@Thomas: Err,thanks. I'm sure it's not the record, though.
@ted: I'm pretty sure that the material now posted on Neatorama is not plagiarism -- it is properly credited, there is no attempt to claim ownership of work done by the original author and it is quite clearly commentary. I agree that the list was too long to begin with, and what I wrote certainly doesn't resolve that problem, but I was just trying to stay awake. I guess I'm happy you're impressed, though.
Thanks to everyone who read all (or any) of that, and apologies to the editors and moderators at Neatorama. It did keep me awake for a while and hopefully it helped one or two other people as well.
Tonight it is slow at work and I'm desperately trying to stay awake, so I thought I’d try to give a more in depth response to each of these pieces of advice in order to help illustrate how some people might find this list (and not just the website it’s posted on) to be not so great.
1) “If you are buying something that you will use often and for a long time, never go cheap. You’ll end up replacing it sooner or paying more in maintenance costs than if you had spent more on good quality in the beginning. Plus, you’ll enjoy the nicer product throughout its lifetime, rather than cringing every time you use something that is falling apart.” -- bretts
How do you know if you will use something often and for a long time if you're young and have never used or owned one of those things before?
2) Don’t spend money on a credit card that you can’t afford to pay back. The interest and late payments can put you in a hole that can take you years to pay back.
This is probably a good idea and it’s fairly clearly stated.
3) Compound interest is your friend. Saving even a relatively small percentage of your income each year, starting at 18, can leave you in much better shape by the time you’re ready to retire.
This seems like a gross simplification.
4) If you’re working with someone who can be bargained down on a price, it seldom hurts to try. The exceptions may be someone of exceptional talent, someone you’re going to have to work with on a regular basis, or someone whose help you’re going to need in a timely manner.
You don’t always have to be a jerk, though.
5) Try to keep enough cash to pay your bills for at least six months in reserve. It will make your life immeasurably easier if your car breaks down, you have a surprise medical expense, or you get an opportunity to get a fantastic bargain.
This is probably a good idea.
6) Dogs are fantastic animals. They deserve to be called man’s best friend. But, if you are under the impression that you just need to buy a collar and a bag of dry dog food every month and you’re set, you’re in for a rude awakening. Dogs tend to be much more expensive and time consuming than you’d think.
This advice is sort of backwards -- the thought that dogs are much more expensive and time consuming assumes that dog owners are going to be willing to invest their time and money into the life of their pet or that they will even be able to recognize the need for such an investment.
7) “Don’t have any children or get married until you can support and love yourself first.” -- D-Vega
This seems very rational but not realistic, on the one hand, and narcissistic on the other.
8) “Don’t trade your vehicle in on a new one just a couple of years after buying it. Pay it off and ride it until (the wheels fall off), all while putting that car payment in the bank.” -- The_Muck_Man
Because maintenance costs increase over time, this may or may not be a good idea.
9) College is a lot more work than high school and your job will be a lot more work than college was.
This is only true if you choose for it to be true.
10) Start looking for a new job BEFORE you quit your old job.
This is probably a good idea but it can create a difficult situation for some people -- those who are not terribly socially competent, for example.
11) Don’t take any job that only pays commission unless you’re either an expert salesman or ready to spend months working without pay to gain the skills you need to become an expert salesman.
Probably a good idea. It’s also probably worth thinking about what makes someone an “expert salesman” and why that is the case.
12) Ideally, you should choose something you love to do so much that you’d do it for free and find a way to make it into a career.
Maybe. It’s quite possible that your enthusiasm for the thing you love to do would die if that activity became your career. It may be a better idea to have a simple job that doesn’t make you miserable while retaining complete autonomy over the subject of your passion.
13) When asking for a salary, always have a figure you want in mind -- and then ask for significantly more than that number. That way, you may get more than what you want and even if you don’t, you have a better chance of getting the amount you had in mind than if you had blurted it out right off the bat.
This is probably a good idea. Be aware, though, that not every job gives you an opportunity to ask for a salary.
14) There’s no shame in taking any honest job.
This is a bit of a tautology and not very instructive, but it’s a nice sentiment.
