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Kindle Notes & Highlights
by
Ryan Holiday
Read between
May 19 - May 25, 2023
We like to think we can have an extraordinary life by making ordinary decisions, but it’s not true. It’s actually all the ordinary decisions—the safe ones, recommended by every expert, criticized by no one—that make us incredibly vulnerable in times of chaos and crisis.
YES!!
No rule is perfect, but this one works: Our fears point us, like a self-indicting arrow, in the direction of the right thing to do. One part of us knows what we ought to do, but the other part reminds us of the inevitable consequences. Fear alerts us to danger, but also to opportunity.
It’s a tricky balance we expect people to figure out. We want everyone to be on the same team. We want them to buy into the culture. In the military, they’re expected to dress the same and even get the same haircut. We want people to do what they’re told, to follow instructions . . . Then we somehow expect free thought to flourish, new inventions and ideas to drop from the sky, and people to exhibit extraordinary acts of sacrifice and courage. As if it’s possible for these things to exist in a world of conformity.
