Kevin Kelly

You owe everyone a second chance, but not a third.

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When shopping for anything physical (souvenirs, furniture, books, tools, shoes, equipment), ask yourself: where will this go? Don’t buy it unless there is a place it can live. Something may need to leave in order for something else to come in. #excellentadvice

If you think someone is normal, you don’t know them very well. Normalcy is a fiction. Your job is to discover their weird genius.

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Interview your parents while they are still alive. Keep asking questions while you record. You’ll learn amazing things. Or hire someone to make their story into an oral history, or documentary, or book. This will be a tremendous gift to them and to your family. #excellentadvice

To make a room luxurious, remove things, rather than add things.

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Read a lot of history so you can understand how weird the past was; that way you will be comfortable with how weird the future will be.

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Try to define yourself by what you love and embrace, rather than what you hate and refuse.

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Never hesitate to invest in yourself—to pay for a class, a course, a new skill. These modest expenditures pay outsized dividends.

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The best gardening advice: find what you can grow well and grow lots and lots of it.

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Don’t save up the good stuff (fancy wine, or china) for that rare occasion that will never happen; instead use them whenever you can.

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Whenever you hug someone, be the last to let go.

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Aim to be effective, but unpredictable. That is, you want to act in a way that AIs have trouble modeling or imitating. Being unpredictable makes you irreplaceable.

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Forget trying to decide what your life’s destiny is. That’s too grand. Instead, just figure out what you should do in the next 2 years.

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Admitting that “I don’t know” at least once a day will make you a better person.

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The best way to criticize something is to make something better.

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Advice like these are not laws. They are like hats. If one doesn’t fit, try another.

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Your goal is to be able to say, on the day before you that you have fully become yourself.

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Very few regrets in life are about what you did. Almost all are about what you didn’t do.

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Life lessons will be presented to you in the order they are needed. Everything you need to master the lesson is within you. Once you have truly learned a lesson, you will be presented with the next one. If you are alive, that means you still have lessons to learn. #excellentadvice

Art before laundry.

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The chief prevention against getting old is to remain astonished.

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Invent as many family rituals as you can handle with ease. Anything done on a schedule—large or small, significant or silly—can become a ritual. Repeated consistently, small routines become legendary. Anticipation is key. #excellentadvice

See that old person taking forever in line? That is the future you. Have patience.

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Aim to die broke. Give to your beneficiaries before you die; it’s more fun and useful to them. Spend it all. Your last check should go to the funeral home and it should bounce.

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Re-visioning the ordinary is what art, literature, and comedy do. You can elevate mundane details into magical wonders simply by noticing them.

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The most effective remedy for anger is delay.

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Right now, no matter your age, these are your golden years. The good stuff will yield golden memories and the bad stuff will yield golden lessons.

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When you are stuck, make a long list of everything that cannot possibly work. On that list will be a seed that leads to a solution that will work.

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The first step is usually to complete the last step. You can’t load into a full dish rack.

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Go with the option that opens up yet more options.

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