APRIL 15 — Half the skill of being educated is learning what you can ignore. I couldn’t’ve said it better myself.

To rapidly reveal the true character of a person you just met, observe them stuck on an abysmally slow internet connection. This is true in so many ways.

And here I thought I couldn’t be impressed by a collection of sayings. But I’m running ahead of myself.

So I was on a plane home last week, scrolling through e-books which (like many fun files) just happened to find their way into my phone without me being aware (or at least not for about a year).

Found a brilliant collection of sayings by Kevin Kelly, the founding editor of Wired magazine and one of the top veteran tech geniuses in the world.

His previous book, The Inevitable: Understanding The 12 Technological Forces That Will Shape Our Future really helped frame tech trends for years to come.

Anyway, Kelly decided in 2022 to publish a 1,000-page book containing around 9,000 photographs from his 50-year travels throughout 35 countries in Asia.

I haven’t seen that one but I’ll bet it’ll make one hell of an addition to a coffee table book collection!

Kevin Kelly presenting a TED Talk. — Picture courtesy of kk.org
Kevin Kelly presenting a TED Talk. — Picture courtesy of kk.org

Then a year later, in 2023, he dialled back on the voluminosity and published a short book about sayings.

Excellent Advice for Living: Wisdom I Wish I'd Known Earlier is an accessible, brief but very wise collection of principles, axioms and proverbs almost everyone at any stage of life can learn from.

Indeed, in line with the subtitle, I truly wish I’d read some of these earlier (see #1 below).

Being more than 70 years of age and having such vast experience across cultures and sectors, I think Kelly is worth listening to.

Here are a few of my favourites which I hope can serve both as an appetizer for the rest of the book and also as a small pearl which adds glow to your life.

I think corporate executives can certainly benefit from #3, #4, #5 and #9, students and young people can learn a lot by reflecting on #10 and #1, parents would do well to remember #11 and #17, and everyone can grow by bearing in mind #15, #16, #18, etc.

  1. Cultivate 12 people who love you; they are worth more than 12 million people who like you.
  2. If you stop to listen to a musician or street performer for more than a minute, you owe them a dollar.
  3. Nothing beats small things done every day which is way more important than what you do occasionally.
  4. Efficiency is highly overrated; goofing off is highly underrated. The best work ethic requires a good rest ethic.
  5. Spend as much time crafting the subject line of an email as the message itself because the subject line is often the only thing people read.
  6. The purpose of listening is not to reply, but to hear what is not being said.
  7. You’ll get 10 times better results by elevating good behaviour rather than punishing bad behaviour especially in children and animals.
  8. When you feel like quitting, just do five more: 5 more minutes, 5 more pages, 5 more steps. Then repeat. Sometimes you can break through and keep going but even if you can’t, you ended five ahead.
  9. You cannot get smart people to work extremely hard just for money.
  10. Half the skill of being educated is learning what you can ignore.
  11. For the best results with your children, spend only half the money you think you should but double the time with them
  12. To rapidly reveal the true character of a person you just met, observe them stuck on an abysmally slow internet connection.
  13. To get your message across follow this formula used by ad writers everywhere: Simplify, simplify, simplify, then exaggerate
  14. Ignore dogs that bark. Look for the charging dog not barking.
  15. It is impossible for you to become poor by giving. It is impossible for you to become wealthy without giving
  16. It is not hard to identify a thief: It is the one who believes that everybody steals.
  17. Instead of asking your child what they learned today, ask them who they helped today
  18. You don’t have to attend every argument you are invited to.
  19. A great way to understand yourself is to seriously reflect on everything you find irritating in others

* This is the personal opinion of the columnist.