Short Read: The Top of My Todo List

Paul Graham | 1 minute

A palliative care nurse called Bronnie Ware made a list of the biggest regrets of the dying. Her list seems plausible. I could see myself — can see myself — making at least 4 of these 5 mistakes.
If you had to compress them into a single piece of advice, it might be: don't be a cog. The 5 regrets paint a portrait of post-industrial man, who shrinks himself into a shape that fits his circumstances, then turns dutifully till he stops.

The alarming thing is, the mistakes that produce these regrets are all errors of omission.

Snippets

Smart people have a problem, especially (although not only) when you put them in large groups.
That problem is an ability to convincingly rationalize nearly anything.

- Apenwarr, The Curse of Smart People

Cougars need big, wild land, but they’re better than most at living alongside humans.
We are everywhere, increasingly.

Can more of us accept visceral, actual proximity — and what that entails?

- Sarah Gilman, The mystery of mountain lions

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