Ben Casnocha brought back to life a very cool commencement speech given by David Mahoney at Rutgers University in 1996. Mahoney, then chairman of the Dana Foundation, a brain research organization, provided some compelling tips about why young people should adopt a "Centenarian Strategy" for life.

The central premise is that if you're a young person today, you have a pretty decent shot at living until you are 100 years old.  Not only that, thanks to advancements in brain science, you have a decent shot at enjoying an "active fourth quarter" - that is, your 70s, 80s, and 90s won't be about wheelchairs in retirement homes and somebody reminding you what you ate for breakfast, but rather decades in which you'll remain intellectually vibrant and independent.  Among the points are:

1. Diversify your career from the very beginning. Stop thinking of jobs in series, one after the other; instead, think of careers in parallel. That might mean engaging in an avocation in music or art while you are nurturing a career in business.

2. Take advantage of your opportunity to wind up a millionaire. The trick is to use the new tools the government is giving you to save, to avoid taxes in your IRAs and 40I (k) accounts, and to invest in broad index funds that are sure to grow. To the centenarian, credit-card living is out, leveraged saving is in.

3. Invest in your family dimension. The wave of the future, in the Centenarian Strategy, is to frame your life in traditional family settings. Do your market research in singlehood, choose for the long term, and then commit to marriage and have kids.

4. Pace yourself: it's a small world and a long life. The centenarian thinks about success differently, with a longer view. He or she measures success in getting to personal satisfaction, which does not always mean getting to the top of the heap.

It’s especially interesting that Mahoney intended these points for his audience of Gen X-ers, and Casnocha feels they are equally relevant to Gen Y-ers today.