No one is thinking about you as much as you are

Cut your nails after a bath or shower as they will be softer and cut smoother

Don’t be shitty.

2 I try to live by

1. start in the way you intend to continue - so don’t just accept something you can’t stand forever as you may not be able to change it. it’s much less work overall to deal with problems upfront and then not have to deal with the little consequences of ignoring them for months/years/etc.

2. don’t put it down put it away - so many messes are created by setting stuff down for a minute and never coming back until there are 30 more things on top of it and it’s an archeological dig to clean. if it takes less than a minute to put away properly then just do it immediately instead of creating hours of cleaning for you or your partner when you finally can’t stand how cluttered and dirty your place is

Dad: “Look both ways before crossing the street”

Me as a child: “But this is a one-way street”

Dad: “You look both ways because people are idiots”

Don’t make promises when you’re happy; don’t make decisions when you’re sad.

Life: Being poor ain’t no excuse for being filthy

Work: if you’re gonna go down, take people with you. (thanks HR lady!)

Choose your battles. Not everything is worth the energy.

If it’s worth doing right it’s also worth doing half-assed.

To me this means it’s better to let go of perfectionism lest it becomes paralyzing. Strive for the best conceivable result all you want but be content with the best achievable result as well.

Half of life is showing up.

Regarding marriage and relationships

I saw a reddit thread many years ago before I met my wife asking for advice from long-time couples.

I was single at the time, and was pretty comfortable with that, not that I wasn’t interested in being in a relationship, but it wasn’t a priority for me and I never had much luck picking up girls.

Most of it was the usual stuff about communication, and sharing housework, respect, and all of that.

But the one that stood out to me was

“Don’t forget to date your wife”

A good many years later, I managed to stumble my way bass-ackwards into dating my now-wife. A few years later we were married.

And for a lot of couples, dating kind of slows down at that point. One or both of them stop putting in effort, and they just kind of stagnate and drift apart.

That’s far from the only reason relationships fail of course, but I think that’s a bigger part in a lot of cases than many people think.

So I always keep my ear to the ground for cool events, restaurants, shows, places to go, things to do, etc. and make sure that there’s always something coming up on the horizon for us to look forward to. Sometimes it’s a simple dinner at a restaurant we’ve been to countless times, sometimes it’s a big elaborate day out where we get dressed up, find our way to a couple different nice bars and restaurants, walk around a museum, see a show or to an orchestra performance, etc.

I try to have at least one thing planned a month, not always successfully, but more often than not, and we sometimes squeeze in another little spontaneous date night or two here and there. Most of the time we’re out doing something fun as a couple at least once a week.

Working hard is pointless and everyone should go fuck themselves.

“Never skimp on anything that goes between you and the ground.”

“Be excellent to each other”

You’ll almost never regret saying yes to opportunities