-there are opportunities we know are ONLY present now
-and there are opportunities which we’re not aware will not present themselves again
-and then there are opportunities which CAN, indeed, wait
I think we overrate the latter
And underappreciate the transience of most opportunities
Not least because we can’t know the future
And it’s not just about the present opportunities disappearing tomorrow
It’s also about competing opportunities, which will force our hand, force us to give up, what we wanted to do
It probably is a good rule of thumb to take those opportunities which one has not yet taken
There where there’s the greatest EXPOSURE TO UNKNOWN — is where there’s the greatest EXPOSURE TO GOOD FORTUNE,
You get lucky if you put yourself in situations in which you CAN get lucky
It’s probably good to have an “opportunities” bias
It’s probably good to be a yes man
It’s also probably good to “say no to almost everything”, according to Warren Buffet anyway
What if both are true
Or rather, it depends on how much EXPOSURE TO UNKNOWN you get
It depends how NEW this opportunity is
It depends on defining “opportunity” in those terms,
In terms of it promising something NEW, something different, something REFRESHING,
Rather than merely meeting the criteria of giving us more, maybe lucratively more, but of the same
Indeed I say that the ONLY DOING is the DOING OF NEW THINGS
Shouldn’t opportunities also be defined the same way?
When you’ve $100 million — how much is another $1 million opportunity worth?
When you’ve seen entire world — how interesting is it to go to fucking Europe, or Egypt?
When you partied your entire 20s — who cares about the next great party?
Once you’re famous — who cares someone tweeted about you?
etc
I always say you should be biased in favour of the NEW,
Which is what promises adventure, growth, challenge, opportunity indeed
I think you should be biased in favour of those NEW, EXOTIC OPPORTUNITIES,
And say YES to them,
While saying no to false opportunities, that promise more of the same
I think if you’ve never done something — you should go ahead and do it, quickly
The more strange and different it is — the sooner
And finally, returning to the initial thesis,
I think you have no notion just how TRANSIENT those truly NEW opportunities are
Indeed, the false opportunities, opportunities of “more of the same” — are by DEFINITION not scarce. They promise you more of the same = ergo the promise you what you already HAVE. And WILL have tomorrow
But those new opportunities, empirically, you have every reason to believe they will NOT happen again. For they haven’t happened in the past. You don’t typically ASSUME that this which never happened — should happen
So
TAKE those opportunities that you recognise as TRULY RARE,
You won’t get another chance
Take those opportunities to truly do something NEW, different
This is the meaning of life: exploration, adventure EVOLUTION, ELEVATION