Everyone gets drilled with certain lessons in life. Sometimes it takes repeated demonstrations of a given law of life to really get it into your skull, and other times one powerful experience drives the point home once forever. Here are 88 things I’ve discovered about life, the world, and its inhabitants by this point in my short time on earth.
1. You can’t change other people, and it’s rude to try.
2. It is a hundred times more difficult to burn calories than to refrain from consuming them in the first place.
3. If you’re talking to someone you don’t know well, you may be talking to someone who knows way more about whatever you’re talking about than you do.
4. The cheapest and most expensive models are usually both bad deals.
5. Everyone likes somebody who gets to the point quickly.
6. Bad moods will come and go your whole life, and trying to force them away makes them run deeper and last longer.
7. Children are remarkably honest creatures until we teach them not to be.
8. If everyone in the TV show you’re watching is good-looking, it’s not worth watching. Read More
I feel very blessed. I seem to be drawing a small but growing group of some of the most thoughtful, intelligent readers around.
I appreciate you all very much, you’ve done more for me than you know.
I had a lengthy article all ready to go for today, but I’ll post it another day. I won’t fill your head with my opinions this morning, there will be plenty of those later.
Instead, I’ll just take this chance to wish you a good day. And I mean you, as a person. Have a great Friday, really.
Whatever you have on your plate on this particular day, I hope it’s not too troublesome for you. But if it is, know that it matters to me too, because I like you.
If there’s anything I can do for you from my computer chair that won’t get me fired, send me an email.
Thank you all for coming, I’m honored.
Photo by jRa7
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My mom left out a few lessons that a lot of other kids got. Certain common habits, I just never developed because nobody taught me.
In the last few years I’ve become more and more interested in people, and I pay more attention to passers-by when I’m out and about. One thing that always enthralls me is seeing children learn from their parents. A wide-eyed and curious child, watching his mother’s actions and words, is a powerful sight to behold. It affects me today in ways it never had before. Now that I’m older and firmly in the habit of examining my habits, I can see how crucial those moments are in shaping a kid’s life.
What the parent does in those moments, in front of her vulnerable, impressionable child, is a far-reaching act of creation. How she interacts with her own world is probably the greatest factor in determining how that child will deal with his own life when he’s free to make his own decisions. Read More
I'm David and Raptitude is a street-level look at the human experience -- what makes human beings do what they do, and what that means in real life.
I write about how to make sense of the earth's most ridiculous animal, how to get better at being one of them, and how only those two things can save the world. 
Wow, this was so inspiring, David! Thank you!