I write about topics that sound trivial to some: how to converse, how to keep a notebook, the plaintext file format, RFC760/761, a toolkit for living that fits on a business card. When you solve the little things it frees up your mind to expand and work on big things. In contrast if your present is chaos, it’s hard to think of the future.
Human felicity is produc’d not so much by great pieces of good fortune that seldom happen, as by little advantages that occur every day. Thus, if you teach a poor young man to shave himself, and keep his razor in order, you may contribute more to the happiness of his life than in giving him a thousand guineas. The money may be soon spent, the regret only remaining of having foolishly consumed it; but in the other case, he escapes the frequent vexation of waiting for barbers, and of their sometimes dirty fingers, offensive breaths, and dull razors; he shaves when most convenient to him, and enjoys daily the pleasure of its being done with a good instrument.
Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin