Tactics first

Teach tactics first when starting with improving someone's chess.

Tactics are the beginning, middle and end.

Tactics are how you achieve a vision that you have for the board.

The most beautiful strategic vision must be rejected if it is tactically unsound.

You must assume a perfect opponent. You cannot play a move hoping he does not see the correct response.

Teach tactics first when improving someone's life.
Tactics are relevant at the beginning, middle and end.
Tactics are how you achieve the vision for your life.
You must reject even the loftiest goals if they are tactically unsound.
You must expect the world to continue functioning as it does presently. You cannot include a lottery win in your plans.

Post-boredom society

Seattle is a post-boredom world. 

It's a strange world. This is a greater challenge than TV. This is custom-fit entertainment. This is your personally tailored mix of entertainment, knowledge, news and attention. This is an infinity of distractions to keep you just above the threshold of boredom but far, far below any kind of fulfillment.

I call my smart phone my "portable contentment device." In my adult life, I've never been frustrated while waiting in line or at the airport. I haven't felt genuine boredom in a long time. I also haven't turned a stranger into a friend while waiting in line. I also don't spend nearly as much time as I once did deep in thought (not before I started regularly blogging, anyway). I don't think I'm alone in any of this.

Now, more than ever, it's important to develop hobbies, interests and friends to get satisfaction out of the way you spend your time. Being passive about your life will lead to it being lived for you. Cook a meal. Write. Read a classic. Make a video. Reflect. Take a time-out from your silicon brain. Best of all: go camping. Force yourself to get bored, and see what happens.

Make cool stuff happen

The bad news about adulthood is that good things don't just happen by themselves. The natural good news follow-up is that you can make great things happen for yourself and for others pretty much whenever you want.

You're the boss of you, so you have some choices to make, if you realize you have them:

• You can stay out late or you can make the most of your daylight.
• You can dress for your own convenience or to class up the joint.
• You can stay at home bored or you can plan things for you and your friends.
• You can coast or you can thrive.
• You can use your freedom to atrophy or you can push yourself to greater heights.

Raise the bar.

Be the change you want to see in your life.

You don't find yourself. You make yourself.