Is there a list of basic guidelines to help "serious" photographers to make better work?

Alec Soth has been writing about his recent teaching experience at San Francisco Art Institute, and some of the challenges and frustrations and questions that have arisen as a result. In one entry on his blog, he cites Charles H. Traub's "maxims" for graduate students, from the book Traub co-edited called, The Education of a Photographer.

Traub's list makes me want to go out and read the entire book.