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They Will Envy You for Your Success, Your Money, Your Looks, Your Status, But NEVER for This…
This one thing is worth more than all the rest of these combined.
“They will envy you for your success, for your wealth, for your intelligence, for your looks, for your status — but rarely for your wisdom.”
-Nassim Taleb, in The Bed of Procrustes
So often in life, the things that are actually worth striving for and cultivating are not what most people actually pursue.
They want to tell you how much their new car set them back, but they won’t talk about their charitable giving — if it exists. They’ll tell you how much they “make,” but nothing about how much they give.
They’ll want to brag about their SAT scores but will place no value on the act of being kind to someone who is unable to do anything for them in return.
This is all completely backward!
It blows my mind how nonsensical this all is, but of course, it follows the logic of human nature, status games, and evolutionary psychology.
