A lot of people answering this struggle to understand what highly-specific means. I’m looking to, for the sake of experiment, highly-specific advice that gives a reader clear understanding of what they should do. Unlike the vague advice, on the contrary, that may be too abstract to get implementing it right away.
Inspired by this post but I wanted to change the question a bit to avoid the really vague answers as well as lower the age bar of target audience for the advice.
I’ll start with a bunch myself, to give a better example of what I’m talking about:
- Read The Art of War by Sun Tzu. Ironically, because this is a post about specific advice, dude wrote a book with vague rules on how to do war, but the way it is worded is ridiculously good. If you take your time to think about the advice, you can find their appliances in the most unexpected fields.
I, for example, have improved my skill in videogames, out of all places, after reading the book. Sun Tzu said “If it is not advantageous, do not move”. Instead of rushing into combat, I now consider whether my position, current health, location of health packs etc. work to my advantage. Sun Tzu made me realise team-based PvP shooters give you room to avoid and disengage combat, you can make more impact for the team if you choose your battle and have everything work for your advantage.
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Exercises are not just about a lot of dedication, long commutes to the gym, expensive memberships and the fear of being judged by other gym members. 7 minute workout is a thing and it will give you all the benefits at your own home without the need for equipment, and it won’t take much time either.
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Buy an old used Kindle. For dirt cheap, you will get a device with a good e-ink screen that works without Internet connection, still has decent battery, is light and small. A new thing that makes reading so comfortable will trick you into reading more and books still happen a good medium for sharing information.
Have a sense of humor and don’t be so serious all the time.
To prove that I don’t struggle to understand what highly-specific means - read this book from eCover to eCover.
Given your examples are “Do this” kinds of advice, here’s one with no malice or sarcasm: figure it out on your own.
Here’s a question with no malice or sarcasm: how on Earth did you manage to read the whole thing and then proceed to give the most vague advice in the whole thread?
If you start college (assuming you’re an American) do not under any circumstances drop out. This goes double for grad school. What will happen is the at you’ll still owe money on your student loan, but will not have whatever advantages you might have accumulated as a result of having a degree.
Go to party every day. Fuck everyone you can. Use all the drugs. You’re going to miss this time when your body could take it all without problems.
Fuck everyone you can
…with a caveat:
Don’t stick it in crazy.
Nah, that crazy is going to be great memories for when alone and without wifi.
Great, terrifying memories
No, not great memories. Crazy will ruin your life and it won’t be fond memories it will be horrible memories.
Use protection!
Yes, exactly! Wear a seatbelt!
And sunscreen!
Edit: sunscreen even if you have dark skin. Moisturizer of some kind regardless
Solid advice
Save 15%. Even if it absolutely sucks to do so. If you have to dip in to the 15%, it better be for life or death. Skip meals to save that 15%.
1$ saved at 20 is like 20$ saved at 40.
Also, don’t cash advance from a credit card, ever, for any reason. I once bought a 6$ taco at age 18 on cash advance, and once I finally cleared it off, that taco had cost me almost 500$. I did the math.
If you make less than $20K, there’s no real way to save up. 15% of 0 is 0. But if you can afford some extras, definitely send an automatic 10% to 20% of your paycheck to your 401k plan or whatever. You will genuinely not notice it.
Use this calculator to see how saving for the future will benefit you:
https://www.bankrate.com/retirement/retirement-plan-calculator/
Starting at 22 saving 15% of 35K will get you $1.8 million by age 62.
Smoke weed erry day.
The gals at the strip club don’t actually care about you.
If you can be a good boy/girl, get a credit card. Start with something that returns actual value, like a grocery store card or gas card. Something you can use for ABSOLUTELY EVERYTHING and then use the points or cash-back or whatever on necessities. Pay your bills with it, buy your groceries, use it everywhere you can.
Now, here’s the important part: pay the statement balance IN FULL on or before the due date. If you pay the statement balance every month, you’re basically getting a short term, 0% interest loan, and building your credit score at the same time.
Oh, and never get a credit card with any kind of annual fee or membership requirements. And when I said useful, I didn’t mean the Belle Tire card that gives you discounts on tires. WTF Belle Tire, how many tires do you think I’m going to buy?
In case you missed the part where I told you to pay off the statement every month, here it is again. Pay off the statement every month. No excuses. If you can’t pay for something in cash, don’t buy it with the card. Once you miss a payment, they start charging that ridiculous interest rate on everything you buy on the day you buy it. Once you miss a payment, you must STOP USING THE CARD until the balance is zero.
But if I find out you’re carrying a balance, I’ll find you and kick your ass myself.
Note, this advice on credit score only applies where positive credit ratings are a thing.
Countries that rely on negative credit ratings dgaf if you paid off lots of stuff so there’s no point.
In New Zealand for example a high credit limit could negatively affect the amount you can get for a mortgage.
Wow, really? Do they expect you to finance a mortgage with existing credit?
@DemBoSain no, not at all.
The problem is if you have a credit card they factor it in as another outgoing because you could potentially max it after you get the mortgage.
Do not fuck around with hard drugs.
I’d also say to develop a healthy attitude towards soft drugs like alcohol and weed.
Hard drugs can fuck your life up faster, but addiction to soft drugs can also do a lot of damage. Have fun, but keep perspective. You’re probably gonna be around people do stupid shit from time to time, but resist the temptation to be the person doing the stupidest shit.
Just gonna say that alcohol is, by all means, a legal hard drug.
I don’t genuinely think there are hard and soft drugs. I categorize them by physical and emotional dependence. Emotional dependence sucks and is hard to remove yourself from but drugs that lack a physical dependency are much easier to handle. Drugs you get physically dependent on and experience withdrawal symptoms from fucking suck and you should be very hesitant to use them. Drugs that have both should just be avoided (I include alcohol here but make an exception due to it being a social norm). There are also drugs that aren’t worth it for other reasons beyond these.
To give some examples of what I mean
emotional dependency:
- weed
- lsd
- mushrooms
- ketamine
- MDMA
Physical dependency:
- SSRIs (brain zaps suck ass brother)
- anti psychotics
- benzos (therapeutic doses)
- Ambien
- amphetamines (therapeutic doses)
Both:
- alcohol
- opiates
- benzos (recreational)
- (meth)amphetamines (recreational)
- cocaine
Other:
- deliriants (trauma + organ damage)
Obvious this is very subject to personal bias because it’s a classification system that is very useful to me. There are certain substances that could be argued in an out of their placement but I’ve placed them where they are with respect to how dangerous they would be to me if I were to try them.
No, drugs that produce physical dependence are so much easier to quit that drugs that create an emotional dependence.
To quit a drug with physical dependence requires staying off the drug for a week. To quit a drug with emotional dependence often requires years of therapy to resolve trauma.
Whatever you want to do in life, start right away.
- If you want to start a business, start developing it and putting the pieces into place as soon as you can.
- If you want to be a artist/musician/writer/etc, take yourself seriously and start gigging or creating right away.
- If you want to reach the top of the academic pyramid, study more than what you’re assigned and start developing your ideas.
- If you want to be involved in politics, then start getting involved in politics.
- etc…
I’m not saying this because it’ll be too late if you don’t, or anything like that. It’s never really too late to change course or start doing what you want.
But don’t wait until you’re finished school. Don’t wait until you feel “ready”. Dispel is the idea that you’re still a kid or that you’re just going through the motions until your life really begins. Life is now. So, plant the seeds of your future as soon as you possibly can.
Take care of you knees and back. Nothing spoils your 40s like bad knees or a bad back.
Poop at work. Not only do you get paid to poop, you save money on toilet paper.
Boss makes a dollar, I make a dime
Speaking of, get a bidet. It can be attached to most toilets, though you should check to make sure your toilet works. Actually get clean for once and you will never be satisfied with just toilet paper again.
Explosive diarrhea during Zoom call.
“Hey man, we’ve got an earthquake, can I call you later?”
learn HOW to drink.
drinking isn’t just about finding out how much it takes before you black out. AND FOR EVERYONE ELSE’S SAKE, DON’T DRINK AND DRIVE. if you’re gonna drink, arrange transportation, or stay where you are.
also, read the Hagakure. there’s some good stuff in there.
You have time on your side. You can afford to make a few mistakes.
And wear sunscreen (can’t believe that song is >25 years old now)
If you have any issues (like mental health or physical health) that you feel you should address, do it. I didn’t address my mental health problems until I was almost 30, yeah I should have definitely done it sooner. I also didn’t really start fixing my teeth until my mid to late 20s, yeah I definitely should have done it sooner.
If you don’t currently drink alcohol, don’t start.
Edit: Also if you do drink either stop or learn to drink responsibly. You want to do that earlier rather than later as the conversation with a doctor that you’ll die from drinking sooner rather than later isn’t a fun one.
