Life Is Short And So Is This Book: Brief Thoughts On Making The Most Of Your Life

It’s incredibly hard to have a dispassionate view of the world, even if you try your hardest. Humans are emotional animals, and we all come at the world with our own point of view based on our experience. It’s impossible in many ways to get outside that frame of reference, although with diverse experience, a lot of reading, honest self-reflection on your failures, and some thinking, it’s possible to stretch our perspective. Data and patterns matter, and you should pay close attention to them. But they’re not enough to deeply understand the world, since history doesn’t repeat itself exactly.

Judgment and wisdom matter a great deal. To acquire them, and to be creative, it’s important to slow down enough at times to notice what is going on around you.

Focus is important because time is limited and you can’t do everything, let alone do everything well.

Life doesn’t come easily most of the time to most of us. Even if you have no major issues in your life, eventually you will. The way to succeed amidst obstacles is to not give up. Perseverance matters. I don’t know anyone who has succeeded over time in any field or significant endeavor without it.

Change happens whether you like it or not, both in our personal lives and in our world more broadly. With technology and globalization, the rate of change in society is accelerating. Being able to accept and manage change is an essential skill.

Without true friends, most of us wouldn’t enjoy our lives. To be happy, it’s vitally important to be connected to other human beings whom you care about and who, in turn, care about you.

If you don’t take good care of yourself physically and psychologically, you won’t be able to enjoy your life. And if you don’t care about others, you at least will be missing one of the great joys of being alive.

You can’t both create space to let your mind wander and intensely focus at the same time. You need to use your judgment to figure out what’s right for you at a given time in your life.

We’re all going to be dead anyway some day. So while you should try your hardest to make the most of your life, when something funny happens, when you make a mistake, or even (and perhaps especially) when bad things happen, it’s easier if you can laugh about yourself and the world.