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PaperclipPerfector  14d ago (text post)   3494 thread views

Small-Scale Question Sunday for April 21, 2024

Do you have a dumb question that you're kind of embarrassed to ask in the main thread? Is there something you're just not sure about?

This is your opportunity to ask questions. No question too simple or too silly.

Culture war topics are accepted, and proposals for a better intro post are appreciated.

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What advise would you give your 16 year old self?

I'm interested in reactions here since one of my own sons will be 16 in less than a year. The world was very different in many ways when I was that age, and now certain advice I'd give ("Spend more time with your dad asking him questions. Help him more working on the car.") I couldn't give my own son without sounding like an idiot.

I'm interested in reactions here since one of my own sons will be 16 in less than a year. The world was very different in many ways when I was that age, and now certain advice I'd give ("Spend more time with your dad asking him questions. Help him more working on the car.") I couldn't give my own son without sounding like an idiot.

Unfortunately, giving advice means nudging someone towards some Aristotelian golden mean. Be more social or more introspective, more self-disciplined or more self-forgiving, more cautious or more adventurous. They're mutually exclusive. Advice is not generalizable because people are different. We humans, being narcissists, spread the seeds of wisdom that worked in our alkaline soil to the acidic of others.

Perhaps the one universal good advice might be reverse any advice you hear.

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