The Baddest

Neal Stephenson once stated - or it should be said, wrote - a passage in a novel implying that man, until the age of 25, thinks it is still possible to be the "baddest motherfucker in the world." Given the ridiculousness of said delusions of grandeur, it would seem that abandoning this ideal as quickly as possible would put one at peace. Given wild gesticulations of violence both in media, arts, and real life, oftentimes by men, many of whom are older than 25, one might be inclined to state that many men still think they can be the baddest, and that doing so often involves some sort of fatalistic attribution of death to the claim. In the end, we are all the worse off for it.

How Dreams Change

It is apparent that, over time, one's dreams for the future of their life can change - drastically so. One may find that something they never even once wished to achieve is now the pre-eminent focus of one's daydreaming escapades, and that the forlorn interests of one's childhood are now considered passé. Most importantly, however, one finds that even if one's dreams change drastically in terms of industry, profession, status, or standing over the course of one's existence, the one constant is that they remain, as always, entirely out of reach.

Longform

For days, now, the present author has put off working on a longform post of a subject of relative passion to the aforementioned. Given, however, that such a long post would require a considerable time investment, only to be read and consumed by no one, one wonders if instead it is better to simply continue to write pithy, irrelevant shortform pieces, to be read and consumed, also, by no one.

Self-Deception

It has been put forth, several times, and rather controversially each time, that humanity has evolved to see the world around them in a dishonest way. That is, evolution rewarded self-deception as a coping mechanism and survival mechanism, and that were we to see the physical reality around us as it really "were" such as that or consciousness did not distort it, the terrors and chaos of the world would essentially overwhelm us. Given, however, that we are now all aware of this potential reality, one has to wonder how much good evolution really did, if we are now simply unable to perceive the entropy around us, but able to understand it exists. As always, the end result is, of course, dread.

Only Step

One find that, if one is fortunate enough to be able to clearly and easily understand what one's greatest mistake of one's life is, then it could be said that said person is lucky that they are able to identify it as such, because that then suggests that the mistake could be fixed or rendered moot. However, if admitting a problem is the first step to solving it, it also remains, in the vast majority of cases, the only step ever taken.

Avoiding Resolution

The Gregorian Calendar states that, just a few days ago, we switched from the year 2016 AD to 2017 AD. Given the assigned significance of this event by much of this world, many people use this period of time to assign themselves goals for the coming year (2017) under the label of New Year's Resolutions. Because studies have shows that the vast, vast majority of people fall short of meeting these resolutions, the current author would like to present a cure. When asked if one has any New Year's Resolutions in early January, it might be pertinent to suggest that this year, one is celebrating Chinese New Years, and thus has well over a month before the year changes and any resolutions must be made, thus freeing one from the burden of creating unachievable goals.

Of course, one must, then, once Chinese New years comes around, simply point out that one does not celebrate it, and instead falls in line with much of the world's acceptance of the Gregorian Calendar. By constantly moving the goalposts as such, and, ideally, avoiding the uncomfortable possibility of someone remembering your previous commitments to a certain holiday, one can free themselves from ever having to set a goal that can not be achieved, thus preventing at least one source of disappointment, in an existence that is already full of them.