Kristof is wrong if he thinks a semester abroad is adequate to learn a language well. If u want to be good at it, and not just an amateur, u need 1-2 year abroad. And still, u will not be fluent.
2
Two words: Compound Interest.
1
Um, regarding Secret #3: and what exactly did MISSUS Kristof get out of this deal?
Dont take calculus? Dude, that's crazy talk!
1
I would have to add to stash money during your career as if you will be completely unemployable after age 50 just in case you, like so many Americans, are.
4
Outstanding advice!
However, the Trump can hardly be called an "economic illiterate", as much of his long term personal success is evidently due to effective economic street fighting.
This would include such well documented behaviors as cheating contractors and creditors, misrepresenting income and assets, use of of court action or threats thereof to subdue opponents, etc.
1
You, Mr Kristoff, are marvellous for offering such wise advice! At 20, I'm not sure I would have listened to you out of my own foolishness, but I hope I would have! Tools, Service, Relationship, Uncomfort Zone. Wonderful! It creates character and builds great memories.
5
Thank you. Mr Kristoff
Additional suggestions/guidelines:
1. Economics and statistics are important but basically technical fields. Having studied these, and given life experience, I suggest studying (world) history and reading biography and memiors from many societies and periods: promotes connecting events and experiences over time and across cultures: a vitally necessary skill that many US founders understood and that still applies today. Seriously reading comparative literature, and even poetry, deepens understanding and the growth of heart and soul (let's hope not forgotten concepts in this technological society: see on this, great writers and poets): Art and painting too.
2. Engage in physical and spiritual discipline: eg., yoga, running, walking, weights, spinning etc...meditation, chanting, self-awareness, actual sectarian practice...develops mind and body, takes you beyond the self and helps connect with others.
3. Regularly connect with and care for family and friends (parents, kids, siblings etc., old friends and new). These are folks that really care about you and you care about. At the end of the day, this is your support and source of lasting love and strength.
4. Be prepared for change. Today, many careers (and relationships) are typical. Get ready to roll with it: both slings and arrows and good times.
5. Learn to cook. A great and necessary skill: will feed you and family and friends and is a lifetime craft one can develop without limit.
11
Re Points 3 (Make out) + 4 (Escape your comfort zone) "Items 3 + 4 can be combined for maximum language acquisition".
When I was an adolescent, a family friend suggested that I get a "long-haired dictionary".
1
I found the column very interesting and agree with a good deal of it but I find it ironic that, while you encourage the study of economics and statistics, you go on to criticize the "economic illiterates" who sold the 2017 tax cut on the assumption that the cut would "pay for itself." My assumption is that "paying for itself" would mean that the new tax rates would generate more revenue for the government. Well, they did, both personal and corporate, according to the CBO. What you and many others fail to address in the discussion is that the deficit increases are the result of increased SPENDING which has far outpaced the increase in tax collections. Let's have an honest discussion about this, please.
4
Mr. Kristof offers good advice to the young upper-middle class person who is looking for a life of service. There is much to be said for this, but it is not for everyone. Some of us are destined for other lives.
Wandering lost on the mountains of our choice, again and again we long...
3
Nicholas, what's missing?
An Indian tale reports a young man digging and digging in the garden, a hole here, then there. An uncle asks, why? He replies, "To find water." The uncle says, "Pick one, any one -- and stick with it."
There's nothing that changes you and the world more than an enduring constancy. That constancy requires focus not on intellectual abstractions, your partner, or the world, but on knowing yourself.
Advice, or precepts, generally are
2
In 1963, French Minister Edgar Pisani came to our public school in Paris and told us to study at least these 3 topics:
1) Calculus to be able to count (money, change due ...?)
2) Economics to maximize the well being of society in an environment of limited resources (Operations Research...?) and,
3) Vote to exercise one's constitutional right to preserve Democracy.
Fast forward a few decades later as an volunteer adviser in a wealthy private college, I floated the idea of a Polymatic degree that would draw on the various departments to include sciences (math, engineering, physics), liberal arts and music. Teams would graduate in teams of 4 from those different subjects (= foursome in golf playing best ball!). The objective was for the social sciences students to learn from the nerdy students how to quantify issues and the means to solve them beyond the usual psittacism of today. Conversely sciences nerds would be more sensitive to social issues.
Nothing happened. Few years later, a dean told me it was difficult to implement because each dean was fighting for his budget allocation and did not want to share resources including their underpaid TAs with others!
Then In 2012, "The Harman Family Foundation has made a gift of $10 million to help fulfill the extraordinary vision of Sidney Harman (Harman Kardon founder) by endowing the center that will bear his name, the USC Sidney Harman Academy for Polymathic Study."
Like Steve Ballmer said to his employees it's all about money!
6
As an economist we thank you. In an era where facts seem to not matter, we need more facts!
4
Escape your comfort zone by doing some low-wage work. My bartending and server jobs bring me into contact with people who struggle to support themselves and their families, where it's not just each paycheck that matters, it's every shift. Many are not here legally. You will also hear people talk about you and your co-workers as if you are invisible. I will never forget the conversation of a bunch of wealthy guys in their 60's, trashing Obama, with one declaring that people who make $50,000 a year don't pay taxes. My tax return disagrees.
12
Great "Big Advice" and in particular got a kick out of this suggestion. "(Items 3 and 4 can be combined for maximum language acquisition.)"
2
"The Four Secrets of Success
This is what I tell young people who press me for advice."
Definitely a product of that high self-esteem school...
One way Kristof's fans can fulfill the tasks he sets forth is to join the US military.
Foreign lands and languages - check. Out of comfort zone - check. Trump country - maybe. And on top of that have your college tuition covered.
You may also get the opportunity to fight alongside our courageous allies - the Kurds as well as help keep Syria in a state of perpetual civil war while fighting off the Russian Menace. All endeavors that lately have been endorsed on the NYT OP-ED pages. No?
2
"Hope springs eternal in human breast" (Alexander Pope), to be successful. Does Mr. Kristoff consider himself a successful man? :-))
1
That thing about Economics is true.
"Learn to hang out." Lionel Douglas Pres. Rochdale College Toronto.
I consider the aircraft pilot license to be an adult driver's license. Learn to fly. Knowing how to hang out helps with that.
You can figure your compatibility with a woman based on the music you both like. Don't like the same music? It is a bad sign.
Marriage is the number one best thing to figure out & do for a successful life. The time for counseling is before you commit, not after.
Commitment is where the meaning of life comes from.
“A quick quiz question: If someone who speaks two languages is bilingual, and someone who speaks three languages is trilingual, what do you call someone who speaks no foreign language at all? Answer: An American.”
What is the opinion writer who says things like this.
A bad joke writer.
Jokes have to have some semblance of truth in them and this has never been true. In my experience from the time my grandparents spoke German and English, my wife’s grandparents spoke French, Spanish and English until today when my granddaughter speaks Old English. Our country has had major segments of multi lingual use for its whole existence.
3
Number 3: a relationship is a risk no matter how well the fit. I was widowed in my twenties. No matter how well planned your mate selection you have to be prepared to trudge on your own. So, talk nice to yourself in thought and journaling. That way when you do meet that someone special you’ll know the risk they’re taking on too.
Also, numbers 2 & 4 give you some leeway in changing your mind if your first choice doesn’t seem like a good fit. Just don’t spread yourself too thin - not too many things out of your comfort zone at one time, nor helping too many folks beyond your other time commitments.
6
Well done Mr. Kristoff. The only thing I’d add is don’t quit when it gets hard and keep experimenting until you get the right feel for your success.
I struggled with statistics in college until my professor asked me about baseball stats. The. I got it!
4
hi,
hope all is well.
i am a 61 year old native new yorker still living in nyc. when time permits i do alumni interviews or as they r called "informational contact meetings" for an ivy league university.
many of the young people i speak with r very anxious and stressed about life in general and the college admission process in particular. in an effort to relieve some of the pressure these kids feel i tell them a few things that have helped me tremendously.
1. influence: the most important life skill a person can possess to insure success is the ability to influence. the ability to control ones's emotions, to practice emotional fortitude, to overcome fear,anger, hurt, procrastination etc. the other part of influence is the ability to get others to cooperate, people skills.
2. personal development: i suggest that each of them take a personal development course asap. there r some pretty good ones out there however the ones that have had the most influence on me are by Anthony Robbins [the ultimate edge]. sacrilege for sure, coming from someone who represents an elite university.
the strategies and tools Robbins advocates if studied and practiced will help these young people take their lives to the next level if it is already going great or help them overcome whatever challenges they face. i know, more work for the overly scheduled.
emotional intelligence, health and fitness, social intelligence, career/finances and time management are the skills that ensure
success.
3
I am a public Health student at university, and my mom emailed this to me after telling me to take an economics for the last two years. I do plan on taking it (Hooray!, but thank you for that reenforcement. I plan on applying for the trip with you!
1
People usually learn multiple languages when they live in an area like Europe where multiple languages are spoken and you frequently need to communicate in a variety of languages to get along. Europe has 24 official languages so multilingualism is a requirement. In countries like the US, China, Japan and many others a single languages sufficient. The other problem with multilingualism is that people most people don’t develop a college level knowledge, perhaps in any language. They may know the word for door knob, but not for structural unemployment, anthropomorphic climate change, or dramatic irony. If being multilingual is about banal small talk, is that really so intellectual?
1
What about any of this piece would make you think his support of multilingualism is about banal small talk? The article is about four keys to success. Banal and small are off the table.
3
Generally excellent advice, but as a Professor in a statistics department (who has studied some economics as well), I would advise students to take calculus. You can't understand stat and econ without calc.
7
I have three great-nephews who are four years old and a fourth who is two years old . I have sent this to their parents and asked that they print it out and save it for when their children go off to college . It is the best advice I have ever read , and I surely wish that someone had given it to me at the start of my college career 51 years ago .
4
Good point about statistics. I've got a PhD in engineering, know a lot of calculus and differential equations, but really wish I knew more statistics. It's more relevant for understanding the broader world.
7
Yes, please consider southeastern Ohio and the rest of Appalachia. I had traveled the world (more than half) when I happened to visit relatives in southeastern Ohio. It was surreal. It was like being in the 3rd world, but with blond hair and blue eyed children asking me for fruit to eat. There was no supermarket unless you drive for an hour (gasoline is expensive if you can’t even afford an apple). Access to medical care was also an hour away.
So, every time you see a friend posting “doing good” pictures from Africa or South America, know that it’s all about their ego. We have soooo much need here at home, the only reason to travel to “do good” is to show off on social media. Ego.
Just go to Appalachia, lobby to get them internet, establish a local farmers market, set up a child care for working parents, set up food co-ops, buy a piece of land (very cheap) and get trailers donated so that families can have affordable housing.
There is so much to do here in the U.S. Why go abroad when you can help someone right down the street...?
14
Because the ones here can get on SNAP benefits.
1
Nicolas Kristof gives sage advice and additionally he only provides it after being asked. I've seen my contemporaries, I'm 63 years old, telling young people how to live, only to have them return a look of boredom.
Through my own experience I've learned that exploring the unknown brings self-satisfaction plus I learned something in the process. Over my life I have become quite adept at a wide variety of skills because I was willing to discover new knowledge and then put it to work.
The only drawback for someone who pursues my philosophy is that you might become the go to person to solve problems. This is because if I don't have a good answer, I'll study the subject until I better understanding about the puzzling subject. It is easier these days to do this with what I refer to as the university of Google and Youtube. I also like read and take traditional classes to further my education, because learning is living!
2
N.K.,
Disagree with your #3. It is certainly desirable to find a life partner but not necessary for a successful and worthwhile life. Many people, and according to statistics the numbers are increasing, for various reasons end up being alone yet manage to have happy and contributing lives.
11
I thought this was good advice, but I have lived in Mexico, China, Nigeria and Thailand, and I can't say any of those words in any of those languages.
6
@Nicholas Kristof
I have taught in two business departments and must sadly challenge Kristoff's first recommendation.
Economics is most often presented as neutral and unassailable. Little time or attention is given to its questionable premises, now under regular challenge. Conservative departments present political responses to Capitalism's social consequences as threats to the intellectual scaffolding. Ethical and moral concerns are relegated to upper division courses, if taught at all.
Mere exposure to economic concepts will not teach the student where the flaws and failures reside and what questions the society should face.
5
A most inspirational article Nick. I immediately forwarded it to my two teenage children. They wouldn't dare take such advice from their father, but they may very well from you, an NYT reporter. Thanks.
2
Escape your comfort zone-there is no better way to do that than by applying for The Peace Corps. It's not easy or quick to be accepted for service, but well worth it. I am on my second PC service in North Macedonia (having previously served in Moldova from 2017 to 2019). I retired in 2013 after serving in the military and being a commercial pilot for 38 years. I am part of what the PC calls the 50+ group in the Peace Corps. I saw the young people in their early 20's, many right after college grow and change after their 2 years of service. They connected to a cause, escaped their comfort zone and made a difference in people's lives. Serving with such a talented, enthusiastic and selfless group of young people gives me hope for the future.
3
Thanks to Nick and dear fellow readers for all this wisdom. So much great stuff here with which I agree, so I'll just add this.
In office hours, when I counsel undergrad students trying to find their way, I ask what they would do with their lives if money were not an issue. Just as a thought experiment, I ask how they would spend their lives assuming for the moment that they could somehow earn enough money to get by.
Some students have no idea, and that's fine: they're young, they don't know. Yet their minds are now processing the question and an answer may well emerge before long.
