[Meatloaf] Eloquent Life/Career Advice to a Friend from Author Hunter Thompson

[Jeff Hayas]

Folks --

While for most of us it's "too late for do-overs", this is nonetheless a
fascinating advice-essay.  I just sent a copy to my own son, who is 32 and
in-between jobs.

This was written long before Thompson became a drug-crazed nut-job. In fact
he had just been honorably discharged from the US Air Force.  But
apparently he already had a defiant attitude.  From his Wikipedia Bio ...

In 1958, while he was an airman first class, his commanding officer
recommended him for an early honorable discharge. "In summary, this
airman, although talented, will not be guided by policy," chief of
information services Colonel William S. Evans wrote to the Eglin personnel
office. "Sometimes his rebel and superior attitude seems to rub off on
other
airmen staff members."

After leaving the Air Force, Thompson worked as sports editor for a
newspaper in Jersey Shore, Pennsylvania, before relocating to New York City.
There he audited several courses at the Columbia University School of
General Studies. During this time he worked briefly for *Time* as a copy boy

for $51 a week. At work, he typed out parts of F. Scott Fitzgerald's *The
Great Gatsby* and Ernest Hemingway's *A Farewell to Arms* in order to learn
the authors' rhythms and writing styles. In 1959, *Time* fired him for
insubordination. Later that year, he worked as a reporter for *The
Middletown Daily Record* in Middletown, New York. He was fired from this
job after damaging an office candy machine and arguing with the owner of a
local restaurant who happened to be an advertiser with the paper.



-- Jeff.H

----/----
Hunter S. Thompson’s Letter on Finding Your Purpose and Living a Meaningful
Life <https://fs.blog/hunter-s-thompson-to-hume-logan/>

In April of 1958, Hunter S. Thompson was 22 years old when he wrote this
letter to his friend Hume Logan in response to a request for life advice.

Thompson’s letter, found in *Letters of Note <https://amzn.to/49FwHuC>*,
offers some of the most thoughtful and profound advice I’ve ever
encountered for those of us feeling a little lost.

...
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