# General life advice **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [May 4, 2016, 2:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/general-life-advice/753887 "2016-05-04T14:34:18Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![advice86advice](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ec9cab/32.png) [@advice86advice](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/advice86advice)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2016, 2:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/general-life-advice/753887/1 "2016-05-04T14:34:18Z")
I wanted to post in this topic, but it is locked: > **[General Life Advice For Others](https://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=421768)** > > I’d like to start a thread that offers others little secrets to making life easier for others… I’ll start. Know makes and models of cars – you’d be surprised how helpful this could be in a myriad of situations. The following is what I consider worthy information. I started taking notes a while ago of good advice to tell my kids someday. I ditched that idea and decided to tell everyone and not to keep it to myself. It is general advice, which I would love to know as early in life as possible. They’re my personal opinion and I expect many people to not agree with me on various topics. I don’t state that it’s all true and valid for everyone. For example, I may be wrong about reps and supplements. Most of the items may not be useful to many people, but if at least one of them is useful for one person, I’d be delighted. They are not sorted. - Sleep at least seven and a half hours. - Create a pre-sleep routine, including wearing glasses that block blue light and meditation. - Restrict eating any sugars, grains and seed oils i.e. the primal diet. There’s plenty of delicious food that fits that criteria. Just google “primal recipes”. - Don’t do chronic cardio. - While weight lifting, perform the exercises in a single set and until you can’t do a single one with a good form. Choose the weight so you can do between 4 and 20 repetitions. - Sprint at least a couple of times weekly for 10~30 seconds. - Walk few kilometers every day. - Read and understand the labels of every cosmetic product that you plan on using. Dismiss if possible any fragrance. For reference use a cosmetic ingredients database. - Don’t eat great looking fruits and vegetables because it’s likely that they’re GMO. Pick from the farmer’s market the ugliest looking produce which is fresh. - Eat everything home-made if possible. - Supplement with fish oil, vitamin D and multivitamins. - Instead of reading books, listen to the audio version while driving or working. - Read/listen to “The four agreements” by Don Miguel Ruiz. - Read/listen to “The power of now” by Eckhart Tolle. - Read/listen to “The seven habits of highly efficient people” by Stephen R. Covey. - Read/listen to “Getting things done” by David Allen. - Read/listen to “Things I wish I’d known before we got married” by Gary D. Chapman. - Read/listen to “Good calories bad calories” by Gary Taubes and “Grain brain” by Kristin Loberg and David Perlmutter also “The vegetarian myth” by Lierre Keith - Read/listen to “Think and grow rich” by Napoleon Hill. - Be confident. - Demolish your ego. - Know the flaws of your character and your personal problems. Learn more of those from the people around you. Analyze those flaws, explain the reasons behind them and define each solution and the relations between them. Try to fix as many as you can and find a way to work towards solving the rest. - Don’t fall in love with a partner, with which you didn’t have sex with. - If you’re sure you’ve found your life-mate, do everything in your abilities to make it work. - Learn how to learn. - Train your reading speed. It’s not only useful for books. Articles, forums and almost anything on the web is written. - Improve yourself in any way you can think of. - Make few good friends from the same gender as you. - Avoid aggression when possible but be ready to go to extremes for the right reasons. - Don’t share your time with people that you don’t deem deserve it. - Civilization is an advantage. Use all technologies available to you while having in mind their impact on your health. - Don’t always make no-risk choices and don’t try to live a perfect life, because that way you miss on all the good imperfect bits (which are almost all of it). - Make yourself a vision board. It’ll come true only because when you’re faced with a life changing choice you’ll know what to do. - Pick a mentor for each stage of your life: primary school, gymnasium, university, work, family. - Find out the essence of your life and leave all unnecessary things out of it to avoid clutter in any aspect. I learned that from Leo Babauta. - Prepare to die. Be ready for it so it could be any moment now and you can feel fulfilled within. I have more advice, which I didn’t mention here. If you wish to know it, you can PM me here or somewhere else on the internet. ---
**Author:** ![Chihuahua](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/dec6dc/32.png) [@Chihuahua](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chihuahua)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2016, 3:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/general-life-advice/753887/2 "2016-05-04T15:19:36Z")
No Dale Carnegie? ---
**Author:** ![jtur88](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e9c0ed/32.png) [@jtur88](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jtur88)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2016, 3:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/general-life-advice/753887/3 "2016-05-04T15:25:30Z")
1. Ignore advice found in forum posts. 2. Avoid speed reading. There is literature to savor. You don’t gulp a fine wine. ---