By contrast, when students can answer the question, I ask whether they might be able to figure out some way to combine the two things - to do work they love AND earn enough money to live. The rest, within the limits of the human condition, is up to them. I just remind them of the old adage that if you love what you do you never work a day in your life.
2
While i do agree with a couple of the points, i think the mark is missed on the the others. 25 years of managing people has helped me to understand some basics that my parents taught me but are missing in a lot of young people’s upbringing. I agree, that most of us may not have the means or opportunity to go abroad, or go to college. We still have a lot of lessons to learn to be successful as useful members of society and the earth.
1) Practice and strive for humility. It helps you see others point of view, understand that we are all shaped by our experiences, and minimizes the emotional reactions we are prone to.
2) Realize the impact of today’s decisions on the future. Life is a building block. Accepting a present setback is part of building for the future both in character and performance.
3) Look for someone to inspire you. When you have a hard time holding yourself accountable, look to someone you admire for help.
4) And yes, get outside your comfort zone, as frequently as you need to. The success you experience in breaking through is priceless.
4
It's an opinion. Success is determined by the individual, not by society or its dictates.
3
Sound advise. Why not come to the Northern Triangle ( Guatemala , El Salvador and Honduras) and write about most current world socio economic issues such as politics, botched economic development, mass protests, migration, gangs, narcos, corruption just to name a few and the most important ones, grit, human endurance and the importance of family and helping each other to make it through the day. Hope!
1
I think this is the sort of advice that pretty much everyone gives out these days. It reminds me of the family friend who pulls Dustin Hoffman aside in his graduation party at his tacky home and imparts his wisdom to the incredulous and angst ridden youth: plastics.
Kristof likes telling everyone that he was a farm boy who made it to Harvard and the rest. But as he lets it out in numerous occasions he is not exactly the type of farm boy you read about in novels.
I would suggest to ignore his advise and learn mathematics before you study statistics (you can do it by yourself actually). Learn how to read a good novel and understand its grand implications (Dostoyevsky - Brothers Karamazov and Dumas - Count of Monte Cristo even before that) in whatever language before you go and learn about door knobs and electrical outlets in Portuguese or Polish. Learn how to think and interpret.
Stay in your comfort zone. You will have to get out of it when you can actually think for yourself and excel in something first.
Be ethical. Think about what that means. When you can, read Spinoza’s Ethics.
You will then find the right mate and educate your children well. You will understand intuitively what Rawls meant in his “A Theory of Justice:”you will help create a world in which people go to bed without knowing who they will get up as and are indifferent.
Think about the big picture rather than special effect. Star Wars is fun but the Apu Trilogy is life.
6
" The most important decision you will make is not the university you attend, nor your major, not even your first job. It’s who you marry or settle down with.
The right partner provides crucial emotional support, is likely to parent your children and comforts you when life inevitably goes wrong. A key to a successful career is a great partner. Learning to manage a relationship may take practice, so get started and cuddle."
What a bigoted piece of "advice"--as if single people are doomed to third-rate lives. Many are single and child-free by choice and also successful in their careers and happy in their personal lives. And--does it really need to be pointed out?--married people are often (maybe even usually) miserable in their marriages (just look at the divorce rate). "Advising" people to get a partner for the mere sake of having one is profoundly silly "advice."
14
A long time ago a friend told me what he thought was the secret to success: keep a straight face. Cynical? Yes. But what an appropriate idea for the age of Trump. How did this ignorant buffoon get to be a billionaire and then president. Therein lies his genius. He can always spot the next mark.
Please strongly consider studying poverty, health issues and more complex issues in our own Native American communities. It will also give you a different historical perspective and recognition of their beautiful cultures..
These communities are all over our country Make it your whole project and you’ll be amazed plus you might make a difference I look forward to hearing your choices
2
Thank you for this beautiful column today. If I could add one thing: Learn about the natural world by spending time in it listening and watching. Aside from learning some amazing things you will then have a way to always find inner peace and health and know where you fit on this amazing planet and how to help it in return.
2
The institution of higher learning that gives you your degree. The name of that college or university, its reputation, its prestige or lack thereof, matters now more than ever. In generations past the fact alone of having an undergraduate degree provided an advantage in the work world. That's a distinction, an assurance, no longer to be taken for granted. In today's world where you went to school has significant influence on an individual's future prospects. Influence. Another factor young people should take into consideration as they anticipate their future prospects in a world they'll navigate through. The contacts you make, those associations you choose or reject, will either work to serve or impede your progress and ultimate success. An old adage has a relevance not to be dismissed: "It's not WHAT you know but WHO you know."
2
As to number 3, Make Out, I did not chose wisely. She’s fine, and she is who she is, I can’t fault her because I chose unwisely. That is the seed of forgiveness, by the way. But Kristoff is correct. The problem is he doesn’t tell youth how to chose wisely.
I am not cynical about love. I think the reason so many of us choose unwisely is that we choose the best person around us at the right time, rather than the right person for us, regardless of the time. Young people need to understand that there is never a convenient time to make room in your life for another. To borrow from the parables, when you find the pearl of great price, sell everything and buy her/him. That is suggestion #1.
Suggestion #2: Know and share thyself. You can create opportunity; you can always apply to grad school next year, and go at night, while you are working. There will be other jobs... Whatever it is, the struggle is always easier when you aren’t alone. But you need to probe deeply and share your dreams with the one. Vision must be shared and adhered to - forever and for always. If you are lucky enough to have a deep abiding passion, the one who loves you will see and feed it. If you want her to win the Peabody Award even more than she wants to win it herself, you are on the right track.
1
Great advice. I'm an 81 year old retired CPA who has spent about 10% of my life living outside the U.S. Everyone, and especially politicians, should live outside the U.S. for some period of time. It teaches one that people in other countries (but not necessarily their governments) have basically the same values as we do.
Your advice on "Make Out" should have been number one. Choosing a great spouse is indeed the most important decision one will ever make.
2
There are those of us who escape our comfort zone through hardship and illness that is forced upon us without the slightest notion of a plan for the future. Incredible lessons to be learned there...
4
A worthy list to follow, yet with one exception. Finding the right partner in life is absolutely NOT an essential. If it happens, as was the case for me, terrific. But the great bias of our culture is that everyone needs to get married. There is much to be said about finding happiness and fulfillment in being single, in discovering one's true self. Perhaps if more people did this before getting married we wouldn't have 50% of marriages failing in this country.
5
One tiny quibble and it is beside the point of this excellent essay. Trump and the Republicans may have sold their tax cuts on the absurd notion that they would pay for themselves, but they didn't believe it for a minute. They know better. But the Gaffer curve is such a convenient Zombie talking point.
1
To expound on #3 a little, I've often told our children, the most important financial decision you'll ever make is who you decide to marry. If you're not on the same page when it comes to money matters, look out!
2
It seems to me the first secret of success would be helping to avoid the severe threat to civilization of climate change. Being a successful person in Mr. Kristoff's view, and yet leaving your children and grandchildren a world that will be largely uninhabitable, is failure, not success. Yet Mr. Kristoff's column is like most, if not nearly all, pundit columns as well as news stories these days - business as usual, blithely whistling as we approach the graveyard, not even mentioning the biggest threat in human history, except at long intervals. See, for instance, https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/07/opinion/trade-trump-china.html?searchResultPosition=1
2
Please stay in the US and cover domestic poverty. With recent actions by this administration to kick 700k people off food stamps, things are getting much worse for those in poverty.
And given that you write a column every year explaining how things are amazing in general, I think that you should look at America, where the opposite is true for low-income people. Particularly in 2020, before one of the most important presidential elections.
3
NK: "2. Connect to a cause larger than yourself. " One "cause" worth consideration eludes your list... the "Carbon Cause". We, collectively, burn so much carbon we threaten our very existence and, yet, this "Cause" failed to make your list... Clearly, any travel these days requires us to burn prodigious amounts of Carbon and contributes handsomely to the climate issues. Whether you use Carbon offsets or find super efficient ways to travel or look for growth opportunities in your own backyard, the Carbon footprint of your life has become critical.
Please, please, consider including this perspective in your tutorials.
2
Riffing on another topic.
Medicare for All Children would benefit us all.
2
Good and practical stuff here. Proud to call Mr. Kristof a fellow Oregonian.
1
I missed the part where he defines "success".
5
That is exactly the right way to respond to this piece of shallow advise.
The type given out by obnoxious uncles or family friends in graduation parties.
Brought to my mind the advise Dustin Hoffman received in the memorable scene in The Graduate: Plastics.
3
“A quick quiz question: If someone who speaks two languages is bilingual, and someone who speaks three languages is trilingual, what do you call someone who speaks no foreign language at all? Answer: An American.”
I assume this doesn’t include computer languages.
2
@Jason Balkman I have lost count of the number of computer languages and programs I have learned (not really, but the list would exceed comment length). They do build. At one firm, the developers were eternally late finalizing installation instructions, print deadlines were missed. Writers were then told to do the instructions in HTML. Coworker rebelled, “I’m a writer, not a [blank] programmer.” I learned and my next project was to write the “Help” for a new product in HTML (actually Java servelet pages, but close enough.) The product failed, but I got a now six figure boost in my IRA.
1
There is another course all students should take if they want to be prepared for global citizenry in the 21st century: religious studies, which is the academic study of religion. That Americans are overwhelmingly religiously illiterate contributes to high rates of bigotry and chauvinism.
2
I just learned a lot about N Kristof. I admire him even more. Too many of us measure success through money. Some of the rich are not successful. Witness DJT
As far as the importance of economics in almost any equation, maybe look at: "How Poverty Ends: The Many Paths to Progress—and Why They Might Not Continue," by Abhijit V. Banerjee and Esther Duflo ( https://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/2019-12-03/how-poverty-ends ). Those two Nobel laureates have a few things to say.
It is difficult to fulfill many other criteria for success without finding a way to lessen economic inequality. Maybe a few people can do it, but most will not. This does not mean being rich or becoming an economic predator.
Be born into an affluent family or know someone who can help you. Try to be born in NYC or LA. Helps.
5
NB:
How can you study statistics without having learned how to integrate? There is something called a probability density function that you integrate to get the probability of an event let’s say. Or the figure out the maximum likelihood estimate without calculus?
I don’t think you took my Stats 110 course while you were in Cambridge. I doubt that you really know what you are talking about. Perhaps you are confusing statistics with the stuff you do with baseball :-)
2
"Or if you’re a coastal elite, perhaps by finding a temporary job in Trump country, "
So Staten Island, Suffolk County or Borough Park, Brooklyn would qualify?
Well, I failed your three-question linguistics test... Despite living and working in India for a decade, I have no idea what the words are for door knob, clothes hanger or electrical outlet in Hindi or Marathi... And my Indian wife is on the phone right now, but would probably just laugh at me, without answering, if I asked her anyway.
I actually tried to learn Hindi when I was there, but no one took me seriously. Not my coworkers, or my wife or her family. I'd say something in Hindi and everyone would just laugh at my funny accent. If it was a question, like "what time is it?", they'd just laugh, and I'd ask again and they'd laugh, and repeat until they got tired of the joke. But no one would actually answer the question until I asked in English.
I learned to only bother using Hindi if I was looking to make people laugh, but never for real communication. In fact, I did it this morning, heading out the door, repeated my wife's request for groceries, "dudh aur dahi?" (milk and yogurt...)
Coincidentally, the door knob played a big role in one of my days back in India... When it broke and left me trapped in the bathroom, with no tools, no clothes, no cell phone and worst of all, no book, just a wet towel, for nine hours while my wife was out of the house.
3
5. Get off social media.
6
More people like you. Please!
Thank you for this article. I have two sons who turned eighteen this year. I am going to forward this column to them. They may take your advice, they may not. They are two level-headed (for the most part) emerging adults. I only wish I had been given this advice when I was young. I will say that I owe most of my eastern liberal arts education to the Sunday NYTimes crossword puzzle as a mechanism for critical thinking and not accepting given norms, as opposed to my collegiate career. So I would add that activity to your list. Learn how to think creatively.
I would add
5. Don't Give Up--just work extra extra hard--especially if you are taking Statistics and Economics(Statistics I found challenging)
I think I will pass. The reduction of human experience to economics and statistics is one of the problems. I am more afraid of being illeterate about the experience of being human than about how humans can be fit into a spreadsheet or shoe-horned into an economic system. Why couldn't number 1 be...take a class in philosophy or literature or history? They are useful becausenthey are not useful. Economics are too useful and are the means of control. I'll skip to number 4.
1
I immediately sent this to my daughter in college who is in her final year, wishing it could have been freshman year for this advice. I wish every student would read this in high school and plan to send it to our ASPIRE office (an Oregon program to help all kids navigate the after-high school plan).
No matter what you end up pursuing, understanding basic economics and statistics keep the facts of the world relevant. Having a purpose in life is what we all want even if it isn't possible in your actual job. Partners balance and provide support through all of life's ups and downs. Your #4 is dear to my heart as a high school exchange program volunteer/advocate (AFS)-it changes your life to have a new perspective from actually living somewhere else.
Thank you for all you do.
1. Money, 2. marrying into money. 3. Generous friends and family with money who openly share their money & 4. Graciously accepting that in the real world, we are not all equal and Donald Trump is the President of The United States.
