(Photo taken in Washington D.C. – forget which museum)
Whoever carved this, is lost to time, long forgotten … whatever king commissioned it, is lost to time and long forgotten… the entire empire is mostly lost to time and memory now… it’s good to remember this
——-
Another podcast shout out today.
https://www.samharris.org/podcasts/making-sense-episodes/269-deep-time
Oliver Burkeman released a book recently called “4,000 Weeks – Time Management For Mortals”
It’s been a big hit, and sometime in the past couple weeks I came across it on Amazon. Was immediately turned off by the title!
“Ugh… another pop-business, productivity book.”
So happy I listened to this conversation between him and Mr. Harris, because it seems like Burkeman wrote an anti time management book!
From the podcast, I gather that the thesis of the book is basically, “you can’t do everything you want to do” … and not only that, but “you can’t do everything that you should do”.
We’ve probably all heard some advice like this at some point or another, reminding us that our time here is limited and we won’t be able to get around to everything, so don’t waste your time on things that don’t matter.
Burkememan goes a step further by telling us (rightly) that, even things that would be very good for us to do, things that we should do – most of these will also be out of reach.
Our imagination and our desires are much larger than our ability to actually act them out.
So where does this leave us?
In some sense it’s sad, but to me it feels mostly liberating.
We’re off the hook of doing everything we want to do, and of being everything that we want to be.
Our experiences and achievments don’t really “accrue” like we think they will. Once we complete something, it’s sort of gone, other than as a vague memory.
The science is pretty clear on the fact that our happiness is not really determined by our achievements.
So the book goes beyond telling us to triage, to prioritize the things that are important – to a deeper place of telling us that, “this is it.”
This = right now.
If you can’t learn to enjoy whatever your day to day experience is, your life is going to be mostly filled with anxiety and stress.
Just listen to the damn interview! I promise it’s worth it!
One of the best I’ve experienced in a while.
Enjoy your day today!
[16 / 365 ]
