Summary of #410 Excellent Advice for Living

Overview of #410 Excellent Advice for Living

Host David Senra reviews and reflects on Kevin Kelly’s book Excellent Advice for Living: Wisdom I Wish I Had Known Earlier. Kelly condensed hundreds of life proverbs into short, actionable “seeds.” Senra reads many of the highlights and adds context, examples, and links to thinkers and entrepreneurs (Buffett, Munger, Steve Jobs, Ed Catmull, Christopher Nolan, Rick Rubin, etc.). The episode emphasizes habits, perspective-taking, protecting new ideas, long-term thinking, and practical interpersonal wisdom.

Core themes

• Habits over inspiration: steady habits remove self-negotiation and compound into results.
• Protecting creativity: separate creating from editing; nurture fragile new ideas.
• Long-term and focus: set deadlines, choose the important over the urgent, play infinite games.
• Relationship and perspective: listen deeply, be interested in others, seek to understand what “yes” means for them.
• Agency and courage: act like you belong, take responsibility, be willing to try and fail.
• Kindness and forgiveness: being kind and forgiving primarily benefits you.
• Leverage and incentives: pay attention to incentives; hire/outsourcing buys time and leverage.
• Continuous mastery: focus on one thing seriously, repeat small improvements annually.

Notable insights & memorable lines

• “Being enthusiastic is worth 25 IQ points.”
• “Listening well is a superpower—while listening, ask ‘Is there more?’ until there is no more.”
• “Always demand a deadline… Different is better.”
• “Forgiveness is not something we do for others. It’s a gift to ourselves.”
• “Don’t be the best. Be the only.”
• “While you invent, don’t select. While you write the first draft, don’t reflect.”
• “The best way to learn anything is to try to teach what you know.”
• “It is much easier to change how you think by changing your behavior than to change your behavior by changing how you think. Act out the change that you seek.”
• “Anything real begins with the fiction of what could be.”
• Closing line: “If you are alive, that means you still have lessons to learn.”

Top practical takeaways (actionable)

• Use deadlines to force decisions; avoid endless polishing.
• Build unbreakable habits: write them down and protect the execution window.
• Practice listening: ask “Is there more?” and apply the rule of three to reach deeper truths.
• Teach to learn: explain ideas to someone else to reveal gaps in your understanding.
• Separate creation from editing: have dedicated sessions for invention and for critique.
• Protect new ideas: treat early-stage ideas like fragile seedlings—give time and a safe space.
• Ask for advice (not feedback) to create partners rather than critics.
• Accept compliments gracefully; apologize quickly, specifically, sincerely—without excuses.
• Apply the “would I do it tomorrow?” filter before committing to future invitations.
• Schedule a weekly no-work day (Sabbath) to recharge creativity.
• Focus your best time-of-day for high-value work and protect it.
• When negotiating, first understand what “yes” means for the other side.

Quick “do this” checklist

• Tomorrow: pick one habit you want to lock in—write it, schedule it, and do it every day for a month.
• This week: set a hard deadline for a project and remove perfectionist extensions.
• Daily: write one line of gratitude; try to teach one thing you’re learning.
• Monthly: protect one new idea—work on it without critique for a set time.
• Ongoing: practice asking curious questions and listening until there’s no more.

Additional practical rules and heuristics mentioned

• Rule of Three in conversation: ask someone to go deeper twice more—the third answer is often closest to the truth.
• Rule of Seven in research: if the first source can’t help, ask who to ask next—continue up to seven sources.
• When you must give news, give bad first, close with good (we remember the ending).
• Pay attention to incentives—design them correctly first in management and personal decisions.
• Focus on being the kind of person who does a behavior, not just setting a goal (e.g., “become the kind of person who never misses a workout”).

Recommended reading & references (from the episode)

• Kevin Kelly — Excellent Advice for Living
• Ed Catmull — Creativity, Inc.
• Walter Isaacson / biographies on Buffett and others (Snowball)
• Charles Kettering, David Ogilvy, Charlie Munger quotes referenced
• (Host also references his own interviews and other podcast episodes for context)

Who will benefit most from this episode

• People seeking compact, practical wisdom for daily life, leadership, and creativity.
• Entrepreneurs, managers, and creators who want better habits, decision frameworks, and ways to protect new ideas.
• Anyone wanting interpersonal tips: listening, negotiation, apology, praise, and forgiveness.

Final summary

The episode presents a curated set of short, actionable maxims aimed at improving how you work, create, and relate. The repeating advice: prioritize habits and deadlines, protect and nurture new ideas, play the long game, be kind and curious about others, and convert insights into small repeated actions. Small, steady changes—protected and compounded—are the path to substantial, lasting improvement.