Access to most opportunities are subsidized by access to wealth. This is followed by how much of the sciences, engineering, technology, management and skills of labor an individual possesses coinciding with an individual's ability to learn, understand and articulate effectively these areas of study, make the application and utilize our aptitude and abilities on things within our power. This explains why it common for many of our parents to change the narrative they tell themselves regarding economic philosophies based upon experiences, education and self interest during their lifetime. The paradox of the stories we tell ourselves leads to all that is good and bad. During good moments, how we shape our narrative help us deal with the trauma we confront in life. Blaise Pascal would disagree with me on all 4 points by stating - all human evil comes from this, man's being unable to sit still in a room. Which I would ask Mr Pascal - who's paying for the room? Any financial advice given to a person has limitations regarding perception & enlightenment. How much you reveal to the person from whom advice is sought & the advisor’s capacity to conceptualize, describe & communicate the best economic course of actions determine the usefulness of the advice.
3
I think this advice refers to a very narrow route to success and a very upper middle class view of life. And a very Baby Boomer perspective. I noticed a lot of comments are "I'm in my 60s and I couldn't agree more!"
A lot of this advice strikes me as quaint, not the sort of deep practical advice on how to navigate the challenges of the modern world and achieve success. For instance, telling people briefly to "make out" and the importance of the "right partner" says nothing about how to actually meet the right partner. Next you are going to be telling me to complement a woman on her shoes. Sigh. Being in my 30s and teaching students in their 20s, I think people are starved for real, honest, practical advice and not just more superficial nonsense.
A partner providing emotional support? That's great until they ask for a divorce. Besides, a lot of women seem more invested in their careers than relationships. Emotional support, really?
I don't think you can bemoan mathematical illiteracy and advise skipping calculus. Calculus is at the heart of a lot of mathematics and physics, including economics and statistics. Tax policy is largely arithmetic, but could be regarded as calculus since it involves rate of taxation and rate of economic growth. Moreover, my own career is largely grounded in calculus, not statistics.
I don't think there is one path to success. Nor is there some grand secret. A lot of it is hard work and luck.
7
@James
I think your perspective will change significantly as you age.....
I'm in my late 60s and what Kristsof recommends IS sound advice...yesterday, today, and believe it or not....tomorrow!
1
@Teaktart I don't question the soundness of the advice. I think the advice is incomplete, and in many ways superficial and trivial. Nearly trivial to the point of not being true advice, just a bumper sticker.
I already know for instance that having a good partner in life is positive. That says nothing about how one goes about meeting a good partner.
Surely in your 60+ years you've something deeper and more useful than "make out" and "escape your comfort zone". It would be nice if people in their 60s would stop being nice, quaint retirees (or soon-to-be) but would share some real, honest, useful advice to us younger folk who are still struggling to build our lives.
2
@jrinsc of South Carolina
In general you have a point. But the problem with education in this country is that people confuse certain things. You can get to Philosophy by studying mathematics, logic and physics. The other way around is possible but a bit harder. Plenty of scientists and mathematicians of European origin were also accomplished philosophers of sort: Heisenberg, Schroedinger, Einstein, Francois Jacob, Monod, Goedel, Boltzmann, Planck etc. The reason that we don’t get such names on our list is mostly because our pre/college education is really weak. It emphasizes test taking and college application success more than deep learning.
How do we change that? Difficult but doable. Emphasize proofs in math and logic, theory rather than routine calculation and experiments in sciences, critical thinking in history and social sciences, critical and comparative literature. Music education from K to 12. Love for classical music if all periods emphasizing chamber music.
De-emphasize sports and emphasize physical education. It is doable.
8
Great piece as always.
1) I graduated with an economics degree & graduated in 1979, when I began debating with many of my friends and co-workers regarding trickle down economics, the importance of workers' rights including the right to form a union, and many other Reagan voodoo economic policies that another politician used as a talking point and later he and son forgot about that voodoo.
2) One of my 1st jobs out of college was with a Prison Art Project in Boston where I helped raise funds for art classes for prisoners and attended art events in places like Walpole's Maximum Security Prison where I met the prisoners who created the art. The program shut down when Reagan gutted the NEA.
3) My husband and I have little retirement money but 37 years of photographs and memories of not far flung adventures but a few foreign trips and a lifetime of traveling across America from places like San Francisco to Tolstoy, South Dakota and just about every broken down mill-town in New England because I love these places. I now share the photographs on Instagram @sheilablanchett as my stories of America.
4) Although I have traveled much I never lived in a foreign country. My daughter will have a degree in environmental sustainability by the time you're ready to escape your comfort zone. She left college at nineteen and went off on adventures of her own and is now back and will graduate in June. I'm forwarding this to her. This coming election belongs to our children.
5
Learning to cook can spice up all 4. Great advice.
8
I appreciate this advice, but believe Mr. Kristof gives short shrift to the humanities. Studying philosophy, history, religion, literature, the arts, and media literacy is needed more than ever - in short, studying liberal arts subjects that focus on what it means to be a human being. We're living in an epistemological crisis now, where people have no idea what's true or not. Studying economics and statistics, while truly valuable, won't help people understand the nature of truth, flaws in logic, or rhetorical fallacies.
Education has become about job training, not learning to think critically or write well. These are necessary tools for the tool belt too, ones that help an electorate from being easily manipulated. Economics can help, but so can reading Shakespeare.
10
In general you have a point. But the problem with education in this country is that people confuse certain things. You can get to Philosophy by studying mathematics, logic and physics. The other way around is possible but a bit harder. Plenty of scientists and mathematicians of European origin were also accomplished philosophers of sort: Heisenberg, Schroedinger, Einstein, Francois Jacob, Monod, Goedel, Boltzmann, Planck etc. The reason that we don’t get such names on our list is mostly because our pre/college education is really weak. It emphasizes test taking and college application success more than deep learning.
How do we change that? Difficult but doable. Emphasize proofs in math and logic, theory rather than routine calculation and experiments in sciences, critical thinking in history and social sciences, critical and comparative literature. Music education from K to 12. Love for classical music if all periods emphasizing chamber music.
De-emphasize sports and emphasize physical education. It is doable.
2
@Blunt
Thanks for your thoughtful comment, and I think we're in agreement. But people learn in different ways, and one critical way is through stories. Like it or not, President Trump tells simple, memorable, and deeply misguided stories that hook his supporters. He doesn't care about facts or logic. Shakespeare also told great stories about power, greed, lying, and self-delusion, and it's hard to make those things sink it at a personal, emotional level only through physics, logic, and mathematics.
All of us learn with our head and heart. We need to emphasize both in education, which is why the liberal arts - including science and mathematics - is so desperately needed.
2
I would add one more course Physics. For problem solving and thinking skills it can’t be beat
6
I wasn't expecting to laugh while reading this thoughtful article. "Items 3 and 4 can be combines for maximum language acquisition." I am still chuckling. My late wife, from Spain, spoke five languages and was fond of telling me that the best way to learn a language was in bed. I didn't question her too closely on the particulars of her linguistic prowess, but I did my best to follow her example.
5
What I have found essential in life is to always understand the motive behind any action, both my own and that of others. Reality becomes very clear once one understands the motive behind any action. Don't be fooled by thinking your own motives are always pure. You'll be surprised! I was. Once one becomes tuned to the intention behind any thought, word or action, the next step is to purify it. Awareness brings change, and effort completes it. Happiness follows pure motives, and grief, restlessness and dissatisfaction shadows impure ones...
Mr Kristof’s advice is spot on. I teach in a high school and occasionally scratch my head wondering about the futility of repetition we demand of young men and women sent thru a rote process based on-outdated material. We simply numb curiosity and inquiry.
Economics and statistics is a sound foundation for sure. Getting outside ones comfort zone is the key.
2
As an educator and parent I loved this concise yet packed list of suggestions for young people. I could not agree more with all of the points suggested. I especially agree with the point about students from costal elite places to work/travel to "Trump" country- and vice versa- we would have less of a divide in this country if we supported this practice more! I would love to see high school exchange programs across America. Also the concept of connecting to a cause larger than yourself is so important and relevant as you build your career- more so than I ever thought. I would also say that in order to be successful lift people up with you as you advance your career- become a mentor!
1
Nick, may I expand the "semester abroad" to... internships abroad, more-than-a-semester abroad, hey, why not a full year or two abroad?
Assuming students and young graduates avoid the comfort zone of same-language-speaking expat groups, these are the experiences that will broaden their horizons and allow them to walk in others' shoes. (Sometimes literally). Which, in turn, will bring insights and compassion -- and even wisdom? -- to whatever else they decide to do with their lives.
There is no easier or simpler time to do this than in your student years or years immediately after college.
2
All eccellent advice, but I would add that it vastly better to take an economics and statics class every year (and make game theory one of those classes). The point is not just to learn a few models and hope you remenber them, but to develop a habit of thinking as an economist and statistician.
If nothing else, you can wow you friends by pointing out the terrible wagering errors even otherwise good players often make on "Jeopardy".
On a non-academic note, I would also add:
Learn to cook - so you are not forced to spend money at restaurants with dubious nutritional value and even more dubious ownership.
Develop a habit of exercising - so your future significant other does not see an ad some November and decide you "secretly want" a multi-thousand dollar hamster wheel for a gift. The hamster wheel will be costly, but the divorce will be a financial disaster.
Learn to drive - the easiest way to avoid flying is a road trip, and the independence that comes with the option of using a car is invaluable. This freedom is bargaining power against excessive rents, high-priced/bad service stores and even excessive or misspent local taxes. It also opens up a lot of jobs if one's primary career hits a setback.
2
Good advice.
On that you forgot, keep your life simple, unencumbered by all the material things that nonsense retailers convince most people to buy. Simplicity is the key to freedom.
9
Loved, loved, loved this and will share it with my two college girls. Now please write advice for people in their 50s. 😊. Thanks for all your good work. Stay safe out there.
5
It's essential to note here that the notionally "serious" and "well-educated" people -- the ones who took that economics course -- are among those who insist on comparing government spending to the family budget, who thought financial deregulation was a great idea, who have been decrying deficits for the last 40 years because everybody "knows" running deficits is "unsustainable", and who were surprised when "free trade agreements" designed to put American workers in direct competition with their counterparts in the third world, do exactly that, with predictably dire results.
So choose your courses carefully.
2
@nycdoc (who thinks he wasted his time and money taking Calculus)
You must have been one of those nerd premeds who piled up intro courses and got A’s without knowing what on earth they were learning.
If you think learning calculus was a waste of time (and money!) because you don’t use it as a physician, you prove that my suspicions are on the right track.
Calculus teaches you about the infinitesimal. The dynamic. Time. Infinity. Integration as a summation of instances. It teaches you how to model things and help you solve for optimal behavior of such models, from the motion of particles fluids and gases, to valuing insurance contracts or fuel needs to send rockets with men inside to space. It actually is useful in medicine if you get beyond bleeding people or treating them with leeches.
It may even be useful in minimizing your tax bill and maximizing the return on your investments made with the cash you generate from your medical practice.
7
The first thing for me was learning to be honest, primarily with myself.
After that, the journey has about getting beyond desire for things: wealth, success, fame, sex, the admiration of the world.
Those things NEVER bring satisfaction, but only beget more desire.
Working for others with no thought of self is the easiest path to liberation. You don’t have to believe in G-d, or meditate for hours or understand difficult philosophical concepts. So Mr. K’s advice to serve others now is spot on.
2
Success, eh? - a word that demands definition.
While I don't disagree w/ your four choices, Nick, seems to me that in the bigger picture, "success" for a human, is attained by Awakening, by being present in every. single. moment. of our existence. By being aware of each breath, of the blood flowing, of the breeze against our skin, of the sounds, the smells that are available to us via the Gift of our sensual bodies and processing minds.
Our over-riding, all-consuming purpose - and far and away our most difficult task - as humans is to Pay Attention, to Remain Awake, to be aware of The Miracle of this gift of life in this moment - and to do so while taking the garbage out or arguing with our pal. “The meaning of life is just to be Alive", said Alan Watts, and to be Alive is to pay attention.
Another point, and a plea. All the rules have changed and we cannot continue doing business as we did. We are rapidly making Our Only Home unlivable for us through our addiction to burning Fossil Fuels. Traveling to Zimbabwe or Bangladesh to "cover global poverty, health and other issues", each of which are exacerbated by fossil fuel consumption can no longer be a choice.
You note that you might also "stay here in the United States and explore the domestic side of global poverty." Please do so, and please publicize the fact that you made the decision because The Rich (almost everybody in the US, BTW - $50k/yr puts one in the global 1%)) can no longer participate in unnecessary travel.
2
The advice I find here is excellent! I'm 61 and retired from a very fulfilling career in public service. I've lived all over the country (thanks to the job and the friends it brought me) and I plan to use my retirement to learn languages and travel. I also agree to TLMischler's advice to let life happen. It has made all the difference.
Thank you, thank you, thank you. I will make sure to print out your fabulous article and post it in my kids’ rooms. Right next to the Türknopf!
Philosophy would be a wise addition to this list. It teaches critical thinking, which arguably is one of the strings that connects all of the other four areas you suggest. Critical thinking can help you turn turn good ideas into great ones that really make a difference.
1
Yes to number 4. As a junior, I “stopped out” and spent 6 months in Israel on a kibbutz. Because I had shop classes in grade and HS, I worked in the carpentry shop (a rare accomplishment for an American). As my roommate was from Nice and 1/3rd of the “Learn Hebrew” class spoke French, I was the class translator. I was never asked to repeat or rephrase the translation. In my career as an engineer and writer, making yourself understood by a naive audience is a great skill. Telling jokes in another tongue is not easy. I also agree with cuddling. My spouse and I have been practicing for 43 years.
