Information for general human development. What knowledge should a modern person have in the modern world?

1. Learn to formulate thoughts

The ability to speak smoothly will help you convey your point of view to your interlocutor and even convey emotional experiences. Knowing the meaning of terms that are often used in your environment will help you feel more comfortable.

2. Look at the world from a different perspective

The basic rules of etiquette and NLP should be your starting point. NLP teaches you to look at the world through the eyes of your interlocutor in order to understand the motives of his behavior. With your respectful attitude towards people, you create a mirror reaction and even an unconscious desire to imitate you.

3. Be curious

Reluctance to read more than three sentences and fear of long texts distorts the perception of information. Understand that the world is multifaceted. We can talk about the problem only after we have read at least a couple of independent sources and drawn our own conclusions.

4. Don't judge others

Relationships cannot be squeezed into the framework of clichéd situations. Instead of labeling yourself as “fool” or “greedy”, it is better to try to work on your relationship in a cold-blooded manner. You will understand that for a well-done “job” in the role of a wife, you will definitely receive a long-awaited bonus in the form of a fur coat.

5. Be a role model

An English proverb says: “Don’t raise children, they will still be like you. Educate yourself!” In any case, the child will absorb the habits and behavior of his parents. Engage in self-improvement, and you will notice the best manifestations of yourself in your child.

6. Be inspired by beauty

Any manifestation of art develops imaginative thinking and memory. And of course, teaches us beauty. An erudite person needs to understand the masterpieces of world literature, music, cinema and fine art, the ideas of which remain relevant at the moment. Believe me, you will have a lot of fun!

7. Brush up on your knowledge

The point of high school is to lay the foundation of knowledge and skills. Of course, not all modern education programs can be considered practical. But you simply must know the multiplication table, the history of your own country, and understand geography and grammar.

8. Make a promise to Hippocrates

There are about ten accident situations. If you notice the victim, you will definitely call an ambulance. But there are still 30 minutes left before the medical team arrives. By mastering simple first aid skills, you can save the lives of not only others, but also yourself.

9. Learn to stand up for your rights

State laws and rights shape relationships in society. Therefore, you need to know them. Of course, there are specially trained people - lawyers - to solve specific situations and issues. But on a daily basis (for example, as a motorist) it’s every man for himself.

This list can be expanded endlessly, because every new day brings new “surprises” that you need to be prepared for. Don't stop there, study more useful literature, and you will understand that the world is beautiful the way it is. This is because you are the one who sees it this way – full of possibilities and miracles.

Text: Anna Kuznetsova

Cover design by I. V. Rezko

* * *

1. Ten Commandments according to the Synodal Translation of the Bible:

"1. I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery; Let you have no other gods before Me.

2. Do not make for yourself an idol or any image of anything that is in heaven above, or that is on the earth below, or that is in the water below the earth; You shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I the Lord your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and fourth generation of those who hate Me, and showing mercy to a thousand generations of those who love Me and keep My commandments.

3. Do not take the name of the Lord your God in vain, for the Lord will not leave without punishment the one who takes His name in vain.

4. Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy; six days thou shalt work and do all thy work, but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God: on it thou shalt not do any work, neither thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, nor thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy livestock, nor thy stranger. who is in your dwellings; For in six days the Lord created the heavens and the earth, the sea and everything in them; and on the seventh day he rested; Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and sanctified it.

5. Honor your father and your mother, so that your days may be long in the land that the Lord your God is giving you.

6. Don't kill.

7. Do not commit adultery.

8. Don't steal.

9. Do not bear false witness against your neighbor.

10. Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's house; You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, nor his male servant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his donkey, nor anything that is your neighbor’s.”

2. One of the seven wonders of the world is the Pyramid of Cheops. It is considered the oldest miracle on the list - its construction is estimated to be around the 26th century. BC e. Despite its antiquity, this is the only structure of the seven old wonders of the world that has survived to our times. Its height is 137.2 m (originally 146.6 m), the length of each side at the base is 230.38 m, it is made of 2,340,000 limestone blocks, each of which weighs more than 50 centners and is supported by its own gravity, without any fastenings. During construction, primitive tools were used (diorite hammers, copper saws and axes, tools made of polished stone), but the blocks were so skillfully processed that the gaps between them did not exceed 0.5 mm.

