Yeah, that’s the cold truth.
OK. Maybe Elon Musk is an outlier. Benjamin Franklin definitely is. But, it’s lottery ticket probability that you’ll do something that has an impact beyond even a few generations.
For 99.99% of us, it’s true — you’re gone in three generations and nobody cares.
Think about it. How much do you know or care about beyond your grandparents? Be honest. If you don’t know anything, it’s probably because you don’t care enough. Everything changes so quickly. Even in my lifetime, whole industries and technology have become irrelevant.
Now, you can either get depressed about this, or realise that life is short and isn’t to be wasted. If you go the ‘short and isn’t to be wasted’ route, it’s actually quite liberating.
It can put a stop to the pointless stuff you constantly worry about. It makes you realise what’s really important. Spending time with loved ones.
Bringing up a family. Helping and making people smile today. Being in good health. Doing work you enjoy and that helps people. Having fun. Being happy with who you are. You end up spending more time in the present, and less time worrying about the past and future.
Naval Ravikant puts it way better than I ever could — Wait, our whole life is just a firefly blinking once in the night? (I read this at least weekly)
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