9 life lessons from Tim Minchin

Timothy David Minchin was born in England to Australian parents, but raised in Perth. He was awarded an honorary doctorate by the University of Western Australia and asked to give some guidance to the students on things he had learnt travelling the world, being himself and his ideas on being a successful person.

His UWA graduation speech bestowed "nine life lessons, to echo… the nine lessons of the carols of the traditional Christmas service."
http://youtu.be/yoEezZD71sc

1. You don't have to have a dream

If it's a big enough one, it'll take you most of your life to achieve. So, by the time, you get to it, and are staring into the abyss of the meaningless of your achievement, you'll be dead.

I advocate passionate dedication to the pursuit of short-term goals.
Be micro-ambitious.
Put your head down, and work with pride on whatever is in front of you.. You never know where you might end up.
Just be aware that the next worthy pursuit will probably appear in your periphery.
Which is why you should be careful of long-term dreams. If you focus too far in front of you, you won't see the shiny thing out of the corner of your eye.

2. Don't seek happiness

Happiness is like an orgasm. If you think about it too much, it goes away.
Keep busy and aim to make someone else happy. And you might find, you get some as a side-effect.

3. Remember, it's all Luck [Edit: I say *blessings*]

You are lucky to be here. You are incalculably lucky to be born, and incredibly lucky to be brought up by a nice family, that helped to get you educated, and encouraged you to go to uni.

Understanding that you can't truly take credit for your successes, nor truly blame others, for their failures will humble you and make you more compassionate.
Empathy is intuitive, but is also something you can work on, intellectually.

4. Exercise

I'm sorry, you pasty pale smoking philosphy grads, arching your eyebrows into a Cartesian curve as you watch the human movement mob winding their way through the miniature traffic cones of their existence: you are wrong, and they are right.
Well, you are half-right. You think, therefore, you are!
But also you jog. Therefore, you sleep. Therefore, you are not overwhelmed by existential angst.
You can't be Kant, and you don't want to be.

Play a sport, do yoga, pump iron, run, whatever, but take care of your body. You're going to need it.
Most of you mob are going to live to nearly a hundred.
And even the poorest of you will achieve a level of wealth that most humans thoughout history could not have dreamed of.

And this long luxurious life ahead of you is going to make you depressed!
But, don't despair! There is an inverse correlation between depression and exercise.

5. Be hard on your opinions

A famous bon mot asserts that opinions are like arse-holes, in that everyone has one.
There is great wisdom in this. But I would like to add that opinions differ significantly from arse-holes, in that, yours should be constantly and thoroughly examined.

We must think critically, and not just about the ideas of others.
Be hard on your beliefs.
Take them out onto the verandah and beat them with a cricket bat.
Be intellectually rigorous. Identify your biases, your prejudices, your privileges.

Most of society's arguments are kept alive by a failure to acknowledge nuance.
We tend to generate false dichotomies, then try to argue one point using two entirely different sets of assumptions.
Like two tennis players trying to win a match, by hitting beautifully executed shots, from either end of separate tennis courts.

6. Be a Teacher

Even if you're not a teacher, be a teacher.
Share your ideas. Don't take for granted, your education.
Rejoice in what you learn, and spray it.

7. Define yourself, by what you Love

We have a tendency to define ourselves in opposition to stuff.
But try to also express your passion for things you love.
Be demonstrative and generous in your praise of those you admire.
Send thank-you cards and give standing ovations.
Be pro-stuff, not just anti-stuff.

8. Respect people with less power than you

I have, in the past, made important decisions about people I woek with, big decisions based largely on how they treat wait staff in restaurants we were having a meeting in.
I don't care if you're the most powerful cat in the room.
I will judge you on how you treat the least powerful.

9. Don't rush

You don't need to already know what you're going to do with the rest of your life.
Don't panic.

I think it's absurd: the idea of seeking "meaning" in the set of circumstances that happens to exist after 13.8 billion years worth of unguided events.

There is only one sensible thing to do with this empty existence.
And that is: fill it.
And in my opinion (until I change it) …