Same path, different feels

Today was the first time I walked up a neighborhood hill I had driven through several times. 

When I drive, I mostly notice the road, other cars, a few big buildings, and the intersections. When I walked, I experienced a whole other world - the plants and trees, homes, yards, and people. My inner world of thoughts and sensations was also different. It also struck me that the same paths also hit differently when I bike or depending on the time of the day, season, and mood. 

In the TV show, Lessons in Chemistry, a character says he has read Great Expectations several times and each time feels different; not because the book has changed, but because he has. Another author has written about how we can live our entire lives within a 10-mile radius and still have more to experience. 

It isn't just where you go that matters - how you travel and who you are matters too. You can go fast, far, and wide, or you can go slow and take it all in.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Part 1: Paul Graham, Mark Zuckerberg, and Sam Altman discuss principles for coming up with startup ideas (GPT generated)

Generated by Bing GPT chat, with no edits.  This is a possible conversation between Paul Graham, Mark Zuckerberg, and Sam Altman where they discuss and build on each other's principles for coming up with startup ideas.  Paul: Hi Mark and Sam, thanks for joining me today. I thought it would be interesting to talk about how we approach startup ideas and what we've learned from our experiences. Mark: Sure, sounds good. I'm always curious to hear how other founders think about startups. Sam: Me too. I think there's a lot of value in sharing our perspectives and insights. Paul: Great. Well, let me start by saying that I think the way to get startup ideas is not to try to think of startup ideas. It's to look for problems, preferably problems you have yourself . Mark: I agree with that. That's how Facebook started. I wanted a way to connect with my friends at Harvard and see what they were up to. I didn't think of it as a startup idea at first. It was just somethin...
Continue reading »

Elon's goals and answer to the most fundamental question

The most fundamental question to understand, IMO, is the existential one...What the heck is all this?! Why and how are we here? What are we supposed to do? Elon Musk is an incredibly smart guy - he has a track record of making things happen - both in the physical world (batteries, cars, rockets) and within human society (leading businesses, making money, acquiring a following). He's also a clear, first principles thinker and shares a lot about how he thinks about the world. So I think he can play a part in helping us understand life and the world*. So what is Elon's answer to the foundational question? Elon has two answers - one explicit and another implicit.   Elon recalls that at the age of 11 or 12, he had an existential crisis because he didn't understand why or how we are here. He concluded that we may never know but we may be able to find out if we expand the scope and scale of civilization and consciousness , and that's what he wants to do.  I like Elon's fra...
Continue reading »

The Four Roots of Unhappiness and Worry

We get upset and unhappy about many things.  Someone something said or did upset you. Your parents, partner, friends, or kids are asking you to do things you don't want to, or they misunderstand you. They don't act in a way that you feel is right or helpful.  Your manager, colleague, or customer criticized your work, or they aren't cooperating. You didn't get the promotion or award you wanted or think you deserved.  You are running low on savings and income and worried that you can't support yourself and your family. You are in physical pain or your health is declining and you have unusual body aches and insomnias.  Your country or community is divided. The system seems broken, leaders seem corrupt, and people seem selfish and ignorant.   So many flavors of unhappiness, incessantly knocking at your door! But all of these worries and unhappiness are rooted in these four main causes. If you conquer or make peace with those causes, you can rise above all unhap...
Continue reading »

Air - an inspirational movie about how to make things happen

I just watched Air, a fun and inspiring movie about how Nike, then an underdog in the shoe industry, managed to sign Michael Jordan, a rookie at that time. The movie starts with Sonny Vaccaro (played by Matt Damon) opposing his colleagues' decision to go with the low-risk and low-reward move of signing three average basketball players. Teams and companies operate a lot based on group discussions and consensus. Those don't usually lead to brilliance or extraordinary outcomes - they converge on average, which is why most companies slowly wither and die as they grow. But Sonny doesn't care for the consensus. His deep passion and expertise in basketball make him realize that Michael Jordan is going to be a superstar before most people did. He aims higher and dreams of signing Jordan, defying his bosses and other business restrictions. He makes bold moves, breaks rules, and risks his entire career to make it happen.  As this impossible idea starts to take shape and seem more pos...
Continue reading »