It reminds me of of a line from Victor Fankl's book 'Man Search for Meaning': "
"When we are no longer able to change a situation, we are challenged to change ourselves." (E.g. you could substitute the word 'change' for 'optimize', opening another dimension of opportunities in the face of unavoidable tradeoffs).
As a side note on the closing remark of your excellent post ("we're really shooting for happiness"), I think I agree with Frankl that happiness, like success, in themselves are not realistic pursuits, but rather to pursue what is meaningful.
As he eloquently says: "Don't aim at success. The more you aim at it and make it a target, the more you are going to miss it. For success, like happiness, cannot be pursued; it must ensue, and it only does so as the unintended side effect of one's personal dedication to a cause greater than oneself or as the by-product of one's surrender to a person other than oneself. Happiness must happen, and the same holds for success: you have to let it happen by not caring about it. I want you to listen to what your conscience commands you to do and go on to carry it out to the best of your knowledge. Then you will live to see that in the long-run—in the long-run, I say!—success will follow you precisely because you had forgotten to think about it."
You know what's wild? I'm literally half-way through this book right now! I've always meant to read it and I'm finally there. I'm totally in agreement with you on this.
Success is the side-effect. What a mind-blowing, reality-shaking idea.
Thanks for calling this out, Carlos. Your comment here is a beautiful contribution to this thought.
It reminds me of of a line from Victor Fankl's book 'Man Search for Meaning': "
"When we are no longer able to change a situation, we are challenged to change ourselves." (E.g. you could substitute the word 'change' for 'optimize', opening another dimension of opportunities in the face of unavoidable tradeoffs).
As a side note on the closing remark of your excellent post ("we're really shooting for happiness"), I think I agree with Frankl that happiness, like success, in themselves are not realistic pursuits, but rather to pursue what is meaningful.
As he eloquently says: "Don't aim at success. The more you aim at it and make it a target, the more you are going to miss it. For success, like happiness, cannot be pursued; it must ensue, and it only does so as the unintended side effect of one's personal dedication to a cause greater than oneself or as the by-product of one's surrender to a person other than oneself. Happiness must happen, and the same holds for success: you have to let it happen by not caring about it. I want you to listen to what your conscience commands you to do and go on to carry it out to the best of your knowledge. Then you will live to see that in the long-run—in the long-run, I say!—success will follow you precisely because you had forgotten to think about it."
You know what's wild? I'm literally half-way through this book right now! I've always meant to read it and I'm finally there. I'm totally in agreement with you on this.
Success is the side-effect. What a mind-blowing, reality-shaking idea.
Thanks for calling this out, Carlos. Your comment here is a beautiful contribution to this thought.