
50 Things I Pretend to Know Now That I Am Nearing 50 - ric3rcar
https://medium.com/the-mission/50-things-i-pretend-to-know-now-that-i-am-nearing-50-447ecf884ef0#.fsto0991n
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xedarius
"Richard Branson started Virgin Air by putting up a sign when his plane was
cancelled, selling tickets. He used the money raised from the tickets to rent
an airplane. You can start an airline like that also."

And selling his empire of retail stores, he got a few pieces of silver from
that too.

~~~
sixhobbits
My thoughts exactly. I recently read Branson's own account of this event, and
no - he did not raise money from the tickets. You cannot start an airline on
the money raised from <100 tickets. He didn't actually make any profit from
the event at all - he simply organised a private jet for him and the other
stranded businessmen and got them to split the cost. Which supposedly led to
him starting Virgin Air, but still a huge misrepresentation.

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CarolineW
I've learned to stop reading as soon as I know it's by James Altucher. He's
done some interesting things, he says some interesting things, but by and
large, personally, I find his writings to be a net negative. What appear to be
gems are often costume jewellery, and there's a lot of manure to get through
to find them.

Usually I'll read things and assess them on their merits before I correlate
them with their author - this article is making me reassess that approach.

~~~
brudgers
I read something about Thomas Pynchon the other day, so I borrowed one of his
novels [from the library] and started reading. I spent about an hour and a
half and went about 70 pages and it was clear why people regard his writing.

He's a very good writer and I didn't care about the story he was telling and I
put it down and then took it back and I'm unlikely to pick up another of his
novels. Ever. But I can appreciate why some people [including people I know]
enjoy reading him.

Not judging a book by it's cover, isn't all it's cracked up to be because
covers often reveal the author's name. What I appreciate about Altucher is
that I know that there're going to be gems and going to be manure and the
sense that he'd be the first to confess to the charge of producing a lot of
manure along with the gems. What I know I'll get is not get an argument or a
three point essay or an editorial.

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HenryTheHorse
> 29) The Bible, The Bhavagad Gita, Buddha, The Koran, Star Wars, Harry
> Potter, Lord of the Rings, are all the same book.

Apparently, _Buddha_ is a _book_.

It's fun to peddle motivational pap.

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jgrahamc
_Who your spouse will be is the most important career decision you will ever
make._

Surely, ^career^life?

 _All diets are BS. Avoid processed sugars. Eat less._

Not really. If you are overweight (as I once was) going on a diet can be very
helpful as it creates a structure and gives you a plan to follow. Once you
reach your ideal weight then you can concentrate on eating the right amount of
food.

~~~
wccrawford
I lost almost 70 lbs on prescription pills and then Weight Watchers. I've
gained about 10 lbs back (over a year, when I stopped doing WW!) but I can say
for certain that WW definitely gives you good information to help you lose
weight, including telling you how to pick appropriate foods and calorie
amounts per meal.

It's not the typical "Eat this exactly" diet, but it _is_ a diet, and it
works. If you stick with it. But you'll need to continue eating healthily
afterwards. You will never again be able to just eat whatever you want, if you
want to maintain that weight loss. (And it's totally worth it!)

WW is hardly unique here, either. Any plan that gives you good information and
processes will work the same way, assuming it's not based on pseudo-science.

Cutting down carbs (especially processed sugars) has been great, too. Cutting
them out completely is dangerous, but I was definitely eating way too many
carbs.

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IshKebab
> Physics and most of biology are just opinions that will change every few
> years.

Err ok, whatever.

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amelius
It would be nice if there was such a list, where people can continuously
up/down vote items, and add new items.

~~~
blakesterz
Oh! How about a github awesome-life list?

~~~
Jaruzel
Don't dream it.... do it.

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planetjones
_23) War is never justified._

I had to stop there.

~~~
davidgrenier
And oddly enough I stopped at this one:

13) Anger is not a real emotion. It is fear clothed. Figure out what you are
afraid of before you get angry.

Anger is a very real and one of the most useful emotion, because it's so easy
to recognize. It tells you something important is going on and might as well
stop what you are doing for a moment and figure it out.

~~~
amelius
Anger only happens because you _fear_ something bad might otherwise happen
again :)

See also: [http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/700111-there-are-only-two-
em...](http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/700111-there-are-only-two-emotions-
love-and-fear-all-positive)

~~~
rubber_duck
For that statement to be true you would have to generalize the definition of
fear to "anticipation of undesired outcome" and that entire quote reduces
"there are things we like and dislike". Sounds like pretentious bullshit to me
rather than an insightful quote.

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gaius
Flagged for being abject nonsense.

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ux-app
> The Bible, The Bhavagad Gita, Buddha, The Koran, Star Wars, Harry Potter,
> Lord of the Rings, are all the same book.

