Musings on a train to Paris
In late 2023, I was on a train from Mannheim (Germany) to Paris (France). As the countryside passed me by, the trees and rain a blur, and the sound around me drowned out by my thoughts. As I often do on long journeys, I didn’t read or listen to anything, I simply stared out the window for a few hours, entertained by my own meandering brain.
Usually, these wandering reflections are daydreams that have little impact to my life. But something different happened that day. I had some very clear insights on how I wanted to redefine my life. Over the past year, they’ve fully crystallized (which is hard to say about most insights we encounter without intentional integration). They’ve radically altered my philosophy and they now continue to define how I live life
To be honest, I don’t know if they’ll help you. Some might seem obvious to you, some might make no sense or you’ll disagree. Nonetheless, here they are -
The musings are unedited since writing, Also, if you see (note:), those were written in March 2025 as a reflection
- earth is god. In the grand history - humans are inconsequential
it’s delusional to imagine we’ll do anything significant in the long game
you have no responsibility to anyone except yourself and the rules you make for yourself
life is an open sandbox game - the best you can do is have fun - but that fun is found in the journey itself - let go of finishing the game
you can choose what role to play - doctor, engineer, priest, king, or nothing at all. Sometimes you may not even get a choice - so you play the cards you are dealt with
the best part of this game is you get to choose what “points” are. So you can win the game, you just choose what winning means
if you’re losing the game of life, you’ve done something terribly wrong. That shouldn’t happen. But you can fix it. Just change the point system - choose the metric that makes you win, and move on
if you choose that the most fun journey is to start a company and do good things for people around you - then that’s great - go do that and have fun - and win life - but that’s just the metric for your life - so don’t pretend like what you’re doing is going to change the world in a meaningful way (note: not to say that you CAN’T, but you’ll lose if that’s the scoring system. keep the scoring to what’s in your control)
we don’t even know that the people you’ve labeled as having been influential have made things better than the alternative. do we really know that Gandhi’s work was actually long term good? do we know if Elon musk is long term good. It’s impossible to really know what the universe would have looked like in the alternate reality (note: similar to Moloch without the negative undertone)
the best you can do is live a life that makes you happy and makes you win at your own metrics (yeah you get it by now but like really)
succeeding at business or making an infinite amount of money are probably bad metrics and really hard to win
however, there is one “prize” that’s likely universally good for everyone. One scoring system that everyone does play.
As Avicii said - life is a game made for everyone and love is the prize
if you can find people that make you truly happy then live a life with them - you’ve won
it’s possible this isn’t universally true though and is just true for me. let’s not judge the people that choose to sacrifice love in pursuit of money and fame. Just know that -
i’m winning at life. I always have been
—
Practical applications #
- when you run into adversity - it’s nothing but a hard level or boss in a video game. you choice if you want to keep playing, or you want to choose a different easier level, or you want to take a break and try again.
- the hard level has the best reward (note: I would update this to “.. MAY have the best reward”. read on:)
- so taking a break is totally justified, but the reward you get for doing it later may not remain what it is now the same later.
- counterintuitively, the easier level could have a better reward (note: since writing this over a year ago, I’ve fully validated this to be true in my life)
- the path of trying somethingcould reveal a whole new path
- this whole game is incredibly fun and there are no wrong answers.
- so run into adversity with the power that knowing the above and you’ll succeed whatever happens - because, again, you get to choose what the point system is.