Do externals tend to distract you? Then give yourself the space to learn some further good lesson, and stop your wandering. That done, you must guard against the other sort of drift. Those who are dead to life and have no aim for the direction of every impulse, and more widely, every thought are drivelers in deed as well as word. - The Meditations of Marcus Aurelius.
Again and again, the cold breeze from the universe cuts across the bow of my ship. It scares the shit out of me. Wow, is this it? This world is wild! Then I let my vertigo subside (one has to), and plod patiently forward.
Life, you see, is both long and short. It’s long; and doesn't need heaving, sweating, and pushing, and it doesn't need the artificial urgency we’re accustomed to. It needs patience. Real progress, personal or professional, happens in the quiet moments, when we give space to our thoughts and the people to whom we are closest. It also feels long; 10-year-old Hector existed millennia ago.
By paradoxically, life is also short. We'll be dead tomorrow. And if it's not actually tomorrow, it's not going to be long after that. Four thousand weeks in 80 years is not a long time. And as we get older, each of those weeks feels still shorter. Moreover, Hofstadter's Law says what you want to accomplish (e.g. typing this letter) always takes longer than you expect, 'even when you take into account Hofstadter's Law'. It's so cruel.
In our short and long lives, it's hard to know what to do. What do we want to achieve? What do we prioritise? When do we recognise whether something is not working, or is bad for us, and requires a change in direction? We never want to waste life, and we fear spending too long pondering. Is a startup or career, or relationship working out? Who is the author of our idea of a perfect life? Is it chiselled in stone or printed on the back of a cereal box? And who the heck is watching? So many questions if one ponders for a moment. But then, is life really life if it's spent questioning all of this?
Amidst this fog, I've been thinking a lot about the 'why' question. It's inevitable: Elon Musk said starting a business is like chewing glass and staring into the abyss. He’s kinda right. But, it's not all that bad… I’ve found that designing a life so that Plan A is the same as Plan B (the backup), removes much of the stress.
So, here is my Plan B, the backup plan for life.
Live out my days writing this letter to you, I'll up it to bi-weekly. I'll live in an isolated Scottish cottage, like this architectural masterpiece in Marishader. At £145,000, it's a steal, has an EPC of a C, and requires no work doing.
Riverside Cottage is a traditional cottage located in a tranquil and private setting boasting far reaching views across the surrounding croft land. The property has been tastefully decorated throughout to create a beautiful cottage which has previously operated as a successful holiday let. The cottage retains deep sill windows in the lounge and bedroom and traditional v-lining on the bathroom ceiling.
There are hundreds of cottages like this, out of reach of 5G, but within reach of the Royal Mail. I'd need a local post office. I'd become a postman to subsidise my scarce Substack revenue.
And here’s Plan A, if it all works out.
The same as the above, but my post van would be a red Tesla.
Live well,
Hector
Red ? Really.