My favorite essays of life advice (2020)

benkuhn.net

154 points·etherio··10 comments

Great list! Overlaps somewhat with my own (incidentally also titled “life advice”): https://trove.to/wes/trove/de40440b-ed21-4fdb-ba61-b5f83322b...

Hunter S. Thompson's letter is great: "But a man who procrastinates in his CHOOSING will inevitably have his choice made for him by circumstance."

I have always told friends and family to be prepared because you don't know what will come. Often I tell them this when their life and personal growth stagnates.

If you stagnate and spin your wheels, don't graduate college, you may miss that job opportunity at a dream company.

If you don't grow your career, don't earn what you are worth, you may miss out on your dream vacation or dream house.

Life is finite and it is entirely too easy to sit there a dink, smoke a joint, and do nothing. Existence wants us dead and it isn't until we push forward to bend it to our will that we can consider ourselves living. Nothing comes to those who wait except ruin.

While not an essay, I'd throw Seneca's "On the Shortness of Life" into the mix. It's short and very eloquently raises ideas about what to prioritize in life.

Seneca does have his high marks. "On Saving Time", while just a few paragraphs long, is a real gem as well. Who can you show me that understands he is dying every day, indeed.

One other addition I'd put on this list is Milton Glaser's talk "What I have learned", delivered on November 11, 2001, in London. Copies of it are floating around.

I’ve always liked this Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal cartoon as a reminder to get out of ruts.

https://www.smbc-comics.com/?id=2722

I have read "Life is Short" countless times.

Who is the author please?

Paul Graham. It’s the first essay referenced in the posted article.

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