We human beings love to give each other wisdom and advice, wanted or not.

Parents are eager to offer our thoughts, and I write that as a proud sharing mama. It is especially gratifying to hear the words I know were mine come out of the mouth of one of my Precious Jewels; they believe it was an original thought. At the same time, it is annoying to realize I have done that with my mother’s words and probably still do.

That said, I do love to read other people’s pithy — or maybe not — words of wisdom to others. Recently an email from something called The Technium landed in my inbox offering “103 Bits of Advice I Wish I Had Known,” written by Kevin Kelly on the occasion of his 70th birthday.

Up & Coming Weekly does not give me enough space to share them all, but I will provide you with my favorites — just in case you feel the need for wisdom from someone you don’t know.

Here goes in no order at all.

“About 99% of the time, the right time is right now.”

“No one is as impressed with your possessions as you are.”

“Don’t ever work for someone you don’t want to become.”

“If you stop to listen to a musician or street performer for more than a minute, you owe them a dollar.”

“Anything you said before the word ‘but’ does not count.”

“Criticize in private. Praise in public.”

“It is the duty of a student to get everything out of a teacher and the duty of the teacher to get everything out of a student.”

“Immediately pay what you owe to vendors, workers, contractors. They will go out of their way to work with you first next time.”

“The biggest lie we tell ourselves is ‘I don’t need to write this down because I will remember it.’”

“Handy measure: the distance between your fingertips of your outstretched arms at shoulder level is your height.”

“There is no such thing as ‘on-time.’ You are either late, or you are early. Your choice.”

“You’ll get 10 times better results by elevating good behavior rather than punishing bad behavior, especially in children and animals.”

“When checking references for a job applicant, employers may be reluctant or prohibited from saying anything negative, so leave or send a message that says, ‘Get back to me if you highly recommend this applicant as super great.’ If they don’t reply, take that as a negative.”

“Denying or deflecting a compliment is rude. Accept it with thanks, even if you believe it is not deserved.”

“To keep young kids behaving on a car road trip, have a bag of their favorite candy and throw a piece out the window each time they misbehave.”

“You cannot get extremely smart people to work hard just for money.”

“You will be judged on how well you treat people who can do nothing for you.”

“Take the stairs.”

“It’s thrilling to be extremely polite to rude strangers.”

“For the best results with your children, spend only half the money you think you should, but double the time with them.”

“Actual great opportunities do not have ‘Great Opportunities’ in the subject line.”

“When introduced to someone, make eye contact and count to four. You’ll both remember each other.”

“If you loan someone $20 and you never see them again because they are avoiding paying you back, that makes it worth $20.”

“If your opinions on one subject can be predicted from your opinions on another, you may be in the grip of an ideology. When you truly think for yourself, your conclusions will not be predictable.”
And, finally, this.

“The chief prevention against getting old is to remain astonished.”