At first, this thought frightened me.
Nothing we can do on this pale blue dot will ever have a meaning to the vast universe. Every person will be forgotten some day.
Wait long enough, and everything we build today will be gone - taken by other humans, entropy, or nature. In about 1 billion years, earth will be uninhabitable for complex life forms and later lose all its life.
“So, it's all pointless?” - I thought.
Then came a realisation. If nothing matters, I get to decide what matters. I can choose my own meaning for the brief time span I’m alive.
A lack of meaning can imprison you. Or it can set you free.
Everything we do matters on some timescale.
Reading Recommendations
A Life-Changing Insight: You Are Not a Problem to Be Fixed
“‘You can improve. You can figure it out. You can always make it better.’
But this time, rather than indulging in the content of this particular struggle, I observed the process I was in and realized profoundly that even though the issues of the day changed regularly, the experience of struggle never did.”
Cassandra’s Regret: The Psychology of Not Wanting to Know
“Do you want to know the future? You may want to say it all depends on which aspects of your future. Typically, while we seek information routinely to make decisions in our day-to-day lives, we don’t always want to know for sure what will happen in our futures. These researchers remind us about the story of Cassandra in Greek mythology.”
“Lessons from React, GraphQL, and Rich Hickey on how to design software that doesn't implode the first time requirements change.”
Weekly Mindfulness Practice
A mindful seeing exercise:
- Stand or sit down at a window where you can see different things outside.
- Look outside. What do you see? But instead of labeling things by their name, like “dog” or “front door”, notice the colors, patterns, and textures.
- What if everything out there was unfamiliar to you? Notice the trees moving and the birds flying. See all the different shapes out there.
- Be aware. Observe, but don't obsess.
- If you notice your mind drifting away, gently return to a shape or color you can see.
End Note
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Have a great week
Simon
PS: What do you think about this? Please reply and let me know. I'm curious!