A Beginner's Mind

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A lot has not been done because of the fear of failure. But if you think about it clearly, in the grand scheme of things failure is irrelevant. So let’s think about Failure. We are afraid to fail because of two reasons: Social Pressure - If you fail publicly you will end up hurting your pride which to most people is more important that money or any other loss. Pride, in my opinion is an ancient reptilian mental construct that either results in conflict or what's even worse -   ineptitude. Result of a negative outcome - In this case you are projecting the outcome of your failure into the future. What if I don’t get a high score in SAT, what if I don't clear that interview, what if my business partner ends up cheating me? These are all scenarios that haven’t happened yet, and in the pressure of an immediate result your mind is conjuring up the worst case scenarios with complete disregard for any reasonable predict...

Do not feel absolutely certain of anything. Do not think it worth while to proceed by concealing evidence, for the evidence is sure to come to light. Never try to discourage thinking for you are sure to succeed. When you meet with opposition, even if it should be from your spouse or your children, endeavor to overcome it by argument and not by authority, for a victory dependent upon authority is unreal and illusory. Have no respect for the authority of others, for there are always contrary authorities to be found. Do not use power to suppress opinions you think pernicious, for if you do the opinions will suppress you. Do not fear to be eccentric in opinion, for every opinion now accepted was once eccentric. Find more pleasure in intelligent dissent than in passive agreement, for, if you value intelligence as you should, the former implies a deeper agreement than the latter. Be scrupulously truthful, even if the truth is inconvenient, for it is more inconvenient when you try...

Tired of looking at posts from people drooling over the latest gadget from Apple - a watch - I tried to cobble a few insults that would remind these man-boys of the message in this ancient proverb - All that glitters isn't gold. But I couldn't.  Despite my best efforts to put together, what seemed like the longest 140 characters I'd ever written, I was still swinging between the odious and the futile.   Exhausted of cursing my ineptitude as a writer, I decided to look for inspiration. I picked up  Hitch Hiker's Guide to Galaxy  and as soon as I read the opening paragraph, I experienced my very own 'Eureka'. The answer wasn't an insult at all. It was satire. And I decided not to waste a moment reinventing the wheel and wrote this post.  Here's the passage that changed my mind and might even teach us all some humility (more below): "Far out in the uncharted backwaters of the unfashionable end of the western spiral arm of the Galaxy...