15) Getting fired or laid off isn’t the end of the world. To the contrary, a lot of people, myself included, have moved on to bigger and better things after being laid off or fired.
People who have “moved on to bigger and better things” can rarely explain how they achieved their success, usually won’t share the mechanisms of their success if they understand them and most often will just kick you when you’re down with senseless aphorisms like this one. It’s basically true, though -- you’ll be surprised what you’ll live through.
16) If you’re not happy with the job market, the government, or the schools in your area, remember that you can always move to another city or another state. Lots of Americans do just that every year.
You can also move to another country.
17) “I wish that I had known to check the oil in my vehicles and to have changed it regularly. It would have saved a lot of money that I spent on repairs -- directly due to my lack of changing the oil per the mechanic.” -- Ann H.
Also check the air filter, the tire pressure (including the spare), and... there are a lot of words of advice about owning a car. It’s good to learn about your car, if you own one, and everyone should feel encouraged to do so.
18) Lefty loosey, righty tighty. Turn it to the left to loosen it and to the right to tighten it.
Is the top or bottom of the circle moving to the left or right? Clockwise/counterclockwise might be a more instructive form for this advice.
19) Don’t ever open a hot radiator cap or you can get seriously burned.
This is good advice.
20) Here are 3 keys to keeping a reasonably clean house: don’t leave any dishes in the sink overnight; every time you have a full load of clothes, wash ‘em, and take out the trash every time the can is full. You do those things, wipe up your messes, and vacuum when the floor gets filthy, and you’ll keep things reasonably neat.
If the dishes, the clothes and the trash are the three keys to keeping a reasonably clean house, what are wiping up messes and vacuuming? The two shoehorns? This is such stringent and uptight advice! Take it easy, kids -- figure out what makes you comfortable and live your life in a way that you happy.
21) If you use a computer even semi-regularly, it’s worth your time to take a typing class.
This could be true.
22) It’s not enough to buy a gun and stick it in a drawer like a lucky talisman. You need to learn to use the gun.
Yes, especially when it comes to handling and safety!
23) When you move, sell, throw away, and give away as much as possible or you’ll just end up moving boxes from one closet, where they have been sitting for five years, to another closet, where they’ll be sitting for the next five years.
This is probably a good idea.
24) Don’t ever loan your friends money if you want to keep them as friends. After all, if they were good with money and were likely to pay you back in a timely manner, they probably wouldn’t need the loan in the first place. If they really need the money, you want to help them, and you can afford it -- just give it to them.
This is probably a good idea.
25) Women should never allow a boyfriend to take naked pictures. If it’s on film, you shouldn’t be surprised if it goes public in one form or fashion after a break-up.
Wow. First off, there are naked pictures of males on the Internet, too. Secondly, are you only worried about boyfriends in this scenario? How about husbands? Finally, film? Really?
26) When men have a problem and they tell you about it, they want to know how to fix it. When women have a problem and they tell you about it, they just want you to listen.
This really depends on the individual. We have specialized words to describe sweeping generalizations like this.
27) If you ever get arrested, don’t say anything until you talk to a lawyer.
This is probably a good idea.
28) If you don’t know the agenda of the people you’re getting your news from, then you don’t have the information you need to know if what they’re telling you is true.
Why limit this to simply knowing the “agenda?” There are lots more questions one could ask in order to asses the validity of any given information. For instance, does the information include scientific claims? You can check those claims by looking for the original sources for the cited claims.
29) Government is a necessary evil. It’s best to keep its tentacles out of your life and out of our society as much as possible.
This is a fantastically gross oversimplification of an incredibly complex problem.
30) “When you’re 18, you worry about what everybody is thinking of you; when you’re 40, you don’t give a darn what anybody thinks of you; when you’re 60, you realize nobody’s been thinking about you at all.” -- Daniel Amen
Funny. On the other hand, people change in all different ways as they grow.
31) Trust your instincts. They’re usually right.
This is terrible advice. People’s memories work in many different ways. It is not possible to say that everyone’s instincts are “usually” right. It might be a good idea to figure out if your instincts serve you well. If they don’t, you probably shouldn’t rely on them too much.
