2) Do not seek success in areas you're not passionate about. You'll always be competing with people who *are* passionate, and you can't possibly outcompete them.
3) For the most part, the way you're going to know you're doing something socially useful is that somebody's going to be willing to pay you to do it.
4) The big choice is between self-absorption and engagement with the world---the narcissistic pursuit of self-knowledge versus the desire to understand and improve the world around you. And if you choose the latter, then not only will you be more materially successful than your more inward-directed friends, but paradoxically you'll also get closer than they will to that self-knowledge they're so assiduously seeking. Because self-knowledge is a lot like happiness: It comes most readily as a by-product from the pursuit of something greater.
5) Extraordinary rewards accrue only to those with something extraordinary to offer. You can't succeed by imitating the successes of others; if those successes were easy to imitate then everyone would imitate them and they'd gather no rewards. Instead, try looking around you. Identify needs nobody else has identified, or think of solutions nobody else has thought of, or find genuinely new ways to help people understand that your solutions are worth adopting.
6) Memorize this quote from Horace Mann and make it your byword: "In the middle of the last century, a great dispute arose among astronomers, respecting one of the planets. Some, in their folly, commenced a war of words, and wrote hot books against each other; others, in their wisdom, improved their telescopes and soon settled the question forever."
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branchandroot
(no subject)
Date: 2006-07-18 12:53 am (UTC)2) Do not seek success in areas you're not passionate about. You'll
always be competing with people who *are* passionate, and you can't
possibly outcompete them.
3) For the most part, the way you're going to know you're doing
something socially useful is that somebody's going to be willing to
pay you to do it.
4) The big choice is between self-absorption and engagement with
the world---the narcissistic pursuit of self-knowledge versus the
desire to understand and improve the world around you. And if you
choose the latter, then not only will you be more materially
successful than your more inward-directed friends, but paradoxically
you'll also get closer than they will to that self-knowledge they're
so assiduously seeking. Because self-knowledge is a lot like
happiness: It comes most readily as a by-product from the pursuit
of something greater.
5) Extraordinary rewards accrue only to those with something
extraordinary to offer. You can't succeed by imitating the
successes of others; if those successes were easy to imitate then
everyone would imitate them and they'd gather no rewards.
Instead, try looking around you. Identify needs nobody else has
identified, or think of solutions nobody else has thought of,
or find genuinely new ways to help people understand that your
solutions are worth adopting.
6) Memorize this quote from Horace Mann and make it your byword:
"In the middle of the last century, a great dispute arose among
astronomers, respecting one of the planets. Some, in their folly,
commenced a war of words, and wrote hot books against each other;
others, in their wisdom, improved their telescopes and soon
settled the question forever."
7) Thank your parents.
8) Don't go to law school.