2024.09.13
Here are my favorites. One set I liked are all different takes on an idea I find crucial; the importance of guiding and channeling our reactions to the world, especially the parts we don't like:
He who is not satisfied with a little, is satisfied with nothing.
Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms to choose one's attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one's own way.
It isn't what you have or who you are or where you are or what you are doing that makes you happy or unhappy. It is what you think about it.
What you're supposed to do when you don't like a thing is change it. If you can't change it, change the way you think about it. Don't complain.
A sunny disposition is worth more than fortune. Young people should know that it can be cultivated; that the mind, like the body can be moved from the shade into sunshine.
Another set that resonated for me, especially right now, was about fear...
What would you do if you weren't afraid?
I have learned over the years that when one's mind is made up, this diminishes fear; knowing what must be done does away with fear.That last one is interesting, since it speaks to the fear generated by people worried about doing the wrong thing. But like I'll get to later, I'm worried by people who aren't worried about the wrong thing, who have self-granted permission to do what they want.
My dad would actually encourage me to fail growing up. I would come home from school and he would say to my brother and I: 'So what'd you guys fail at this week?' And if we didn't have something, he would actually be disappointed. I didn't realize it at the time, but he was just changing my definition of failure. My definition of failure became not about the outcome, but about not trying.
Failure is a massive part of being able to be successful. You have to get comfortable with failure. You have to actually seek failure. Failure is where all of the lessons are.
I was an overnight success all right, but thirty years is a long, long night.
The world breaks everyone, and afterward, many are strong at the broken places.
This next set is more of a mix, but about how to be in life in general:
The first principle is that you must not fool yourself -- and you are the easiest person to fool.
If a man will begin with certainties, he shall end in doubts; but if he will be content to begin with doubts he shall end in certainties.
There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is.
Do what you gotta do so you can do what you wanna do.(Guess that last one is one of those work to live, don't live to work kind of thoughts)
The right to swing your fist ends where my nose begins.
Not everything that can be counted counts, and not everything that counts can be counted.That last one has a big implication for UX + Analytics. (Compare to the sometimes (mis-)attributed to Peter Drucker "You can't manage what you can't measure" A certain type of person craves the certainty vibe the accompanies some quantifications, and are willing to put "lies, damn lies, and statistics" aside.)
As he read, I fell in love the way you fall asleep: slowly, and then all at once.
If I had more time, I would have written a shorter letter.As a sometimes rambling speaker I appreciate that last one.
A reader lives a thousand lives before he dies. The man who never reads lives only one.
A man who dares to waste one hour of time has not discovered the value of life.Damn, don't like that one! I'm more into "time you enjoy wasting is not wasted". You don't always have to be driven on by that will to accomplish.
What these things have in common is that kids will take a chance. If they don't know, they'll have a go. Am I right? They're not frightened of being wrong. I don't mean to say that being wrong is the same thing as being creative. What we do know is, if you're not prepared to be wrong, you'll never come up with anything original -- if you're not prepared to be wrong. And by the time they get to be adults, most kids have lost that capacity. They have become frightened of being wrong. And we run our companies like this. We stigmatize mistakes. And we're now running national education systems where mistakes are the worst thing you can make. And the result is that we are educating people out of their creative capacities.I guess my main point is not missing "you gotta try to be right" even as you're not afraind to be wrong. (Just like, you gotta try to try and not just preemptively be at ease with failure)