1
I have to agree with a lot of this, but would also include a class in logic where you learn the logical fallacies that so many use. I would also include some regular philosophy, such as ethics. It teaches you how to clearly define your terms to communicate more effectively and logically. I have to agree that statistics is more generally useful than calculus, outside of math and many science fields, but be sure to include some permutations and combinations study in the math area (often included with statistics studies). I have needed those and statistics far more than my calculus.
Lastly, learn to do the things you have to do, that you don’t like, quickly and correctly. That leaves more time for the things you like to do. So, when your friends say, “Let’s go hit a few bars,” while you are working on that paper for tomorrow, ask where they’re going and say you will join them when you finish the paper. That way, you are far more likely to get the grade you want on that paper.
1
To Mr. Kristof's first point of advice, I would add "Take at least two semesters of English composition." Regardless what you learn, what you master, if you cannot express yourself verbally and in writing, you will never be taken seriously because nobody will know what you are talking about. Economists, statisticians, mathematicians and every other person needs to be able to communicate her or his thoughts coherently.
In my own college experience, my two semesters of English composition were grueling, and in all other courses I was expected to write flawlessly or face the consequences. That was the most meaningful, the most useful education I took away.
2
OK for what it's worth, I'll add my 2 cents:
1) Live as debt-free as possible. Think very deeply about what "enough" means to you materially. Remember, always, to break Parkinson's law of economics which states that your costs always rise to meet your income. Live below your means. Be frugal, it will set you free.
2) Live overseas. Learn another language. Engage the world. Ethnocentrism creates sclerosis of the mind!
3) Be prepared to change jobs a lot. I've have had 4 different careers in my life. The last allowed me to move to Italy in my 50's, but I believe you can't do this sort of thing without a strong sense of self and a conviction that you can depend on yourself.
4) Get lucky!!!!! Kristof is right. If you can find the right partner to share your adventures and mis-adventures with, you will be truly powerful.
5) Never, ever forget that there are almost 8 billion other humans on the earth today, and they all want dignity. Therefore, you must cultivate a deep sense of fairness and compassion in your life. As the old saying goes: walk in someone else's shoes and you see others as more than just "transactions."
Good luck!
10
These are great points of advice and we should all heed them. Alternatively—and this is fairly simple but I try and live by it—be curious, be empathetic.
Though this may come naturally to some, they can also be necessarily learned traits that are lacking in many Americans as we become increasingly isolated and individualistic.
When we are curious, we will seek out different people, places, and experiences. When we empathetic we will hear stories experience new cultures with open minds, a healthy lack of fear of the unknown and learn that our differences our the things that make us truly unique... Not our similarities.
1
Thank you, Nick. I think the best thing I ever did with respect to young people was to urge them to please, please go somewhere other than the United States for more than a year, and to find a job there so you could stay for an extended period of time.
The objections they raised were profound, but most protested they could travel and live outside the US later in life.
My answer was, No, you can't, because by the time you passed the age of 30, you were already set in your life, you would likely have a mortgage, car payments, a family, a job that would be difficult to leave, a settled life. I explained it was one of my greatest regrets that I hadn't done that in my 20s, and then, in my 60s, was unable to.
Only a few took the advice, and only one actually followed through by actually working and living elsewhere -- Tunisia, China (for a very short time), South Korea, India -- teaching English as a second language (ESL).
I'm proud of her accomplishments. She works as an urban farmer on land she bought, and as a teacher's assistant in schools where a high percentage of the students need ESL tutoring. She has a political perspective shared by few of her peers from seeing the US through the eyes of people in other countries. She's happy and productive. She's an asset to her community and to her country.
I'm also proud I could change even one life by offering her that advice.
2
Good advice in general, except the first one. Statistics definitively; economics, not so much. At least not if it consists of the neoclassical ideology that has dominated academic economics, led to the global neoliberal agenda, and is very much responsible for the social and environmental disaster we're in. There are no economic laws, and there is no homo economicus. There is only people, doing things right or wrong. I tell my son to avoid traditional academic economics like the plague. Once you start looking at the world in terms of self-interested behavior and supply and demand, you're gone, and you will probably being doing lots of harm from then on. Study ideologies or political economy instead, and yes, get to know how economists think, so you can confront them on the field. And btw, rent control does work under certain conditions, just like the "free market" (an oxymoron) can be a disaster under certain conditions.
1
By all means take a course on statistics but be very careful about standard university economic text books which are based on assumptions that favour inequality, the exploitation of labour and the environment to say nothing of their commitment to sanctifying the rich.
4
Wonderful thoughts. What works for me today is "Trust God, clean house, and help others". Getting outside of myself to help another, just even a smile or act of kindness, is soul warming.
1
I agree that living abroad is a great thing to do. I lived in India for three happy years. India is wonderful, but it's very easy to get by without learning Hindi (or Kannada, the language spoken in Bengaluru and Karnataka). In fact, English is one of India's two national languages.
2
Mr. Kristof, this is all good advice, and I wish all the best to you and any student who travels with you. I am looking back, in retirement, on the course of my education and my career in teaching. I got a great liberal arts education at Reed College, and then earned a Ph D from Princeton. No breaks or gaps for study abroad or travel until I had settled into an academic life; I wish I had gotten out of my comfort zone for more real-world experience.
The advice to study Economics is sound, but the intro courses almost anywhere are entirely technocratic. My great regret is that I had no course in Anthropology, and in foreign languages I only gained some reading knowledge, no ability to communicate outside of English.
2
I have taught both calculus and statistics. Its hard for me to understand how a deep understanding of statistics can be obtained without an understanding of calculus. Possibly you really mean: go to a university where the calculus class is called something like "Calculus and Statistics for the Life and Social Sciences"
3
I appreciate your work. I hope you are purchasing carbon offsets for all the air travel.
2
Great insights including the fact you should have taken economics! We are way below the lowest unemployment ever, the Dow is at its highest ever, the average hourly salary has been steadily going up, very tiny inflation, taxes did go down for most people.
As for going away to help other poor people, starting here with our homeless and veterans would be much better.
So yes, great advice, and please take economics!
P.s. I knew your three words in Italian, French and Spanish!
Indeed. After a rewarding 30 year career in international education, I wholeheartedly agree. The economics (and non Western Literature) courses I took as an international affairs major have proven invaluable. The “never stop exploring” I embraced as a Peace Corps volunteer has brought me and my employers substantial rewards. Similarly, a deep commitment to helping students learn in and about other cultures rises with me every morning as a life passion that is also employment. All strengthened by my beautiful life partner. In sum, I am truly blessed. Thank you, Nicholas!
Coming to the end of a semester as we are, I cringe at the remark (that doesn't read as tongue-in-cheek) that students need perspective for when "a mean professor gives you a bad grade."
A real life lesson in the university is that there's a cause-effect, personal responsibility relationship in earning grades, and students do indeed struggle with this. It has nothing to do with a teacher being mean.
7
What? You want MY advice? Just because I'm almost 66 years old? Well, I would advise young adults to learn how to cook, clean, sew, and use tools like a hammers and screwdrivers. I get a lot of satisfaction knowing that I can take care of myself, my home, and my possessions. I have friends who are helpless, and it doesn't look good.
7
Critical thinking skills are required to make good decisions, and defend positions, in an ever more complicated world. Its frustrating attempting to have meaningful debate, on issues that lend themselves to probability, with those without even a basic understanding of statistics. Thanks for the plug.
1
Looking back, I can't help but agree. I'm 67, happily retired, and I've often said I had to live every moment of my life exactly as I lived it in order to be who and where I am today - however, of course there are some things I would do differently if I had the opportunity.
1. I changed careers in my 40's and became a HS math teacher. My first year I taught AP Stats - and I couldn't agree more! Learn stats - it's as important as reading and 'rithmatic. And if taught right, it's a lot of fun.
2. Another way of putting this is, "You are not the center of the universe!" Once I learned how much I played God, and how much pain I was causing myself and others, things changed.
3. There's a reason Solomon told us to "rejoice with the wife of thy youth" - I divorced my wife after 6 difficult years, and I've regretted that decision for a long time now. I was going to find someone better - but that was an impossible task.
4. I am so grateful for 3 teaching gigs: first, I spent 3 years teaching at an alternative school for at-risk teen girls. A friend told me, "you used to be a male chauvinist pig - you're not one any more!" A few years later I was invited to teach overseas - 3 years in Cairo and 3 in Ghana. I'm so grateful for all of those experiences - they gave me a viewpoint I never would have had otherwise.
If I had to add one more, it's this: allow life to happen. Be open. Sometimes the things we think we want and the things that are good for us are very different.
348
@TLMischler Excellent suggestions and addenda!
48
@TLMischler Regarding that last part, I'd add that we should all learn humility by acknowledging how much luck, both good and bad luck, are responsible for how our lives turn out. Swap a couple of T or G nucleotides in one's DNA with C or A, and perhaps that star athlete would be a nobody, or that average student is a first rate scientist instead, or a person is disabled for life. If James Cameron doesn't make The Terminator, does Arnold Schwarzenegger become the governor of California? For me, my life would've probably been a disaster if it weren't for the inspiration and focus I got from the Apollo moon landings. I could think up endless scenarios here, but acknowledging luck is something we should all take to heart.
26
@TLMischler Even with a few regrets that you mention, it seems like you have made some wonderful choices and are living a really fulfilled life. Ah, we could all live better with models like you. Cheers!
10
Skip calculus?? What??
In my experience, calculus is the gateway to the study of economics, finance, earth/environmental science, life sciences, engineering, statistics, computer science, etc. It opens up many options for a person at a time when a young adult is finding their way & needs some room to switch direction.
This was the advice I gave my kids. 2 of the 3 could not have pursued their passion without it.
3
Great advice for young and old. Thank you Nick.
1
I think this is the sort of advice that pretty much everyone gives out today. It reminds me of the family friend who pulls Dustin Hoffman aside in his graduation party by the tacky pool and imparts his wisdom to the incredulous and angst ridden youth: plastics.
Kristof likes telling everyone that he was a farm boy who made it to Harvard and the rest. But as he lets it out in numerous occasions he is not exactly the type of farm boy you read about in novels.
I would suggest to ignore his advise and learn mathematics before you can study statistics (you can do it by yourself actually). Learn how to read a good novel and understand the grand implications (Dostoyevsky Brothers Karamazov and Dumas Count of Monte Cristo even before that) in whatever language before you go a learn about door knobs and electrical outlets in Portuguese or Polish. Learn how to think and interpret.
Stay in your comfort zone. You will have to get out of it when you can actually think for yourself and excel in something first.
Be ethical. Think about what that means.
You will then find the right mate and educate your children well. You will understand intuitively what Rawls meant in his A Theory of Justice: you will help create a world in which people go to bed without knowing who they will get up as and are indifferent.
Think about the big picture rather than special effect. Star Wars is fun but Apu Trilogy is life.
1
I haven't taken economics but have taken and even taught parametric statistics. It's a good way to understand a lot of how the world works; but it also leads to frustrating conversations with people who don't have a clue what they're talking about. No, guys, if the coin came up heads nine times in a row it doesn't mean it's more likely to come up tails on the tenth. And, no, you can't "prove anything with [honest] statistics."
1
Statistics should be mandated as part of the high school curriculum. As a physician who took calculus and later advanced calculus, I have to agree it is a total waste of time (and money). I asked a number of physicians and not one has ever used calculus for five minutes after college. Our time and money would have been better spent on basket weaving, which is somewhat useful during the holiday season.
Also agree with economics. While economics has changed over the years, it is important to know how policy makers are coming to their decisions. The news changes every day, but that does not deter us from following it often.
6
You must have been one of those nerd premeds who piled up intro courses and got A’s without knowing what on earth they were learning.
If you think learning calculus was a waste of time (and money!) because you don’t use it as a physician, you prove that my suspicions are on the right track.
Calculus teaches you about the infinitesimal. The dynamic. Time. Infinity. Integration as a summation of instances. It teaches you how to model things and help you solve for optimal behavior of such models, from the motion of particles fluids and gases, to valuing insurance contracts or fuel needs to send rockets with men inside to space. It actually is useful in medicine if you get beyond bleeding people or treating them with leeches.
1
@Blunt
Without doubt Calculus is useful for mathematicians, physicists and engineers. I am stating it is virtually useless for just about everyone else, where as statistics is useful for anyone who reads the news or wants to understand any quantitative information, including polls.
Every academic claims their topic is wonderfully useful and if we had it their way, college would be twelve years and medical school twenty. The truth is we are committing resources in learning, and spending a year or two on something that less than 1% of people would use.
Blunt, I don't disagree with you about the beauty and majesty of mathematics. I believe that calculus should have a much smaller role than statistics, which is more useful to more people.
I invite other physicians to opine about the usefulness of calculus in post-baccalaureate life.
2
Great thoughts. I would also add: Work hard now to learn how to express yourself by writing clearly, succinctly, persuasively and vividly. Sadly, today's young people are mostly communicating via text and very short, informal emails. Putting sentences and paragraphs together into an essay, article, letter (or column) is just beyond the skills of many. I learned this over the past 10-15 years as a volunteer writing tutor/teacher of high school seniors. So...travel, volunteer your time, make out, but get all the extra help you can to learn effective English skills, for the best possible career and the most effective life.
18
The advice to study statistics (better yet, multivariate statistics) is very wise. On any perceptual map (pictorial repesentation) of university disciplines, you will find probability and statistics at dead center, being fundamental to every other pursuit. You can bet on it.
