Something to Keep
“Life is essentially an endless series of problems. The solution to one problem is merely the creation of another.”
Mark Manson, The Subtle Art of Not Giving a Fuck
A Second Look
Most people think they want a life without problems, but I disagree. What they want is to upgrade their problems rather than get rid of them completely. Problems will never go away. At least, not completely. Think about the richest people on the planet. They have solved the money problem, but they might be thinking about colonizing Mars or developing an AI version of themselves. And that’s more stressful than it sounds, even when it comes with a billion-dollar paycheck. You might think you want to be Elon Musk or Jeff Bezos, but you don’t. Morgan Housel put it well when he wrote, “There are 13 divorces among the 10 richest men in the world. Seven of the top ten have been divorced at least once.”
The point is, we all admire successful people. But even if you achieve success, you never get rid of your problems; you simply exchange them for better ones. The best part about solving simple problems is that it helps you build resilience to deal with more complex ones. If you’re waiting for a problem-free life, I hate to break it to you, but you’re never going to get it.
I feel like growth lies at the other side of discomfort. You have to go through something inconvenient or frustrating to grow as a person. Anything easy is probably not worth doing. That’s why watching The Pitt doesn’t lead to six-pack abs, exercising like a maniac for months does. Stress will always be a constant, and that’s a good thing. That’s how you become what Nassim Nicholas Taleb calls antifragile. Not only do you not break under pressure, but you also grow from it.
Escaping from your problems isn’t worth it. When you face a problem, you have three options: you can either accept it, change it, or leave it. As long as you choose the right problem to deal with, go with the second one. A problem-free life doesn’t exist, but a meaningful one does.
Something I Liked
No serious publication ever links to a Wikipedia page. Luckily, I don’t care. I’ve been enjoying The Elon Musk Blog Series by Wait But Why. Although the book deals with complex topics we all hear every day and think we understand (electric cars, solar panels, space exploration), everything is explained in plain English.
At some point in the book, author Tim Urban talked about a Wikipedia article called Timeline of the Far Future. The article uses different scientific fields (particle physics, astrophysics, and so on) to try to predict whether the Earth or human beings will survive. It’s fantastic and eye-opening. If you’re even remotely interested, you should check it out.
