30 Life Lessons on Year 30

Introduction: Why on Year 30? Because the Reminiscence Bump tendency (an observation that we have better recollection of events that occured in our early adulthood) suggest that we give great significance in this time period a lot. This list of 30 lessons are what I’ve learnt

Life Pro Tips

1. Apply sunscreens! Your future self will thank you!
2. Level up with compound exercise! (thoughts)
3. Gain superpower memory with Anki flashcards
4. Try singing. Try breathing. Try music training. They might allow you to connect with your emotions better. (thoughts)
5. Try coffee. With good sleep, it might improve your overall well-being.
6. Try improv theatre. It might improve your social well-being
7. Multiply your confidence with Fashion
8. Try backing up your data. Your future self might thank you
9. Try creating a theme of the year. Try noting down random stuffs.
10. Try looking at different horizons (in real life, not photos)

Bonus: /r/LifeProTips

Wisdom/Fluff

11. Slow is smooth. Smooth is fast. (source: probably Navy Seal)
12. Define done. (source: popularised by GTD)
13. Knowledge is mostly taught, values are always caught (thoughts)
14. Pareto principle’s corollary: What brought you here, probably won’t bring you further to where you want to be.

Things I changed my view on

15. Compromise is not always a virtue. (source: Middle-ground fallacy)
16. (Deprecate this) The science may be right but it might not apply to you (source: long-lived smokers have extraordinary gene variants)
17. The best products also need good marketing
18. Machine problems are easier than human problems

On Holding On vs Letting Go

19. Don’t overdo letting go. It’s okay to feel a bit of pain. The dividing line is how much you’ve learnt about the pain in the past.
20. Don’t underdo holding on. It’s okay to be a bit controversial. We can’t satisfy everyone. It’s always better to take a small stance than to be a blind follower. The dividing line is open-mindedness.

On Communication and Relationships

21. Try check-in with friends in December
22. Temper honesty with love (source: How To Speak Ted talk)
23. Seek first to understand others, than to be understood by others
24. Communication is hard. If you are both clear AND concise, you have already aligned the 2 most important stars.

On Happiness and Meaningfulness

25. I believe a baseline amount of money is necessary for baseline Happiness. (source: Kahneman) But beyond the baseline…
26. I believe Life (with capital L) can be reduced to 2 necessary atomic components: Happiness and Meaningfulness (source)

On Leadership and Management 27. A manager is a parent that prioritises the organisation’s wants and needs. A leader is also a parent but prioritises the workers’s wants and needs. 28.

Level up with compound exercise

Try Singing

Knowledge is mostly taught, values are always caught

On Happiness and Meaningfulness

1. This is a very fluffy section.
2. First example: Food. Happiness would be food that taste nice. Meaningfulness would be food that has nutritional value.
3. What is good tasting food is extremely subjective (e.g. chocolates, Durian). What is nutritional food is subject to your physical goals (e.g. fats to survive colder climate)
4. Second example: Jobs. Happiness would be jobs that pay well. Meaningfulness would be jobs that make an impact to society.
5. While I’m probably yes-anding every single belief system by acknowledging that everyone is right and no one is right… Yet, the main heart of the article is that Meaningfulness should be part of any discussion of capital-L Life; not just Happiness.
6. Lastly, I don’t think modernity’s focus on Happiness is a sign of hedonism. I’m quite appreciative that modernity has enabled humanity to pursue maximising Happiness while securing minimum Meaningfulness. A true hedonist would compromise Meaningfulness to maximise Happiness (neglecting family, health).
7. And thus, we choose.

Article’s version history

1. 05/09/24: Confirmed final 30 lessons