8 useful bits of life advice

To be taken with a massive shovel of salt

Greetings!

This is a special bonus post for paid subscribers. That’s a weird description, isn’t it? It sounds like I’ve paid people to subscribe, which might not be a bad idea come to think of it. Anyway, I digress. A few weeks ago an article of mine was published on the Books That Made Us newsletter. It was a review of the book Lifemanship by Stephen Potter. As I explained in the article:

There are numerous books about psychology, but this is one of the best in my opinion. It’s a humorous look at how to behave if you wish to be “one up” on people – and how to counteract the people who aspire to be one up on you. Potter defines “one up” in a somewhat self-referential way: if you’re not one up, then you’re one down.

Dr. Kathleen Waller

suggested in a comment that I write a listicle of Potter-ish advice. I thought that was a very chortleworthy idea, so here it is. I ought to preface this list by saying that I’ve always been of the opinion that Potter had actually observed the sort of things he suggests. The books¹ are very funny, and I highly recommend them for that reason alone. But as well as being humorous, they are also very perceptive, as I hope this small sample will illustrate. But enough of this persiflage. Here’s the list, numbered for ease of reference rather than order of importance. Let me know if you try them out!