The Wisdom of Kevin Kelly

Kevin Kelly, author and futurist
Kevin Kelly, photo by Christopher Michel, Wikimedia Creative Commons

I just got from the library Kevin Kelly’s book Excellent Advice for Life: Wisdom I Wish I’d Known Earlier.

It’s a pithy little volume, packed with tiny bits of wisdom. It’s like a cross between the best package of fortune cookies you’ll ever find and the Biblical book of Proverbs.

Friends are better than money. Almost anything money can do, friends can do better.

In so many ways, a friend with a boat is better than owning a boat.

Kelly doesn’t make any claim to originality – in fact I found this paraphrase of Dan Schiller’s advice about buying gear from the Last Whole Earth Catalog:

At first buy the absolute cheapest tools you can find. Upgrade the ones you use a lot.

If you wind up using some tool for the job, buy the very best you can afford.

What makes the book remarkable is that it contains so many bits of wisdom…and every one is worth contemplating and acting upon.

Advice like these are not laws. They are like hats. If one doesn’t fit, try another.

RELATED

How to Design a Life that Has More Life

Sunset on Carpinteria beach, with Channel Islands on the horizon, tiny glints of light on offshore oil platforms
Previous Article

Someday/Maybe Aha! Moment