Location: Egypt, city of Giza, cemetery of ancient Memphis on the left bank of the Nile. Today it is part of Greater Cairo.

3. The Nobel Prizes are awarded in accordance with the will of Alfred Nobel, drawn up on November 27, 1895, which provided for the allocation of capital for the award of prizes in five areas: physics, chemistry, physiology and medicine, literature and contributions to world peace.

For this purpose, the Nobel Foundation was created in 1900 - a private, independent, non-governmental organization with an initial capital of 31 million Swedish crowns. The first prizes were awarded on December 10, 1901. Since 1969, on the initiative of the Swedish Bank, the Prize in Economics has also been awarded (the official name is the Prize in Economics in Memory of Alfred Nobel, awarded by decision of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences).

4. Cyrillic (Cyrillic letter) is an alphabet used to write words in the Russian, Ukrainian, Belarusian, Bulgarian, Serbian and Macedonian languages, as well as many languages of non-Slavic peoples inhabiting Russia and its neighboring states. In the Middle Ages it was also used to write numbers. The Cyrillic alphabet is named after Cyril, the creator of the Glagolitic alphabet - the first Slavic alphabet. The authorship of the Cyrillic alphabet belongs to the missionaries - followers of Cyril and Methodius. The oldest monuments of Cyrillic writing date back to the turn of the 9th–10th centuries. Most likely, this letter was invented in Bulgaria. At first it was a Greek alphabet, to the 24 letters of which 19 letters were added to indicate the sounds of Slavic languages that were missing in the Greek language. From the 10th century They began to write Cyrillic in Rus'.

5. Anthem of the Russian Federation

Music by A. Alexandrov. Words by S. Mikhalkov.

Russia is our sacred power,
Russia is our beloved country.
Mighty will, great glory -
Your treasure for all time!

From the southern seas to the polar edge
Our forests and fields are spread out.
You are the only one in the world! You're the only one -
God-protected native land!
Hail, our Fatherland is free,
An age-old union of fraternal peoples,
This is the folk wisdom given by our ancestors!
Hail, country! We are proud of you!
Wide scope for dreams and for life
The years to come reveal to us.
Our loyalty to the Fatherland gives us strength.
So it was, so it is and so it will always be!
Hail, our Fatherland is free,
An age-old union of fraternal peoples,
This is the folk wisdom given by our ancestors!
Hail, country! We are proud of you!

6. Researchers are confident that the cosmos was formed after the so-called Big Bang, before which nothing existed: neither time, nor matter, nor light. And then an inexplicable expansion of energy (explosion) happened, and the greatest mystery was formed - the Universe. This explosion occurred in a matter of seconds, after which the Universe, which at first was a fireball, began to rapidly grow and cool. Since the Universe occurred as a result of an explosion, the most likely demise for it is a Big Freeze, scientists believe. And it will happen as a result of the fact that due to the constant movement and expansion of many galaxies, the Universe will eventually lose heat, that is, useful energy.

7. The most widespread of the world's religions is Christianity, with 1.6 billion followers. It retains its strongest positions in Europe, America and Australia.

Christianity emerged at the beginning of our era as a development of biblical wisdom that had been created over the previous 2000 years. The Bible teaches us to understand and realize the meaning of life. Biblical thinking places a critical emphasis on the issue of life and death, the end of the world. Jesus Christ preached the ideas of brotherhood, hard work, non-covetousness and peace. The service of wealth was condemned and the superiority of spiritual values over material values was proclaimed. The First Ecumenical Council, which met in 325 in Nicaea, laid the dogmatic foundations of the One Holy Catholic Apostolic Church for many centuries to come.

8. The human body consists of various chemical elements, and the amount of these elements produced over a lifetime is amazing. Thus, the chlorine in our bodies is enough to disinfect six huge swimming pools, and more than 200 matchboxes can be made from phosphorus. The strongest part of the human body is hair; it takes the longest to break down. Archaeologists have found mummies buried thousands of years before the beginning of our era, and the only thing that has been preserved from living tissue, besides the skeleton, is hair. The human body produces a lot of thermal energy every day: for example, the heat generated by our body per day is enough to boil 30 liters of cold water.

