Little Victories: Perfect Rules for Imperfect Living

Packing? Here's the golden rule of packing: you don't need that.

I think the biggest hazard of technology is how it is pulling us away from the present.

If you go to somebody's house for a barbecue, it is only a matter of time before a guest has six beers and begins to inveigh loudly about how the institution of marriage is a sham, how it's a violation of nature's will, how monogamy is an outmoded expectation that might have made sense for power-consolidating families in AD 600 but makes little sense now, when there's you know, high school flames you can look up on Facebook. This well-versed marriage critic will then burp loudly and fall asleep in a lawn chair for the rest of the night, which says all you need to know about his marriage.

Accomplishments do not have to be large to be meaningful. I think little victories are the most important ones in

One of the quiet agonies of life, is seeing people who love something, lose touch with what made them happy. It can happen to anybody. No matter what you do for a living, where you live, or who you're with, it's important to remember why you wanted to do something for the first time.

My friend Josh grew up in New York City in the '80s and led an extraordinarily active social life and likes to point out how extraordinary social lives were possible long before people started carrying around phones. You simply made a plan and kept it.

I mostly felt fortunate, to have lived here, in this house, in this town, with this family and these parents, and tried to think of all the things that had influenced me along the way.

In theory, the Internet provides an opportunity to widen knowledge-to see beyond screens and neighborhoods into a broader universe-and yet the first thing many people want to do is wall themselves off and broadcast how narrow-minded they are. It seems to absolutely miss the point of the experience.

first thing they teach you about parenting is that it’s a surrender of control. Okay:

I believe it is possible to find, at any stage in life, a new appreciation for what you have and what you don't have, as well as the people closest to you. There's a way to experience life that does not involve a phone or a tablet, or a television screen.

In recent years it has become popular for some retailers to begin their Black Friday sales on Thursday night. Do not support this inane trend. If you feel like you want to replicate the experience, blindfold yourself, tape $150 to your forehead and roll yourself down a hill in a shopping cart.

Everybody has embarrassing music on their phone. And listens to it much more than they claim to listen to it. Everybody.