4
Nicholas Kristof gives some excellent advice that I would sum up by advising a young person to really pay attention to every experience in your life and, by all means, one of those experiences is living in a country other than your country of birth. It certainly helps if you have a partner who was born in that country.
Additionally, get educated! There are at least three ways: 1) Study economics (or for that matter, anything else such as foreign languages); 2) Read widely in as many different subjects as possible; 3) Be as honest as you can, particularly with yourself.
You may not win a popularity award, but you'll be able to say you left the world a better place for having been there.
5
I beg to differ with you. Some Americans, many Americans speak more than one language.
My grandson, who lives in Madison, WI, was fortunate enough, because of my daughter’s encouragement, to be enrolled in a Spanish immersion program as a kindergartner in his public school, numerous years ago, which he continued in. Think of all these years later how fluent he is now. And he’s gone on to study French, also.
Schools need to have more programs like this. But you know, with Betsy DeVos, Secretary of Education, appointed by Donald Trump, who believes funds are more important going to private religious schools, and vouchers for religious schools, you think many kids are going to have these opportunities? The woman does not even have a college degree in Education.
Please. Mañana, under administration, top down cannot come soon enough. Our future generations deserve so much more.
2
Thank you as always. Although you address the humanities under point one, the first half condenses training with education so that these two appear synonymous though their similarity is comparable to CBT and depth psychology. Additionally, your suggestions are exclusively human-centric. Why not include active care for all who are - the entire ecological sweep of being in this our household, Planet Earth /
this is an outstanding article. I especially liked the part about choosing countries off the beaten track. There are safety considerations to be sure (you can't even go to Haiti now) but to go to Asian countries like Vietnam, Korea, India etc would position yourself well for the next 50 years. I like the Trump country thought..my daughters moved to Cincinnati for college and work and it is way different out there(for example, many fewer foreign made cars). Also a cause larger than yourself and budget one of these $20/mo St Jude, Shriners, etc that I see on TV. One other thing I would suggest is to use the many Youtube to find out how a car , HVAC, plumbing, electricity work (there are good half hour ones for educated beginners). That used to be part of our cultural DNA but I find out that many young men don't know how anything works and even though I was not handy, I could change oil, tires, check fluids, replace doorknobs, etc. Thanks for writing this
2
I would caution generalizing concepts from ECON101 to the real world. It is exactly statistics and empirical econometrics which has taught us that much of traditional economic theory doesn’t necessarily apply. It isn’t that the theory is explicitly wrong; they’re right, in that they assume simplifications to gauge general relationships. But the real world is more complex, and is why modern economics is using statistics to listen to the world, not us dictating ideologically how the world works. ECON101 is valuable only as a development of economic logic, which persists beyond economic theory; it is the thinking process/methodology that is valuable, not any particular theory. As with any science, good economic intuition should be what anthropologists call “reflexive”; meaning self critical, being aware of one’s biases, how one’s collective experiences shapes perspectives. Basic demand theory says markets equilibrate and one can be both in awe and totally mislead by the simplicity & beauty. We are then taught to be more critical when discussing monopolies/market failures, and fed a tidy classification of how things can go wrong and their solutions. But as one ascends in the levels of economic theory and work, the picture becomes messier and blurry as our models generalize less. Mastery of any scientific subject only makes us more painfully aware of our field’s inadequacies and ignorance; it’s only natural, the world is messy. Do not trust the economist bearing simple answers
5
Take a course in art history, history - IMO economics really is the dismal science. And frankly, I would like the class that really explains what happened in the US during the last 60 years.
So far as marriage... hummm you might be quite happy not being married. It's like traveling alone -- no one to consider except yourself and you can have your own child or adopt it you will.
Travel -- definitely, on the cheap when possible so you can go more often ( not as cheap today as in the days whe hitching was considered OK.. Btu there still are hostels.. and I believe habitation exchange sites. Go off season (cheaper and less crowded. BTW "The Crown" has several foreign language tracks with English subtitles. You still won't learn the word for electric socket.
Volunteering can be laudable or a waste of time. You'll figure that one out. I still believe in religious institutions as a place to meet people of various sorts...
Finally, your education is not over when you finish college... Not even your formal education.. Perhaps you can audit, or take a non-degree course in that subject you missed in college. Remember basket weaving can be as calming as yoga. Pottery is for those who like to play in mud.
9
My advice would be save your money, avoid debt like the plague that it is, try to arrange to be born to good parents and, above all else, be lucky.
19
"A key ... is a great partner." Sort of like the always useful "buy low, sell high" advice for making money.
1
E gad, I wanted to take… Whatever the hard classes are, oh yeah calculus, but I ended up taking quality assurance related class that was, yes STATISTICALLY inclined (The second part of the class required a statistics math class) yeah!
1
To be our own light is to have dim direction. We all guides. Thanks for sharing your "secrets" of success.
1
Love and work, work and love, that's all there is according to Sigmund Freud and Nicholas Kristoff.
1
Truer words have never been spoken! Forwarded article to my high school children.
2
I would add this "secret" of success; develop your critical thinking skills. This is a well defined concept and is taught in many different areas because critical thinking is important to everything in life. You just have to know what it means and that happens when you see the results.
5
These are four secrets to success only if you want to live Kristof’s life, which is beautiful and admirable—but only one type of life, after all.
1
If you live in a diverse community like Willmar, Mn., that Tom Friedman wrote about in the "New York Times", you can experience and embrace a multicultural community made up of people who speak Arabic, Spanish and English, while practicing different faiths under one government.
Thanks for the sound advice and for the quick quiz question on language ability.
Seriously, before going abroad or speaking with visitors from abroad, students (not to mention the rest of us) should make sure to have a good command of standard forms and universal expressions in their native language. That means, for example, being able to express oneself without falling back on allusions to American pop culture. It also means being able to converse indefinitely without ever using "be, like" for "think" or "say". Imagine your embarrassment if you found yourself on the wrong end of the following exchange:
A: "My roommate told me there was a giant cockroach in the kitchen. I was, like, a giant cockroach?"
B: "You still are, but tell me how you dealt with the one in the kitchen."
2
As always, Mr. Kristoff is down to earth and pragmatic. He doesn't come across as pompous at all. These four suggestions are deeply insightful and helpful. Thank you.
3
There is actually only one “secret” to success.
Don’t choose a profession based on what you want “to be” (doctor, lawyer, billionaire); choose it based on what you want “to do.” Do you like to write? Talk? Lecture? Sing? Draw? Sports? Play games? Solve problems? Sit in front of a computer screen? Interact with children or adults?
Whatever. Find out what brings you joy. Do that. Success comes from hard work, commitment, creativity and skill, all of which is much easier to attain if you enjoy the work.
That’s the “secret.”
Now, go find your passion. And you’ll never regret it.
13
Thank you Nick, for a helpful and well-balanced article.
1
At age 89, I have a long past life to evaluate. I am not entirely sure about point #2 in your list, but do not disagree with it. The rest have been tried, and I found them to work beautifully.
5
B-R-I-L-L-I-A-N-T-!!
This article is perfection: Kristof puts in words exactly what I would have recommended at 54 if anybody asked me the same question: a) economics as a tool, b) a cause bigger than yourself from the beginning (even if that cause changes several times over the years), c) date, date, date until you know exactly what you need as a companion in life, and d) get out of your comfort zone by knowing other side and other parts of the world and how they live.
Thanks @NicholasKristof, for putting in great words what I will nos share with my kids, nephews and nieces!
2
Thank you. You are a gift.
3
I guess this advice is for people who want to become Nicholas Kristof and be successful at it. There are certainly some other routes to success of different kinds.
1
Please, be specific. Would love to hear.
Great advice, great contest to win a trip with you, but can you actually offer a job as a prize?
1
Mr. Kristof, perhaps I am missing something. Was Helen Keller successful without her sight or hearing? how about Christ nailed on a cross at age 33? Or Nelson Mandela penned up in a prison for so many years? Or Bonhoeffer who died in a Nazi concentration camp after standing up for his ideals? Yes it is important if you can to travel and find good people to share your life, but is the essence of success?
3
What is this “success”, for which the “four secrets “ are provided? Putting the proverbial cart before the horse, here?
But what about the arts? What about Bach? And Titian and Brancusi and da Vinci? What about Shakespeare and Beethoven and, God help us, Philip Glass?
1
Wise words!
Yes these four tips are important, but they only nibble around the outskirts of what it means to be happy or fulfilled which is different for each of us.
The first question and most important is to Know Thy Self, not on a superficial basis, but what do you personally need to be and perhaps do to be happy and fulfilled. Lots of ways to find this out but it is your own personal quest and the answer will not depend upon anyone else or their opinions.
It may not be an easy way but it is the best way for yourself and it may be full f mistakes, but that is the process itself. If you can accept the journey for what it is you are half way there.
1
wondering what the carbon footprint is of all these people flying around the world?...just saying...
2
brilliant.
Fully agree with the suggestions on economics and statistics. But don't skip calculus as both econ and stats are calculus based.
1
Mr. Kristof you forgot number 5--SHOW UP. No matter what the job, or task, or frustration, or...show up, be there, be on time, be prepared, be reliable. Early in everyone's career, unless you are Trump's sons, there will be bumps---bad boss, bad company, bad colleagues, bad assignments, bad hours...but, keep showing up--that discipline alone will turn breaking bad to breaking good.
11
This is good advice to a 40-year-old too.
69
And up?
4
Pre-Calculus, calculus, then statistics and economics. The world is largely dynamic and predicable. Upper level math courses make anyone who understands them a much smarter person!
Teachers need to help make it all as accessible as is possible to students.
2
Nicholas, I must share a real-life story with you. One of our daughters did her undergraduate and graduate work at Jesuit universities, Santa Clara and Georgetown respectively. Both emphasized the necessity of leaving one's comfort zone to grow and mature not only professionally but also personally. Receiving a degree in Sociology, she chose to attain a master's in Demography. For anyone familiar with that study, s/he will know it is pretty much all statistics for several long years. But because of her degrees, she has been in her job for 20 years as a Demographer which has taken her to African countries, Nepal, the Philippines, and Jordan. She is definitely a fulfilled woman. Now, as far as the "making out" goes, I really never asked. Yet, I have the feeling she did okay there, too.
62
As an econ professor, this brought tears to my eyes...it really did, just the wistful hope that facts and rigor will still matter...but really thank you for this. I would also encourage our youth to find some kind of soulful connection, to art or nature or community, to sublimate some of the existential angst they will likely be up against w climate change, rising inequality, social media etc. And that is where the arts and humanities matter as well.
175
@sue denim Yes, I think you're exactly right in advocating for both econ/stat and also for the humanities. My believe is that humanists need the statistical toolkit to assess arguments (in The Times, I can't use "standard deviation" or "present value" because not enough people will know what these concepts mean). But I also think that the economists and scientists need the humanities to assess priorities and values. Doctors may be able to arrange a clinical trial, but wrestling with questions of risk and informed consent depend upon values more than science. And there's some evidence that the greatest need in the labor market of the future will be for those with both technical skills AND the soft communication/personal skills that are nurtured by the humanities.
33
@Nicholas Kristof thank you for this and for all you do, yours is a voice of kindness and reason in these strange times. And yes, to your points above, I think this is why an inter-disciplinary education is so key to well rounded decision-making, in all areas of life, and probably increasingly so. Thanks again :)
4
I have to add one secret. Maybe it's just a pithy slogan, but it has proven so right, so often, that I'll throw it in anyway:
"Blessed are the flexible, for they shall not be bent out of shape."
Especially as Nicholas points out the impact of serendipity in his life, that is exactly what makes flexibility so critical. When you get pushed suddenly, you either bend or break; bending lets you follow that new direction.
135
@Dave Bloch Agree about flexibility. Resilience and optimism are such important characteristics.
8
@Dave Bloch Absolutely. Sometimes you're forced to bend, so you do. Unwillingly. But ultimately that instills in you the ability to bend and flex without fear. Luck is always an added plus.
4
It seems like this advice has worked for Kristof and many others of his generation who are successful and fulfilled as adults.
However, what has worked in the past will not necessarily work in the future of catastrophic climate change.
My advice to young people:
1) learn how to grow some of your own food or to keep bees, learn to identify wild edible and medicinal herbs
2) connect to the Earth - on a deep level, as the source of sustenance and then realize how unimportant the latest gadget is 3) find a partner if you want, friendships are also important
and
4) Young people are realizing that mass overseas travel is spewing carbon into the atmosphere. Travel lightly and slowly. And consider staying home instead and making it better. Find the diversity within your community - or somewhere close by - to appreciate. Diversity is always there if you just look for it.
136
@Innisfree I have to agree, especially with the comment on overseas travel. We seem to have this amazing ability to compartmentalize our beliefs: To understand that carbon-produced climate change is already upon us and is only going to become worse, while simultaneously believing that it's fine to jet all over the world, spewing carbon, because it is just so darned edifying to do so. I get to experience other cultures!
News flash: the Earth does not care if one more wealthy Westerner has swooped in to have an "Aha" moment in some poor village somewhere, or has snorkeled tut-tutting among dying coral reefs. I suggest that students demand more online and virtual field trips (arranged with local on-the-ground hosts), which can provide experiences that ALL students can share (not just the well off, or those lucky enough to win a contest). We've passed the point where we can justify our wasteful travel habits.
14
You traveling abroad may have a profound effect on your life. You not traveling abroad will have zero effect on the environment. They don’t ground planes missing one passenger.
