Experience is one thing you can’t get for nothing.

Every piece of experience you own was bought, usually with time and often with a mistake you would rather not have made. That is why advice travels so poorly. Someone can hand you the conclusion, but they cannot hand you the years that made it convincing, so you nod and then go and pay for it yourself.

Two things follow from that. Be a little gentler about what your own errors cost, since the receipt is the knowledge. And when somebody younger ignores your hard-won summary, remember that you did the same, and stay available for when the bill comes due.