In an adult of average build, the skin area is about 2 m2. Skin is constantly renewed throughout life; our body sheds about 18 kg of skin over a lifetime in the form of dead and dead cells, which are replaced by new cells.

9. Hercules performed his first feat by strangling the huge Nemean lion, which was born by the monsters Typhon and Echidna and caused devastation in Argolis. Hercules' arrows bounced off the lion's thick skin, but the hero stunned the beast with his club and strangled him with his hands. In memory of his first feat, Hercules established the Nemean Games, which were held in the ancient Peloponnese every two years.

10. Countries of the world and their capitals

11. Johann Sebastian Bach (1685–1750) - great German composer and organist, representative of the Baroque era. One of the greatest composers in the history of music. During his life, Bach wrote more than 1000 works. His work represents all the significant genres of that time, except opera. He summarized the achievements of musical art of the Baroque period. He is the founder of the most famous musical dynasty.

12. The Julian calendar was introduced into use by Julius Caesar in 46 BC. e. It is believed that it was developed by Egyptian astronomers. And it was named after the Roman emperor. It acquired its final form in 8 AD. e.

The year began on January 1, since it was on this day that the elected consuls took office, and totaled 12 months or 365 days, sometimes 366. It is this “sometimes” that distinguishes it from the Gregorian calendar.

The problem was that the Earth completes a full revolution around the Sun—a tropical year—in 365.24219878 days. In a calendar, the number of days is an integer. It turns out that if there are 365 days in a year, then every year the calendar will go astray - it will go ahead by almost a quarter of a day. In the Julian calendar, they did it simply - to correct the discrepancy, they assumed that every fourth year would become a leap year (annus bissextus) and would have 366 days. Thus, the average length of the year in the Julian calendar is 365.25 days, which is much closer to the real tropical year. However, the calendar began to lag every year by 11 minutes 14 seconds. In 128 years this will be already a day. This has led to some dates associated with astronomical phenomena beginning to shift. As a result, a need arose for calendar reform.

13. Ten masterpieces of world cinema (according to directors):

1. “Tokyo Tale” - Yasujiro Ozu, 1953

2. “2001: A Space Odyssey” - Stanley Kubrick, 1968

3. “Citizen Kane” - Orson Welles, 1941

4. “8 and a Half” – Federico Fellini, 1963

5. “Taxi Driver” – Martin Scorsese, 1976

6. “Apocalypse Now” - Francis Ford Coppola, 1979

7. “The Godfather” - Francis Ford Coppola, 1972

8. “Vertigo” - Alfred Hitchcock, 1958

9. “Mirror” – Andrei Tarkovsky, 1974

10. “Bicycle Thieves” - Vittorio De Sica, 1948

14. Darwinism has been criticized by a number of religious representatives who believe that it contradicts the divine creation of man. The fact is that Darwinism explains the origin of man by long-term evolution, and this, according to a literal reading of the sacred texts, runs counter to the relatively recent formation of the world. At the same time, the Catholic Church, with a special papal encyclical - Humani generis - recognized that the theory of evolution does not contradict the teachings of the Church and “can be considered as a hypothesis on the question of the origin of the human body.”

15. Tsars and emperors of Russia:

Mikhail Fedorovich Krotky (1613–1645)

Alexey Mikhailovich Quiet (1645–1676)

Fyodor Alekseevich (1676–1682)

Sofya Alekseevna (1682–1689)

Peter I Alekseevich the Great (1689–1725)

Catherine I Alekseevna (1725–1727)

Peter II Alekseevich (1727–1730)

Anna Ioannovna (1730–1740)

Ivan VI Antonovich (1740–1741)

Elizaveta Petrovna (1741–1761)

Peter III Fedorovich (1761–1762)

Catherine II Alekseevna the Great (1762–1796)

Pavel I Petrovich (1796–1801)

Alexander I Pavlovich the Blessed (1801–1825)

Konstantin Pavlovich (1825)

