Thoughts on the Wisdom Project

Alternative Title: Thoughts on a Boring Saturday Night

One of my favorite podcasters Merlin Mann has for a while been maintaining the Wisdom Project. After hearing about it periodically on Merlin’s podcasts Do By Friday and Reconcilable Differences, I finally decided to take a deeper look and almost immediately found myself starting an Apple note by the same name. The README file (a type of file that programmers commonly use for high-level documentation) clearly lays out Merlin’s thesis: It's only advice for you because it had to be advice for me. I figured I’d take this opportunity to lay out a few of the first pieces of wisdom I’ve collected as a nod to the great work at the links above.

I’ll start with a quote from Do By Friday itself:

“Don’t compare your back-stage to other people’s on-stage” - Merlin Mann

This stands out a lot to me as a 20-something guy writing on a particularly uninteresting and drizzly Saturday night. I’m sure if I opened Snapchat or Instagram or Threads I’d see 100 of my best friends having a much more interesting time. (Although probably not that last one yet.) But that is their on-stage. Actually, that’s the highlight of the director’s cut of their on-stage. When I go on vacation this upcoming week, my stage will be pretty cool too. I’m trying to take this wisdom to heart by (1) focussing more on my back-stage when I’m there and (2) going to the play a little less.

With that metaphor is sufficiently overused, I’ll move on to my other piece of wisdom. I’ve recently been reading Four Thousand Weeks, Time Management for Mortals by Oliver Burkman. I’m not done yet, so no spoilers. I did, however, run across this quote.

“The fact that there is being to begin with is ‘The brute reality on which all of us ought to be constantly stubbing our toes.’” - Oliver Burkeman paraphrasing Sarah Bakewell

This one’s a bit more out, I’ll agree. The book as a whole is much more about living a productive life for yourself than checking tasks off the todo list. I read it as both obvious and profound. Certainly, it’s a good reminder to step back and ponder, just for a second, the fact that my brain is connected to my fingers which are typing this now. That, actually, is sort of amazing.

Hopefully my personal wisdom project will flourish over the coming months and years. These are two out of ten quotes I’ve included so far. I don’t look to hard for things to add - quality over quantity. If you think this might be a fun exercise, even if you just want a place to write down snappy quotes you know you’ll forget, follow Merlin’s lead.

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