nine life lessons you might find some of this stuff inspiring you will definitely
find some of it boring and you'll definitely forget all of it within a
week you don't have to have a dream Americans I'm talent shows always talk
about their dreams fine if you have something you've always wanted to do
dreamed of like in your heart go for it after all it's something to do with your
time chasing a dream and if it's a big enough one it'll take you most of your
life to achieve so by the time you get to it and are staring into the abyss of
the meaninglessness of your achievement you'll be almost dead so won't matter
I've never really had one of these dreams and so I advocate passionate
dedication to the pursuit of short-term goals seem micro ambitious put your head
down and work with pride on whatever is in front of you you never know where you
might end up just be aware the next worthy pursuit will probably appear in
your periphery which is why you should be careful of long term dreams if you
focus too far in front of you you won't see the shiny thing out the corner of
your eye - don't seek happiness happiness is like
an orgasm if you think about it too much it goes away keep busy and aim to make
someone else happy and you might find you get some as a side effect we didn't
evolve to be constantly content contented Homo erectus got eaten before
passing on their genes three remember it's all luck you are lucky to be here
you are in calculative on and incredibly lucky to be brought up by a nice family
that helped you get educated and encourage you to go to uni or if you
were born into a horrible family that's unlucky and you have my sympathy but you
are still lucky you happen to be made of the sort of DNA that went on to make the
sort of brain which when placed in a horrible childhood environment would
make decisions that meant you ended up eventually graduating uni well done you
for dragging yourself up by your shoelaces but you were lucky you didn't
create the bit of you that dragged you up there not even your shoelaces I
suppose I've worked hard to achieve whatever dubious achievements I've
achieved but I didn't make the bit of me that works hard understanding that you
can't truly take credit for your successes nor true
blame others for their failures will humble you and make you more
compassionate empathy is intuitive but is also something you can work on
intellectually for exercise play a sport do yoga pump iron and run whatever but
take care of your body you're going to need it most of you Marber going to live
to nearly a hundred and even the poorest of you will achieve a level of wealth
that most humans through our history could not have dreamed of and this long
luxurious life ahead of you is going to make you depressed but don't
despair there is an inverse correlation between depression and exercise do it
run my beautiful intellectuals run five be hard on your opinions we must think
critically and not just about the ideas of others be hard on your beliefs take
them out onto the veranda and hit them with a cricket bat be intellectually
rigorous identify your biases your prejudices your privileges most of
society's arguments are kept alive by a failure to acknowledge nuance we tend to
generate false dichotomies and then try to argue one point using two entirely
different sets of assumptions like two tennis players trying to win a match by
hitting beautifully executed shots from either end of separate tennis courts by
the way we don't make the mistake of thinking the Arts and Sciences are at
odds with one another that is a recent stupid and damaging idea you don't have
to be unscientific to make beautiful art to write beautiful things if you need
proof Twain Douglas Adams Vonnegut McEwen Seguin Shakespeare Dickens for a
start you don't need to be superstitious to be a poet you don't need to hate GM
technology to care about the beauty of the planet you don't have to claim a
soul to promote compassion science is not a body of knowledge nor belief
system it is just a term which describes humankind's incremental acquisition of
understanding through observation science is awesome
the Arts and Sciences need to work together to improve how knowledge is
communicated six be a teacher please please
please be a teacher teachers are the most admirable and important people in
the world you don't have to do it forever but if you're in doubt about
what to do be an amazing teacher even if you're not a teacher be a teacher share
your ideas don't take for granted your education rejoice in what you learn and
spray it 7-2 find yourself by what you love I found myself doing this thing a
bit recently where if someone asks me what sort of music I like I say well I
don't listen to the radio because pop song lyrics annoy me or if someone asks
me what food I like I say I think truffle oil is overused and slightly
obnoxious and I see it all the time online people whose idea of being part
of a subculture is to hate Coldplay or football or feminists or the Liberal
Party we have a tendency to define ourselves in opposition to stuff as a
comedian I made my living out of it but try to also express your passion for
things you love be demonstrative and generous in your praise of those you
admire send thank-you cards and give standing ovations beep rose stuff not
just aunty stuff I respect people with less power than you I don't care if
you're the most powerful cat in the room I will judge you on how you treat the
least powerful 9 finally don't rush you don't need to already know what you're
going to do with the rest of your life I'm not saying sit around smoking cones
all day but also don't panic most people I know who were sure of their career
path at 20 are having midlife crises now I said at the beginning of this Rambo
life is meaningless it was not a flippant assertion I think it's absurd
the idea of seeking meaning in the set of circumstances that happens to exist
after 13.8 billion years worth of unguided events leave it to humans to
think the universe has a purpose for them however I am no nihilist I'm not
even a cynic I am actually rather romantic and here's my idea of romance
you will soon be dead life will sometimes seem long and
and God it's tiring and you will sometimes be happy and sometimes sad and
then you'll be old and you'll be dead there is only one sensible thing to do
with this empty existence and that is fill it fill it and in my opinion until
I change it life is best filled by learning as much as you can about as
much as you can taking pride in whatever you're doing having compassion sharing
ideas running being enthusiastic and then there's love and travel and wine
and sex and art and kids and giving and mountain climbing that you know all that
stuff already it's an incredibly exciting thing this one meaningless life
of yours
you