General Advice You'd Give Someone Younger

[GCJayhawker]

There is some decent advice in here.  Some of the job advice is good/bad (my perception anyhow, but each yours could be different).  Whatever you end up doing, don't let your job define you.  The very first thing I learned in my clinicals is that when I asked the client to tell me about themselves, the first response always was job related.  I hear it again and again.  I respond by saying "this is what you do, but who are you"?  Most struggle with this answer (which is the point). 

Here is my pointa job is there to give you resources needed to live.  It is my professional opinion that a lot of people forget that last part...to live.  How do you live???  Experience, think, reflect and grow.  Stop comparing yourself others, what a waste of energy.  Make mistakes but have empathy for others.  Stop trying to be perfect, perfection is an oxymoron defined differently in the eyes of others. 

Stop trying so damn hard to be different or a hipster.  Just like the movie "Fight Club" states, you are not a unique someone who makes me uncomfortable.  Originality is bull crap.  Most everything has been done before and society recycles ideas (technology, an exception but the acclimation of technology into society is the same).

Realize that to truly understand the world, you must admit that you know nothing (Socrates, not me).  It's okay to say you don't know what you don't know...that is when you learn.

Finally...just be rough ridin' present.  Live in the damn moment.  People get so focused on who they were or who they are going to be.  There is a reason most memories are of you in the third person with how you are now rather than how you were...our brains can't hold that much information. 

/end daily Blumpkin advice post.

 

[420seriouscat69]

Good points. I never talk about my current job, but that might be because i'm embarrassed of it. I like to talk about my life experiences and do as many things that I can grab my hands on too. I'm way more than who my employer is.

[michigancat]

I disagree with everything but the "don't try to be different" advice. Music and art are constantly evolving and thinking "outside the box" can be a positive in any faction of life. the fact is, it hasn't all been done before.

(ot: someone invent a new term for "outside the box".)

[mocat]

Dirk does not think outside the box. Dirk eats the box, then he poops it out. Then he makes a milkshake out of it and makes you drink it.

[EllRobersonisInnocent]

There is some decent advice in here.  Some of the job advice is good/bad (my perception anyhow, but each yours could be different).  Whatever you end up doing, don't let your job define you.  The very first thing I learned in my clinicals is that when I asked the client to tell me about themselves, the first response always was job related.  I hear it again and again.  I respond by saying "this is what you do, but who are you"?  Most struggle with this answer (which is the point). 

Here is my pointa job is there to give you resources needed to live.  It is my professional opinion that a lot of people forget that last part...to live.  How do you live???  Experience, think, reflect and grow.  Stop comparing yourself others, what a waste of energy.  Make mistakes but have empathy for others.  Stop trying to be perfect, perfection is an oxymoron defined differently in the eyes of others. 

Stop trying so damn hard to be different or a hipster.  Just like the movie "Fight Club" states, you are not a unique someone who makes me uncomfortable.  Originality is bull crap.  Most everything has been done before and society recycles ideas (technology, an exception but the acclimation of technology into society is the same).

Realize that to truly understand the world, you must admit that you know nothing (Socrates, not me).  It's okay to say you don't know what you don't know...that is when you learn.

Finally...just be rough ridin' present.  Live in the damn moment.  People get so focused on who they were or who they are going to be.  There is a reason most memories are of you in the third person with how you are now rather than how you were...our brains can't hold that much information. 

/end daily Blumpkin advice post.

Great post blump 

[michigancat]

I disagree with everything but the "don't try to be different" advice. Music and art are constantly evolving and thinking "outside the box" can be a positive in any faction of life. the fact is, it hasn't all been done before.

(ot: someone invent a new term for "outside the box".)

and yes, technology is the catalyst for new ideas. It has been since the dawn of mankind. There are so many new tools available to people that weren't even a year ago that the possibilities of non-recycled ideas is incredible and truly unprecedented in history.

[KSUblumpkin]

I disagree with everything but the "don't try to be different" advice. Music and art are constantly evolving and thinking "outside the box" can be a positive in any faction of life. the fact is, it hasn't all been done before.

(ot: someone invent a new term for "outside the box".)

and yes, technology is the catalyst for new ideas. It has been since the dawn of mankind. There are so many new tools available to people that weren't even a year ago that the possibilities of non-recycled ideas is incredible and truly unprecedented in history.

Art and science are so closely related to me (as both an artist and a scientist).  I'm a writer just as much as I am a scientist.  The beauty in both is unquesioned in my eyes.  I'm not debating innovation in technology/music/art.  My point is that societies processing and use of those applications remains the same.  Take the bubonic plague as an example.  Scientists invented a "new" cure for the disease, the world changed.  Now let's look at AIDS, the "new" treatments for AIDS are amazing and have extended life as a result (similar to Penicilin and the bubonic plague).  Though both are innovative/novel, the acclimation by society is the same.  To quote Jean-Baptiste Alphonse Karr: "the more things change the more they stay the same."  I side with him.  I agree that I overstated that everything has beed done before, but to someone young I think it takes a great deal of stress away from the creative process in an effort to just experience, think, reflect and grow.  My point was that young people shouldn't be afraid of who they are as there has been many people who were different yet similar to them that came before them.  My argument should have been stated such that societys' response to novel changes is quite similar.

