joshuago’s life-lessons Bookmarks

Twitter, texting, Facebook, Crackberrys, and 24/7 instant news. All these technologies enhance an already bad inclination humans (and especially Americans) have: an overweening desire to be distracted from being alone in silence, or having to come to terms with whatever we might find there, if we slowed down enough to let it catch us.

Great tips for the socially awkward on how to keep a conversation going and how to engage in small talk.

To completely misread the intended purpose of the article: a good inspiring read to motivate yourself to build a good personal and professional network. The oil fixer relies on his contacts all over the world. "Of course you offered the advice pro bono, but you used that to build your network."

Even the most knowledgeable, intelligent people around are rarely experts in more than one or maybe two unrelated subject areas. The sum of human knowledge is vast, and while smart people often believe they could become an expert in any of them individually if they only had the time and inclination, the relatively short number of years we have on this planet precludes them from mastering more than a very small portion of them. So smart people have a lot of intelligence, but still only a tiny amount of knowledge, which causes them to overvalue the former at the expense of the latter.

It's easy to pin the blame on someone who makes it easy. But that doesn't make it right.

Before buying something, ask yourself, "Is this going to make my life noticeably better?" Every thing you own takes energy away from you.

Face the unpleasant truth and tell it like it is. Don't release a monolith, but work incrementally so your product can take root on solid ground before expanding. Don't let disappointment hold you back, and be determined to keep learning and to excel in new areas.