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Welp, I'm 30! (+ a 30-min-long article to "celebrate")
🕑 Added 2024-09-11 21:29:42 +0000 UTCHi all! It is my birthday.
My gift for myself for the big Three-Zero is to write this navel-gazing blog post, which I shall share with you now:
⏱ Welp, I'm 30. (30 tips for my 13-year-old self) ⏱ (30 min read)
. . .
If you don't have the time or don't want to read it all, here's the list of 30 tips I wish I knew much earlier! ⤵ (each one is elaborated more in the above link)
🏃♀️ Health
1. Don't drink 2 Red Bulls and 1 Monster per day.
2. Seriously, go outside & move your body.
💰 Finances
3. Start saving now, shove it into an index fund, then forget about it.
🤖 Self-management
4. Write down what you care about most, then put this list somewhere you'll review regularly.
5. Use a diary not just to record your life, but to scientifically experiment with it!
6. Become a cyborg: use tools to augment your crappy memory, attention, and willpower.
7. Emotions are neither truth nor lies; they're "just" tools. Learn to use them well!
💖 Relationships
8. You should organize the hangout.
9. WIN-WIN OR BUST: say NO to win-lose narcissism & lose-win martyrdom.
10. Healthy relationships are conditional & transactional (in an open, honest way)
11. Yes, you can quit family, friends, and romances.
12. But trust isn't all-or-nothing, or even a 1D spectrum. It's infinite sliders.
🦄 Self-Discovery
13. Hey past Nicky, try cross-dressing, you may learn something about yourself
🌱 Learning
14. Don't be afraid to suck.
15. Get the intuitive understanding first.
16. Use spaced repetition flashcards!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
17. Learn it by teaching someone else.
🤔 Critical thinking / "Rationality"
18. Cliché ≠ wrong, Contrarian ≠ right.
19. Mythbust, factcheck & debate yourself.
20. Sloppy words lead to sloppy thinking.
21. Put numbers on it. (with error bars)
22. Only a fool plays with one hypothesis.
🎁 Making art
23. Make the kind of stuff you would've wanted.
24. Small scope, Small tests, Small wins, Small bets!
25. Having fun is efficient!
26. Build a better mousetrap and they won't come; or, learn to "sell" your work.
💭 Philosophy / Ethics
27. Happy Nihilism: nothing matters, including the fact nothing matters.
28. Don't save the world.
29. Just do what sparks joy in yourself & your loved ones, without burning others down.
👵 Getting older
30. It's probably going to be okay.
. . .
Thanks to everyone who sent me advice for turning 30, and/or wished me a happy birthday!
This navel-gazing post took way longer than I expected it to take and was not really worth it. Anyway, I'll get back to making AI Safety for Fleshy Humans Part 3 now. Right now I'm trying to understand sparse auto-encoders, wish me luck.
🍂 !
~ Nicky Case
Comments
Daxia
love you
Alastair JL
Happy Birthday!
lChronosl
Happy birthday, and thanks for the list. I sure do need to put some of these in place immediately.
Ryan Kotler
Your post is so good and helpful, especially so to at least one person on the other side of 40! 😬 Happy birthday! Keep shining your light! 🥳
Piotr
This is a very nice list, and helpful even well beyond 30. However, I strongly disagree with the whole relationships section and the whole philosophy section. I'd recommend Man's Search for Meaning by Victor Frankl, as well as Confucian and Aristotelian philosophy: (1) Healthy relationships are relational. Find people who you can trust, who are loyal, and who are good people. Trust them. (2) Don't rely on quid-pro-quo or make them transactional. Healthy relationships can, and often are, imbalanced. If a friend becomes disabled, you might need to help them for the rest of their life (and vice-versa). That's not the same as being a doormat, doing what the other side expects from you, narcissism, or martyrdom. (3) One of the nice things about the philosophers I mentioned is that they define what you should do, which also defines what you don't need to do. Narcissism and martyrdom are blunted if there are clear roles and duties. As much as the roles from millennia ago might be obsolete, analogous concepts apply. One of the things I find most important is to spend my time doing things which I find fulfilling and which help people. Indeed, I find this philosophy section somewhat ironic, given how much the things you've done have helped people I know. In the era of plenty of the 21st century, this requires some compromise (e.g. not working at a hedge fund), but not martyr-like self-sacrifice. Oh: And it's okay to fail. As much as it makes sense to try to save the world, 95% of the things you try won't work. Don't stress it. That's okay. Just make sure you have fun with the process, and hopefully learn a few things and make a few friends on the way.
Aeryn Light
Happy birthday!! I just hit 40 a few weeks ago myself.
Tim S (Banana Juice Tech)
Happy birthday! Use a diary not just to record your life, but to scientifically experiment with it! This intrigues me. Will look forward to making some time to read the article to learn more
Parker Bond
Happy Birthday!
Fanboat
"I am 30, or 40 years old and I do NOT need this." I've taken advantage of this quote and will continue to until I am 41. HBD! (Mine is in two days!)