[michigancat]

I disagree with everything but the "don't try to be different" advice. Music and art are constantly evolving and thinking "outside the box" can be a positive in any faction of life. the fact is, it hasn't all been done before.

(ot: someone invent a new term for "outside the box".)

and yes, technology is the catalyst for new ideas. It has been since the dawn of mankind. There are so many new tools available to people that weren't even a year ago that the possibilities of non-recycled ideas is incredible and truly unprecedented in history.

Art and science are so closely related to me (as both an artist and a scientist).  I'm a writer just as much as I am a scientist.  The beauty in both is unquesioned in my eyes.  I'm not debating innovation in technology/music/art.  My point is that societies processing and use of those applications remains the same.  Take the bubonic plague as an example.  Scientists invented a "new" cure for the disease, the world changed.  Now let's look at AIDS, the "new" treatments for AIDS are amazing and have extended life as a result (similar to Penicilin and the bubonic plague).  Though both are innovative/novel, the acclimation by society is the same.  To quote Jean-Baptiste Alphonse Karr: "the more things change the more they stay the same."  I side with him.  I agree that I overstated that everything has beed done before, but to someone young I think it takes a great deal of stress away from the creative process in an effort to just experience, think, reflect and grow.  My point was that young people shouldn't be afraid of who they are as there has been many people who were different yet similar to them that came before them.  My argument should have been stated such that societys' response to novel changes is quite similar.

Was the printing press acclimated by society the same way as the internet, or mobile data the same way as the typewriter? Even if it was, why on Earth would that make originality "bullshit"?

It sounds like you're saying people shouldn't try to be creative. I would encourage everyone to be creative as long as they can learn from their failures. Sure, many will fail, but that's part of being imperfect, constantly learning, and living in the moment, right?

And I would say Karr is correct in that humanity has been progressing at unprecedented rates since the invention of language, but not in the sense that creativity is dead.

[steve dave]

wear socks to the airport

[puniraptor]

never wipe from the front

[Mr Bread]

Dirk does not think outside the box. Dirk eats the box, then he poops it out. Then he makes a milkshake out of it and makes you drink it.

Thank you for posting this.  I just googled it and have died from lolz.  Never seen it before and now I am dead. 

[Mr Bread]

never wipe from the front

So you wipe your ass toward your balls?  Edgy.

[mocat]

never wipe from the front

So you wipe your ass toward your balls?  Edgy.

I think you guys are on the same page here. Like, you reach your hand down behind, not from the front. And you wipe towards the back, not towards the front.

[Mr Bread]

never wipe from the front

So you wipe your ass toward your balls?  Edgy.

I think you guys are on the same page here. Like, you reach your hand down behind, not from the front. And you wipe towards the back, not towards the front.

So in puni's world wiping from the front means pulling the crap from the back towards the front, but your hand is attacking from the front so the description is determined not by the direction of the wipe but rather by the starting placement of the hand.  I was thinking more along the lines of wiping from the "front" of the butt to the "back" of the butt, which as we all know is SOP.  Thanks for clearing that up. 

[420seriouscat69]

JFC you guys.

[mocat]

Dirk does not think outside the box. Dirk eats the box, then he poops it out. Then he makes a milkshake out of it and makes you drink it.

Thank you for posting this.  I just googled it and have died from lolz.  Never seen it before and now I am dead.

mocat's favorite part: The other dinosaurs think they are very coooool and niiiiiice

[Mr Bread]

Dirk does not think outside the box. Dirk eats the box, then he poops it out. Then he makes a milkshake out of it and makes you drink it.

Thank you for posting this.  I just googled it and have died from lolz.  Never seen it before and now I am dead.

mocat's favorite part: The other dinosaurs think they are very coooool and niiiiiice

I plan to spend a significant amount of time watching more of his videos.

[puniraptor]

never wipe from the front

So you wipe your ass toward your balls?  Edgy.

I think you guys are on the same page here. Like, you reach your hand down behind, not from the front. And you wipe towards the back, not towards the front.

So in puni's world wiping from the front means pulling the crap from the back towards the front, but your hand is attacking from the front so the description is determined not by the direction of the wipe but rather by the starting placement of the hand.  I was thinking more along the lines of wiping from the "front" of the butt to the "back" of the butt, which as we all know is SOP.  Thanks for clearing that up.

Right, I meant don't access from the front and wipe towards your balls.

[mocat]

Dirk does not think outside the box. Dirk eats the box, then he poops it out. Then he makes a milkshake out of it and makes you drink it.

Thank you for posting this.  I just googled it and have died from lolz.  Never seen it before and now I am dead.

mocat's favorite part: The other dinosaurs think they are very coooool and niiiiiice

I plan to spend a significant amount of time watching more of his videos.

