Wow this is some bad advice. And with an arrogant/demeaning attitude to match.
It was: "don't be such a pussy." It works. If it didn't, then athletic and military leaders wouldn't use it.
Like he was some kind of superstar and now he's past the prime of his life? LOL.
I mean I realize I'm being kind of an asshole here, but geeez.
I never once stated that I was disappointed with my accomplishments (whatever they may be), only that I wished to retain (or increase) the level of mental acuity that I have manged to gain so far. For you to derive anything from a conclusion that you have arrived at based on your own personal inference is misguided, at best.
Moreover, the ad hominem attack about me thinking I 'was some kind of superstar and now [..] past [his] prime' is uncalled for, and not necessary to prove your point.
Nonetheless, I appreciate the advice, heavy-handed and flawed though it may seem.
if you wanted better advice you should have provided more background, 'californiaguy' may not have been politically correct but that does not detract from the fact that he spent some time answering you.
If you have finished or built things academically or professionally you could point to them, which would give a more solid base for this whole discussion.
You are asking for inference, some of that inference is going to be on the spot, some of it will be wildly off the mark, if you supply more information you can guide the bandwidth of the results you will receive.
The last line of his post pretty clearly indicates that he realizes that he may be off in his estimate because he feels like coming across as an asshole. (I won't debate that point...).
Advice - any advice - is worth what you paid for it.
Better to go for the goals now, before you have a mortgage and marriage and kids and other responsibilities which while not bad things, definitely complicate decisions about what to do with your life.
The greater danger for most of us is not that our aim is too high and we miss it, but that it is too low and we reach it. --michelangelo
As an experiment, I'm going to say that this sounds like one of those to me. It feels too much like a modern species, not something from the Renaissance. Now I'm going to go check and report back. :)
Edit: here's what I found. Wikiquote lists it as "unsourced". Google Books shows the phrase as appearing in a few dozen recent inspirational and self-help books (Marry Your Baby Daddy, anyone?), but no scholarly or historical ones (http://books.google.com/books?q=%22greater+danger+for+most+o...). Google web search comes up only with reams of those awful junky quotation sites. It's possible that the wording is a modern translation of an authentic quote, but in general, if 5-10 minutes of Googling doesn't come up with an original source for a famous quote by a famous genius, the odds are against it.
It's still a great line.
thanks for all the work; i came across the quote a couple of years ago (i believe google was not even "big" then) and never bothered to check back (for this post i just googled and found a couple of attributes, just for reassurance--obviously i should have been more careful)
nevertheless, i think it's a great quote, too. (i find myself citing it from time to time, about twice a year or so...)
ps: i know a couple of italians, probably they will be able to clarify on etymological issues...
Most reality-based advice is hard to listen to and sounds arrogant and demeaning. Too often HN is just a circle jerk session of smart people telling each other what they want to hear ... possibly on a thread about how the ignorant unwashed masses are so easily tricked by confirmation bias.