Rabbi Akiva’s good advice TB Pesakhim 112

From time immemorial, parents have given their children advice based upon their many years of experience. Today’s daf
TB Pesakhim records the advice Rabbi Akiva gave his son.

“The Sages taught: Rabbi Akiva commanded Rabbi Yehoshua, his son, about seven matters: My son, do not sit at the high point of a city, where many people pass, and study there, as the passersby will interrupt you. And do not live in a city whose leaders are Torah scholars, as they are too busy studying to govern properly. Rabbi Akiva continued: And do not enter your house suddenly, without knocking first; all the more so do not enter the house of another, as he might not be ready to receive you. And do not withhold shoes from your feet, as it is disgraceful to go barefoot. Wake up and eat, in the summer due to the heat, as it is best to eat before it grows hot, and in the winter due to the strength you will need to tolerate the cold. And make your Shabbat like a weekday and do not be beholden to other beings. And exert yourself to join together with a person upon whom the hour smiles, i.e., a successful person.” Sefaria.org translation) 

Several of these suggestions need further explanation. A commentary posits a reason why a person should not live in a city whose leaders are Torah scholars is due to real politics. A leader’s job is to chastise the townspeople when they break the law. When people are chastised they begin to resent and hate the leader. If the leader is a Torah scholar, the people may transfer their hatred to innocent Torah scholars. The rabbis in massekhet Derekh Eretz learn a person should not enter a home suddenly as the proper etiquette from God’s example. God stood outside the Garden of Eden, and called out to Adam, “Where are you?” (Genesis 3:9)

Rabbi Akiva didn’t mean that a poor person should desecrate the Sabbath at all. Back in the Talmudic days people only two meals a day. If a poor person only had 14 meals for the week, he should just skip the Shabbat’s third meal and treat it like a week day instead of taking tzedakah to finance that third meal. (See Shulkhan Arukh, Orekh Hayyim, 242:1)