Nicholas I Pavlovich (1825–1855)

Alexander II Nikolaevich (1855–1881)

Alexander III Alexandrovich (1881–1894)

Nicholas II Alexandrovich (1894–1917)

16. The Vatican is a dwarf state, the smallest in the world, located in Rome, the capital of Italy. In international law, the Vatican itself is only the territory on which the Holy See is currently located - the collective name for the Pope and the Roman Curia, one of the main administrative bodies of the Catholic Church. Thus, embassies of other countries are accredited not to the Vatican, but to the Holy See. A significant part of the territory is occupied by St. Peter's Cathedral and the square of the same name, which are the center of worship for Catholics around the world. Almost the entire perimeter of the country (about 3200 m) is limited by a wall that prevents illegal entry. As befits a real state, the Vatican has everything: a railway and a telegraph, a telephone and television, a radio station and a treasury, rulers and subjects, a border guarded by guards.

17. Abstractionism (Latin abstractio - “removal, distraction”) is an art direction that abandoned the depiction of forms close to reality in painting and sculpture. By creating certain color combinations and geometric shapes, various associations are evoked in the viewer. The main representatives of abstract art were: V. V. Kandinsky (1866–1944), P. Picasso (1881–1973).

18. A continent (continent, part of the world) is a large area of land or the earth’s crust. A significant part of it is located above ocean level.

There are seven continents on Earth - Europe, Asia, Africa, North America, South America, Australia and Antarctica. However, one can often find different opinions about the number, because different traditions have different numbers of continents, hence the occasional confusion with numbers. For example, sometimes North and South America are considered to be a single continent, America, since they are, in fact, not separated by water (the artificial Panama Canal is not taken into account). This interpretation is popular in Spanish-speaking countries. There is also an opinion that Europe, Asia and Africa are one continent - Afro-Eurasia - since they occupy an undivided landmass. Europe and Asia, which have a very vague distinction, are often called Eurasia. Hence the results of the calculation, when there are from four to seven continents on Earth.

The largest continent is Asia. This applies to both the area (29 %), and the number of population (60 %). The smallest continent is Australia (5.14% and 0.54% respectively). Antarctica is not on the list because this icy continent is unsuitable for comfortable life and is practically uninhabited.

19. Atlantis, according to the ancient Greeks, is a continent that allegedly occupied part of the Atlantic Ocean to the west of the Pillars of Hercules (Strait of Gibraltar), and later sank into the sea without a trace.

The idea of the legendary Atlantis most likely developed from the stories of Phoenician and Carthaginian merchants who sailed far to the west, but numerous attempts to geographically record Atlantis have so far been unsuccessful. If we collect all the data about where Atlantis could be located, we would get a fascinating book in which we would have to talk about South America, with which the famous philosopher Francis Bacon identified Atlantis in the utopia “New Atlantis,” and about the North Sea, where not far from The island of Heligoland, according to the German pastor Jürgen Spanut, was a mysterious continent, and the search for it at the beginning of the 19th century. from Yucatan to Mongolia and from Spitsbergen to St. Helena. Atlantis was “registered” in Brazil, Scandinavia, Palestine, in the Pas-de-Calais Strait, etc.

20. On July 20, 1969, American astronauts landed on the surface of the Moon. The first person to set foot on the moon was Apollo 11 commander Neil Armstrong.

6 hours after “landing,” astronauts Neil Armstrong and Edwin Aldrin put on spacesuits with a backpack system, opened the hatch and descended to the surface of the Moon. All countries except the USSR and China broadcast television broadcasts about the landing of man on the Moon.

The first people on the Moon paid tribute to all their American and Soviet fallen colleagues: their medals, as well as a capsule with messages from the heads of 74 states (the USSR was not among them) were left on the Moon. Attached to the landing stage was a map of the Earth and a sign with the inscription: “Here people from planet Earth first set foot on the Moon. We come in peace from all humanity." Under these words were the signatures of the astronauts and the President of the United States.

After the flight, crew members and lunar rock samples underwent strict quarantine, which did not reveal any lunar microorganisms.

