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Life Lessons

Tidbits I've gathered in life and refer to often. Cited where possible.

• Avoiding uncertainty and/or seeking certainty is one of the surest paths to unhappiness.
• Hobbies are not luxuries — they’re cornerstones.
• Contrary to the popular view, creativity is not restricted to specific field such as arts. Creativity involves two elements: originality and usefulness to the context.
• You can run one ft. in 6,000 directions, or 6,000 feet in one direction.
• When aren’t actively doing any work, ingest information so you can make better decisions.
• A little bit, often. - translation is Basque saying in drinking culture
• Find the humans amongst the people.
• Always remember that to argue, and win, is to break down the reality of the person you are arguing against. It is painful to lose your reality, so be kind, even if you are right. — Haruki Murakami
• If you can live your life without an audience, you should.
• Examine what is said, not who speaks.
• It’s only a bad day, not a bad life.
• If you can’t adapt, changes become threats instead of opportunities.
• Being in the right relationship is more important than being right.
• Start with the assumption that everyone is innocently out of touch and you’ll be more likely to explore what’s going on through multiple points of view.
• The chief prevention against getting old is to remain astonished. - Kevin Kelly
• The best work ethic requires a good rest ethic. - Kevin Kelly
• The capacity to tolerate minor discomfort is a superpower. - Oliver Burkeman
• Don’t overeat.
• It's a dangerous thing to mistake speaking without thought for speaking the truth.
• When people change, they gain a piece but they lose one too. - Future Islands, Seasons
• Life is amazing. And then it's awful. And then it's amazing again. And in between the amazing and awful it's ordinary and mundane and routine. Breathe in the amazing, hold on through the awful, and relax and exhale during the ordinary. - L.R. Knost
• Everybody plays the fool, sometimes.
• Life is so brief, and time is a thief.. when you’re undecided. - Young Turks
• To lead you have to serve.
• Life is demanding without understanding. - Ace of Base
• Practice any art, music, singing, dancing, acting, drawing, painting, sculpting, poetry, fiction, essays, reportage, no matter how well or badly, not to get money and fame, but to experience becoming, to find out what’s inside you, to make your soul grow. - Vonnegut
• Never forget! “The nitrogen in our DNA, the calcium in our teeth, the iron in our blood, the carbon in our apple pies were made in the interiors of collapsing stars. We are made of starstuff.” - Sagan
• Living simply makes loving simple - Hooks
• Sometimes it takes a long time to sound like yourself. - Miles Davis
• There are no real villains in life and there are no real heroes either - everyone is great and everyone is terrible and everyone is flawed - and there are no exceptions to that.
• There are years that ask questions and years that answer.
• You can listen as well as you hear.
• Reps remove doubt.
• Behind every great fortune there is a crime. - Puzo
• Say yes, even when you want to say no. Serendipity is a powerful force. If you show up and nothing happens, you lose little. If you don’t show up, you’ll never know what might have happened. My best angel investment came from a chance encounter at a dinner I nearly didn't attend.
• If all you do is just look for things to appreciate, you would live a joyously spectacular life.
• First person up the hill takes the arrows.