APP - 'What’s the best advice you’ve ever received?'

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midcan5

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An interesting question. For me it was 'read', mom repeated it often. I'll leave other comments on topic until I see replies.

Note: This was prompted by TLS, a magazine I subscribed to long ago in paper format, now on the web.

A few replies from magazine:

"What’s the best advice you’ve ever received?

‘Never put anything in writing’ (from my dad)" Geoff Dyer

"Those things you really want to silence are precisely those you should interrogate." Yuri Herrera

“Never underestimate the other person’s insecurity”. Adam Gopnik

"In life: Be kind." Anna Burns

"When I crossed over from academic to popular writing, a university press editor advised me not to make the common professor’s mistake of talking down to readers, as if they were semi-literate chicken pluckers. Think of them, she said, as if they are as smart as you are, but happen not to know something that you know." Steven Pinker

https://www.the-tls.co.uk/article-section/twenty-questions/
 
I had thought of going to America to do my Ph.D., but a friend who'd been there told me I'd be mad, unless I was very rich or amazingly healthy. When, years later, the NHS saved my life with out my having to sell my house or become a burden on my relations I knew how totally right he was.
 
Only two so far?


Dark Soul said:
"Never vote for a Democrat."
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I cannot imagine a child being told not to vote for someone? Isn't that just a contemporary repartee.


iolo said:
I had thought of going to America to do my Ph.D., but a friend who'd been there told me I'd be mad, unless I was very rich or amazingly healthy. When, years later, the NHS saved my life with out my having to sell my house or become a burden on my relations I knew how totally right he was.
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What is your Ph.D in? That advice came later in life, is there anything early that made you who you are?


We are a large family and often we discuss early influences and how some remember something another does not, even though we were both there.
 
midcan5 said:
Only two so far?




I cannot imagine a child being told not to vote for someone? Isn't that just a contemporary repartee.




What is your Ph.D in? That advice came later in life, is there anything early that made you who you are?


We are a large family and often we discuss early influences and how some remember something another does not, even though we were both there.
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It's about the late work of an important novelist. The advice didn't come late in life. I took it at the time (I was twenty-three, I think), but it's huge truth only became evident when I got ill a lot later and heard about what would have happened to me in America. My parents were extremely different and always said extremely different things, but I was once strongly advised by an MP not to go in the Forces. I did, and the MP was right! Once you've cut grass with scissors you know what militarism is worth! :)
 
"Sometimes you just gotta say, 'Fu-k it'"
"Shoot for the moon, even if you miss, you will end up among the stars"
 
We need more replies.

When I hear someone mention politics, it baffles me. When i grew up in the fifties and even the sixties, politics wasn't right or left, conservative v liberal, or even republican v democrat. An interesting question for all respondents is why that happened, and by whom, and for what reason. I'll leave my well reasoned assumptions aside for now. ;)


Another quip. "Think before you speak. Read before you think." Fran Lebowitz
 
I read this one, but I practice it

Maya Angelou: ""When someone shows you who they are, believe them the first time."

[h=3][/h]





 
midcan5 said:
An interesting question. For me it was 'read', mom repeated it often. I'll leave other comments on topic until I see replies.

Note: This was prompted by TLS, a magazine I subscribed to long ago in paper format, now on the web.

A few replies from magazine:

"What’s the best advice you’ve ever received?

‘Never put anything in writing’ (from my dad)" Geoff Dyer

"Those things you really want to silence are precisely those you should interrogate." Yuri Herrera

“Never underestimate the other person’s insecurity”. Adam Gopnik

"In life: Be kind." Anna Burns

"When I crossed over from academic to popular writing, a university press editor advised me not to make the common professor’s mistake of talking down to readers, as if they were semi-literate chicken pluckers. Think of them, she said, as if they are as smart as you are, but happen not to know something that you know." Steven Pinker

https://www.the-tls.co.uk/article-section/twenty-questions/
Click to expand...

I do not remember my parents every explicitly offering me sage words of advice.
I believe their style was more about setting a good example.

From my Mother I learned material possessions and money mean almost nothing -- that self-awareness, introspection, wisdom, boundless curiosity, and pursuit of knowledge are what comprise the life well-lived.

From my Papa I believe I was exposed to a healthy dose of self-control, mental discipline, self-respect, perspective, serenity, and equanimity.
 
midcan5 said:
We need more replies.

When I hear someone mention politics, it baffles me. When i grew up in the fifties and even the sixties, politics wasn't right or left, conservative v liberal, or even republican v democrat. An interesting question for all respondents is why that happened, and by whom, and for what reason.
Click to expand...
McCarthy.
 
Yes, McCarthyism was a significant historical event and the domino theory of falling nations led America into many hopeless ventures. Some still have this idea that America can remake the world in its image. But I grew up in those times, even enlisting during Nam, but politically I was neutral as were my parents and the people I knew. Everyone eschewed labels that divide, unlike today. I will comment on this later.


More replies required.


"Love unconditionally, laugh intentionally, live strategically, and learn daily." Hope D. Blackwell
 
midcan5 said:
Yes, McCarthyism was a significant historical event and the domino theory of falling nations led America into many hopeless ventures. Some still have this idea that America can remake the world in its image. But I grew up in those times, even enlisting during Nam, but politically I was neutral as were my parents and the people I knew. Everyone eschewed labels that divide, unlike today. I will comment on this later.


More replies required.


"Love unconditionally, laugh intentionally, live strategically, and learn daily." Hope D. Blackwell
Click to expand...

I think a non-political stance wasn't too difficult when real politics were verboten It wasn't advice exactly, but it taught me a great deal when Paul Robeson, the greatest American so far, wasn't even allowed out to sing at the Miners' Eisteddfod in Porthcawl and had to do it over the phone. A friend of my Father's had been a friend of his when he was here. Valleys people back then practically worshipped him for standing by us when the tories were trying to destroy us. Now they've succeeded their successors are doubtless being brainwashed into amnesia.
 
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I once had a pastor tell me to pick the three things that I would most like to change about the woman I was wanting to marry. The pastor wanted me to name these three things before he performed our wedding ceremony that I was asking him to perform, so I gave him my list. He then explained to me that those three things that I listed would probably never change. He said that I needed to decide if I would still marry her if those three things never changed, since they would probably never change. He said he would perform the ceremony once I agreed to those terms and accepted his advice.
 
Evmetro said:
I once had a pastor tell me to pick the three things that I would most like to change about the woman I was wanting to marry. The pastor wanted me to name these three things before he performed our wedding ceremony that I was asking him to perform, so I gave him my list. He then explained to me that those three things that I listed would probably never change. He said that I needed to decide if I would still marry her if those three things never changed, since they would probably never change. He said he would perform the ceremony once I agreed to those terms and accepted his advice.
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That is fascinating. It is funny you knew three things before the big day. Makes me think back to our marriage, now in its forty seventh year.

I love, Great that you work hard others do too. Any other thoughts?

Postmodern, that is true but is it advice or wisdom? Any other thoughts.



"Never ruin an apology with an excuse.” Benjamin Franklin
 
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