13
All these are principles I deeply resonate with and already try to follow, as a 24-year old woman. Knowing how to grow your own food and sustenance is power!
33
Excellent advice. The only thing I would add is READ, especially fiction and poetry. Nothing helps to gain both a general vocabulary and an emotional vocabulary more than broad reading (except perhaps for first-hand experience, but reading narratives of other lives, both inner and outer, helps with context and understanding). And reading is the best writing instructor there is. Also, if possible do a full year abroad, not just a semester. It used to be a Junior year abroad. Don't know when that got abbreviated to a mere semester, which is not really enough. I envy the young people who win your trip, and wish you'd take a senior along too!
217
@Fotogringa :
Yes, read--actual books, not just articles and tweets. A good book will take you across the world and into the heart of human experience.
11
@Fotogringa
Maybe we should add step #1-Define success in a way relevant to you, your values and beliefs. Define your success in a way that acts not just in your favor but for a sustainable Earth.
Avoid defining success as the dominant culture would have you do.
Success as it is now defined in that dominant culture is leading us all down the rat-hole.
Someone said "The Earth does not need any more successful people!".
7
Nicholas: my favorite columnist, usually, but this time you seem way off. The world desperately needs creative thinkers as we solve problems brought about by climate change and the mass extinction. Take courses in poetry -- broadening out what is possible with words (language forms us) also broadens out thinking space. One good way to become a fuller person. And, a better participant in society.
Good advice, except for:
"Democrats have been embracing rent control, even though basic economics show that typical rent-control schemes make housing shortages worse by increasing demand without increasing supply."
It makes housing shortages worse for whom??
Look more closely at the NYC experience
I grew up in the then wonderfully rent-stabilized Stuyvesant Town, created for returning GIs, along with the children of firefighters, police officers, school teachers, nurses, and other community servants, right here in Manhattan, people living in the communities they served. This serves a public good.
In dramatic contrast, whose interests are served by giving real estate developers free reign over places like the new "billionaires' row" on 57th Street? Overseas money laundering? Multi-millionaires with multiple homes?
Rent stabilization (a bit different from "rent control") allows a reasonable return on investment while protecting middle class families and communities.
2
I think Mr. Kristof is missing all the buzz that economics has missed the boat, and that the bizarre world of "Homo Economicus" (s/he ain't real) and "endogenous preferences" (we ignore all the real stuff that doesn't fit the narrow models). So, the first recommendation is silly (study Economics), then from there we sink into recommendations that the narrow study of Economics prevents; i.e. (2) connecting to large causes (not within this narrow discipline), making out (studies show Economics majors evince more self-interested behavior) and escaping your comfort zone (that's the whole global reaction against Economics). I hope Mr. Kristof does a re-do! He's out of touch.
Your advice sounds great, but it came way too late for me.
The article fails to point out that when a Democrat makes it to the Oval Office, they do so on a platform grounded on the idea that success is a dirty word and theirs rejoice achieve owe those who have not. My parents couldn’t afford college for me. So I didn’t belong there. Jeff Bezos does not owe college (or healthcare, food, clothing or shelter) to anyone other than his own children.
3
Kristof gives advice on economics from a guy who never studied economics: skip calculus, take statistics.
Unfortunately, econometrics, the discipline that applies math and computer modeling to economic theory, requires both calculus and statistics.
Given that our nation is so woefully behind virtually every other OECD country in math education, that's bad advice. Canadian universities require that anyone applying for admission to undergraduate programs in either economics or business demonstrate having completed a year of calculus.
So avoid law; study math so that you can understand economics.
11
Mr. Kristof,
Instead of one student, why not select three? Consider a student who has sensory disabilities such as deafness.
3
I think I would make the distinction "Macro economics". Micro economics, graphing curve after curve, could drive someone away forever. Or maybe I had an uninspiring professor.
1
A sense of statistics is vital to navigation through a world flooded with uncurated information. Our current K-12 education system math curriculae must be revamped to incorporate statistics and probability. These skills will enable the public to process information more effectively. Very good piece!
5
Not sure I agree totally with point four. I am bilingual, having lived in Germany for several years, but I can't see this has really been all that helpful. Even when I'm in Germany, Austria or Switzerland, everybody speaks English so this is only useful in reading menus. But perhaps this refers only to third world countries, as listed? There I really don't see the point. How useful in the world at large would be whatever language is endemic in Ghana? Moreover in Ghana, and also India and Oman, as former British colonies, English is widely spoken. So, I don't think a second or third language is important except, uniquely in the USA, Spanish. Not important in Europe, but here it allows you to talk more easily to the maid.
2
Ah, there is a different way to reach the same goals. Take that calculus class, and that physics class. Become a research scientist, You will find that your professors and classmates are from all over the world. Your career will take you to conferences and collaborations in scores of countries. And, with a little luck and hard work you may make a discovery that will save lives, or make them better everywhere.
7
Excellent advice! I forwarded to my adult children as well as my nieces.
I know that lists cannot start getting too long, but I would add one more - make sure you vote.
The issues that matter for the future (climate change, gun control, income inequality, sexism, racism) predominantly affect young people. And yet for every person under 25 that votes, 5 people over 65 vote.
9
Excellent suggestions.
I would go one step further and offer this opportunity to High School Seniors. It will go a lot further in opening their minds before they choose a college.
5
These are great suggestions. I love the one about making out. Although I think reaching out for both love and friendship is important. If you feel lonely, reach out to someone — you will ease their feeling of loneliness as well.
Also, if this were my advice column, I would add one thing: Always have two books going — one fiction and one non-fiction — and subscribe to your nearest big-city daily newspaper. (In addition to this one, of course!) Never stop reading and learning!
39
By far, my favorite columnist at the NYT. This is an excellent column. I have also enjoyed many of the readers’ comments as well. It is nice to read things that are positive and focused on making humans better. I particularly liked the comment about kindness. The only other comment I would add is do small things to make the environment better. Drink out of a water fountain, forgo the extra napkins, avoid plastic utensils, only buy what you need etc. While small, if everyone does a bit more, it does make a difference!
8
Interesting. But is some respects, a little short on reality.
Some of the best and most profitable languages can't be learned by hanging around in foreign coffee shops, because they haven't been spoken for millennia, if ever (literary Chinese).
And, while I probably studied more statistics and other mathematical delicacies than you have, I have sustained my thirty percent ROI for the last decade (And a 70% run-up so far this year), not from numerical analysis of the stock market, but by my unfailing contempt for the intellectual capacities of the people running it.
Making out in the market is best achieved by taking money from babies. Not terribly bright babies who were dropped, if not thrown, on their heads.
Often.
Solid advise. I can say I have done this as well. Statistics and economics were my way of avoiding high math. I am so much better prepared than the rest of my family and many friends who find life so much more chaotic when it comes to finance etc. I had to leave the larger than myself cause due to the size of Orlando and its lack of support of the local arts. That has been the source of my disappointment in myself. I hope in my retirement, I will find my way back to the arts. Oh, my wife is the center of the universe. Just saying.
3. Make out. The most important decision you will make is not the university you attend, nor your major, not even your first job. It’s who you marry or settle down with.
#3 nails it for me Mr. Kristorf.
Arriving home at days end to partnership that embraces equality, is emotionally available, and offers unconditional support is the fortitude one needs to follow your passions in life.
11
@mary I have an issue with this...everyone thinks they are marrying that partner you speak of but 50% of people find they have not over time. People and relationships change and often it's out of your control. It certainly makes a big difference who you partner with and you're lucky if it works out for you, but it doesn't have to be a prerequisite to success. I think having a support system through family and friends in general can suffice.
PS. I want to add that I am in no way being snide, but I am frankly overwhelmed at how Mr Kristof's advice seems to be directed at the children of elites (the assumption that they will be able to afford university in the US, a semester abroad...)
43
Taking and economic course of statistics is hardly directed at the elite.
9
Ambersand Brian: but we all know that Ivy League college campus life is much more like a party, unlike a Junior College, with people juggling employment with class schedules.
Well at least I know; I went to some great parties at Stanford University when I was in high school, and likewise attended parties with rich kids up in Los Altos Hills, after that time in high school.
@Brian It is, when so many people are struggling to put food on the table and make their rent or mortgage in the US, and when even attending a not-so-great college will set you back well into the 5 figures.
My secret to success is the following: I moved to a country with universal health care, good and free education from primary school to post-grad, and good social infrastructure. This allowed myself and my partner to focus on what we love without ever having to worry about being bankrupted for health care, or for our children's education.
35
@Person I wish I had been so smart.
6
I agree whole heartedly with no. 4. I moved overseas right after college and have now spent a majority of my professional life overseas. There is something indescribable about experiencing culture shock. It’s possible in the United States, but to be in a place where you don’t share the same frames of reference, history, or even language is profound. It is even more so when it wears off and all you can see are the similarities.
5
A popular myth (echoed here) is that economic and financial education is an important piece of the puzzle. The fact is that though it could be, education and reality separate fast in the real world, particularly where economics is concerned. One need only watch the Federal Reserve Bank and the credit card world to see our collective willingness to ignore the laws of economics in favor of short term gratification. The light at the end of the tunnel is an inflation that will make 1920’s Germany seem like fun.
3
Some good advice (though "Make Out" confused me a bit). As a retired educator, I further suggest that "try to pick an enlightened teacher of economics" would be helpful, however one interprets that. "Find a tutor if needed" for statistics could be useful, also (speaking from long-ago experience).
Expanding your essay: question the notion that "just be happy" is over-rated, and "follow your bliss" can be as much a detour to a meaningful life as "follow the money." Escape your comfort zone can indeed help a young person avoid the parochial tendency to stick so close to home as to miss the realities that govern other human beings.
And "success" -- I'd love to exchange that cliché, which to me always smacks of dollars and cents. Purpose, meaning, fulfillment, engagement -- terms in that arena come closer to aligning with the advice offered here, I believe.
12
Your third suggestion distressed me. Finding the right life partner certainly enhances one’s life but more than half of millennials are single by choice or circumstance. While I’ve been happily married for more than forty years, the idea that the most important decision in life and the key to success is to find a partner is a soul-crushing indictment of the single life.
51
@Sara Remains to be seen, but I suspect that most, if not the overwhelming majority, of millennials who choose to remain single, will feel increasingly lonely and bereft of purpose, and thus unhappy.
5
Have you noticed how often millennials take selfies. They like themselves more than anyone else so why get married.
3
@Brian LOL. Too true
2
As someone who grew up in Germany, I totally agree that escaping your comfort zone is critical to one's intellectual and human development. I tell young people this, in particular: go to overseas news sources--not just the English speaking countries--to get their angle on global happenings. There are non-English speaking news sources like Germany's "Der Spiegel" news magazine that have English mirror websites. The point is that you will learn more about your country based on how "others" comment on developments on your home turf! Trust me on this. Regarding serendipity: we think we control events in our lives--wrong--life is what happens as we plan it! "Success" is determined primarily by being in the right place at the right time--we have little control over that. Roll with the punches, be flexible, and remember that when one door closes, another one will open up if you look hard enough.
41
The list is terrific! I will forward to my own students. I have a few other things I often mention to them and other young people: (1) Keep learning--anything and everything--and keep looking for ways to apply that learning in real life. (2) Be careful out there. Accidents and injuries happen in an instant, and they can permanently change the direction your life takes, not always for the better. (3) At the same time, be adventurous, and take advantage of those serendipitous opportunities that present themselves.
8
So no room for the sciences? I'm a scientist with a liberal arts education and I encourage everyone (i.e., scientists I mentor) to do the same. I think people should be well rounded. My undergrad majors were computing science and genetics and with minors in math and microbiology and I did grad school in an interdisciplinary area and continue to do research that is even more so. In the end, what my passion has been can be described as the study of complex (adaptive/dynamic) systems, and these systems can be anything. My fine arts classes come in handy from making images to appreciating the artistry that goes into science (hard or soft) and one of my sciency hobbies, astronomy and astrophotography.
But I agree, it's all serendipity. I knew I wanted to be a scientist at age 5. I've released albums, led bands, performed live both as a musician and in drama and during grad school I was making more from music than my stipend but that quickly changed so I chose one path for income and the others as an hobby.
13
Nick, from my vantage point it’s your amazing compassionate heart that is so special. That’s a hard act to follow!
23
Calculus is the language of physics, and most other sciences dress themselves up with it too. I took Alan Meltzer's course in economics at CMU. I only got a B for taking issue with matters I still write about.
I think who one knows matters more than what one knows to business success, but one will be more interesting to others and meet more people if one is more erudite and original oneself. I wish I had had the multi-lingual exposure of my European ancestors, but if one can only speak English, at least it has assimilated some of the best words from many other languages.
I have no advice to offer about how to be successful in business as conducted by the likes of Donald Trump.
9
Both Economics and Statistics should be mandatory and part of the common core.
12
By the time students are college age, it is probably too late for Big Advice. My earlier Big Advice is:
Take the opportunity to learn as much as you can while the learning is free, starting with elementary school or earlier, through high school. Remember that learning is not the same as being taught, and that it can be done even if the teacher or school is not that great. At some point you will be on your own, so you cannot rely on having someone there to help you. Learn what you need to know for the next step before taking it; if you have not learned it already, go back and learn it. The most important skill you can learn is learning how to learn.
Learn to read, and then read to know about other things. Learn to write, and then write, so you can let others know what you think. In the same way, learn to listen, and learn to speak to others. Learn to understand and to be understood.
