The 'advice for life' game

[TC]

The 'advice for life' game

Imagine you have the opportunity to advise a 2 year old child, who will remember your advice for the rest of his or her life.

These are the 'rules' (unenforceable, but if you don't play by them, you're not playing the game!):

1. Regardless of your normal disposition, you are not sarcastic or mean or ironic: your object is to genuinely tell them what

2. You may assume any set of demographic characteristics for the hypothetical child that you wish (maybe not everyone can follow the same advice), or you may give specific advice to children of specific characteristics and different advice to children with differing characteristics...but you must clearly identify what types of children/demographics you are writing for. What characteristics count as demographics for this rule is left open.

3. Your advice must cover at least up to no-longer-young-adulthood though it is preferable that you cover into midlife or old age. Being a teenager yourself is no barrier to giving advice for young adults, mid-30s and older.

4. Advice must be at least 170-250 words long though it can be longer. This is the imagined opportunity to advise someone at the onset of their life to remember for the rest of their life, its not an opportunity to make "witty" one-liners like "stuff happens then you die" or inspirational one liners...

5. When you read someone's advice and you think "I wish someone had given me that advice!" quote their post and write "I wish someone had given me that advice!" - Tally up the replies to determine the 'score' of any advice attempt.

6. Comments and critiques of advice are welcome but disrupting the game by rubbishing it is unwelcome.

If you want to play the game in other environments like facebook, rule six may be omitted, but reposts on other forums and/or facebook must be credited as "invented by TC on revleft.com" :p

[Amphictyonis]

Don't eat crayons.

[El Rojo]

TC, you have too much time on yr hands

[Fawkes]

Don't eat crayons.

I wish someone had given me that advice!

[the last donut of the night]

if you ever live in any tropical country, don't leave the fruit out, it attracts fruit flies and those assholes never leave

[BIG BROTHER]

Save up all the money you have to pay for your education, those toys won't last you more than a day =/

Oh and take judo early on life so that you don't get beat up

[Magón]

Don't put beans up your nose.

[Bright Banana Beard]

Dont throw stuffs into the toilet.

[the last donut of the night]

if you have curly hair and live in a cold place, don't leave as your hair is drying -- it gets all poofy and shit

[FreeFocus]

Don't eat crayons.

You're 167 words short of the minimum word count. :mad:

[¿Que?]

Be cool X 85

[Fawkes]

Dear 2 year old:
If they hate than let em hate and watch the money pile up

[StalinFanboy]

Dear 2 year old:
Smoke meth. Spread AIDS. Hail Satan.

[Tower of Bebel]

Life is not an easy matter... You cannot live through it without falling into frustration and cynicism unless you have before you a great idea which raises you above personal misery, above weakness, above all kinds of perfidy and baseness.

[Pirate Utopian]

Dear 2 year old:
Smoke meth. Spread AIDS. Hail Satan.

I wish someone had given me that advice!

[Os Cangaceiros]

Dear 2 year old:
Smoke meth. Spread AIDS. Hail Satan.

:lol:

[TC]

I wish someone had given me that advice!

:p does not count...

And anyways I guess the idea of this 'game' was less thought provoking and self/community-reflective than I had hoped...I thought it would be a 'neat' exercise - the point of the 'word requirement' was to you know, make people think instead of saying something snappy and empty...but i guess you can't please everyone!

[Os Cangaceiros]

I guess the advice that I'd give is that you cannot win if you do not play. If you enter into a situation with nothing, then you really have nothing to lose and everything to gain by pursuing whatever it is that you want.

It's just a shame that I've never managed to live by that rule.

[gorillafuck]

I honestly don't know what sort of advice I would give a two year old beyond "just because the dog eats that doesn't mean you should".

[Ele'ill]

"Don't smell the floss."































Edit- I'm sure some of you hipsters might recognize this.

[La Comédie Noire]

You shouldn't view life as a linear progression that just keeps getting better and better or worse and worse. Life is a series of cycles, sometimes you are going down and sometimes you are coming up. The trick is not to dwell in the shadow or frolic in the sunshine for too long because everything is impermanent, which can be sobering when you are happy and uplifting when you are sad.

That advice is generally for everybody, people have told me I take things rather well.

[NoOneIsIllegal]

do it to it

[MarxSchmarx]

I don't know if I can make it to 170 some words.

But basically I'd tell them never put themselves in a position where others can exploit/screw/belittle you - because people will do so if given the chance. And they will do so with a vengeance if you are even remotely part of the reason for it - for example, if you crash your car into their mailbox, they will come after you with a fury and try to make your life as rotten as they can - just because they can. They live powerless lives and relish the chance to exert any little power over anyone - so don't let them, or at least don't let them do it to you. In modern society, when you are at fault that gives others tremendous power over you - so don't put yourself in that situation! The only exception to trusting people and being allowed to make mistakes I would say would be with people you develop long durable relations with, with whom there has been quite a bit of tit-for-tat in the positive direction, and people you really have no choice but to submit to(like your boss in some jobs - but try to get a job where your boss has very limited power, like a good union job). But don't trust them, or, at least, have a plan B and look out for yourself to make sure you and your loved ones are taken care of if something happens to them. Be polite, but don't give others and excuse to hurt you. Keep your mouth shut, your mind open, always, always, always think as carefully as you can before you act, and above all be patient.