32) If you think a doctor’s wrong, don’t hesitate to ask for a second opinion. Your health is vitally important and doctors make mistakes just as often as anyone else.
This is probably a good idea.
33) Don’t ever say anything that may offend someone who is going to be serving you food. You never know what they may stick in it when you’re not looking.
This is pretty paranoid. Also, how offensive were you planning on being?
34) If you get into a business deal with someone who goes to unusual lengths to convince you of how honest or Christian they are, watch your wallet and make sure you have an iron clad contract. They “doth protest too much.”
This is also pretty paranoid, considering the same advice would apply to someone who simply tells you that they’re not very honest, which should make you worry about your wallet or your contract. This only leaves people from whom you can’t get any feeling for how honest they are, which should make you really nervous after thinking about all the patently dishonest people you’ve already met. You might need to bring some other skills to bear on this sort of situation in order to make evaluations that won’t leave you a quivering, paranoid wreck.
35) “You are the average of the five people you spend the most time with.” - Jim Rohn
This is a cute aphorism, but it’s probably only convincing because it purports to be some sort of math or science. Are we also the average of the six people we spend the most time with, or does that throw of the algorithm? How many people do we need to measure in order to find our mean?
36) If you want to do something exceptional, don’t expect anyone to believe you can do it until you’ve done it. Unless you’re already perceived as exceptional, most people won’t believe in you. That’s doubly true for the people who know you best and have therefore seen you at your most mediocre, like your parents, family, and friends.
This advice has a certain kind of logical flow to it that is probably pretty convincing. It is, however, pretty significantly damning of your parents, family and friends. If these people don’t support you in your endeavors, perhaps you need to make some fundamental changes in how and with whom you live you life.
37) If you don’t feel like you’re being treated fairly by a company, don’t hesitate to ask for a manager. Oftentimes, a manager has gotten to where he is in a company because he is good at pleasing customers like you in the first place.
This is probably a good idea, but it’s important to remember that you should be choosing to behave this way and you can still be polite while exerting yourself.
38) “You are not invulnerable and you are not going to live forever. You can (make) mistakes at 18 that you will have to live with for the rest of your life.” -- Don_cos
Here’s a ray of sunshine. It’s not that this isn’t true, but if your goal is to evoke a strong negative response of from a teenager, you might start with one. Heck, you should probably get a strong response out of anyone at any age if you toss this stinker into a conversation.
39) Nobody owes you a living.
This isn’t wrong, exactly, but it just feels hollow and not very constructive. It’s like an option from a 1950s multiple choice card for uncreative parents who want to yell at their kids.
40) You are not a victim.
What if the person you’re talking to is a victim? You might try phrasing this in a way that is constructive -- Don’t allow yourself to be defined by how people treat you! -- but simply denying the fact that some people have taken advantage of other people (to put it as politely as possible) is an utter failing of vision.
41) If you just assume that every conspiracy theory is wrong without even examining it, you will be right 99.99% of the time.
How can you be so sure? You’re a member of the 0.001% conspiracy, aren’t you?!
42) “It’s likely that whatever challenges you have faced in your life currently could have been avoided but some better decisions upstream.” -- Tony Robbins
For instance, Tony Robbins’ parents could have opted for an abortion.
43) At a minimum, keep a basic “to do” list, a schedule, and a budget.
This is very glib advice -- be aware of what you need to do, when those things need to be done and what resources you have in order to do those things. Great. How?
44) “Excellence is the gradual result of always striving to do better.” -- Pat Riley
Or muscle memory, depending on what you’re doing.
45) “If you want your life to have impact, focus it! Stop dabbling. Stop trying to do it all. Do less. Prune away even good activities and do only that which matters most. Never confuse activity with productivity. You can be busy without a purpose, but what’s the point?” -- Rick Warren
This advice is predicated on a pretty big “if.” That qualification might not apply to you, in which case there are lots of different points to being busy without any particular purpose.
46) Ironically, successful people tend to fail a lot more than unsuccessful people. They also tend to ask a lot more questions.
This is probably a good thought.