The successful completion of the Apollo 11 flight program meant the achievement of the national goal set by US President John F. Kennedy in May 1961 - to land on the Moon before the end of the decade, and marked the victory of the United States in the “moon race” with the USSR.

21. The Gregorian calendar was the result of a reform of the Julian calendar carried out by Pope Gregory XIII. The project was developed by Luigi Lilio, and according to this project, in the future, only those century years were to be considered leap years, the number of hundreds of years of which is divisible by 4 without a remainder (1600, 2000, 2400), while others would be considered simple. The accumulation since 8 AD was also eliminated. e. an error of 10 days, and according to the pope's decree of February 24, 1582, it was established that October 4, 1582 should be immediately followed by October 15.

In the new Gregorian calendar, the average length of the year was 365.2425 days. The error was only 26 s, and the discrepancy per day accumulated over about 3300 years. In the future, it will be possible to declare every year divisible by 4000 without a remainder to be a non-leap year, and then the average value of the year will be 365.24225 days, with an even smaller error.

22. The Hanging Gardens of Babylon are included in the list of the Seven Wonders of the World. Created in the 6th century. BC e. By order of the king of desert Babylon, Nebuchadnezzar II, for his wife, these gardens were supposed to console her and remind her of her distant homeland. The name of Semiramis, the Assyrian queen, appeared here by mistake, but nevertheless was firmly entrenched in history.

The tiers of the gardens rose with ledges and were connected by stairs lined with slabs of pink and white stone. To water the plants, they pumped water from the Euphrates all day long. Plants from near and far countries, trees, palm trees, flowers, raised to great heights by complex structures - all this made an indelible impression on the people of that time; the gardens in dusty, arid Babylon seemed like a miracle. Location: Babylon, Mesopotamia (Mesopotamia), approximately 50 km south of modern Baghdad.

23. UNESCO World Heritage - natural or man-made objects, the priority tasks in relation to which, in the opinion of UNESCO, are their conservation and popularization due to their special cultural, historical or environmental significance. As of 2016, there are 1,031 properties on the World Heritage List, of which 802 are cultural, 197 natural and 32 mixed.

24. The oldest of the world's religions is Buddhism, which arose in the middle of the 1st millennium BC. e. in India. After more than 15 centuries of dominance in India, Buddhism gave way to Hinduism. However, Buddhism spread widely throughout the countries of Southeast Asia, penetrating into Sri Lanka, China, Korea, Japan, Tibet, and Mongolia. The number of its adherents is estimated at approximately 500 million people.

In Buddhism, all the social and moral dogmas of Hinduism are preserved, but the requirements of caste and asceticism are weakened. Buddhism pays more attention to current life.

25. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756–1791) - great Austrian composer, instrumentalist and conductor, representative of the Viennese classical school, virtuoso violinist, harpsichordist, organist, conductor. He had a phenomenal ear for music, memory and the ability to improvise. As a composer who excelled in every genre, Mozart is rightfully considered one of the greatest composers in the history of classical music.

26. Avant-garde (French avant-garde - “advanced detachment”) - a set of experimental, distinctly unusual, exploratory endeavors in the art of the 20th century. Avant-garde painting styles include Fauvism, Cubism, Futurism, Expressionism, Abstract Art, Surrealism, Actionism, Pop Art, and Conceptual Art.

27. The second labor of Hercules is the destruction of the Lernaean hydra. This monster with the body of a snake and nine heads of a dragon crawled out of a swamp near the city of Lerna, killing people and destroying entire herds. Hercules found the hydra in a cave and fought with it. In place of each hydra head severed by the hero, two new ones grew until Hercules’ assistant, Iolaus, began to burn the hydra’s necks with burning tree trunks. He also killed a giant crayfish that crawled out of the swamp to help the hydra. Hercules soaked his arrows in the poisonous bile of the Lernaean hydra, making them deadly.

28. The holy book of Christians - the Bible - consists of the Old Testament and the New Testament. The Old Testament was borrowed from Judaism and was compiled over several centuries. He describes those events and facts that, in essence, led to the appearance of Jesus Christ. The texts of the New Testament tell the story of his life. They were combined into one book only at the beginning of the 2nd century. The authorship of parts of the Testament is currently a controversial issue. The texts of the Bible vary depending on the branches of Christianity, for example, the Protestant Bible contains several additional books of the Old Testament.

