Life is Short
If you can&#x27;t see past the link to the other essays here please try to isolate this one for a bit, especially if you&#x27;re young and you don&#x27;t have kids yet. This essay is rich in realizations that come with age, and in some sense I would have potentially gotten a lot of mileage out of it when I was 20 or so (but then I would probably have lacked the background to fully comprehend it), and even more when I was a young first time father.<p>One gem in here that has not been high-lit by other commenters in this thread that stands out for me because that&#x27;s one that I did figure out very early on in life (and this served me very well) is this one:<p>&quot;As I&#x27;ve written before, one byproduct of technical progress is that things we like tend to become more addictive. Which means we will increasingly have to make a conscious effort to avoid addictions—to stand outside ourselves and ask &quot;is this how I want to be spending my time?&quot;&quot;<p>Please do ask yourself that question often, and if the answer is &#x27;no&#x27; or &#x27;maybe&#x27; then simply don&#x27;t and save yourself a lot of grief and regret in the long run.