“What is important is not what happens to us, but how we respond to what happens to us.” ― Jean-Paul Sartre
I’ve read this first in „The happiness diary” by Nicolae Steinhardt.
When I was young, I wanted to know a lot about everything.
I had a (sort of) computer when I was around 8 (1990/1991), and after a while, I started writing code.
When I had a real PC (1997), I started figuring things out. I’ve done some mistakes, I crashed the computer a few times, but after a while, I knew some things.
At school, while I didn’t like all the subjects from the curriculum, I felt there was nothing I couldn’t learn if I wanted to.
Fast forward to today, and the realm of unknown things got so big, that it’s a bit frightening.
Sure, I can learn things, but it takes so much time, in some areas, there’s so much to learn, and, in some fields, the knowledge evolves so fast, that I feel overwhelmed at some point.
The solution? Right now, all I can think of is „Pretend you have it all covered”. Act as if you can learn, you can keep up, you do know some things. Pretend, and the fake piece of clothing will fit you well.
There’s a problem:
În camerele din închisori — pentru că acolo e violent amplificată, exacerbată — am înțeles cât de mizerabilă e situația noastră în lume: prin simpla noastră existență deranjăm pe alții.
N-avem încotro. Se cuvine să înțelegem că orice am face și oricât ne-am strădui, tot supărăm. Singura soluție e resemnarea. Ce putem face? Să tăcem, să tăcem. Să nu facem răul, și nici binele cu sila. Dar și trecând, tăcând, tot nemulțumim. Odată pentru totdeauna se cade să ne băgăm bine în minte: deranjăm doar pentru că suntem prezenți. Și să nu ne oprim aici: mai trebuie să recunoaștem că și ei ne deranjează pe noi! Gând înfiorător: Căci nu suntem mai buni ca ceilalți, tot în aceeași oală ne aflăm și fierbem înăbușit.
Absurdul e unul din parametrii condiției omenești.
Ieșim din obezi prin dragostea de Hristos, cale ocolită, dar sigură către iubirea de aproapele — și îndurarea prezenței lui.
And a solution:
In the (perfect) movie adaptation, Hannibal calls Clarice on the phone, and he says it just a little differently: “The world’s more interesting with you in it.”
I think about this line all the time in our contemporary era.
Yes, you may annoy some people just by being on this Earth.
The solution? Think of it this way – the world can be more interesting due to this.
It may look like the natural thing to do – in order to be creative, you should avoid seeing what others are doing.
If you really want to create something original, it may seem, you need to ignore the footsteps of your predecessors.
I’m 50-50 with this. I’m not sure of a 100% solution.
On one hand, it’s good to see what others have done before you, so you can improve on it, and not come up with a strange solution. If you don’t know what others have done prior to you, you risk doing a similar piece of work or coming up with something which feels out of place.
On another hand, if you want to be totally creative, it might help you not knowing what others have done. This solution is not applicable to agencies, where you need to know what others have created, so you don’t go into copying other people’s work.
There’s a time in someone’s life when the young person meets the world.
You get to understand better some things in your life.
So, while in early childhood you’re very happy, at some point you get to understand some things.
The age can vary dramatically, there are some children who are forced to work at a very young age.
The thing is, while this process is a necessary step to adapt to the realities of the world, I don’t view it as a pleasant one.
From my experience, it was actually very hard and harsh, and the thing is life after that moment wasn’t ever the same.
If I were to pick, I’d make this transition as further away as possible.
Later edit: On another hand, this helped me grow. It wasn’t pleasant, but I was able to better face the world at a later stage in my life.
Why do people worry?
First of all, it’s easy. It seems like the natural thing to do. It’s within your reach.
Then, it’s a habit, you try not to, but you’re so used to it.
Does it have a good part?
Sure – it makes you prevent some possible failures.
How about the bad part?
It can give you anxiety, and a state of not feeling well.
What’s the solution?
Think of this chart, if you have no problems in your life, you shouldn’t worry. If you do have some problem, focus on solving it, and either you can solve it or not, you shouldn’t worry, cause just worrying won’t solve it.
Nice graph.
Poate fi uneori deranjant să fii extra-politicos. Poți deranja, încercând să faci binele, poți lăsa o percepție greșită, poți încerca să fii amabil și să calci pe bătături.
I’ve met some really good students in my life. All – better than me.
What was a bit surprising is that most of these students were good at multiple things at once. Sure, they had some ups and downs, but, all-in-all, they were good overall.
My opinion on this is that knowledge compounds – if you learn well in the first grade, you’ll learn easier in the second grade and so on.
On another hand, if you don’t learn well for a while, it’s harder to catch up.
This made me think – can you regain the lost knowledge?
Think of people going to prison for a long while (for example, in communist time in Romania). Did they recover from the lost time in prison?
Two opposite views on this:
E o întrebare – cât de „tare” e „prea” tare în ceea ce privește volumul la boxe?
Sometimes, I hear „critical thinking is so good”.
Yet, sometimes I meet people who cross their arms and are against pretty much everything.
I fail to see how critical thinking helps those people.
In some online communities, you tend to see lots of negativity, hatred even.
They say only ignorant people can be happy (“Happy people are not the smart people.”).
As far as I can tell, I think only smart people can be happy. I see a lot of angry, upset, negative not-so-smart people.
And I’ve met in my life some people who were both happy and very smart.
What’s the biggest problem I have with always-upset people? They tend to make poor decisions.
Vaccinations, friends, life, voting, choosing between A and B.
And, even more than this, they tend to be unhappy and grumpy.
Be happy, choose wisely, live longer – who wouldn’t want this?
The unhappy / less smart / critical people.
Is critical thinking bad? No. Is being critical all the time, always aggressive, always fighting, always wanting to win, badly? To me, yes.
I don’t have a problem with saying „No”, I have a problem with people always saying „No”.