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    #40 Pushing a destructive frontier

    5 billion years ago, our solar system didn’t exist in its current form – but the laws of our universe already held the promise that one day, an earth like ours would revolve around a sun.

    That earth has been revolving around the sun long before any human started observing planetary orbits and realized we’re not the center of the universe.

    Animals, plants, mountains and oceans have instinctively dealt with the law of gravity long before an apple fell on Newton’s head.

    Energy and mass have been two sides of the same coind long before Einstein proposed a formula for mass-energy equivalence (E = mc²).

    Knowledge: invented or discovered?

    More importantly: what do we do with all that knowledge – and the power it give us?

    100 years ago, nuclear weapons didn’t exist yet – but the atomic building blocks and reactions making it possible have always been hidden inside the earth and the universe.

    50 years ago, the internet wasn’t “invented” yet – but the concept of an internet has always been possible.

    Today, general artificial intelligence don’t exist yet. Yet it seems that the laws of the universe have always made developing artificial life a possibility – even if it means biological life becomes obsolete.

    Do we pursue power
    persistently pushing the frontier
    even if we run the risk
    that we destroy everything we hold dear?

    Lukas Van Vyve
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    #102 When dreams turn into certainties

    Elon Musk has the rock-solid belief that someday, he’s going to put people on Mars. He doesn’t hope for it. He believes it’s inevitable.

    Whether his belief becomes a reality or not is irrelevant. What matters are the actions and grit his faith inspires in him and everyone working with him.

    That’s the rock-solid determination extraordinary feats are built on.

    But you don’t have to dream of interplanetary travel to reach stellar levels of determination.

    What would you do if writing a new book isn’t just optional or desirable but inevitable?

    What would you do if mastering an instrument isn’t just possible but inescapable?

    What happens when, in your mind, you turn a dream into a certainty?

    How does that change your actions? Mindset? Beliefs? Feelings?

    How much easier does it become to persevere?

  • #394 Remind yourself of the future

    There is no way to predict the future.

    But thinking about where you would like to be in the future can help you make better decisions today.

    Want to be a writer in the future? Better write today.

    Want to run a marathon? Better run today (or eat better, or rest, or stretch…)

    Remind yourself of the future, not for the sake of precise predictions, but for the sake of the present.

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