I never feel tempted to post something like this when I'm 72.
You can rationally understand what's being said but you're not attached to it.
"You will die, don't delve over negative moments too much."
You can read this but have no experience of knowing you will really die. You might rationally understand it, but you experience no change. Yet when you finally realize you will die, when you truly know it, you act from a different place.
"You will die." is very generic and bland yet truly knowing it can change everything.
I know I'm going to die. I've been with people when they died. And I'm seeing a parent living with the challenges of very old age. I know I'm going to die and I try to meditate on that and, as far as I can tell, I truly know it. And I see the value of that knowledge.
But in a way it also changes nothing. I'm still alive. I'm still going to die. Nothing fundamental has fundamentally changed.
> Work on a passion project, even just 30 minutes a day. It compounds.
I need to do this. I know my project (just a passion, not a side hussle or for income). Tell myself I need to. Then daily life gets in the way. 10 years or more.
Readit News
[1] https://www.bzn.be/ [2] https://www.tegeltjes.com/tegeltjes-wijsheid
Of course I'm violating advice #1 here.
(Constructive) Criticism is what advances our development as a species, not sure why that is a necessarily bad thing
criticizing the "stuff" is okay, this is how we advance, but not the "person"
Criticism might not change people the way you want however, it is like punishment vs rewards, you can change people by punishing them or rewarding them, both works to change people but in different ways and often punishment makes the person resent you so you should do it sparingly.
And it might not even be the person you're talking to who eventually changes their mind. It might just be a reader, a thousand of whom exist for every one person visibly contributing.
You can't see the mind changing, but it's wrong to conclude that therefore it never happens.
"You will die, don't delve over negative moments too much."
You can read this but have no experience of knowing you will really die. You might rationally understand it, but you experience no change. Yet when you finally realize you will die, when you truly know it, you act from a different place.
"You will die." is very generic and bland yet truly knowing it can change everything.
I know I'm going to die. I've been with people when they died. And I'm seeing a parent living with the challenges of very old age. I know I'm going to die and I try to meditate on that and, as far as I can tell, I truly know it. And I see the value of that knowledge.
But in a way it also changes nothing. I'm still alive. I'm still going to die. Nothing fundamental has fundamentally changed.
No soul, adventure or brutal honesty
I need to do this. I know my project (just a passion, not a side hussle or for income). Tell myself I need to. Then daily life gets in the way. 10 years or more.
Hard sell on HN :)
This was also one of the more interesting points in Dale Carnegie. Wish I could live up to it more often.
I have only fairly recently worked out that how food makes you feel is at least as important as how it tastes.