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by vinceguidry 4064 days ago
There's advice smart 30 year olds give, advice smart 40 year olds give, advice smart 50 year olds give, and so on. Each decade tends to revolve around the same themes. All of it is worthwhile stuff to pay attention to, particularly from someone whose accomplished the sorts of things people aspire to in that decade.

Even the people who haven't accomplished much can still have worthwhile things to say about life. My father's had a hard, hard life. His advice isn't really good in terms of success, but rather as a "don't do the kinds of crap I did" sort of thing. Our lives are different enough that little of it is actionable, but I still listen to it, even if he thinks I don't.
2 comments
ProAm 4064 days ago
> There's advice smart 30 year olds give, advice smart 40 year olds give, advice smart 50 year olds give, and so on

This is not that kind of advice though, this rings a bit youthful and wet behind the ears. I sort of feel like its a regurgitated take on "Advice, like youth, is wasted on the young"[1]

Sam's obviously a smart guy since he's been put in charge of yCombinator but his blog posts often feel hollow to me.

[1] http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/columnists/chi-schmich-su...

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vinceguidry 4064 days ago
Maybe try to think of it as "talking about what's important in life" as opposed to advice. I think it would be silly to think one has all the answers in this direction, that's effectively what you're telling them when you apply value judgments to what they have to say.
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ProAm 4064 days ago
> Maybe try to think of it as "talking about what's important in life" as opposed to advice.

Im not trying to be overly condescending or judgmental, definitely just my opinion, but it reads like a teenager giving advice on how to live life when they themselves are just embarking on it. It sounds youthfully naive and obvious, there is nothing wrong in there, it's just not eye opening or inspirational as I'd expect reading from the successor to pg. Maybe I'm being to judgmental because I'm used to the way pg's blogs used to speak to me and this is something different. Of course this is my opinion, it just felt empty to me.

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peteretep 4064 days ago 

    > There's advice smart 30 year olds give, advice smart 40
    > year olds give, advice smart 50 year olds give, and so on
I think the best generalist advice I've heard is:

"When I was 30, I realized that when I was 20 I didn't know shit. Now I'm 40, I realized that when I was 30 I didn't know shit."

It would be interesting to see how many of the above he would revise in ten years time, and also on the other side of the seismic event that is having a child.

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