47) When you consider Christianity, keep in mind this classic quotation from C.S. Lewis, “If I, being what I am, can consider that I am in some sense a Christian, why should the different vices of those people in the next pew prove that their religion is mere hypocrisy and convention?”
Do not, however, keep this quotation in mind when you consider Judaism. Or Buddhism. Or whatever. This one only applies to Christianity, thank you very much.
48) You beat 50% of the people by just showing up. You beat another 40% by working hard. The last 10% is a dogfight in the free enterprise system.
This isn’t exactly correct. First of all, 67.9% of all statistics are made up on the spot. Secondly, the aphorism here makes it sound like the last 10% of everything is metaphorically a dogfight in the free enterprise system. In fact, the last 10% of things in any true free enterprise system is literally dogfights. Day in and day out, it’s just dogfights from 90% to 100%. (Or you could ask yourself how important the “free enterprise system” qualification is to this poorly formed aphorism.)
49) There are at least six key areas of your life: health, career, romantic, social, money, and religion. If you neglect any one of those areas, it will harm you in the other areas and keep you from being as happy as you can be otherwise.
We have a truly marvelous proof for this claim which these margins are too narrow to contain. (Or, when you read claims like this, advice like this, ask for an explanation. A detailed explanation.)
50) When trying to decide between two closely matched alternatives, always have a bias towards action. In the long run, it’ll lead to your having a lot more experience, great stories, and a richer, fuller life.
Depending, of course, on the nature of the action you’re contemplating.
A stronger evolutionary tactic would be for the woman to give an appearance that indicates sexual maturity while retaining a strong sense of discretion in her choice of reproductive partner(s).
Steve Almond's own unresolved issues with the appearance of sexual maturity in women, and his response to those issues, doesn't leave much room for hope that his child will develop a comfortable relationship with her own sexual identity. At the very least, she's guaranteed to have a difficult road ahead of her thanks to her father's misguided efforts.
It's quite possible that his child will develop a healthy sexual persona despite how her father deals with his unresolved issues, but it's extra sad to see, here, how he's laying his damage on her in an attempt to do exactly the opposite. It's downright infuriating that this psychologically damaged jackass is writing up his abusive approach to parenting in the form of advice to other parents!
What you can learn from your children is vastly greater than what they need to learn from you.
@ted: I'm pretty sure that the material now posted on Neatorama is not plagiarism -- it is properly credited, there is no attempt to claim ownership of work done by the original author and it is quite clearly commentary. I agree that the list was too long to begin with, and what I wrote certainly doesn't resolve that problem, but I was just trying to stay awake. I guess I'm happy you're impressed, though.
Thanks to everyone who read all (or any) of that, and apologies to the editors and moderators at Neatorama. It did keep me awake for a while and hopefully it helped one or two other people as well.
1) “If you are buying something that you will use often and for a long time, never go cheap. You’ll end up replacing it sooner or paying more in maintenance costs than if you had spent more on good quality in the beginning. Plus, you’ll enjoy the nicer product throughout its lifetime, rather than cringing every time you use something that is falling apart.” -- bretts
How do you know if you will use something often and for a long time if you're young and have never used or owned one of those things before?
2) Don’t spend money on a credit card that you can’t afford to pay back. The interest and late payments can put you in a hole that can take you years to pay back.
This is probably a good idea and it’s fairly clearly stated.
3) Compound interest is your friend. Saving even a relatively small percentage of your income each year, starting at 18, can leave you in much better shape by the time you’re ready to retire.
This seems like a gross simplification.
4) If you’re working with someone who can be bargained down on a price, it seldom hurts to try. The exceptions may be someone of exceptional talent, someone you’re going to have to work with on a regular basis, or someone whose help you’re going to need in a timely manner.
You don’t always have to be a jerk, though.
5) Try to keep enough cash to pay your bills for at least six months in reserve. It will make your life immeasurably easier if your car breaks down, you have a surprise medical expense, or you get an opportunity to get a fantastic bargain.
This is probably a good idea.
6) Dogs are fantastic animals. They deserve to be called man’s best friend. But, if you are under the impression that you just need to buy a collar and a bag of dry dog food every month and you’re set, you’re in for a rude awakening. Dogs tend to be much more expensive and time consuming than you’d think.
