"If you don't break your ropes while you're alive

do you think

ghosts will do it after?"

—Kabir

Also,

"I know, you never intended to be in this world.

But you're in it all the same.

So why not get started immediately.

I mean, belonging to it.

[...]

Do you need a prod?

Do you need a little darkness to get you going?"

—Mary Oliver

The most interesting rationale I’ve heard for attempting ambitious things is, “Well, what else are you going to do with your life? Sit around?” This was an ambitious Singaporean guy I met recently. Interesting guy.

Most ambition rationales are very dull and make me think “I’d rather sit around.” This one felt closest to fingerprinting whatever limited ambition I’m capable of.

The dull ones are like Proving Myself or Showing the Haters or Doing Important Things or Serving Humanity. Noble and admirable perhaps, but dull and I suspect fragile in ways prone to one sort of pathological derailment or another. Even if successful those are self-poisoning ambitions.

But “what else are you going to do? Sit around?” exudes an elemental pre-valuation robustness and I suspect also comes equipped with a natural patience and ability to pace yourself. There’s a sense of relaxed relentlessness to that attitude that suggests you’ll end up somewhere interesting.

from Venkatesh Rao's Blyg ↗ · snapshot of v1