Why Breaking Bad is great is great. Also him recording the Game of Thrones theme in a public bathroom with a collection of brass instruments.

[KSUblumpkin]

I disagree with everything but the "don't try to be different" advice. Music and art are constantly evolving and thinking "outside the box" can be a positive in any faction of life. the fact is, it hasn't all been done before.

(ot: someone invent a new term for "outside the box".)

and yes, technology is the catalyst for new ideas. It has been since the dawn of mankind. There are so many new tools available to people that weren't even a year ago that the possibilities of non-recycled ideas is incredible and truly unprecedented in history.

Art and science are so closely related to me (as both an artist and a scientist).  I'm a writer just as much as I am a scientist.  The beauty in both is unquesioned in my eyes.  I'm not debating innovation in technology/music/art.  My point is that societies processing and use of those applications remains the same.  Take the bubonic plague as an example.  Scientists invented a "new" cure for the disease, the world changed.  Now let's look at AIDS, the "new" treatments for AIDS are amazing and have extended life as a result (similar to Penicilin and the bubonic plague).  Though both are innovative/novel, the acclimation by society is the same.  To quote Jean-Baptiste Alphonse Karr: "the more things change the more they stay the same."  I side with him.  I agree that I overstated that everything has beed done before, but to someone young I think it takes a great deal of stress away from the creative process in an effort to just experience, think, reflect and grow.  My point was that young people shouldn't be afraid of who they are as there has been many people who were different yet similar to them that came before them.  My argument should have been stated such that societys' response to novel changes is quite similar.

Was the printing press acclimated by society the same way as the internet, or mobile data the same way as the typewriter? Even if it was, why on Earth would that make originality "bullshit"?

It sounds like you're saying people shouldn't try to be creative. I would encourage everyone to be creative as long as they can learn from their failures. Sure, many will fail, but that's part of being imperfect, constantly learning, and living in the moment, right?

And I would say Karr is correct in that humanity has been progressing at unprecedented rates since the invention of language, but not in the sense that creativity is dead.

Yes.

[Emo EMAW]

Just getting to this thread, and relating to ben ji's dad's story:

Young Emo EMAW met a girl that he decided he would rather be poor and have her than rich without her, so he made the cardinal sin of pulling a loan from his 401k to buy the ring.  It ended up working out because he paid back the loan after the crash and they're planning a trip to the Basque country where she will buy him a fine Spanish side-by-side. 

[puniraptor]

inject snake venom

[Mr Bread]

Pretty sure you're just supposed to take whiffs of that stuff for maximum healthful effects.  Five second inhale before bed and you're on your way to a better you. 

[cfbandyman]

Can't remember the exact quote but it went something like this:

"No one at the end of their life wishes they had spent more time working/at the office"

While you should always work hard and do you best at your job, it pays off, you should realize there are way more important things in life like family and friends. If I could spend the rest of my life alternating between spending time with my family and porch drinking with my friends, I would be so content with my life. But you gotta work, so work in the good times around work, and do something if not love, at least tolerate and you can see yourself doing for 30+ years.
Also, if you don't love your job but can tolerate it, keep working at it, you never know when the job you love will pop up due to your credentials. Also, be kind and work well with the people you work for/with. Case in point, while I wouldn't take the job my client often reminds me that they are hiring and asks me if the town the plant is in would be something that I could see myself at long term. While mostly in light jest good work often leads to offers from those you work for, so to reiterate even if you aren't in love with your job, keep at it, you never know when that work is noticed by a company you work with and they give you an offer you can't refuse. But always be polite about it, remember you still work for someone else.

Also in the vein of keeping at it, when I was at the airport returning from site the last time out (about 2 months ago) there just happened to be some recruiters going to the KC area for Sandia National Labs, and after my project manager and I just were just talking to them about our jobs, and their jobs, and where to go to in KC, etc. one of the guys essentially told us if we were interested we should give him a call to interview for Sandia. While tempting I don't think I could live too far away from my family, friends and the 'cats just yet, especially since my job currently is pretty good, but once again, always keep at it and be friendly, you never know who you're talking to and what they may be able to do for you. Which leads me to my last point and my dad's favorite quote about work:

"It's not what you know, it's who you know"

And it only gets truer at time goes on.

also, those are pretty lame reasons to not even call to interview. not exactly "livin like you're dyin'", bro.

I bet you're way cooler online too

O sorry, that was Brad Paisley, 

oh, man.

 

[The Tonya Harding of Twitter Users Creep]

Dirk does not think outside the box. Dirk eats the box, then he poops it out. Then he makes a milkshake out of it and makes you drink it.

Thank you for posting this.  I just googled it and have died from lolz.  Never seen it before and now I am dead.

mocat's favorite part: The other dinosaurs think they are very coooool and niiiiiice

I plan to spend a significant amount of time watching more of his videos.

Why Breaking Bad is great is great. Also him recording the Game of Thrones theme in a public bathroom with a collection of brass instruments.

Thanks, titties of Walt!!! 

The daddy long legs one gets me too