This advice is sort of backwards -- the thought that dogs are much more expensive and time consuming assumes that dog owners are going to be willing to invest their time and money into the life of their pet or that they will even be able to recognize the need for such an investment.
7) “Don’t have any children or get married until you can support and love yourself first.” -- D-Vega
This seems very rational but not realistic, on the one hand, and narcissistic on the other.
8) “Don’t trade your vehicle in on a new one just a couple of years after buying it. Pay it off and ride it until (the wheels fall off), all while putting that car payment in the bank.” -- The_Muck_Man
Because maintenance costs increase over time, this may or may not be a good idea.
9) College is a lot more work than high school and your job will be a lot more work than college was.
This is only true if you choose for it to be true.
10) Start looking for a new job BEFORE you quit your old job.
This is probably a good idea but it can create a difficult situation for some people -- those who are not terribly socially competent, for example.
11) Don’t take any job that only pays commission unless you’re either an expert salesman or ready to spend months working without pay to gain the skills you need to become an expert salesman.
Probably a good idea. It’s also probably worth thinking about what makes someone an “expert salesman” and why that is the case.
12) Ideally, you should choose something you love to do so much that you’d do it for free and find a way to make it into a career.
Maybe. It’s quite possible that your enthusiasm for the thing you love to do would die if that activity became your career. It may be a better idea to have a simple job that doesn’t make you miserable while retaining complete autonomy over the subject of your passion.
13) When asking for a salary, always have a figure you want in mind -- and then ask for significantly more than that number. That way, you may get more than what you want and even if you don’t, you have a better chance of getting the amount you had in mind than if you had blurted it out right off the bat.
This is probably a good idea. Be aware, though, that not every job gives you an opportunity to ask for a salary.
14) There’s no shame in taking any honest job.
This is a bit of a tautology and not very instructive, but it’s a nice sentiment.
15) Getting fired or laid off isn’t the end of the world. To the contrary, a lot of people, myself included, have moved on to bigger and better things after being laid off or fired.
People who have “moved on to bigger and better things” can rarely explain how they achieved their success, usually won’t share the mechanisms of their success if they understand them and most often will just kick you when you’re down with senseless aphorisms like this one. It’s basically true, though -- you’ll be surprised what you’ll live through.
16) If you’re not happy with the job market, the government, or the schools in your area, remember that you can always move to another city or another state. Lots of Americans do just that every year.
You can also move to another country.
17) “I wish that I had known to check the oil in my vehicles and to have changed it regularly. It would have saved a lot of money that I spent on repairs -- directly due to my lack of changing the oil per the mechanic.” -- Ann H.
Also check the air filter, the tire pressure (including the spare), and... there are a lot of words of advice about owning a car. It’s good to learn about your car, if you own one, and everyone should feel encouraged to do so.
18) Lefty loosey, righty tighty. Turn it to the left to loosen it and to the right to tighten it.
Is the top or bottom of the circle moving to the left or right? Clockwise/counterclockwise might be a more instructive form for this advice.
19) Don’t ever open a hot radiator cap or you can get seriously burned.
This is good advice.
20) Here are 3 keys to keeping a reasonably clean house: don’t leave any dishes in the sink overnight; every time you have a full load of clothes, wash ‘em, and take out the trash every time the can is full. You do those things, wipe up your messes, and vacuum when the floor gets filthy, and you’ll keep things reasonably neat.
If the dishes, the clothes and the trash are the three keys to keeping a reasonably clean house, what are wiping up messes and vacuuming? The two shoehorns? This is such stringent and uptight advice! Take it easy, kids -- figure out what makes you comfortable and live your life in a way that you happy.
21) If you use a computer even semi-regularly, it’s worth your time to take a typing class.
This could be true.
22) It’s not enough to buy a gun and stick it in a drawer like a lucky talisman. You need to learn to use the gun.
Yes, especially when it comes to handling and safety!
23) When you move, sell, throw away, and give away as much as possible or you’ll just end up moving boxes from one closet, where they have been sitting for five years, to another closet, where they’ll be sitting for the next five years.