Huh, I guess this makes me emo or something.

[Honggweilo]

TC, you have too much time on yr hands

sweet irony

[Rusty Shackleford]

Kid, you are young. you wont be young forever. You will end up growing up. and when you are 18 you will be 18. if you dont make revolution, you will be stuck working shitty hours for shitty pay to pay for shitty bills for the shitty service you get with shitty capitalism. then you die.

but, before you die, heres some things to do.

instead of a family bible, keep a family Kapital. pretend you have to read it every night before you go to bed. its the only way you will ever finish it. and it'd do me proud.
dont smoke cigarettes. if you HAVE to smoke, just smoke a little bit of marijuana, if you dont like it, dont keep smoking it. theres also Hookah.

dont mix ammonia and bleach, youll die.

dont buy white clothes, they only get dirty. same for shoes.

fucking travel.

learn languages.

fancy cars are expensive, and cheap ones will get you just as far with proper maintainence. or, ride a train(if theres any left.)

college is probably a good idea, but please oh god dont turn into a ineffectual liberal or a nutcase randroid. ill explain later.

brush your teeth.


yeah.

thats it kid.

oh, and burn a flag once in a while.

[Meridian]

Hm, 2 year old?

Disregard norms. Even if a majority of people prefer acting a certain way, or whatever it is, this does not a) make your preference any worse (watch out for this one, it's subtle and can make you feel like crap), or b) give them the right to dictate how you behave. If they try, either punch them in the face or kick them in the groin if it's a male. If they don't try to do that, and overall do not act in an arsehole-like fashion, consider them a friend.

That's it, now explore the world, you freakishly small person.

That's what I'd say.

[Magón]

Alienate yourself from everyone in the whole entire world. If someone says they're pro something, then you be anti-whatever it is. If someone else say's they're pro-anti-whatever it is, then you just go tell them to fuck themselves.

[Bad Grrrl Agro]

If you get dropped off in Idaho run run RUN!

[#FF0000]

Learn to be comfortable with other people and in social situations. Learn to be comfortable with yourself and with being alone. There's nothing wrong with being introverted, and being extroverted doesn't mean you're dumb and trivial.

Learn to take criticism. As much as people tell you to "be yourself" and "be unique and different", there's a limit. What I am saying is a bar of soap once in awhile will come in handy in 8-11 years.

Don't be a music snob.

Don't give up on something you want to do. Finish what you start.

Don't let guidance counsellors scare you. You have more options than you think and you don't need to have stellar grades and a bunch of extracurriculars to get into a decent college. If you want to go Ivy or something, then go for it, but otherwise, college is college.

Being smart doesn't mean you can't and shouldn't be athletic and physical. Being athletic and physical doesn't mean you have to be a fucking idiot. Lift things, throw things, play sports, run, jump, go outside, read books, learn to actively listen to music, watch movies, and challenge your ideas and physical limits.

Try to eat healthy. Go crazy and indulge once in awhile but don't make it a habit. Don't ever drink soda, though.

Don't mix uppers with downers.

[kitsune]

Be compassionate. Be helpful. Eat lots of veggies. Avoid refined and processed carbs. Drink green smoothies. Be active. Be curious. Read. Meditate. Practice mindfulness. Develop strength and flexibility, physically and mentally. Learn Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu for grappling, Muay Thai and Taekwondo for striking. Learn to use a katana, but master the hanbo first. Nurture your creativity. Play some musical instruments. Explore many styles of music. Don't let anyone tell you what music you should like or dislike, or define for you what is cool or not. It's all just music; like whatever you happen to like and be open-minded. Apply this principle to everything else. Don't confuse liking or not liking something with that thing being "good" or "bad." Understand kuu, mujo, muga (emptiness, impermanence, no-self): there is no independently existent thing, no fixed form, everything is made up of interdependent conditions, and conditions are always in flux. Do not cling to conditions; everything comes and goes and changes. Connect with others, laugh often, love much, and enjoy yourself.

[black magick hustla]

first you deserve everything and although the world won't give it to you don't . its ok sometimes to lie to get something you like but only if so you are not hurting anybody by the lie so it is ok to lie to the govt teachers etcetera. the world needs to be remade therefore you are only morally forced to follow its rules in as much as if otherwise you would hurt someone (unless they are your enemies, then destroy them). otherwise following the rules of the world should be out of practicality and survival not because the rules are there and are morally correct, because the rules were not made taking you into account but by faceless number crunchers and bureacrats and masters. its ok to do drugs and be sometimes irresponsable but be aware you can fall into a spiral of self destruction so you have to be careful. don't be shallow. don't be spineless. don't let people step over you. be nice but be assertive. don't become that niceboy that everybody loves but does not respect. be nice but make everybody sure you have an edge. don't bully anybody. if you get bullied defend yourself. don't let people pity you because being pitied is the worse feeling you don't need anybody's pity. there is no god and there is no great plan but the world can be okay sometimes and the okay part of it makes it worth living

[Fawkes]

I'm pretty sure a 2 year old would understand about 1/2 the words being used here.