The forever optimist continues to gift his timely wisdom on his birthday. It’s a tradition that’s become a modern, once-a-year Tolstoy Calendar of Wisdom.

Here’s a few of our favorites from this year:

Ask anyone you admire: Their lucky breaks happened on a detour from their main goal. So embrace detours. Life is not a straight line for anyone.

Your best job will be one that you were unqualified for because it stretches you. In fact only apply to jobs you are unqualified for.

For a great payoff be especially curious about the things you are not interested in.

The Technium, https://kk.org/thetechnium/, Kevin Kelly

Read the list in full here.

That last one though. We’re typically told to follow our interests, our natural curiosities. How does one become curious about a subject they care little for?

One approach could be finding someone who is manically obsessed with the subject and have a conversation with them. Say you hate trigonometry. Maybe you approach the best trigonometry professor in your area and straight up ask them, Why is trigonometry so interesting?