[zackzackzack]

I always wonder, will what works for pg and other famous people work for me, a relative zero entity?

It's great that they have these ideals now that they are esteemed critical thinkers, businessmen, and artists. "Would they have been more or less successful if they had had these ideals back then?" is the question that I would like answered.

[sosuke]

I read another comment from comet that had a quote on a post that just left the front page about Feynman burning out that I think might answer your question. You can do it all, be successful, happy, driven, and have what others might think are unobtainable ideals all at the same time.

http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3877084 This reminds me of a Zen Buddhist text that goes like this - “The Master in the art of living makes little distinction between his work and his play, his labor and his leisure, his mind and his body, his education and his recreation, his love and his religion. He hardly knows which is which. He simply pursues his vision of excellence in everything he does, leaving others to determine whether he is at work or at play. To him, he is always doing both.”

[tomelgin]

Agreed. Note the source -- folks who had gone home to die and spoke with a palliative care nurse, Bronnie Ware. There are many people who die without access to in-home hospice care.* Overall they tend to be poorer and I would bet they have some other regrets not mentioned here (and I'd be interested to read up on them).

Still, it's hard to argue with this advice...

* I believe Medicare (covers most Americans over 65) provides some in-home hospice benefit, so I'm not saying this is limited to the extremely rich, but it is limited to those with a home and the wherewithal to seek hospice care.

[edit: formatting]

[zackzackzack]

I guess that is what gets me with advice. Often times it sounds just "Take only the good parts of this idea and apply it to your life!"

If you define something to be only the positive effects of something else, then by definition you cannot have any negative effects of the first something. "Live a happy life!" is that sort of statement. "Make friends!" is another.