Lists, Lists, Lists!

I love lists of all forms! I especially love lists that have to do with the graphic design field. I look on the standard sites all the time for lists about how to "cope" with being a graphic designer- ones about difficult clients, brainstorming, the revision process, all with a hope of picking something up that can be quite useful. I always gravitate towards these lists because as a student, every class I take makes me feel like its my first graphic design class. They are all challenging for me, and sometime I need to be reminded how to handle that feeling.

I recently came across the "10 Essentials Every Student Should Know" from Print Magazine. Some topics, like "No. 2 Style vs. No style" and "No. 9 Achieving Success" are good ones, but others are fluffy as heck. For example "No. 8 Couture and Fashion" seems a bit absurd to me. "Although the overall philosophy may differ, there is a consensus regarding a couple of articles: wear cool shoes and tortoise-shell glasses."  Is this advice really necessary?  "No. 6 Coping with Absurd Deadlines" also seems to make me think that they are generalizing a lot of teachers before finally just saying (in a roundabout way) that we need to manage time well to complete projects.

After reading this list I thought perhaps I should lay off the lists since sometimes they contain a lot of fluff or common sense. But I am curious to know, what are some of the best pieces of advice you have gained from reading lists like these? And if you could create your own list for the graphic design world, what would it include?

(ps- I can't wait to compile all of your advice into a list of my very own!)