**Author:** ![beowulff](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beowulff/32/542_2.png) [@beowulff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/beowulff)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2016, 3:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/general-life-advice/753887/4 "2016-05-04T15:30:23Z")
> [@](#): > > - Create a pre-sleep routine, including wearing glasses that block blue light and meditation. I’ve been looking for some meditation-blocking glasses. Where do you find them? ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2016, 3:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/general-life-advice/753887/5 "2016-05-04T15:32:01Z")
What about dancing like nobody is watching? ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2016, 3:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/general-life-advice/753887/6 "2016-05-04T15:32:08Z")
> [@beowulff](#): > > I’ve been looking for some meditation-blocking glasses. Where do you find them? Try novelty stores. I recommend the kind with a styrofoam ball bouncing in front of each eye. ---
**Author:** ![Telemark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/telemark/32/372_2.png) [@Telemark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Telemark)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2016, 3:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/general-life-advice/753887/7 "2016-05-04T15:45:21Z")
> [@advice86advice](#): > > - Sleep at least seven and a half hours. > > - Create a pre-sleep routine, including wearing glasses that block blue light and meditation. I don’t need that much sleep, and your pre-sleep routine appears to be woo. > [@advice86advice](#): > > - Restrict eating any sugars, grains and seed oils i.e. the primal diet. There’s plenty of delicious food that fits that criteria. Just google “primal recipes”. > > - Don’t do chronic cardio. > > - While weight lifting, perform the exercises in a single set and until you can’t do a single one with a good form. Choose the weight so you can do between 4 and 20 repetitions. > > - Sprint at least a couple of times weekly for 10~30 seconds. > > - Walk few kilometers every day. Some OK advice on exercise, but the diet is mostly woo, or at minimum unsupported as general advice. Exercise should be in support of your goals, which aren’t the same for all people. When I was running ultramarathons you can be sure there was a lot of cardio. > [@advice86advice](#): > > - Read and understand the labels of every cosmetic product that you plan on using. Dismiss if possible any fragrance. For reference use a cosmetic ingredients database. > > - Don’t eat great looking fruits and vegetables because it’s likely that they’re GMO. Pick from the farmer’s market the ugliest looking produce which is fresh. > > - Eat everything home-made if possible. > > - Supplement with fish oil, vitamin D and multivitamins. Mostly woo, or simply bad advice. Hardly anyone needs multivitamins. > [@advice86advice](#): > > - Instead of reading books, listen to the audio version while driving or working. > > - Read/listen to “The four agreements” by Don Miguel Ruiz. > > - Read/listen to “The power of now” by Eckhart Tolle. > > - Read/listen to “The seven habits of highly efficient people” by Stephen R. Covey. > > - Read/listen to “Getting things done” by David Allen. > > - Read/listen to “Things I wish I’d known before we got married” by Gary D. Chapman. > > - Read/listen to “Good calories bad calories” by Gary Taubes and “Grain brain” by Kristin Loberg and David Perlmutter also “The vegetarian myth” by Lierre Keith > > - Read/listen to “Think and grow rich” by Napoleon Hill. Some good reads, but the majority are useless and or not applicable to most people. And some are just awful reads. > [@advice86advice](#): > > - Be confident. > > - Demolish your ego. Might as well say “Become successful.” This isn’t advice, it’s platitudes. And, dammit, a healthy ego is a good thing. Snipped a whole bunch of generally inoffensive but mostly useless entries. ---
**Author:** ![advice86advice](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ec9cab/32.png) [@advice86advice](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/advice86advice)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2016, 4:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/general-life-advice/753887/8 "2016-05-04T16:44:52Z")
> [@beowulff](#): > > I’ve been looking for some meditation-blocking glasses. Where do you find them? Lol. Ok, I’m fixing that mistake. Thanks. Telemark, I find that you may be right. Thanks for the input. Which advice of mine do you think is the best one? ---
**Author:** ![Telemark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/telemark/32/372_2.png) [@Telemark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Telemark)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2016, 5:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/general-life-advice/753887/9 "2016-05-04T17:06:53Z")
Getting enough sleep is probably the most likely bit of advice to be useful to the general population. Learn how to learn isn’t bad but it’s not advice as much as it is a general concept. I have problems with most of the others. ---
**Author:** ![advice86advice](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ec9cab/32.png) [@advice86advice](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/advice86advice)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2016, 5:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/general-life-advice/753887/10 "2016-05-04T17:50:19Z")
Nice. That’s all I wanted to hear. So now it’s possible for someone to find that page by google and learn something useful. I’m really happy about that. I’m glad I shared those with you, guys. They were personal opinions, which I kept to myself. Now I feel a relief that even if I don’t pass those on to my future children at least collecting and keeping them wasn’t in vain. ---