This is probably a good idea.
24) Don’t ever loan your friends money if you want to keep them as friends. After all, if they were good with money and were likely to pay you back in a timely manner, they probably wouldn’t need the loan in the first place. If they really need the money, you want to help them, and you can afford it -- just give it to them.
This is probably a good idea.
25) Women should never allow a boyfriend to take naked pictures. If it’s on film, you shouldn’t be surprised if it goes public in one form or fashion after a break-up.
Wow. First off, there are naked pictures of males on the Internet, too. Secondly, are you only worried about boyfriends in this scenario? How about husbands? Finally, film? Really?
26) When men have a problem and they tell you about it, they want to know how to fix it. When women have a problem and they tell you about it, they just want you to listen.
This really depends on the individual. We have specialized words to describe sweeping generalizations like this.
27) If you ever get arrested, don’t say anything until you talk to a lawyer.
This is probably a good idea.
28) If you don’t know the agenda of the people you’re getting your news from, then you don’t have the information you need to know if what they’re telling you is true.
Why limit this to simply knowing the “agenda?” There are lots more questions one could ask in order to asses the validity of any given information. For instance, does the information include scientific claims? You can check those claims by looking for the original sources for the cited claims.
29) Government is a necessary evil. It’s best to keep its tentacles out of your life and out of our society as much as possible.
This is a fantastically gross oversimplification of an incredibly complex problem.
30) “When you’re 18, you worry about what everybody is thinking of you; when you’re 40, you don’t give a darn what anybody thinks of you; when you’re 60, you realize nobody’s been thinking about you at all.” -- Daniel Amen
Funny. On the other hand, people change in all different ways as they grow.
31) Trust your instincts. They’re usually right.
This is terrible advice. People’s memories work in many different ways. It is not possible to say that everyone’s instincts are “usually” right. It might be a good idea to figure out if your instincts serve you well. If they don’t, you probably shouldn’t rely on them too much.
32) If you think a doctor’s wrong, don’t hesitate to ask for a second opinion. Your health is vitally important and doctors make mistakes just as often as anyone else.
This is probably a good idea.
33) Don’t ever say anything that may offend someone who is going to be serving you food. You never know what they may stick in it when you’re not looking.
This is pretty paranoid. Also, how offensive were you planning on being?
34) If you get into a business deal with someone who goes to unusual lengths to convince you of how honest or Christian they are, watch your wallet and make sure you have an iron clad contract. They “doth protest too much.”
This is also pretty paranoid, considering the same advice would apply to someone who simply tells you that they’re not very honest, which should make you worry about your wallet or your contract. This only leaves people from whom you can’t get any feeling for how honest they are, which should make you really nervous after thinking about all the patently dishonest people you’ve already met. You might need to bring some other skills to bear on this sort of situation in order to make evaluations that won’t leave you a quivering, paranoid wreck.
35) “You are the average of the five people you spend the most time with.” - Jim Rohn
This is a cute aphorism, but it’s probably only convincing because it purports to be some sort of math or science. Are we also the average of the six people we spend the most time with, or does that throw of the algorithm? How many people do we need to measure in order to find our mean?
36) If you want to do something exceptional, don’t expect anyone to believe you can do it until you’ve done it. Unless you’re already perceived as exceptional, most people won’t believe in you. That’s doubly true for the people who know you best and have therefore seen you at your most mediocre, like your parents, family, and friends.
This advice has a certain kind of logical flow to it that is probably pretty convincing. It is, however, pretty significantly damning of your parents, family and friends. If these people don’t support you in your endeavors, perhaps you need to make some fundamental changes in how and with whom you live you life.
37) If you don’t feel like you’re being treated fairly by a company, don’t hesitate to ask for a manager. Oftentimes, a manager has gotten to where he is in a company because he is good at pleasing customers like you in the first place.
This is probably a good idea, but it’s important to remember that you should be choosing to behave this way and you can still be polite while exerting yourself.
