1. Life is a competition

You’re getting paid for this, I’m not. I’m OK with that.

I could argue the toss on this one. But essentially it comes down to how competitive you are. For most of my life I have been anti competitive, largely because of early experiences with back to back computer games in the 80’s & 90’s but I digress. However if you think that life is a competition then you’re probably missing out. I let my 9yo son play Fortnite. He’s good at it. This week he’ll make it to League Division 5, as well as making it to level 135, which is what you need to make Midas (the level 100 bonus) fully gold. He grinded levels for Midas. A Promising sign. My son is very good at Fortnite. He thinks he’s playing one game, I’m seeing to that he learns other things. Teamwork, controlling anger and frustration, tactics, strategy, all of which are going in subliminally. For my part, in my guise as Fast Eddie, I’m telling him how to run.

Competition is good when it works for you, but the ancients (Stoics) would have words to say about worrying what others think. Virtue is it’s own reward after all.

See previous comment about Virtue. It’s not a numbers game, anything but.

In my experience, most of life is luck and timing. What matters most is a willingness, (and an attitude) to risk being personally vulnerable. Certainly lifelong learning is important, if you specialise you walk a narrow path to no good end. However, money & success are nothing worth having in life. Preferred over poverty, yes, but inessential in the grander scheme. What matters is being comfortable in your own skin.

There are no rules, and Happiness is a means of travel, not a destination. Strategy, will not help you with your wife, (and kids) it will not help you when your father dies. You make your choices, then you live with them. We must imagine Sisyphus happy.

Again, happiness is a means of travel, not a destination. It’s also a peculiar matter of hindsight, Danny Kanneman has more than few good ideas, and a very good talk about this.

If you are waiting for others, and you are unable to amuse yourself, you will be disappointed. Again. Happiness is a means of travel, not a destination. As I told my step-father on his death bed. Everyone has to walk through the wasteland, but it’s your choice whether you concentrate on the wasteland, “wenn du lange in einen Abgrund blickst,” or you walk it with your gaze on the sunlit uplands. Where and how you spend the time matters.

A pub conversation:

“Life doesn’t come with a manual.”

“If it did it would be in braille.”

We both drank to that, in the bar where the students didn’t go, the beer was cheaper, and you could get a seat.

Related posts:

2019 will go down as the year that marks the beginning of the 21st century. Just as the First World War in 1914 marked the historic beginning of the 20th century, the Corona pandemic marks a new era…

Bulan lalu telah selesai, dan kami tidak sabar untuk membagikan apa yang telah kami kerjakan selama ini. Meskipun terkendala pandemik global, Velas telah mengalami kemajuan pesat dalam dunia digital…

One day there will be another pandemic. Possibly deadlier than Covid-19. We don’t know. What we do know is the next quarantine won’t be the same experience. Why? Because next time, there’ll be…