Not knowing what’s coming next—which is the situation you’re always in, with regard to the future—presents an ideal opportunity for choosing curiosity (wondering what might happen next) over worry (hoping that a certain specific thing will happen next, and fearing it might not) whenever you can.

There are many aspects of life that pull us in opposing directions. We need to be pessimistic enough to prepare for bad outcomes but optimistic enough to undertake new projects. We need to see people both as enmeshed in systems that push them around and as free agents shaping their own lives. It’s vital to be skeptical and ask questions, but also

We mistakenly assume that the present is merely a continuation of the past, a predictable outcome of previous actions.

But what if we’re looking in the wrong direction? What if the true nature of reality lies not in the quantized past, but in the ever-present, unquantifiable now?