Is It a Big, Huge Bumper?

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The incoming, dealing with your communications is really, really tough and very few people have systems that they really, really like and trust. Also wouldn't want to be that famous either. You know, when I hang out with say Bill, neither science guy or Neil deGrasse Tyson, they get recognized constantly. And just walking down the street at residence. Well, that's my advice. Don't make a billion dollars. It won't solve any of your problems. The other ways it kind of distorts your own freedom of time and choices. It's a incredible burden.

On his 68th birthday, Kevin Kelly began to write down for his young adult children some things he had learned about life that he wished he had known earlier. To his surprise, Kelly had more to say than he thought, and kept adding to the advice over the years, compiling a life’s wisdom into the pages of his book: Excellent Advice for Living.

Shermer and Kelly discuss: protopian progress • ChatGPT • artificial intelligence; an existential threat? • evolution • cultural progress • self-driving cars • innovation • social media • putting an end to war • compound interest and the long term effect of small changes • why you don’t want to be a billionaire • beliefs and reason • setting unreasonable goals • persistence as key to success • probabilities and statistics, not algebra and calculus • investing: buy and hold • how to fully become yourself.

Kevin Kelly helped launch and edit Wired magazine. He has written for the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal, among many other publications. His previous books include What Technology Wants, and The Inevitable, a New York Times bestseller. He is known for his technological optimism. Currently he is a Senior Maverick at Wired and lives in Pacifica, California.