I would boil it down to this, keep learning new things all the time, whether it is a new language, taking pottery classes, learning a musical instrument, a piece of technology, gardening etc while keeping what is working intact. This is important. You need a solid base and comfort from where you can enjoy the learning.
The author went overboard with his cigarette and marriage suggestions.
"And a habit-free existence — as I wrote last week — isn’t really possible anyway. It would be an existence without expertise, and so a life without language or meaning."
I don't believe he's actually suggesting you get rid of all your habits (i.e. wife). He was just stating that habits make time pass quickly, and getting rid of them slows things down. But that doesn't mean we should get rid of them... just that we should realize and accept the tradeoff.
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I would boil it down to this, keep learning new things all the time, whether it is a new language, taking pottery classes, learning a musical instrument, a piece of technology, gardening etc while keeping what is working intact. This is important. You need a solid base and comfort from where you can enjoy the learning.
The author went overboard with his cigarette and marriage suggestions.
"And a habit-free existence — as I wrote last week — isn’t really possible anyway. It would be an existence without expertise, and so a life without language or meaning."
I don't believe he's actually suggesting you get rid of all your habits (i.e. wife). He was just stating that habits make time pass quickly, and getting rid of them slows things down. But that doesn't mean we should get rid of them... just that we should realize and accept the tradeoff.