Over the weekend, Ben Folds spent a little of his downtime (on a flight to Boston) drafting a meaty response to the oft-asked “what’s your advice for aspiring musicians” question before posting his musings to Facebook. He taps into many of the usual ideas — form first, work hard — but also shares some deeper advice that could be applied to a person trying to get ahead in almost any field. One of our favorite missives: “Don’t spend effort on crap like… well, being cool. It’s a killer. It takes effort to appear as if you don’t care. What a waste. By the same token, don’t feel you have to beat every note into people’s heads and be Guy Smiley all the time. Just make music and have good manners.” We couldn’t have said it better ourselves. Head here to get a little sage advice from everyone’s favorite everyman musician, and let us know if you agree with his suggestions in the comments. [via Largehearted Boy]