It's my friend Kevin Kelly's birthday this week, and as a gift to everyone, he's compiled a list of 99 pieces of useful advice. Here are a few of my favorites:
- Be governed not by the tyranny of the urgent but by the elevation of the important.
- The greatest rewards come from working on something that nobody has a name for. If you possibly can, work where there are no words for what you do.
- The foundation of maturity: Just because it's not your fault doesn't mean it's not your responsibility.
- A multitude of bad ideas is necessary for one good idea.
- Being wise means having more questions than answers.
- Assume anyone asking for your account information for any reason is guilty of scamming you, unless proven innocent. The way to prove innocence is to call them back, or log in to your account using numbers or a website that you provide, not them. Don't release any identifying information while they are contacting you via phone, message or email. You must control the channel.
- Sustained outrage makes you stupid.
- You can reduce the annoyance of someone's stupid belief by increasing your understanding of why they believe it.
- Every person you meet knows an amazing lot about something you know virtually nothing about. Your job is to discover what it is, and it won't be obvious.
Last year Kevin posted 68 piece of advice, and the list went viral. I expect this one will go viral, too.