Learn to do arithmetic and find ways to use it. Learn logic (when you take geometry class, remember that it is a logic course, and you will use the logic a lot more often than you will use the geometry).
Learn to be polite and considerate of others, and get to know as many different people as you can, and let them get to know you.
58
"...take a semester abroad."
I am sure this is useful but it doesn't always turn out to be optimum. Example: if you go somewhere and spend most of your time in an American bubble with fellow American students, you will really miss out. Six months or a year would probably be a lot more valuable and would force the traveler to learn the language. In France, studying elsewhere is so valued the government gives scholarships under what is called the Erasmus program.
My "semester" abroad came at 24 after I was finished with college. I traveled to France on my own having never been to Europe previously and plopped myself down in the dead of winter and tried to cope. One dramatic thing I learned is that you probably won't get much out of studying a foreign culture if you don't have some rather strong perspective on your own.
Being elsewhere forces more understanding of what you left behind. There was no internet in those days so the only readily available news source was the International Herald-Tribune, a lifeline. Another thing: being on your own requires that you think for yourself rather than having someone else spoon feed you.
Everyone who has the opportunity should spend sometime getting rooted in another country but it is important to understand this one, too.
6
Nick: A serious statistics class requires Calculus and differential equations as prerequisites. I did take probability and statistics in high school, but college stats ( especially in the Math department require a different way of thinking- of risk and uncertainty and probabilities that are not really known but your best guess!
5
Nicholas: Great piece. If I had my way, every 18-year-old would have to spend a year in a poor place, in-country or out. In exchange, besides a stipend, it would include two years of trade school or public college, tuition and living expenses provided.
I would push for overseas so they would learn what a tub of butter they have lived in, even if they were "poor" by American standards. Even Russia, where I saw a line, 4-abreast, around a full rectangular block to get into the first McDonald's that opened in Moscow. When I asked my guide why they would do that she replied "Because when they get there, they know they'll get something. That's not true in our stores." Ponder that for a while. That was 1989 and may have changed but it was instructive to me at the time.
On that trip I learned why private property is the foundation of our wealth. We were in the Ukraine, second week in August, high-grain season on a 3,000-person commune farm. Rained every 3rd of 4th day. I observed four modern combines (from Germany) all lined up at 8:00 PM with the sun still well up in the sky NOT moving. Why? I asked. "It's the end of the paid day" was the reply. I told him that would never happen in the USA, they would combine right on thru the night if the dew didn't fall. They still had 40%of their population on the farms compared to our 4%.
3
Helpful advise and interesting choices. I wouldn't have thought of the economics and statistics classes. As someone who had to conquer childhood traumas before worrying about any of your practical suggestions, I would say that for me and others like me the first priority is to learn to proactively take your own side. Respect your own emotions, question your beliefs: the necessary steps to climbing out of the tangle of unconscious influences in your life.
17
THANK YOU ! Such a warm and enouraging homily. I'm a boomer, had a great education and a great life. But it made me want to be 18 again just to be able to take your advice! Blessings to you.
12
The most important way to step outside your comfort zone is to engage with a Trump supporter. All say it can’t be done, but it can, because I’ve done it. Today it was a fighter pilot with Harvard educated parents. Earlier it was a college roommate and then it was a fellow prosecutor. The decision to engage is seat of the pants, and the refusal to do so is fear of stepping outside yourself. And Mr. Kristof has told us that the failure to engage closes a door that needs to be open
8
"Make Out" should be number one, though I am not sure if you meant to prioritized the four 'secrets.' Money means nothing without love, and my baby stays with me no matter my income! Good times! Great advice!
5
Best advice for 80% of students in universities asking you for advice: don't waste your time and money by going to a university.
College teaches 20th century skills, which are increasingly obsolete in a world undergoing such astonishingly rapid change.
The important skills for the future, like deep exposure to the humanities and good math and statistics skills can easily be acquired for minimal cost on your own, with self-discipline.
Economics in particular is a complete waste of time, since it is the root cause of so much of the turmoil in the world today, and economics in the 21st century will bear little resemblance to that taught in universities and those silly economics textbooks for the past fifty years anyway, as the Digital Revolution will transform economics and Capitalism itself in profound and fundamental ways in coming years.
The most important skill of all in the 21st century, which Nick Kristof personifies, is empathy, and figuring out how to use the stunning advances in technology as tools to empower you to apply it to real world, civilization-threatening problems, like inequality, pervasive economic insecurity, and climate change.
It's all about problem-solving, and acquiring whatever skills you need to solve the problems you choose to solve as you go.
6
@TB
Absolutely first rate advice. Also, learn how to make a good cuppa-joe at the house...soup also. That way you won't have to spend your hard earned money having someone else make it for you.
1
Everyone's view of success is different. Mr. Kristof is telling us how to learn to see the world as he does, which is fine but is only one point of view. For example, not everyone can master economics and statistics even on a basic level. Some people's minds just don't work that way. And I don't care how many languages my trauma surgeon was able to speak or whether he has ever left the CT area -- I'm glad he knew how to fix my hip during emergency surgery.
I think that the most important things a young person can know is are:
1) Learn how to stay healthy -- avoid harmful drugs, eat properly and in moderation, exercise regularly.
2) Tell the truth, and learn how to identify what is true.
3) Be reliable, keep your word, learn how to be organized and do things on time.
4) Develop empathy, don't be condescending or judgmental, keep your emotions in check.
5) Learn a skill so you can support yourself and be flexible to use that skill even if times change.
6) Have interests other than your work and family -- reading, travel, sports, a hobby, just meeting people.
7) Volunteer for a charity, club, school, or political group.
8) Understand that people who are not like you and those in your world have the same value as humans as you do.
184
@Benjamin II
Beautiful! It would be great if Mr. Kristof could incorporate your suggestions, as well as those made by some other readers, into his article.
5
@Benjamin II Also a great list and I too hope that Mr. K publishes the valuable suggestions of readers.
3
@Benjamin II
Well, of course, there are other "secrets of success" that are valuable and necessary. Telling the truth, being reliable and understanding that all people are of equal value are obviously important to being a successful human being. (If only our president possessed these traits.)
But please note that Mr. Kristof introduced this column as, more or less, tongue in cheek. I'm certain he did NOT mean for this to be The Definitive Secrets of Success List.
Rather he was adding some of the lesser-known pearls of wisdom that he has accumulated over the years. They're important precisely because they don't appear on the typical lists of successful life characteristics.
8
As an international educator who was blessed to study abroad and make it my professional goal to expand as many students’ horizons as possible. Thank you for your plug for study abroad.
I was an exchange student in high school through Rotary and it was the most challenging and rewarding experience. I would encourage every young student to look at Rotary as an affordable option. If you go abroad in college, heed Nick’s advice and avoid Europe and Australia. They are more expensive than many other options and you can always visit later!
Or you can go abroad after college. I did this. And so did my American husband. We met in Ecuador. We’ve been married for 10 years.
This leads me to the last point: choose a good life partner. I’m thankful that I have always known that my husband has a big worldview. This is a value I cherish deeply.
7
Three of those pieces of advice have merit. The fourth does too, but it also the piece of advice that one cannot guarantee via one's own efforts. One should find love, but it isn't always possible. So I would think the suggestion should be expanded to finding not just a partner if possible, but also to building a strong, diverse (in terms of ideology, race, sex, religion, etc.) base of friends and loved ones. I think this suggestion has merit because socializing with others is fundamental to our own perspectives on a wide variety of things.
46
You, Sir, are making the world a better place, by reaching millions of people a day, yet speaking to them on what feels like a one-to-one basis. Regardless of their age, their ethnicity or where they live, your thoughts are always inspirational and aspirational.
While I wish I could still spend a semester abroad, your tips are well worth following.
Keep up the good work.
23
Indeed economics today requires the study and use of mathematics and statistics. That will knock out a lot of potential students "students" of economics.
Finding a cause that gives purpose is good advice. Knowing when to move on, grow up and possibly leave the cause is also important.
The partner advice is correct. That can make or break. It is also hopelessly out-dated (but so am I).
Escape your comfort zone is always good advice. Those who dare succeed (or fail, but at least they have had some experiences).
Good luck to applicants.
9
NICK'S WISE WORDS For those aspiring to be wise are a ray of light among the glowering clouds of the US political paroxysms. I guess his exhortation to cuddle is the 21st century version of Make Love Not War. That'll do. Perhaps the most unexpected was the recommendation to study statistics rather than calculus. All the charts and graphs generated using statistical formulas must be interpreted using statistics. So that was a GREAT idea! I'm continuing my travels around the globe, as much as possible, taking an interest in ways to improve the human condition. Absent from Nick's piece was mention of the imminent danger due to global climate change. I say, Follow the water. The struggles for enough water are going to come fast, furious and violent with an unexpected intensity. People can live for years on the verge of starvation. But at most a week without water.
8
It is a mystery to me that so many people, like yourself, are charitable and aim to make the world better, while others could care less. I count the latter group as growing over the last four decades.
I hope that is changing. You are a good person Mr Kristof. What a shame the more people do not see the joy in giving.
5
As someone who was burned out of two apartments with legal leases by developers who jumped at the chance to build in newly zoned areas, I could not disagree more with you on your rent control comment. At the time I was paying back -in todays dollars- a college loan equal to a hundred and forty two thousand dollars while paying rent in an area few gentrifiers wanted to live in. Monetarily, I've never had outside help. My lawyer made more hourly than I did daily during the court battle. In the end, the landlord simply stalled knowing I could not afford to keep paying a lawyer and the judges looked the other way with regards to the guilt of his being the person paying for an arsonist. Rent control does more than just provide a reasonably priced apartment, it also provides legal help for those who cannot afford it and defends them against atrocities committed by owners. In a city like NY where the demand and supply is ridiculously unbalanced it allows for a mix of the economic strata to continue to exist. Besides, in NY developers are disproportionately interested in providing housing for the luxury market.
23
Another suggestion.
Sometimes where you live is more important than what you do for a living or how well you do it. I was a semiconductor engineer, (now retired). I would have had a much better career in Silicon Valley than in Florida and Texas.
For some reason, my wife never wanted to move there. I brought her out to SV for 10 days back in 1982. I was attending a training course and had several job offers. She said no.
I quit that job in 1984, (never was a fan of Huey Long) and again was offered employment in SV. I took another job in Florida. I loved that job, but the world doesn't always leave you alone. I experienced a lay off due to company mismanagement. Again offered jobs in SV.
They called me via my reputation as did a company in Texas. I went to Texas for the interview 12 days later and was offered a job with a salary raise. Since I had a buddy from my University days living in Dallas, I took the job. Pay and benefits were seamless.
Texas is a "Right to Work State" I made twenty years in that company, but would have had a much better career in a healthier environment, plus property appreciation in SV.
6
"(Items 3 and 4 can be combined for maximum language acquisition.)"
A priceless parenthetical if there ever was one!
5
Memory of my stats class: Midterm exam. Multi-step problem about rare events. Probability of an airplane crash. I had this one down. Easy peasy.
Imagine my surprise when I got my exam back with a big fat zero. And the professor's devastating comment: "One wing?"
3
Excellent suggestions, however having lived overseas in high school and college I can tell you my foreign language fluency also included a lot of words my parents would not have wanted me to learn in any language.
1
I have traveled to many countries, had a good career, studied statistics and messed around a bit. Whether I was successful, I still don't know, but it sue got me into trouble sometimes.
4
I'm not sure a class in economics or statistics would help most people very much. I don't see any path using those fields that leads to a fulfilling life. Perhaps to succeed in the US you need to be an expert in these subjects. That's a black mark on the US.
I'd replace this piece of advice with this: Don't go in to debt for any reason.
Heed this and you will know freedom.
47
A basic understanding of economics and statistics will enable you to understand much. As the standard saying go, “Figures don’t lie, but liars can figure”, and “What do the statistics say? What do you want them to say?”
4
@Reeducated
In a capitalist society, life is a business.
All business is a combination of debt and equity.
2
Totally disagree. For many people it pays to take out debt for a practical degree (like an MD) or a home.
"We might also have sounder policy if our leaders weren’t economic illiterates. President Trump and congressional Republicans sold the 2017 tax cut on the absurd notion that it would pay for itself"
Who knows if the congressional Republicans actually believed it. They were beholden to their donors to deliver and big tax cut, and they did. They had to offer a plausible reason to their gullible base, so they did.
" I do believe that philosophers and playwrights should have present value and standard deviations in their citizen tool belts."
If this is how you see the world you may not be as informed as you think. Gaussian distributions (which is what they teach in statistics class) are great for describing things like height but fail miserably at the things that matter most to our economy and our world. Ask yourself how many standard deviations down the stock market went during the crashes in 2000 and 2008, or even last December. Statistically these things are impossible and yet they happened. Nor do standard deviations explain phenomena like distribution of income, size of cities, etc; these are described by power laws. You might want to learn more about Bayesian statistics, power laws, and long-tailed distributions such as discussed by Taleb.
2
Magnificent “ Big Advice “. I have one small addition, that you absolutely practice: BE KIND. Yes, sometimes difficult to achieve, especially these last few years. Sometimes being Kind means disengaging or walking away. It does not mean placing yourself in peril, or allowing yourself to be abused. It’s closely related to “ find a Cause “, but it’s also a personal ethos, and a way of relating to the World. Start with your friends, neighbors and co-learners, or co-workers. Be available, be open, be honest.