**Author:** ![gnoitall](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/bb73d2/32.png) [@gnoitall](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gnoitall)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2016, 5:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/general-life-advice/753887/11 "2016-05-04T17:54:27Z")
> [@kayaker](#): > > What about dancing like nobody is watching? That’s pretty last-century. Nowadays, it’s “Dance like someone is watching, because in the modern Panopticon, you can be damn sure someone unfriendly is.” ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2016, 5:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/general-life-advice/753887/12 "2016-05-04T17:59:17Z")
You forgot what is probably the most important one, which is spend less money than you earn, and to not buy stuff because it will impress other people. Most of the stuff I haven’t done, yet am old and happy and successful. I don’t need 7.5 hours of sleep a night, neither did that failure Thomas Edison. As for books, listening to audiobooks while driving is fine, but not while working. That’s worse than speed reading. Unless you work a mindless job, you are either not going to really work or really read. I’d say read lots of books on diverse subjects - you will learn a lot and understand the complexity of the world better. ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2016, 6:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/general-life-advice/753887/13 "2016-05-04T18:05:29Z")
Somebody once advised me against accepting nickels made of wood. None have ever been proffered my way, however I do keep an eye out. ---
**Author:** ![Machine\_Elf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/82dd89/32.png) [@Machine\_Elf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Machine_Elf)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2016, 8:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/general-life-advice/753887/14 "2016-05-04T20:06:04Z")
> [@Telemark](#): > > I don’t need that much sleep, and your pre-sleep routine appears to be woo. Can’t speak to the meditation, but there is indeed [a connection between exposure to blue light and sleep problems.](http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/q-a-why-is-blue-light-before-bedtime-bad-for-sleep/) ---
**Author:** ![Why\_Child](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/b782af/32.png) [@Why\_Child](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Why_Child)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2016, 8:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/general-life-advice/753887/15 "2016-05-04T20:30:48Z")
“Learn how _ **you** _ learn” might be more helpful than “learn how to learn.” Some people learn by doing, some by watching, some by reading or listening. It’s easier to learn if you can find what kind of teacher you need. As far as “worthy information,” I would like to add, “Don’t fry bacon naked.” 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2016, 8:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/general-life-advice/753887/16 "2016-05-04T20:41:08Z")
> [@advice86advice](#): > > Find out the essence of your life and leave all unnecessary things out of it to avoid clutter in any aspect. I learned that from Leo Babauta. I have to question this one. Who says life has an “essence”? People want to believe their life has a purpose or a meaning or a plot but the objective evidence is that life is just something that happens to us. ---
**Author:** ![Don\_t\_Panic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/don_t_panic/32/398_2.png) [@Don\_t\_Panic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Don_t_Panic)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2016, 8:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/general-life-advice/753887/17 "2016-05-04T20:47:59Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > I have to question this one. Who says life has an “essence”? People want to believe their life has a purpose or a meaning or a plot but the objective evidence is that life is just something that happens to us. Nah, I get it. Just replace “essence” with “the things that you absolutely have to pay attention to in order to not run into a catastrophic game over scenario early in your playthrough”. It’s basically just money (and the specific ways to acquire it) and health. Like most video games. It’s not politics, what the Kardashians are up to, what most people think of you, art, philosophy, or other random bullshit. It’s not even sex. Most things just do NOT matter. But the things that matter REALLY matter. ---
**Author:** ![Don\_t\_Panic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/don_t_panic/32/398_2.png) [@Don\_t\_Panic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Don_t_Panic)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2016, 8:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/general-life-advice/753887/18 "2016-05-04T20:55:30Z")
Too late for edit: And BTW, yes, this one piece of advice - find the essence of your life - basically wipes out the bulk of the OP. Most entries in that rambling bloatfest of a TL;DR poster child just do NOT matter. ---
**Author:** ![elbows](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/b3f665/32.png) [@elbows](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elbows)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2016, 9:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/general-life-advice/753887/19 "2016-05-04T21:49:25Z")
What? Nothing about sunscreen? 'But trust me about the sunscreen…" ---
**Author:** ![spamforbrains](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e274bd/32.png) [@spamforbrains](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/spamforbrains)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2016, 1:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/general-life-advice/753887/20 "2016-05-05T01:40:33Z")
Don’t mess with the IRS. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/general-life-advice/753887.md?page=2)