Excellent Advice for Living: Wisdom I Wish I'd Known Earlier

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KELLY: I am involved with this group called the Long Now Foundation, where we’re trying to promote long-term thinking. I think the way it would change is that there would be a couple of things. One is I think we would collectively, maybe mostly through government, have more long-term research involved, and the benefits of that would be spilling over to everything. Most science experiments today last as long as a PhD, which is like four years, and there’s very little really long-range research being done.

KELLY: It was all I could do to try and get them to ride a bicycle to work. I actually accompanied my son a couple of times — it was a pretty long haul; I have to say that. In his latest book, “ Excellent Advice for Living,” Kelly does not shy away from distilling the wisdom he’s amassed over decades of pioneering work into practical, everyday lessons. With an insightful blend of the futuristic and the eternal, he prompts us to reconsider the interplay between technology, personal growth, and overall well-being. This book not only enlightens us with its vivid exploration of the relationship between humanity and progress but also inspires us to carve a fulfilling path in a world that is incessantly evolving. Kelly’s profound wisdom and unique perspective, once again, highlight his place as an indispensable guide in our rapidly changing times.

One hundred years from now, when so much of the nonsense of our age is forgotten, people will still remember Kevin Kelly and his wisdom." --Seth Godin Just a few simple questions about that. Two hundred thousand photos: Where in Asia do people most like being photographed, and where do they like it the least? And why? A lot of advice is really reminders of things that we already know. I think a good way to pay attention to advice is to encapsulate it in some way that you can remember and to remind yourself. They really should be called, maybe, reminders.

KELLY: I’m working on a project called the Hundred-Year Desirable Future. I think it’s really important to try and visualize where it is that we want to go with all this technology, because I think it’s hard enough to get there deliberately, and it’s almost impossible to get there inadvertently. I think having a vision, a destination, of wherever it is that we want to go is helpful. That’s actually — it’s difficult. It’s easy to imagine how things don’t work, because that’s more probable; failure is the norm. The greatest killer of happiness is comparison. If you must compare, compare yourself to you yesterday. I'm a more natural editor than a writer, let me put it that way. My natural tendency is to edit. I'm comfortable editing. I am just in pain trying to write that first draft, and it's just excruciating. I think one of the things we see the trends in Christianity is an increasing number of sects and divisions and schisms, and so it’s possible that there could be a sect derived around AI and the ability of making and guiding and creating other beings. That, of course, has changed over time. But that’s the journey that I’ve been on, is leaving that behind.In this insightful entry, Kelly, a founding editor of Wired, collects pearls of wisdom for all stages of life . . . the entries are genuinely thought-provoking, and Kelly’s earnestness is leavened with refreshing humor. The result is an unapologetically upbeat offering.”— Publishers Weekly COWEN: How many people asking for advice actually want advice? And to the extent they don’t, what is it they’re looking for?

It's very weird. It's sort of like I try to think what I know, and I realize I don't know, and I try to get somewhere. And that act of trying to write actually creates the idea, so that's what I meant by that.COWEN: I think travel has helped me to see just how much virtually all squabbles are petty squabbles. You go to other places and you hear them talk about what they’re squabbling about: like, “Oh, what kind of music should you play in the church ceremony?” You think of it, “Well, that’s a petty squabble” — and you’re right, but your own squabbles are not less petty. That kind of advice I’m very reluctant to give, and almost never answer, because I don’t feel I know that person well enough. I can give them a platitude (like my book is filled with), saying, “Here’s my piece of advice for a young person who is setting out — ” KELLY: I think at first, of course, it’s going to be mostly (and that’s what they’re aiming at) is in disabled —