“You are not obligated to complete the work, but neither are you free to desist from it.” Pirkei Avot (2:21)
While I’m not religious, this Jewish quote resonates with me. The “work” is never truly finished, we can all do more to make things better, both for ourselves and our community.
Not my circus, not my monkeys.
Used this against my controlling mother, who liked to lay BS at my feet and make me think it was my responsibility to fix. When it was HER that caused the whole thing. The look on her face when I hit her with that phrase and just turned around and left was priceless.
There a LOT of things that are just flat not your problem, even if someone else tries to make it yours.
Making fun of the weak (poor, minorities, etc) is easy because they can’t fight back, that’s why the best comedy is the one that upsets the powerful.
If it takes only two minutes, do it right away.
This has influenced my entire idea of spending money:
“The reason that the rich were so rich, Vimes reasoned, was because they managed to spend less money.
Take boots, for example. He earned thirty-eight dollars a month plus allowances. A really good pair of leather boots cost fifty dollars. But an affordable pair of boots, which were sort of OK for a season or two and then leaked like hell when the cardboard gave out, cost about ten dollars. Those were the kind of boots Vimes always bought, and wore until the soles were so thin that he could tell where he was in Ankh-Morpork on a foggy night by the feel of the cobbles.
But the thing was that good boots lasted for years and years. A man who could afford fifty dollars had a pair of boots that’d still be keeping his feet dry in ten years’ time, while the poor man who could only afford cheap boots would have spent a hundred dollars on boots in the same time and would still have wet feet.
This was the Captain Samuel Vimes ‘Boots’ theory of socioeconomic unfairness.”
What you do when you don’t have to, makes you who you are.
Never do anything you would be afraid to explain to the paramedics.
“Let go, or be dragged.”
It’s simple, yet so meaningful.
Life is what happens to you while you are making other plans.
How you do anything is how you do everything.
“If it weren’t for my horse, I would’ve never spent that year in college.”
I don’t know what it means, but it has changed my life.
I’m somebody who butts in too much and just in general speaks too much. I’ve always liked this “test” of sorts. I don’t always apply it but I try to!
Before saying anything (especially correcting someone or otherwise getting involved), the following questions need to be asked:
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Does it need to be said?
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Does it need to be said by me?
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Does it need to be said by me right now?
Narcissist: Yes. Yes. And, Yes. LOUD NOISES ensue
If more people on this planet would make these considerations we would all be so much better for it.
Trying to do my part, but I’ll be the first to admit I fuck this test up constantly lol
As long as we keep trying!
I come to ask myself these questions more and more. However, people thinking I’m dull and uninteresting is a downside… or is it?
I call it The Subtle Art of Shutting the Fuck Up.
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apparently
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i really wish it didn’t
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no time like the present
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I’ve found that every time, the less I speak, the wiser I sound. And I don’t mean that in the “better to stay silent and be thought a fool than to open your mouth and remove all doubt” sense—though that’s true too.
I’ve gotten far more mileage and respect by letting others dominate conversations, then dropping one or two sharp questions or comments that show I’ve been paying close attention and actually understand what’s going on. That says more than any deep dive into minutiae ever could—especially when those tangents usually reveal more about what I don’t know than what I do.
I just started a new job, and the kickoff meeting was today. I put that strategy to use—barely said a word for 45 minutes. I probably looked like a dud hire. But by the end I think I came off as the smartest motherfucker in the room. I doubt I actually was—I’m probably the only person there without a four-year degree—but perception is a hell of a thing.
Having had to work with people, manage people, hire and fire people. I would say that having a higher education does not equate to a persons level of smartness, knowledge, or intelligence in any reasonable way.
Maybe, but I figure if every single one of them has a degree, the odds have to be in their favor that at least one of them is smarter than me. And if not, well I just proved how dumb I am by thinking that. QED.
That said, you’re right, too many places hold that degree in too high esteem. It wasn’t important for the first twenty to twenty-five years of my career, but now I’m finding it really puts a ceiling on how far I can go. I’m working under tech leads who have fifteen years less experience than I do. Have to see if I can get hired internal from my contract (which takes special waivers for non-degreed folks) and then advance internally.
It was so bad, when my last contract ended, I had two managers invite me to apply for openings with them and my resume was auto-rejected by their hiring system.
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When my dad was teaching me how to ride a bike, I kept falling.
He noticed that I was paying so much attention to the road that I couldn’t focus on riding the bike.
Finally he picked me up, looked me dead in the eyes and said, “You rule the road. Don’t let the road rule you”.
Somehow that phrase immediately gave me the ability to ride a bicycle.
I have shared it with other people learning to ride a bicycle after they have fallen down at least once.
It freaking works.
“Look where you want to go, not where you are.” worked for me.
Similar sentiment.
That shit rules
‘Be Kind; Everyone You Meet is Fighting a Hard Battle’
Sometimes that grumpy old man really is just having a bad day.
I think about that one often. It’s too easy to dismiss people because their attitudes don’t line up with our personal ideals, but even those people have some internal struggle going on. We all do. Not that it ever justifies terrible behavior, but it does warrant consideration.
100%
In my language it goes : “Alone you go faster, together you go further”.
I like that one!