I’ll eventually be cremated, with my ashes mixed with those of all my Dogs that had the same fate. The Husband has promised to release US, surreptitiously, around my very favorite spot on the Planet. Here’s a clue: the “ Jetsons “ meets the Emerald City.
What’s that have to do with kindness ? There, I get to practice it, without inhibitions or scorn. Face to face, introducing myself to the “ dreaded homeless “ and giving each person who asks five or ten bucks, occasionally more. It’s my money, and it just might be a Meal, for them.
Best of luck with your Contest. What a great experience, and what FUN.
6
Forty years ago I heard the secret to success is "you become what you think about" according to Dale Carnegie and Earl Nightingale. I discovered the key to happiness is having something to look forward to.
6
Economics as taught (at least when I studied it 40 years ago) needs to be taken with many grains of salt. It relies on behavioral assumptions that have no empirical validity. Statistics, OTOH, is vital for understanding just about everything that comes from data and everyone should get at least an introduction.
2
From a soon to be retired 60 y.o. here's my four - 1. Don't go into engineering. Company's outsource everything to the 3rd world plus there is no real money in it. Work on your people skills instead. 2. Invest soon and often, put your money in a S&P 500 fund and forget about it. You need 10% growth year over year, that's all and you will beet most investors. 3. As Nicholas says, marry well and don't get divorced. Divorce can ruin you financially. Find someone who compliments your skills. 4. Have a spiritual path from which you can draw strength. You'll need it.
10
As superintendent of a bi-lingual international school in the Far East, these words of wisdom resonate and align well with the need for developing 21st century skills in our students.
...and required preparation for the challenges ahead associated with an entirely different global stage that awaits us all.
In the end, we seek to both shape minds and touch hearts...
Well done, Nick.
1
Ah...where were you in 1983? I would have absolutely applied to the win-a-trip contest. I agree whole heartedly with your suggestions. I would add a working knowledge of geography and courses in ethics. Experiencing the world (and not just the 'in' places to go') is invaluable. I was dragged by my parents into a 3rd world country. I hated the idea. I had a boyfriend. I did NOT want to go. But it turned out to be the best experience of my life.
5
adorable. I used to think that things like your advice made a difference in success and then I realized that the most successful people were the ones whose parents could leave them a business or get them a job interview with their friend Ellen Degeneres or into the right college like Lori Loughlin. Every day I'm reminded that intelligence, hard work and integrity count for nothing. Bernie Madoff and Trump nailed America's version of success.
16
@Greg Jones Well, yes, if your idea of success is making money. As someone who scrabbles constantly for $$, I get it. But I think that's a pretty narrow definition of success.
7
@Greg Jones :
Bernie Madoff is in prison. Trump is an object of scorn.
I don't see these people as being successful.
5
Depends on how you define success. Bernie Madoff and Trump seem like failures to a lot of us who don’t use fame, power and money as the benchmarks.
3
I could not agree more. My own feelings are that nobody should be allowed to graduate high school without being able to explain compound interest and how to balance a checkbook, even if they have never seen one. And the need to have at least a basic understanding of statistics is just as big.
Financial and numerical and interpretive literacy are perhaps half of a good education, and the discovery of other cultures is a big part of the other half. If it's all tied together with critical thinking then we're getting somewhere.
Somewhere in my far off youth somebody showed my mother a book of math shortcuts- things like multiplying by 9, or multiplying by a known, and then subtracting or adding a corrective as needed; another book about "mathsemantics" was very useful, and then there are financial books that include things like the "law of 72". Once the pieces are laid out there the puzzle starts to come together.
Great column. Thanks much for it.
1
@Mark I couldn't agree more about the importance of understanding finances. Compounding interest. Long term investments. Index funds. Tax ramifications. And on and on. As an older person, I'm interested in that, too. And I wish I'd payed more attention earlier. It's important. But ultimately, what has been most important in my life has been my experience in the world. The whole world. Different people...different cultures...different relationships...an understanding of the differences and similarities between all of us. Basically, we're all pretty much the same.
4
@alabreabreal
Ah yes. The investor economy. OK to exploit the poor workers in other parts of the world so we can have clean air and water here. So far as the deplorables here… well.. Kristoff seems to think the it's OK to have alll kinds of gov jobs (state, federal, local) which often overpay people - while the private sector under pays many people.. and they don't have a security blanket. Saying that a basi universal income is a bad idea... ?? I don't quite get it. Who do you think benefits from Medicaid and Medicare finally -- broadly and where does the shareholder come in?? (and should the shareholder be involved?? So far as charity are we tithing?? and should it be tax deductible? (I say "no." Ah so many questions -- one small column.
I would qualify your #3. Don't marry young. You should not make a commitment society expects you to keep forever before you have lived on your own in your 20s, dated many people and know yourself well outside of the context of your childhood and upbringing. otherwise strongly agree with your advice!
56
@rcp See, that was the advice I was given, and I followed it, and in retrospect I think it was pointless. I happened to meet someone I was compatible with when I was 20. I'm also compatible with the man I met when I was 35, and married. But married life (with a good partner) is so much better than unmarried life that in retrospect I should have just married the first guy and saved myself a lot of headaches.
My marriage advice would be: don't marry someone who isn't a good person or whose company you don't really enjoy. But as soon as you meet a good person you do really like, all around, then why not just marry them? There's no one better out there, and there's a whole lot worse. Dating is expensive and time-consuming, and often dispiriting. Marry a good supportive person and you'll be able to put that much more of yourself into other aspects of your life.
Most of all, don't assume that the instant you finally feel "ready" to settle down (as I did at age 25), you'll magically find someone you want to settle down with. It took me another decade. By the time we married I was almost too old to have kids--we're lucky we had one.
16
@bess I'm sure it's tempting to indulge in hypotheticals of how much better it would have been if you had just married at 20. And, perhaps that would have worked for you but don't be so sure.
You wrote "But married life (with a good partner) is so much better than unmarried life that in retrospect I should have just married the first guy and saved myself a lot of headaches." Perhaps, but married life when you're miserable is a horrible way to waste your 20s and 30s, and going through a divorce almost as devastating as staying when you want to leave. I stand firmly convinced that you don't know yourself at 20 or 25 and therefore should never make a decision to commit to someone at that age now that we're likely to live into our 90s.
4
"The worst advice people give students is to spend the first third of their lives studying, the middle third making money, and the final third giving back. That would rob you for two-thirds of your life of meaning and fulfillment."
This presumes what people find meaningful and fulfilling. I found my academic days challenging and intellectually fulfilling. They afforded me several rewarding career positions where I made a solid middle-class salary, and now I've taken early retirement and have ramped up my voluntary work. By your definition, there is something wrong with my life.
1
@JBC I don't think Kristof is at all saying that there's something wrong with your life. If money, security and early retirement are you goals, then apparently you've met them. Congratulations! Others may have other goals. Which are a little less parochial. To each his own.
Nicholas Kristof writes: "Democrats have been embracing rent control, even though basic economics show that typical rent-control schemes make housing shortages worse by increasing demand without increasing supply."
Yes, if we abolished all rent control in New York City we'd greatly increase supply as many people moved out of New York City, unable to afford the new rents they were offered. What a great idea!
Happiest man alive. 55 years married, three sons, well educated and all doing well. Have sailed the oceans, worked on submarine missile launch systems, involved in refueling and new construction of nuclear reactors, been on deep dives, managed a construction department building refineries, and power plants employing thousands.
Took a course in economics and finance, just later in life than I wished. From time to time, stepped outside my comfort zone, when the situation needed it.
As I look back I ask myself how did I get so lucky? Only answer I could arrive at was, little fear of the unknown, and lots of serendipity.
35
While it is nice to consider only 4 items- I would add, Public speaking and debating which requires communications, presentation skills and confidence
Science and math to at least a full year of Biology, Physics and Chemistry + Calc III+Linear Algebra + basic comp sci courses
As a multi-entrepreneur, I believe we have seen the last of (business) leaders who lack math/tech/science basic skills. Extemporaneous communications and sales skills are foundational for success
1
@Chris This is one of the saddest comments ever. He completely missed the gist of the article.
2
As someone who is multilingual, I think that perhaps the greatest benefit I’ve derived from my linguistic skills is the ability to pick up on societal and cultural cues. Achieving idiomatic fluency in a language forces one to understand the culture and society the language is most closely associated with.
That said, there’s little practical value any more in learning most foreign languages. Global business is conducted in English, and Google translate is more than enough to seek out restaurant recommendations when traveling for pleasure (Google maps has ended the need for directions).
I agree that statistics is probably the most important discipline to learn today. Basic economics, stripped of excess ideology and jargon, is useful too, but less so than statistics.
1
Good suggestions. Except that the economics class I took was entirely wrong. I hope economics no longer counts the environment as an "externality" that can be ignored.
75
@Blonde Guy Thanks for your comment. Indeed, economics teaches that the environment is an externality (in the sense that it is not reflected in a company's profit and loss statements) that CANNOT be ignored. The point is to figure out ways to hold companies accountable for environmental predation.
86
@Nicholas Kristof
Very true. This from an ex-corporate lawyer who used to defend a big industrial company against environmental citations. Externalities are costs which corporations, including service companies, are allowed to impose on us. No justice in that ! Of course, since I am safely retired it's a lot easier to be just.
16
@Nicholas Kristof: Indeed.
The entire logical basis of Capitalism rests on the presumption of predation doesn't it? That coal, copper, iron, wood, sea-weed, you name it; it's all free for the taking! All that needs to be done is incur the expense in digging, chopping and grabbing it.
You can then repackage the lot and sell it for a fee; all without real regard for the underlying substance, because there's always more where that came from. I exaggerate a bit but trust you get my drift?
So...at root Capitalism sits on a premise that is fundamentally, environmentally and economically insane; completely divorced, and bereft, from wisdom. Which means we either alter this system to properly account for all "inputs" else it will destroy us in the end.
John~
American Net'Zen
29
Thank you, thank you, Mr. Kristof, for your wisdom, heart, and humor. I especially like your combining of #3 and #4.
You seem to have the rare capacities for both intimate connection and reaching out to make a difference.
15
"It’s also possible we’ll stay here in the United States and explore the domestic side of global poverty."
I always look forward to Nicholas Kristof's annual student contest to travel and report on an urgent need. I don't remember him suggesting that a possible locale might be right here in the US-- God knows that be more eye-opening than Africa or Eurasia.
In college, foreign languages were my comfort zone. Which is why I liked his advice to take harder, drier subjects like economics and statistics that help do the math of policy propsals.
But of all his tips, the one about learning how to give back now, not in the future, struck me the most. It's said youth is wasted on the young, but I'd say the opposite: wisdom comes from living, because what good is wisdom if you don't have the stamina to put it to good use?
32
What! Now you explain it! I took calculus instead of statistics and it has apparently made all the difference. It was a slippery slope.
1
Agree with your list. #1 is spot on but the most important skill is reading. If you cannot read everything else is out of reach. Especially successful education.
147
@Florence Reading is SO important. Also important is the ability to write well. If you can write well, you can think well. Witness Buttigieg. This is a man who can speak (on the fly) in paragraphs. With complete sentence and paragraph structure...introductory and concluding sentences. And each paragraph wraps up a tidy thought. I've never seen anything like it...and it suggests to me that he is not only very smart, but thoughtful as well.
9
@Florence Yes, I think you're right. I should have included it. I do think that the optimal time to cultivate reading is in elementary school, but certainly true that it can be nurtured later as well.
32
Yes!
Read widely, voraciously.
Talk to people about ideas, not things.
Ask two questions for every statement.
Seek truth.
Put down your phone and stop buying things you don’t need.
Become a polymath and an autodidact (look those 2 words up).
And if you are ever lucky enough to be in Quebec City, visit the Musee de la Civilisation.
To borrow an old term, it will blow your mind, in a good way.
8
Mr. Kristof,
(1) FYI, your newsletter was missing usual multiple links to your column, which made it harder to find. ;)
(2) Why do you disagree with universal basic income? I certainly don't think it's realistic to assume that there are going to be enough decent jobs for everyone, in the future, so what's the alternative?
Thanks.
16
@PaulSFO Oh, sorry about the missing links. I was in a plane when the newsletter was getting final tweaks, so I missed that. And for those who don't know what we're talking about, you can subscribe to my email newsletter at nytimes.com/KristofEmail
As for universal basic income, it would be hugely expensive if universal and significant, so I fear it would end up being small -- or else that it would replace job training, drug treatment, early childhood or other programs. But maybe the most important reason is that there's overwhelming evidence that jobs are deeply important to self-esteem. A stipend does not compensate us for loss of a job. In our forthcoming book, Tightrope, Sheryl and I looked at auto workers who lost their jobs in Detroit and just across the border in Windsor, Ontario. The laid-off auto workers on the US side got longer unemployment benefits, and the ones in Canada got much better job retraining. And the Canadians did far better. There's quite a bit of solid evidence that what matters to happiness is not so much income as it is whether or not one has a job (especially for men).
128
@Nicholas Kristof
Thanks for replying.
That is an excellent point, which I have not have thought about enough.
However, I think that it will eventually come down to, given that many people will not have a job, how will they deal with that situation. And, in that case, I think that having a universal basic income is better than not having it.
13
@PaulSFO
There will always be jobs.
Robots may replace assembly
line workers, but in a service
economy there will be a growing number of jobs in
education, heatlhcare, caring for the elderly and caring for children.
These are not businesses that
generate profits, but they are
jobs that taxpayers will want to fund.
9