Vox's Best Advice from 2023
As with any of these lists, I like some more than others. Here are my favorites from their list.
Have one meaningful face-to-face conversation every day
I love this advice and I'm going to try and pursue this as much as I'm able.
Start a niche, ritualized social activity
This is an interesting one. Basically it is about starting a "group" and using that as a vehicle for building friendships. It's easier to invite someone to your "thing" rather than to one on one hang outs.
Apologizing is more than saying you’re sorry
While I think I am good at apologizing, it is a continued practice and not something you just are. So a reminder of how to apologize properly and not performatively is important.
Make purposeful activities a regular part of your life
This echoes something I've said for a longtime, about the ease with which we consume content and purposeful things other people do rather than doing them ourselves. (This is not against enjoying media, just that it is very easy to binge and watch and ignore doing other things.)
Give yourself permission to quit
A hugely important lesson. My enjoyment of reading books has increased immensely when I gave myself permission to abandon books I wasn't enjoying. Same for TV shows, and projects.
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Collection of lifehacks from Reddit
Take some of these with a grain of salt, but they seemed notable to make note of:
If you have an itchy mosquito bite, hear up a spoon under semi-hot water (like 45-50°C), dry it off and tap or press it on the bite. Just as short as you can tolerate it but also as long as possible.
The heat dissolves the protein that makes the mosquito bite itch.
Percentages are reversible. Working out 4% of 50 will give you the same result as 50% of 4
Future you - always do things throughout the day that will benefit future you.
Hang dry your shirts inside out to avoid the little shoulder horns.
Simply call your partners phone to remotely turn off any of their alarms.
When driving for long periods. Turn off recirculating air. One of the reasons you get tired in the car is not from lack of sleep but from too much co2 in the car. You ever been so tired driving home and when you get home you’re no longer tired. It’s because of lack of oxygen in the car. Especially if you have passengers in the car.
And here's a link to a study which supports this lifehack.
Sharp(er) knives help prevent the sulfenic acid in onions from getting everywhere. Dull knives press and crush the onion and that causes the release of the enzymes.
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Stop telling yourself you're not qualified, not worthy or not experienced enough. Growth happens when you start doing things you're not qualified to do. - Steven Bartlett
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Backups: You're doing 'em wrong!
I regularly will make social posts urging friends and family to back up important data. I've been familiar with the 3-2-1 principle for a while, but I found this video to be an excellent explainer and discussion of how to determine the best process for you.
Which reminds me, I should really do a backup of my site soon. I pay the host for that functionality, but that doesn't mean they should be my only option.
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Found on my Facebook memories from eight years ago, it's an excerpt from an AMA Neil deGrasse Tyson did on Reddit at the time. These days I find him more and more annoying, but what he says here is still good advice:
Q: What can you tell a young man looking for motivation in life itself?
A: The problem, often not discovered until late in life, is that when you look for things like love, meaning, motivation, it implies they are sitting behind a tree or under a rock. The most successful people recognize, that in life they create their own love, they manufacture their own meaning, they generate their own motivation.
For me, I am driven by two main philosophies, know more today about the world than I knew yesterday. And along the way, lessen the suffering of others. You'd be surprised how far that gets you.
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The Technium: 103 Bits of Advice I Wish I Had Known
To mark his 70th birthday, Kevin Kelly continues an annual series of him sharing short bits of wisdom and advice. I don't agree with everything he writes, but I find it interesting and they are good seeds for thought and philosophy. My initial inclination was to call it 'the Tao of Kevin' but I feel that might be too close to cultural appropriation, so instead I'm calling it 'The Wisdoms of Kevin.' I don't know if I'll ever publish them, but I plan to write and think about them - perhaps daily but definitely at least weekly.
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