Agalia Tan

for something new to emerge, you have to help things die. that there’s a difference between abandoning and tending. that endings need as much care as beginnings.

the future won’t be rebuilt by algorithms or governments. it gets rebuilt the way everything good gets rebuilt — at human scale, with the people actually around you, one front porch at a time.

This is permission to find comfort in knowing that we cannot, and will not, know or change everything .

this is not about anti-technology or anti-ambition. It is pro-focus, pro-intention, and pro-discernment in how we understand broader historical contexts and apply the affordances of modern technology and media to our own ambitions. This is a call to reclaim our attention as a finite, precious resource.

Francis Bacon warned that when we have no clear “prenotion or perception of what we are seeking, we seek and toil and wander aimlessly, as if in infinite space. Whereas, if we have a particular prenotion, infinity is at once interrupted.” When our attention narrows, we can move forward with purpose.

Restraint is a winning strategy.

Understanding reality isn’t about infinitely chasing truth with our finite attention. It’s about understanding which worlds are becoming more or less consequential .