PHILOSOPHER: You are probably rejecting normality because you equate being normal with being incapable. Being normal is not being incapable. One does not need to flaunt one’s superiority.
YOUTH: Fine, I acknowledge the danger of aiming to be special. But does one really need to make the deliberate choice to be normal?
“The Courage to Be Disliked” by Ichiro Kishimi
I read something recently—and I’m actively trying to remember what it was, typing this out just to stall hoping it’ll come back to me…. drat—about how success is being able to do nothing and feel no guilt about it.
Actually, it might be Nassim Nicolas Taleb. One sec…
Yep, here it is:
“You will be civilized on the day you can spend a long period doing nothing, learning nothing, and improving nothing, without feeling the slightest amount of guilt.”
—“The Bed of Procrustes: Philosophical and Practical Aphorisms (Incerto Book 4)” by Nassim Nicholas Taleb
I’ve gotten to the point where, if i have a free day on the weekend, I make plans to make stuff. It’d be great if I then actually made stuff. But often I end up not making stuff and feeling guilty about it.
Ali Abdaal also has talked about this, though I can’t remember if he coined a phrase for it. But basically he’ll recognize a day might be going astray and he’ll just lean into it and be deliberate about it just being a leisure day.
You can get a lot done in one day. But what kind of life have you designed if you can’t afford to take one day off?