29. The statue of Zeus at Olympia is one of the seven wonders of the world. It was created for a temple in the major religious center of Ancient Greece - Olympia. The giant Zeus of the sculptor Phidias amazed the local residents so much that they decided that the god himself had personally posed for the master. Creation time: 440–435. BC e. Location: Greece, the ancient city of Olympia on the west coast of the Peloponnese peninsula, approximately 300 km west of Athens.

30. Cubism (French cube - “cube”) is a modernist movement in painting at the beginning of the 20th century, which highlighted the formal task of constructing a three-dimensional form on a plane, minimizing the visual and cognitive functions of art. The name "Cubists" was first used in 1908 and 1909. by the French critic L. Vaucel as a mocking nickname for a group of artists who depicted objects as a combination of geometric bodies or figures. The most famous artist of this movement is P. Picasso (1881–1973).

There is no creature on the planet more mysterious and unique than man. We are all impossibly different, but still some common features that unite us can be identified. Let's talk about them.

1. Feeling constantly busy makes people happy, helps them feel useful to others and maintain a positive attitude. Remember this the next time you want to complain to someone about a ton of current affairs.

2. Everyone knows about the seven deadly sins, but the same cannot be said about the six universal emotions that all people experience without exception. These are happiness, anger, sadness, fear, disgust and surprise.

giphy.com

3. It’s not for nothing that those with a sweet tooth are ready to sell their soul, kidney, and even their beloved cat for a bar. And all because when it is consumed, dopamine enters the body, a substance that causes sensations similar to the feeling of falling in love. Feel free to eat your grief with chocolate to compensate for the absence of your loved one nearby.

4. Tired people tend to be more honest. If you feel that your strength is at its limit, then it’s better to tactfully keep your mouth shut, otherwise you never know.

giphy.com

5. With an ordinary twenty-second hug, a special chemical enters the body, which helps you trust more in the person you are hugging. It seems that we have found another reason to hug more often.

6. “Oh God, where is he, where is he, where!” - you probably exclaimed in panic more than once when you were not found in your usual place. And for good reason: scientists say that the emotions experienced when losing a gadget are similar to near-death experiences.

tumblr.com

7. Logic begins to work better when we think in another language. Remember how your brain strains when you try to find a word in your vocabulary that most accurately characterizes what you are trying to say. Exactly.

21. People with low self-esteem often become bullies.

22. 80% of all our conversations are complaints about a difficult life. And for some it’s 100%.

23. Volunteers, and people who volunteer to help others, are more satisfied with their lives.

24. Another fact about: you become much more creative when you feel like you're running out of energy. Of course, you need to come up with a worthy excuse for your idleness.

25. Over time, memories become distorted. As sad as it may be, each of us has at least one false memory.

1. The world wants you to remain dumb...
The dumber you are, the easier it is for you to sell products and services. The size of the TV diagonal is inversely proportional to IQ.

2. There is no need to have blind faith in the educational system.
The curriculum was out of date on the first day of your training. (An exception is fundamental programs, but only in the exact sciences; the question of applying fundamental knowledge in everyday life remains open.)

3. Read non-stop, read as much as possible.
You never know when new knowledge and concepts will come in handy, but you will be much better prepared for life's surprises.

4. Learn to communicate with others.
Avoiding people, considering them unworthy of your communication, means not finding clients, friends or work in the future.

5. Being shy is a waste of time. Don't let emotions rule your decision-making processes.

6. If you don’t like something in a relationship with another person, in the event of your breakup, this “something” will be the reason.

7. Communicate as much as possible with people older than you. Try to understand their value system, their outlook and the logical connections between the situation and the decisions made.

8. Find people to admire and try to surpass them.

9. Over time, people become more conservative. If you want to do risky things, do them while you are young. I came to the conclusion long ago that reformism is a consequence of lack of knowledge, not of focus.

10. Don’t waste money on nonsense: save it for something serious (including your startup). This will also teach you how to spend money in business: wisely and for the purpose.

