Everyone is making things upWe are all told massive lies while we are kids. We are told that as we get older, we will start to learn more about the world and…
We are all told massive lies while we are kids. We are told that as we get older, we will start to learn more about the world and eventually, one day, figure everything out.
I am 20.
I think this is bullshit.
I think that as we age we actually get no closer to “figuring everything out.” In fact, I think it is naturally impossible to figure everything out. The world has infinite problems. There are infinite solutions. There are infinite things to worry about. There are infinite things to think about.
We never reach a mountain top where everything makes sense.
There will always be room for nonsensical future planning and analysis of the past. All this does is distract us from living in the present.
It is my belief, then, after having worked at huge companies and small ones, that everyone is really just making things up as they go along. There is never a point in life where everything has a recipe to follow that works 100% of the time. There is always risk. There is always variability.
The only thing that mitigates those factors is our own internal desire to keep going.
Variability and risk and imagination die only when we tell them to.
They die because we stop. We give up in pursuit of a non-existent mountain top. We become complacent.
Why?
Because we are told a lie when we are kids. We are told this lie again in middle and high school. And again in college. Also at your first job.
The lie is that people know what they are doing.
The truth is that no one does. We are all just trying our best and getting lucky.
Originally published at gonen.blog.
By jordangonen on July 26, 2017.
Exported from Medium on February 17, 2018.