<aside> 💡 In his book Excellent Advice for Living: Wisdom I Wish I’d Known Earlier, author Kevin Kelly passes down life advice in brilliant pithy, quotable nuggets.

As I read it, I thought, as I am wont to do, some of this is also excellent improv advice.

So here are some (mostly unedited) extracts. As in life, so in improv.

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Being enthusiastic is worth 25 IQ points.

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Listening well is a superpower.

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Movement plus variety equals health.

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The best way to learn anything is to try to teach what you know.

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Recipe for greatness: Become just a teeny bit better than you were last year. Repeat every year.

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Habit is far more dependable than inspiration. Make progress by making habits. Don’t focus on becoming a great improviser. Focus on becoming the kind of person who never misses a rehearsal.*

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If you are the best improviser in the room, you are in the wrong room. Hang out with, and learn from people better than yourself.*

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Pros make as many mistakes as amateurs; they’ve just learned how to gracefully recover from their mistakes.

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To be interesting, be interested.

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Separate the processes of creating from improving. You can’t write and edit or sculpt and polish or make and analyze at the same time. If you do, the editor stops the creator. While you invent, don’t select.

The creator mind must be unleashed from judgment.

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You really don’t want to be famous. Read the biography of any famous person.

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Art is in what you leave out.

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That thing that made you “weird” as a kid could make you great as an adult. If you don’t lose it.

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Scenes get better if you replace transactions with relationships.*

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Superheroes and saints never make art. Only imperfect beings can make art because art begins in what is broken.

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The greatest rewards come from working on something that nobody has words for. If you possibly can work where there are no names for what you do.

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A multitude of bad ideas is necessary for one good idea.

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When brainstorming improvising jamming with others you’ll go much further and deeper if you build upon each contribution with a playful “yes—and” example instead of a deflating “no—but” reply.

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Calm is contagious. Be calm to help others.

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You are only as young as the last time you changed your mind.

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Generally, say less than necessary.

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To transcend the influence of your heroes copy them shamelessly like a student until you get them out of your system. That is the way of all masters.

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Things do not need to be perfect to be wonderful.

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Every person you meet knows an amazing lot about something you know virtually nothing about. It won’t be obvious and your job is to discover what it is.

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You have to first follow the rules with diligence in order to break them productively.

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If winning becomes too important in a game change the rules to make it more fun. Changing rules can become the new game.

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It is the duty of a teacher to get everything out of a student and the duty of a student to get everything out of a teacher.

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Speak confidently as if you are right but listen carefully as if you are wrong.

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Don’t keep making the same mistakes; try to make new mistakes.

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Making art is not selfish; it’s for the rest of us. If you don’t do your thing you are cheating us.

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Pause frequently. Pause before you say something in a new way pause after you have said something you believe is important and pause as a relief to let listeners absorb details.

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Denying or deflecting a compliment is rude. Accept it with thanks even if you believe it is not deserved.

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When you have some success, the feeling of being an imposter can be real. Who am I fooling? But when you create things that only you with your unique talents and experience can do then you are absolutely not an imposter. You are the ordained. It is your destiny to work on things that only you can do.

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Constantly search for overlapping areas of agreement and dwell there.

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90% of everything is crap. If you think you don’t like opera, romance novels, TikTok, country music, vegan food improv, keep trying to see if you can find the 10% that is not crap.*

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It’s thrilling to be extremely polite to rude strangers.

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Most scenes are improved significantly if you skip the first minute. Start with the action.*

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Avoid wearing a hat that has more character than you do.

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In Narrative improv, focus on direction rather than destinations. Maintain the right direction and you’ll arrive at where you want to go.*

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Your group can achieve great things way beyond your means simply by showing people that they are appreciated.

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Don’t compare your inside to someone else’s outside.

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Do more of what looks like work to others but is play for you.

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It doesn’t matter how many people don’t appreciate you or your work. The only thing that counts is how many do.

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Rather than steering the scene to avoid the unexpected aim directly for it.*

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You will thrive more —and so will others— when you promote what you love rather than bash what you hate. Life is short; focus on the good stuff.

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Assume no one remembers names. As a courtesy reintroduce yourself by name even to those you have previously met: “Hi, I’m Kevin.”

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What you do instead of work might become your real work.

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Your golden ticket is being able to see things from other people’s point of view. This shift enables heartfelt empathy.

Mastering the view through the eyes of others will unlock so many doors.

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The end is almost always the beginning of something better.

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It is usually much easier to make big audacious changes than small incremental ones.

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The big dirty secret is that everyone is just making it up as they go along.

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

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Read the books that your favorite authors once read.

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Even if you don’t say anything if you listen carefully people will consider you a great improviser.*

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The purpose of listening is not to reply, but to hear what is not being said.

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The greatest killer of happiness is comparison. If you must compare, compare yourself to you yesterday.

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Your ideal scene partner is not someone you never disagree with but someone you are glad to disagree with.*

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Go with the option that opens up yet more options.

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You can elevate mundane details into magical wonders simply by noticing them.

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If you can remain astonished

*I couldn’t help myself. These ones are lightly edited for improv clarity