Freeman Dyson, a pioneer quantum physicist and mathematician, has some excellent advice for living.

At the age of 88, why does he continue working?

I continue working because I agree with Sigmund Freud’s definition of mental health. To be healthy means to love and to work. Both activities are good for the soul, and one of them also helps to pay for the groceries.

His advice would to those who have been working for (a) one year and (b) 30 years?

 Advice to people at the beginning of their careers: do not imagine that you have to know everything before you can do anything. My own best work was done when I was most ignorant. Grab every opportunity to take responsibility and do things for which you are unqualified.

Advice to people at the middle of their careers: do not be afraid to switch careers and try something new. As my friend the physicist Leo Szilard said (number nine in his list of ten commandments): “Do your work for six years; but in the seventh, go into solitude or among strangers, so that the memory of your friends does not hinder you from being what you have become.”

I highly recommend reading Dyson’s commentary and book reviews at New York Review of Books.

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(via More Intelligent Life)