Good guidelines for these times:

My first-order response is that my most important advice comes by example and I have little idea what kind of message is actually being received.  Keep in mind that children often respond to your strengths with niche-finding strategies, and thus deviation, rather than copying strategies.

Otherwise, a long time ago I told Yana to take calculus and statistics; even if she hates them she'll know what side of that divide she stands on.  I am encouraging of learning languages, driving modest Japanese cars, and ordering the most unappealing-sounding dish on the menu of a good restaurant.  On investing it's buy and hold all the way.  Use TimeOut guides when you travel and when you are eating in third world countries avoid walls.  I'm not a big fan of debt; debt is worth it only if you're earnings-obsessed and I don't recommend that for most people.  Don't expect to be too happy, that is counterproductive.  I've mentioned that future job descriptions may be quite fluid and unpredictable from today's vantage point.  Being "good with people," combined with smarts and a focus on execution, will never wear out.  The reality is that I hardly have any useful advice.

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"For as this appalling ocean surrounds the verdant land, so in the soul of man there lies one insular Tahiti, full of peace and joy, but encompassed by all of the horrors of the half-lived life."

HERMAN MELVILLE (1819-1891)

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Rarely does a single webpage contain so many life lessons so full of candor and bravery. Selected excerpts:

If I let it affect everything, it’s gonna own everything. I don’t deny it or pretend it’s not there, but if I don’t allow it to be bigger than it is, then I can do everything else. My happiness grows in direct proportion to my acceptance, and in inverse proportion to my expectations. Acceptance is the key to everything. If you don’t have someone calling you on your shit, you’re lost. Discipline is just doing the same thing the right way whether anyone’s watching or not. No matter how much fame you have, it’s not something that belongs to you. If I’m famous, that doesn’t belong to me -- that belongs to you. If you can’t remember who I am, I’m no longer famous. Whatever terrible thing is going on, it’s going on until you find out that it’s not. So get to that part as quickly as possible.

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“Finish each day and be done with it. You have done what you could; some blunders and absurdities have crept in; forget them as soon as you can. Tomorrow is a new day; you shall begin it serenely and with too high a spirit to be encumbered with your old nonsense.” -- Ralph Waldo Emerson

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“I know the price of success -- dedication, hard work and an unremitting devotion to the things you want to see happen.” -- Frank Lloyd Wright [Via Leo]

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“Success breeds success because everybody wants to aid the successful, thereby fulfilling a law of nature.” -- William Feather

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