Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.

George Santayana

I have a hard time of letting things go every now and then. In my mind I always tend to be 10 – well to be honest 100 – steps ahead. I guess this is second nature to me as I am always pondering all possible variations stuff can go either good or bad. You can call this my own multiversal mind.

The problem with this mindset is that when I eventually see a “timeline” going as I have thought it out and things take a turn for the worst. I often feel anxious and depressed. This is something I have to work on, as you cannot change people’s behavior if they are not willing to listen and learn.

This train of thought fits nicely with a book I recently finished: The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck.

People who base their self-worth on always being right will prevent themselves from learning from their mistakes.

Mark Manson

So advice to my future self and others in similar situations. It isn’t you, you should not worry if people always want to be right and do not want to learn from past mistakes. Try to be at peace with the situation or either leave the situation so you can be at peace.

Together we create the world we inhabit.

David Graeber

From his book Bullshit Jobs I recently finished (write up will follow soon). This was an hopeful message worth repeating. An example he gives is the world we are currently living in, is controlled by capitalistic values. But… if one day we would all wake up and stop buying things and don’t get motivated by capitalistic ideals, capitalism would (eventually) stop to exist. And when you think about it, this is at the core on how we can change the world. You already see it by the next generation becoming more politically engaged, unionizing and so on.

We are the future and we can determine how the world is shaped for us and generations after us. We will create a better world, we just have to.

It’s easy to make things hard, but hard to make them easy

Jos de Blok

Currently reading Humandkind by Rutger Bregman and this quote was mentioned. It made me think of life and work in particular. Why is it that we often choose to make things difficult when the answer is so simple. Like just calling someone to verify a story, getting people together so any miscommunication or tension can be talked about or just simply listen to someone as they vent, instead of wanting to solve everything.

Life as it is, is complex already. Why make it hard for yourself? Remember that you have only one life to live, so use your time well. You can only spend it once.

What is the value of free speech if we have nothing of value to say.

What purpose does freedom of religion service if we no longer believe in anything.

Rutger Bregman

This quote is from his book Utopia for Realists, which I wrote about a couple of days ago. Something to think about when we stand for basic human rights. We keep fighting for them for various reasons, but do we add value to society with things we are saying, doing or believing? Or is most of it just for selfish reasons.