The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin: Part 13

 The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin: Part 13

Bonus: 

You should switch to wet shaving. I can take of leave the double edge or whatever, but shaving cream sucks.

Summary: Ben Franklin starts UPenn, talks about using booze for genocide, sets up a street sweeper, works on paving and lighting the streets, 

Commentary:

I thought I had notes for this, but apparently not, so let's just do a pull quote.

Human felicity is produced 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.

I never thought about how helpful being able to shave whenever I want at home is. This is sort of a more concrete version of "if you teach a man to fish..."  

I guess the lesson is slightly different: the difference between teaching and doing vs the value of learning even small skills.