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How Not to Live Your Life
The advice I give to my son…and to myself
My son is a difficult teenager, no surprises there.
He is making all the mistakes in the book — one by one — dangerous behavior, wasting time, failing at school and knowing it all.
We’ve all been there
If only we knew then what we know now.
It’s impossible to know at that young age that things are not black and white, that things won’t stay the same forever, and the fact that we change as we age.
Even most adults haven’t realized this yet.
Not only the teenage mind isn’t equipped with the necessary wiring (the prefrontal cortex doesn’t fully develop until the age of 25), nor they have sufficient perspective in life, but more importantly, the message they get, from the adults in the room, is totally wrong.
Most people live shitty lives and yet they have the nerve to pontificate to their kids. What for? To end up like a middle manager at Costco? No, thank you.
Most of the mistakes I’ve made in my life come from listening to conventional wisdom.
Go to college, get good grades, find a job, buy a house, save for retirement.
All that is BS.
