Last Pages of "Adapt"

Continuing where I left off last night since it was already past midnight and I wasn't able to finish the last few pages, I am spending this night contemplating on again throwing my life to the winds. I was a bit bothered when I was on page 280 because I thought Harford would be espousing the traditional view of securing your life and protect yourself from risks.

"Pluralism matters becausenlife is not worth living without new experiences- new people, new places, new challenges. But discipline matters too: we cannot simply treat life as a psychedelic trip through a random series of novel sensations. We must sometimes commit to what is working: to decide that the hobby we are pursuing is worth mastering; that it's time to write that novel, or strive for that night-school degree; or maybe to get married. Equally important: sometimes we need to make the opposite kind of commitment, and decide that the toxic job and the toxic boyfriend are simply not worth the amount of life they cost." (p. 280)

Harford goes on to say how much people look up to those few who can take wild leaps in life, but also briefly mentions how habits formed after many years of working toward a goal yield masterpieces, citing important figures in art and literature. He cautions against wandering around "the lower reaches of various mountain ranges" and getting too carried away by novelty that distraction is sure to set you off the the ultimate target path.

And I heaved a sigh of relief as I savor the paragraphs that follow:

"(...) a world of possibilities, of safe experiements- is one we tend to lose. But we need not: the new possibilities are always out there. It's one thing to be committed; it's another to trap ourselves unnecessarily. Perhaps we become more shy of experimenting as we get older because we become more aware of the truth that (...) in a complex world, we're unlikely to get it right the first time. To embrace the idea of adapting in everyday ñife seems to be to accept blundering into a process of unremitting failure. So it's worth remembering again why it is worth experimenting, even though so many experiments will, indeed, end in failure. It's because the process of correcting the mistakes can be more liberating than the mistakes themselves are crushing, even though at the time we so often feel that the reverse is true. (...) A single experiment that succeeds can transform our lives for the better in a way that a failed experiment will not transform them for the worse- as long as we don't engage in denial or chase our losses." (pp. 282-283)

I love how positive Harford is to being open and to being courageous without being overbearing. In fact, he closes the book with the following wise words after sharing an anecdote abput how his three-year old daughter got lost in the center of London without the slightest fear as she explored on her own:

"The ability to adapt requires this sense of security, an inner confidence that the cost of failure is a cost we will be able to bear. Sometimes that takes real courage; at other times all that is needed is the happy self-delusion of a lost three-year-old. Whatever its source, we need that willingness to risk failure. Without it, we will never truly succeed." (p. 284)

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Now on to throwing my life to winds again. I feel so much better reading this book. Sometimes you know what to do but you need some sort of support from a stranger knowing that under the vast heavens there still are individuals who think the same way as you do and you don't feel so alone.