38) “You are not invulnerable and you are not going to live forever. You can (make) mistakes at 18 that you will have to live with for the rest of your life.” -- Don_cos
Here’s a ray of sunshine. It’s not that this isn’t true, but if your goal is to evoke a strong negative response of from a teenager, you might start with one. Heck, you should probably get a strong response out of anyone at any age if you toss this stinker into a conversation.
39) Nobody owes you a living.
This isn’t wrong, exactly, but it just feels hollow and not very constructive. It’s like an option from a 1950s multiple choice card for uncreative parents who want to yell at their kids.
40) You are not a victim.
What if the person you’re talking to is a victim? You might try phrasing this in a way that is constructive -- Don’t allow yourself to be defined by how people treat you! -- but simply denying the fact that some people have taken advantage of other people (to put it as politely as possible) is an utter failing of vision.
41) If you just assume that every conspiracy theory is wrong without even examining it, you will be right 99.99% of the time.
How can you be so sure? You’re a member of the 0.001% conspiracy, aren’t you?!
42) “It’s likely that whatever challenges you have faced in your life currently could have been avoided but some better decisions upstream.” -- Tony Robbins
For instance, Tony Robbins’ parents could have opted for an abortion.
43) At a minimum, keep a basic “to do” list, a schedule, and a budget.
This is very glib advice -- be aware of what you need to do, when those things need to be done and what resources you have in order to do those things. Great. How?
44) “Excellence is the gradual result of always striving to do better.” -- Pat Riley
Or muscle memory, depending on what you’re doing.
45) “If you want your life to have impact, focus it! Stop dabbling. Stop trying to do it all. Do less. Prune away even good activities and do only that which matters most. Never confuse activity with productivity. You can be busy without a purpose, but what’s the point?” -- Rick Warren
This advice is predicated on a pretty big “if.” That qualification might not apply to you, in which case there are lots of different points to being busy without any particular purpose.
46) Ironically, successful people tend to fail a lot more than unsuccessful people. They also tend to ask a lot more questions.
This is probably a good thought.
47) When you consider Christianity, keep in mind this classic quotation from C.S. Lewis, “If I, being what I am, can consider that I am in some sense a Christian, why should the different vices of those people in the next pew prove that their religion is mere hypocrisy and convention?”
Do not, however, keep this quotation in mind when you consider Judaism. Or Buddhism. Or whatever. This one only applies to Christianity, thank you very much.
48) You beat 50% of the people by just showing up. You beat another 40% by working hard. The last 10% is a dogfight in the free enterprise system.
This isn’t exactly correct. First of all, 67.9% of all statistics are made up on the spot. Secondly, the aphorism here makes it sound like the last 10% of everything is metaphorically a dogfight in the free enterprise system. In fact, the last 10% of things in any true free enterprise system is literally dogfights. Day in and day out, it’s just dogfights from 90% to 100%. (Or you could ask yourself how important the “free enterprise system” qualification is to this poorly formed aphorism.)
49) There are at least six key areas of your life: health, career, romantic, social, money, and religion. If you neglect any one of those areas, it will harm you in the other areas and keep you from being as happy as you can be otherwise.
We have a truly marvelous proof for this claim which these margins are too narrow to contain. (Or, when you read claims like this, advice like this, ask for an explanation. A detailed explanation.)
50) When trying to decide between two closely matched alternatives, always have a bias towards action. In the long run, it’ll lead to your having a lot more experience, great stories, and a richer, fuller life.
Depending, of course, on the nature of the action you’re contemplating.
Steve Almond's own unresolved issues with the appearance of sexual maturity in women, and his response to those issues, doesn't leave much room for hope that his child will develop a comfortable relationship with her own sexual identity. At the very least, she's guaranteed to have a difficult road ahead of her thanks to her father's misguided efforts.
It's quite possible that his child will develop a healthy sexual persona despite how her father deals with his unresolved issues, but it's extra sad to see, here, how he's laying his damage on her in an attempt to do exactly the opposite. It's downright infuriating that this psychologically damaged jackass is writing up his abusive approach to parenting in the form of advice to other parents!
What you can learn from your children is vastly greater than what they need to learn from you.
That blurb lacks the qualities it tries to describe.