Excellent Advice for Living

February 6, 2023
In this insightful entry, Kelly (The Inevitable), a founding editor of Wired, collects pearls of wisdom for all stages of life. When he turned 68, the author began what would become a birthday tradition: compiling bits of advice for his adult children, eventually coming up with the 450 snippets collected here that touch on finances, parenting, relationships, self-awareness (“A great way to understand yourself is to seriously reflect on everything you find irritating in others”) and patience (“Become just a teeny bit better than you were last year. Repeat every year”). Some sayings are easily committed to memory (“Speak confidently as if you are right, but listen carefully as if you are wrong”) while others invite further contemplation (“We are not a body that carries a soul. We are a soul that is assigned a body”). The author doesn’t cite specific sources, acknowledging that he’s paraphrasing, and doubts any of the advice “is truly original.” Despite a tendency toward the moralizing (“It doesn’t matter how many people don’t appreciate you or your work. The only thing that counts is how many do”), the entries are genuinely thought-provoking, and Kelly’s earnestness is leavened with refreshing humor (“Be nice to your children because they are going to choose your nursing home”). The result is an unapologetically upbeat offering.

Starred review from March 1, 2023
A collection of inspiring insights from a wise technology writer. Kelly, the founding executive editor of Wired, is not known as a self-help author. His hefty backlist includes such titles as Out of Control: The New Biology of Machines, Social Systems and the Economic World and The Inevitable: Understanding the 12 Technological Forces That Will Shape Our Future. However, as he notes in the introduction, on his 68th birthday, he decided to put together 68 pieces of advice for his adult children. He then added to it each year, resulting in this wonderful collection of 450 useful aphorisms. While readers may have heard some of it before--e.g., "Remove, give away, throw out anything that no longer gives you joy"; "Don't grocery shop while hungry"--most of the material is fresh, inspiring, even exhilarating. Along practical lines, he addresses some perennial head-scratchers: "The quickest checkout line will be the one with the fewest people, no matter the size of their carts." Some will really make you think: "Most wonderful things quickly become unwonderful if they are repeated too often. Once-in-a-life is often the optimal interval." A few seem flat-out wrong, but which ones they are will vary by reader. Some will rebel when told, "Don't wait in line to eat something famous. It is rarely worth the wait," while others will question the wisdom of "90% of everything is crap. If you think you don't like opera, romance novels, TikTok, country music, vegan food, NFTs, keep trying to see if you can find the 10% that is not crap." But Kelly is ready for that. Check out the first piece of advice in the book: "Learn how to learn from those you disagree with, or even offend you. See if you can find the truth in what they believe." The title really says it all. Buy more than one, or people will keep stealing it out of your bathroom.

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June 10, 2024

This charming, brief, and poignant book by Wired magazine "senior Maverick" Kelly (What Technology Wants) will make readers laugh, reflect, and ultimately identify with more than one of the pieces of advice shared by the author. The tweet-sized bits of wisdom provide answers to life's toughest questions, ranging from which checkout line is quickest to how to respond to an insult and the liberating power of forgiveness. In between, he touches on a wide variety of topics like love, loss, marriage, family, dancing, money, setting goals, writing, and employment, among many more. VERDICT Readers interested in self-help or philosophy books and those who enjoyed Words of Wisdom by Raymond Russ will enjoy the witty assertiveness of Kelly's life lessons. This book is also a great choice for enticing reluctant readers and those learning how to read English based on the colloquial language used throughout the book and the briefness of the passages. Everyone will find themselves wanting to share the advice with those younger than they are, just as Kelly encourages them to do.--Noelia Martinez

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