These are suggestions for young men aged 14-19. I have a son in this age group. It has been and continues to be a goal of mine to hand down knowledge for my descendents. My parents handed down certain stories and truths from my grandfathers that hold true today. It would be awesome if I had this type of insight to the great men that led our family to the success they have had.
1. Fail early and fail often - Take challenging obstacles on. It develops your resilience. Get used to failure as a way to learn. Examples: Try a sport you've never competed in. Join a chess club or math club. If you do diametrically opposed things, you will notice better how success is acquired.
2. Talk to old men - They know shit. Hang out with them long enough to get some info you would never get otherwise. They want to impart knowledge. Let go of your mommy.
3. Get fit - Find a manner that you enjoy which will keep you physically fit over your lifetime. Try a wide variety because your body will fail you at some point. You may not always be able to run, but you need to maintain a way to stay fit.
4. Don't listen to feminism - Identify what feminism is. Intent of your actions do not matter as much as results.
5. Commit to an implacable Christian morality - It's okay to be frustrated by it. Keep praying and talking to God.
6. Focus on math and science - The other school subjects don't matter nearly as much. Get good at STEM stuff. It will always be important.
7. Develop man skills - Learn how to fix basic home issues. Change your own oil. Fix plumbing issues. Have an attitude that you can fix anything. You will screw some things up. That's okay, if you learn from it. Get man tools and learn how to use them.
8. Develop a harem - Get good at holding the attention of many women. Do this early. Plan on marrying early. Find the one that fits best with your family and listen to your family when contemplating a spouse.
9. Enjoy humor and beauty - These issues will help reduce stress in your life. Stress will happen. You will need an escape. It's an old cliche to stop and smell the roses, but it matters.
10. Read - Read the Bible, history, fiction, science fiction, autobiographies... Connect these stories with your world. Learn the lessons and apply them.
Good stuff.
ReplyDeleteDon't push #6 too much, though. Not everybody is a science person. And the way science is taught, it can really discourage engineering and discovery.
Just read the other day about a guy who makes miniature replicas of classic cars. They're beautiful. They're magnificent. No formal training, just collected scraps from the junk yard. Learning science or engineering formally probably would have screwed him up.
If science is your bent, then go for it. Work hard at it. Dabbling in it won't do squat for you. An 'A' in intro courses doesn't mean jack, especially if they came easily for you. Like everything else, it's the hard tedious parts where the value comes.
But, it doesn't take a focus on STEM to be a great chef or rancher.
SD, your list is not bad for a start, not bad at all.
ReplyDeleteI would add:
1) READ out the wazoo.
2) Get rid of your TV (that goes double for when kids are on the way).
3) If remotely possible, relocate to the part of the U.S. that has the most chance at a good future (WY/ID/MT, with ND/SD acceptable temporarily).
4) Don't worry too much about what most women want or say.
5) Watch what women DO.
6) Have children.
7) Be married before #6, and to a stranger to the carousel.
8) Set things up so if your wife frivorces you, it's as unpleasant and as unprofitable for her as possible.
9) Give your wife enough of an idea of #8 to discourage her, but not enough to make it possible to defeat your contingency plans (i.e., that she will never get a nickel in chilamony, no matter what any court says).
10) Avoid debt. Pay cash or don't do it. This includes houses and college (your and kids). Likewise, don't date the seriously indebted.
11) Eat right, e.g., Primal.
12) Only marry a woman who's fine with being a SAHM, breastfeeding, and homeschooling.
12) Avoid any churches with female or homosexual clergy (other than attending someone else's wedding/funeral ceremony there, natch).
13) Live where it's white.
14) Give the kid a copy of John Derbyshire's "The Talk".
15) Tell the kid that 99% of the people he knew in high school he'll be forever out of touch with 2 years after graduation, and that that rises to 99.9-100% by 10 years out. The lesson is not to get too worked up over high school social stuff.
16) Avoid screwed-up people as much as possible (unless you're a therapist or EMT or such). They have NOTHING to offer someone not also messed up. The "crazy in the head, crazy in bed" rule may be true, but it's NOT worth it in the long run. (Good finances, health, safety, and family are way more important in the long run than any experience Tucker Max had or that one might read in Penthouse Forum.)
I could add more, but this is IMO a fair start.
Thanks Luke, RLB wrote this.
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