Looking forward to look back. Pay attention to now. So something nice. Your cosmic smallness. The speed of change. Irrelevant skills. Serendipity is luck.
“The most exciting phrase to hear in science, the one that heralds new discoveries, is not ‘Eureka!’ but ‘That’s funny…'”
Isaac Asimov
1. “Imagine your 80-year-old self”
Your 80 Year Old Self Would Give Anything to Have the Day You’re Having. – Joan Westenverg – (Blog)
It’s a common technique – almost a psychological trope – to imagine your future self looking back at your life today and identifying what turned out to be important, unimportant, and so on. More often than not it’s meant as a tool to identify and appreciate what you take for granted today, because much of it will have vanished like so much dust on the wind.
Does your 80-year-old self really envy the day you’re having? Probably not as much as the thought experiment suggests. They might be quite satisfied with their senior citizen discount and their lackh[sic] of workplace drama. But would they look back on certain days – certain ordinary, unremarkable days – and wish they’d paid more attention? Would they want to tell you something about which worries actually matter and which don’t?
Almost certainly yes.
As they say, hindsight is 20/20. This is kind of a foresight of hindsight, and while certainly not perfect, a useful tool to put today in perhaps better perspective.
Do this: Look forward to looking back.
#gratitude #hindsight #regrets
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2. “The moment was pretty damn good.”
Eight Observations After Eight Decades – Tom Greene – (Wit & Wisdom)
Pure serendipity as fas as I can tell, but this is another version of looking at things from a personal, future, perspective. The full quote from the takeaway is this:
… kinda wishing we’d been happier in the moment, cause the moment was pretty damn good.
From observation #2: “We were always looking to the future rather than enjoying the moment.” Yes, I know “present moment”, “mindfulness”, and related terms are themselves perhaps over-hyped psychological tropes as well. But the thing is, they represent an important and useful perspective. So often we’re so focused on something to come that we completely miss the something that is.
Do this: Enjoy the moment.
3. “Do something nice for someone else.”
The Simplest Way To Feel Better In Terrible Times – Ryan Holiday – (Blog)
And these are difficult times, to be sure. We’re all looking for ways to cope. Faced with so much that’s going on, it’s not easy.
… we tend to think big picture before we think little picture. We obsess over grand gestures, complete solutions, systemic change. Meanwhile, there’s suffering right in front of us. A neighbor who needs help. A food bank down the street. A person we could make smile today.
So, be the change you want to see.
That’s what generosity does, by the way. Yes, it helps the person who receives it but it also changes you into the kind of person who does stuff like that.
Do this: Do something nice for someone else.
4. “You’re a lovely little speck”
To Get Happier, Make Yourself Smaller (gift link) – Arthur C. Brooks – (The Atlantic)
Any article whose subhead begins with the assertion “Self-esteem is overrated. ” is likely to get my attention. The premise here is that people who accept their ultimate insignificance in the grand scheme of things are happier. OK. Maybe. But taken to an extreme, it seems like a path to nihilism.
Thinking about yourself all the time makes you miserable over the long term.
Again, OK, maybe, but even the most basic personal growth requires self-reflection. Honestly, it feels like a little self-reflection and personal growth would benefit a lot of people these days. The catch, I suppose, is where to draw the line, and exactly what it is you’re thinking of when you think about yourself.
The takeaway above, which follows an individual attending an astronomy class realizing, “I am just a speck on a speck”, is an attempt to humanize our insignificance:
So relax into the reality of your cosmic smallness. The plain truth is that you are a speck on a speck. But you’re a lovely little speck, and beloved by a few other specks.
Do this: Love the specks in your life.
5. “The Law Can’t Move at the Speed of Code”
The Coffee Bank and the Speed of Change – Andrew Montgomery – (Collabfund blog)
Entrepreneurs who make things (and break things) are, by definition, always one step ahead of the law. I don’t mean that in some police-chase sense of the concept, but the actual content of the law. The best example right now is that copyright law was written in a time when copying was a laborious and obvious process. Today? Not so much. The controversy of whether AI is plagiarism or not, and how it relates to the concept of copyright or not, is a perfect example.
It’s also not a new example.
Every major leap forward begins in a gray area. Railroads, credit cards, the internet—all bent old rules until society decided whether to rewrite them or live with the consequences. Artificial intelligence is just the latest in that lineage.
Often enough, the change driven by technology entrenches itself to a degree that the law ends up changing to accommodate the new reality, rather than trying to enforce the old one. That’s not necessarily good or bad; it just is.
Do this: Understand the speed of change and how “the law” will rarely apply as you think it should.
6. “Most skills will be irrelevant in 10-20 years.”
The most important skill to learn in the next 10 years – Dan Koe – (Future/Proof)
He calls it “agency”.
The most important skill to learn that will be relevant now, in 10 years, and until you die is agency. Because if you can set your own life direction, do what is required to achieve it, and avoid the infinite number of temptations and distractions in today’s world, you will never be at risk of replacement (and if you do get replaced, it doesn’t matter, because you can quickly adapt).
Put another way, it’s the ability to motivate yourself to never stop learning to do new things. As the subtitle to the essay states “why generalists win in the AI age”.
And here’s the thing: it’s not about AI. Not really. Yes, AI is accelerating the pace of change, but change has always been thus. Those who succeed, those who last, are those who know this, and choose to leverage it throughout their lives.
Do this: “Set your own life direction”, and then always be ready and willing to adjust your course.
7. “Staying open to serendipity”
Tiny Experiments: How to Live Freely in a Goal-Obsessed World – Anne-Laure Le Cunff – (ebook)
This kind of follows the previous takeaway in spirit. It’s my definition of what it means to be lucky.
By embracing the unknown and staying open to serendipity, you create space for unexpected opportunities to emerge—opportunities to learn, grow, and create value in ways you may not have initially imagined.
Both require being open to the possibility that what’s in front of you — your work, your life, your whatever — isn’t all there is. Opportunities present themselves all the time. The ‘trick’ is noticing them, and wisdom is knowing when to act on them. If you’re stuck in a rut, you’ll never notice, and if you do you’ll never act. You’ll have given your “agency”, so to speak, to the status quo.
Do this: Notice. Serendipity can be amazing.
#noticing #change #serendipity #luck
Random links
- Stop getting fooled by this common statistics trick – Much like the Wilhelm Scream, once you know what to look for, you’ll see it everywhere.
- Accepting My Challenges in Old Age and Making the Best of Them- Because I have a role to play – hits home for … reasons.
- Scientists Think They’ve Found a Way to Slow Your Brain’s Aging – Learn another language. Seriously.
What I’m reading now
- Fortune Teller – Jana DeLeon
- The Nature of Things – Lucretius
- The Fire Rose – Mercedes Lackey (audio)
My Reading List – everything I’ve read since 2021.
My Sources Page – the common sources I scan/read regularly.
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