Advice, like youth, probably just wasted on the young

Instantes

If I were able to live my life anew, In the next I would try to commit more errors. I would not try to be so perfect, I would relax more. I would be more foolish than I've been, In fact, I would take few things seriously. I would be less hygienic. I would run more risks, take more vacations , contemplate more sunsets, climb more mountains, swim more rivers. I would go to more places where I've never been, I would eat more ice cream and fewer beans, I would have more real problems and less imaginary ones.

I was one of those people that lived sensibly and prolifically each minute of his life; Of course I had moments of happiness. If I could go back I would try to have only good moments.

Because if you didn't know, of that is life made: only of moments; Don't lose the now.

I was one of those that never went anywhere without a thermometer, a hot-water bottle, an umbrella, and a parachute; If I could live again, I would travel lighter.

If I could live again, I would begin to walk barefoot from the beginning of spring and I would continue barefoot until autumn ends. I would take more cart rides, contemplate more dawns, and play with more children, If I had another life ahead of me.

But already you see, I am 85, and I know that I am dying.

Jorge Luis Borges

    WHEN I was one-and-twenty	
      I heard a wise man say,	
    ‘Give crowns and pounds and guineas	
      But not your heart away;

    Give pearls away and rubies	        5
      But keep your fancy free.’	
    But I was one-and-twenty,	
      No use to talk to me.

    When I was one-and-twenty	
      I heard him say again,	        10
    ‘The heart out of the bosom	
      Was never given in vain;	
    ’Tis paid with sighs a plenty	
      And sold for endless rue.’	
    And I am two-and-twenty,	        15
      And oh, ’tis true, ’tis true.

(A.E. Housman A Shropshire Lad, XIII)

I have an old HN thread bookmarked, "Ask YC: What would you tell your younger self?"[1]. I read it over a few times a year and I think that on some level, it has affected my perspective. The thing is, the advice given is nothing new, especially the message of "do what you love".

[1] http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=372573

Sunscreen is harmful. The threat of skin cancer is much less than the dangers of the diseases related to lack of sunlight which is blocked by sunscreen. The diseases include osteoporosis, prostate cancer, breast cancer, ovarian cancer, depression, colon cancer, schizophrenia, rickets, psoriasis, SAD, chronic vitamin D deficiency, diabetes and even obesity.

Much better advice: Get out in the sun, lose the sunscreen!

Just watched the surprisingly good "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button"

"Your life is defined by its opportunities... even the ones you miss.

It's a funny thing about comin' home. Looks the same, smells the same, feels the same. You'll realize what's changed is you.

Sometimes we're on a collision course, and we just don't know it. Whether it's by accident or by design, there's not a thing we can do about it.

For what it's worth: it's never too late or, in my case, too early to be whoever you want to be. There's no time limit, stop whenever you want. You can change or stay the same, there are no rules to this thing. We can make the best or the worst of it. I hope you make the best of it. And I hope you see things that startle you. I hope you feel things you never felt before. I hope you meet people with a different point of view. I hope you live a life you're proud of. If you find that you're not, I hope you have the strength to start all over again. "

I would remind my younger self to dare more and more boldly as the resulting gains can be great and the resulting losses are usually indifferent.

In general I wouldn't want to change anything for there is really no experience in my life that I wouldn't have needed for growing, that wouldn't have tried to teach me something.

However, the outcome of this teaching is gradually learning life. But you can't learn any quicker than you want to, and you will want to learn no more than you dare to receive.

Thus, dare more and take whatever lesson that comes out of it.

One could go on and on giving examples; as good as any is near the end of T.S. Eliot's "The Waste Land":

Datta: what have we given? My friend, blood shaking my heart The awful daring of a moment's surrender Which an age of prudence can never retract By this, and this only, we have existed Which is not to be found in our obituaries Or in memories draped by the beneficent spider Or under seals broken by the lean solicitor In our empty rooms.

Didn't this get turned into a popular song?

humanity's greatest asset, by far, is our ability to learn from others' mistakes as well as our own.

Always remember: There is no sex in the champagne room. None.