Final wisdom

This is a collection of hand picked wisdom accumulated for the worthy. Advice is difficult to take in properly... no idea how you should do it; but do something. First of all: Don't get serious advice from some random website, but hey, you are here, so enjoy my input :)

Get stuff done

It's better to finish something than to start something
Make goals that you have control over. Accept what you can not control or choose to be unhappy.
Practice "Shoshikantetsu", japanese for "Complete what was originally intended."

110%

Never give 110%, that's just selling out... just divide your 100% in:

50% pain
20% skill
15% concentrated power of will
10% luck
5% pleasure

Hard problems

Hard problems are hard - here is some advice:

Say: "I can do hard things". Doing hard things has intrinsic value, and they will make me a better person, even if I end up failing.
The key is recognizing that the urge to avoid hard things is human, and should be expected. It’s part of the process. Figure out what combination of motivation, and circumstances, and accountability work best for your particular personality.
Break large goals down into manageable pieces. Creating an accurate road maps toward this goal. Find out what is important. Differentiate between activities you want to be important and what actually makes a difference.

Productivity, purpose and passion

Some wisdom about productivity, purpose and passion:

You need to be efficient to have money and time to enjoy life.
The parts of life that bring joy are often things we do for their own sake without caring about efficiency.
The fear of the irrelevancy and losing out in the endless treadmill race impacts universally.
To escape the productivity treadmill is to actively choose what matters to you.
There are infinite things to do in your finite life so life is a set of choices.
If you’re constantly craving more, you wont appreciate what you already have.
If we believe the future will be better we devalue the present moment.
Liberation of this burden happens when you are at peace with and bask at merely existing.

Luck and Success

To be successful is to some extent luck. You can not control luck, but you can increase your chances by enlarging your success surface.

Enlarging the success surface with work:

Level 1 - Do Nothing: You did nothing and just won randomly
Level 2 - Hard work: Eventually there will be a payoff because you’ve hustled your way to it.
Level 3 - Master: Discover things others don't see through work and knowledge.
Level 4 - Attract: Others want to work with you; you can choose and select best opportunities.

Enlarging the success surface through networking:

Level 1 - Do & Tell: Make something and tell others (Making and Marketing).
Level 2 - Curiosity: Stay curious and try out new stuff.
Level 3 - Talk to new people: Each new person you meet expands your surface area.
Level 4 - Be known: Create value for people. Become known with something. Build a reputation.

Reflect what topics are important to you, what level you are on at this moment and what you can do to Enlarging the success surface with work and networking.

Health

Nobody will care more about your health than you. Treat yourself well and your body will treat you well. Take care of your physical health first, then keep doing that and take care of your mental health.

Physical health

Establish good sleep habits. Sleep is how the body recovers from stress.
Exercise daily. Movement is how the body puts the stress hormones to work.
Eat well. The gut-brain connection drives how we feel as we digest.

Mental health

Self-care: Make time for self-reflection and self-awareness, and cultivate a positive self-image.
Social support: Communicate openly and honestly with the people you trust and like. Social connections are essential for emotional well-being and provide a support network when you need help or someone to talk to.
Stress management: Develop healthy coping mechanisms for dealing with stress and difficult emotions. Learn to recognize the signs of stress in your body and mind, and work on developing a proactive approach to managing stressors in your life.

Investment

Only invest what you can spare. Establish an emergency fund to define what you can spare.
Start early, diversify (but only the stuff you know and are convinced of) and set clear goals for yourself (investment objectives, time horizon, and risk tolerance) and stay true to those values for any investment.
Regularly contribute, periodically review your portfolio and make adjustments for new investments.
Be patient and HODL and never look back. Don't day trade, bet short term or similar actions that require to check your balance and the current events frequently. This will simply be exhausting.
Read the Ferengi (Star Trek) Rules of Acquisition and Bogleheads investment philosophy

Emotions

Feel and understand your emotions but don't let them control you. E.g. don't let fear guide your decisions.
Don't take things to personally. Stay objective and don't be offended.
Don't dwell on the past. Learn from it an focus on the present.
Don't make hasty (emotional) decisions. Take time to think about your decisions.
Don't avoid difficult conversations. Be open for dialogue and confront problems. Constructive disagreement is healthy for progress.
Don't engage in gossip. Show respect and be positive.
Don't blame others. You will loose credibility and authority. Acknowledge your own mistakes and rather discuss solutions and next steps with others.

Reflection

Practice "Ichigoichie", japanese for "Treasure every encounter, for it will never reoccur."

What went well?

What was I most proud of?
When was I most happy? Why?
What was my biggest win?
What went better than expected?
What did I spend the most time on?
How did I spend my time best?
What was my area of highest contribution?
Who impacted me the most? Thank them.

Answer these three questions questions ...

What went well? Why?
Where did I make the most progress? What Steps did I take?
What did I learn?

... for each of these three categories:

Health (mental, physical)
Wealth (career, investments)
Relationships (love, friendships, interactions)

What went poorly?

What action am I least proud of? Why?
What was my biggest loss?
What made me miserable? How?
What makes me most anxious? How?
What went worse than expected?
What held me back from doing what I want?
What are the three worst things that happened?

Answer these three questions questions for each answer of the last question:

What didn't go well and how could it have been avoided?
Where did I make negative progress? What happened to cause it?
What did I learn?

Vision

With these three topics in mind what does the ideal near future look like?

Health (mental, physical)
Wealth (career, investments)
Relationships (love, friendships, interactions)

Answer the following questions about the ideal near future:

What of type of Person am I? Who do I want to become?
What do I value the most? What are my top priorities?
What drives me? What gets me motivated?
What is my area of highest contribution?
What do I say no to? What is essential to me? How can I stay focused on that?
What do I spend the most time with? Who/what will I avoid from now?
What is the one big thing I will achieve?

Execute goals

Based on the last question, break down your big goal:

To the next quarterly goal (review every 3 months)
Define habits and actions to achieve the quarterly goal

Protest

It is not easy to protest in a smart and effective way. In my opinion strikes, demonstrations, letter-writing campaigns, petitions, sit-ins and occupation are not very effective nor creative. Of course on can passively boycott whatever thing to not support and tell friends about what and why not to support but this is boring and small minded as well. Here are some examples and ideas how to protest on a given matter in an interesting, not annoying and creative way while being effective and successful:

Ugly Gerry is a free font created with real US congressional districts. The name comes from gerrymandering, the process that made possible such weird shapes.
Volkswagen can be integrated in your CI process. It detects when your tests are being run in a CI server, and makes them pass. Volkswagen uses a defeat device to detect when it's being tested in a CI server and will automatically reduce errors to an acceptable level for the tests to pass. This will allow you to spend less time worrying about testing and more time enjoying the good life as a trustful software developer.
Address your issues to the correct people. If you work in an social or public based service make sure to create awareness but don't let uninvolved suffer from your problems. For example if drive a bus, let passengers ride for free and let them know you are protesting instead of not driving and letting people down.
Make art (music, pictures, games) that help people understand the problem. Make things that are understandable as well as entertaining, interesting, provocative and/or beautiful. This will address the problem in an entertaining but critical way that is no annoying an will be much more likely be shared, discussed and addressed.
Find ways to educate the public about the core issue of your protest any what needs to be done. Reflect on your issue and make sure this is not just an opinion but actual facts that can be educated.
Never interrupt your enemy when he/she is making a mistake.