On freedom / i wish i had more time


Too many people think freedom is the ability to do anything you want, instead of the discipline to not be a slave to your compulsions.
What makes us feel liberated is not total freedom, but rather living in a set of limitations that we have created and prescribed for ourselves.
Andrea Zittel • Andrea Zittel, "These Things I Know for Sure"
This is choice paralysis. Previous generations didn’t have many options so they stuck together through hard times and made it work. Now, abundance (or its illusion) has led people to feel less satisfied. People are now more anxious about making a choice and less certain that the one they made was correct.
When we pursue optionality, we avoid bold decisions. Like anything meaningful, venturing into the unknown is an act of faith. It demands responsibility. You‘ll have to take a stand, trust your decision, and ignore the taunts of outside dissent. But a life without conviction is a life controlled by the futile winds of fashion. Or worse, the hollow e... See more
David Perell • Peter Thiel’s Religion
Feels infinitely connected to the quote “the magic you’re looking for is in the work you’re avoiding”
People think freedom is the power to change what you dislike about the world around you.
You can quit a job you hate. Leave a person who hurts you. Switch cities for a change of scenery. Chop your hair for a new look.
What freedom actually is: the power to change what you dislike about yourself.
Julie Zhuo • The Looking Glass: Prioritize until it hurts
people think they want choices. but they prefer good defaults.
still one of my favorite lines of all time:
and when nobody wakes you up in the morning, and when nobody waits for you at night, and when you can do whatever you want. what do you call it, freedom or loneliness?
- charles bukowski