11. When choosing between spending money on things or experiences, choose experiences. The joy from impressions and memories is higher.

12. After you have learned to save, learn to earn money.

13. Learn to program.
It's easier to make a prototype yourself than to waste time and money explaining it to someone else. If you don’t want to program, learn to do something with your hands so that you can produce something useful.

14. Don't gain excess weight when you're young. This will shorten your active life by 10-20 years.

15. Learn to cook. The best time to think about something is when you're chopping ingredients for a salad or soup.

16. Get enough sleep at night. Lack of sleep greatly affects the quality of decision making.

17. Write down your activities. Memory is not enough, no matter how fantastic it is.

18. Have a big dream. Being flexible is great, but without a dream it can turn into running in circles.

19. Become an expert in your field before changing your field of activity. This has to do with the 10,000-hour rule and the fact that a good generalist must have been a good specialist in the past.

20. Don't try to correct people. Look for those who are not yet corrupted.

Bonus:
Learn 2-3 foreign languages. Knowing a language also provides an understanding of culture and diverse perspectives and values.
Learn to speak culturally and write without mistakes. The ability to speak smoothly and to the point will be useful when you convey your point of view to people, as well as manage people.
Learn to compete ethically in the areas of your life that matter to you. Life is a very competitive thing, and failure to compete reduces your chances of changing your position or social status.

Life is a funny thing. When you come of age, no one will hand you a textbook with a set of rules and a list of all the necessary skills that you will have to master in life.

In some mysterious way, you must understand that you need to earn more than you spend, and it is better not to wear a fluffy mohair sweater to a job interview.

Therefore, we have compiled our own instructions for survival in the modern world and listed the skills that no adult can do without.

1. Accept criticism with gratitude.

Most people have a hard time being told that mistakes are pointed out to them or that they could have done something better. However, being able to suppress emotions and focus on the information that they are trying to convey to you is a truly unique talent. Criticism may be fair or unfair, but let your mind decide that, not your wounded ego.

2. Sincerely ask for forgiveness.

All people make mistakes, but not everyone masters the art of sincerely asking for forgiveness.

Apologies are not measured in quantity and cannot be good or bad - they must be sincere. And, in addition, when apologizing, you must explain exactly how you are going to avoid repeating the unpleasant situation in the future.

Here is a six-step algorithm that will help you ask for forgiveness correctly:

Don't put off apologizing until later.
Apologize only in person.
Explain what happened.
Show that you will make every effort to ensure that what happened does not happen again.
Apologize.
If possible, try to make amends with real actions.

3. Manage your time wisely

There will hardly come a happy moment in your life when you won’t have to balance between a bunch of problems at work and in your personal life. Therefore, it is absolutely necessary for you to master time management - otherwise you will constantly feel at the limit of your strength.

Perhaps the most important rule of time management is to do only one thing at a time. Research shows that the habit of multitasking is extremely unproductive because your brain wastes energy in the process of switching from one task to another.

Additionally, it would be wise for you to limit your work hours. Decades ago, Henry Ford came to the conclusion that productivity begins to decline when employees work more than 40 hours a week. Other studies show that the productivity of those who work about 60 hours a week declines after just three weeks.

4. Know how to say “no”

Most of us are afraid to say “no” for fear of letting other people down. But if you are already swamped with work, and a colleague asks you to spend an hour to help him with a report on a project, then the answer “Yes, of course” is far from the best option.

It may sound like a cliché, but the ability to say “no” in a timely manner can save you a lot of time and save you from feelings of guilt, confusion, unnecessary obligations and promises, stress and other troubles of human communication.

5. Put yourself in someone else's shoes

Empathy is at the core of every human interaction. People who are unable to empathize and show interest in others - that is, listen to the interlocutor and put themselves in their place - often suffer from narcissism.

6. Communicate in body language

Your body can tell you everything it needs to know about you before you even open your mouth.

Experts highlight special techniques that will help you win the sympathy of others using body language. For example, do not break eye contact with your interlocutor even after he finishes speaking. And be careful not to touch your face too much - it will look like you're lying or nervous.

