best post i read somewhere

“social media-fueled movie-brainedness amongst youngsters is a malicious phenomenon for which they will pay a huge price later.

you see people coming from utterly privileged backgrounds living fairytale lives, and you’re tempted to emulate everything they do — while also trying to be absolutely cracked professionally, psychologically, physically, and in every other way.

do not worry, you can do everything one after another. life is long. they say mastery takes ten years, but i think if you go full throttle, you can even get there in three. even considering the longer estimate, you have 3-4 good decades to achieve a great deal.

but trying to do everything at once only betrays a lack of clarity.

and the truth is, you don’t really want to do a lot.

some pursuits align naturally with your talents, while others don’t. and while the brain is plastic and can adapt to whatever you desire, you inherently do not desire a lot of what you think you desire. and that clutter saps your focus, energy, and drive.

there are very real trade-offs in life. you can “get everything” but the price you have to pay for it is also everything.

and i certainly am not of the opinion that watching netflix, eating junk food, boozing, and partying are things you need to give up. you can have all of that, but everything has a cost attached to it.

as long as you’re happy and aware of the trade-offs, there’s no problem. some humans can do all of that and a lot more and still have lots of energy to spare to attain mastery.

figure out if you are that human. otherwise, figure out what cards you’ve been dealt and the trade-offs you’ll happily make.

everything else is a movie that will play only in your head, while your life outside keeps disappointing you.”