You can also read other people's body language to understand what they are thinking or feeling. For example, if during a conversation they copy your facial expressions, then most likely they enjoy the conversation with you. If they smile, but no wrinkles appear around the eyes, then the smile may turn out to be fake.

7. Make friends wherever you go

A good way to make a friend in the adult world is to be the first to trust so that the other can open up to you. Research shows that such a “first step” creates sympathy, goodwill and helps build close and friendly relationships. Another surprisingly easy way to make friends is to spend more time with the people you want to make friends with. According to the “mere exposure effect,” we often like people or things we have encountered before.

8. Repair your clothes yourself

You should learn how to sew buttons to the collar of a shirt and darn holes that can easily be planted on a sleeve by catching on the edge of a table. Knowing how to use a needle will save you a lot of money.

9. Speak at least one foreign language

Learning a foreign language will open you up to a completely different type of thinking. You will be able to see and appreciate the riches of those corners of our planet that you had never even imagined existed before.

10. Remember that money loves counting

Make sure your income exceeds expenses.

It would also be wise to set aside some of your income for a rainy day so that in case of unforeseen circumstances, this money will last you for several months.

11. Master the basics of Photoshop

There is no need to turn to a professional to retouch a photo you want to post on your site - you can easily do it yourself using a few simple basic functions of the program.

12. Enjoy being alone

An adult cannot be frightened by loneliness - he can spend a whole day alone with himself and not go crazy from lack of communication.

13. Learn to speak in public

Confidently expressing your thoughts in front of a large audience is a skill worth acquiring. This will help you attract the attention of a wide range of people and leave a lasting impression.

14. Master the art of negotiation

If you're negotiating a salary - and you can and should be - then the best way to get what you want and still leave a good impression is to ask for a salary in the range of your desired rate and slightly higher. For example, if you want to receive 70 thousand rubles, then you should ask for a salary from 70 to 80 thousand rubles.

15. Cook simple meals yourself

Master at least five simple dishes. Learn to cook them without a cookbook and you'll look like a culinary genius wherever you go.

16. Know how to make small talk

The ability to strike up an interesting conversation has never hurt anyone - be it frivolous flirting with a beautiful woman from a bar or expanding business connections at a conference.

One of the main rules of a casual conversation is to show interest in the interlocutor and allow him to tell as much as possible about himself. Another good tactic is to emphasize the merits of the interlocutor so that after talking with you he will grow in his own eyes.

17. Don't be afraid to ask for help

There is no shame in asking for advice or help, especially at work.

Many studies even suggest that you can improve in the eyes of your colleagues as a professional if you ask them for advice. And this seems to be true, since people are flattered that you approached them first.

18. Meet the opposite sex without fear

Perhaps any normal person is horrified by the need to approach a person they like and simply start a conversation.

But there are ways to manage your anxiety and reduce the risk of making a complete fool of yourself.

One study suggests that men prefer to take direct action, such as saying from the door, "You're very cute - can I buy you a cocktail?" Women, on the contrary, prefer questions that require a detailed answer, for example: “What do you think about this group?”

Only a few respondents admitted that they prefer standard “tackles” - so it’s best to avoid them, no matter how witty they may seem to you.

19. Wake up on time in the morning

Pull yourself together and develop your own action plan to force yourself to wake up on time in the morning and leave the house.

The secret to a good morning is actually how you spend the night before, so try relaxing before bed, like taking a hot shower or meditating.

In the morning, experts usually advise that after the first alarm rings, press snooze and sleep a little more. We advise you to press snooze, but instead of sleeping, turn on the light and use the time before the second alarm for short exercises.

20. Get your driver's license

If you live in a big city, you probably take advantage of all the benefits of public transport.

But when you go outside the city, being able to drive well becomes a vital skill. It can open up a whole world to you.

If you haven't gotten your license yet, stop relying on your loved ones or relatives to always give you a lift to the right place. Take this decisive step towards adulthood and pass your license.

Endlessly biting yourself for your own failures is a road to nowhere.

Instead, treat them the way you would treat a friend or colleague's failure. For example, you can remind yourself that it's okay to make mistakes and that it doesn't make you a bad person.