★ “21 Years Of Making Sense Of The World”

Max Marmer:

With the successful launch of the Startup Genome Compass 10 days ago, the future of the company is incredibly bright and I believe it is the most important thing I could be working on right now. But that means it will probably be many years before it’s time for me to shift my daily work to the even bigger picture I’ve been discussing in this post.

But in the meantime I’d still like to contribute to the transformation of our worldview, which desperately needs evolving. So, yesterday I compiled a list of the patterns, principles and values I’ve discovered in my first 21 years of life that I believe encircle many of the truths we need to adopt, both individually and communally, for our society to evolve. It is not an exhaustive list, but it is pretty comprehensive. (Though, admittedly mostly focused on systems, goal achievement, inter-personal effectiveness and self-awareness)

It’s great and I love the points but all I want for young guys like Max is that they have the courage and will to remain so desperate to learn and grown when they’re 35,45 and 55. If a man is in his 60s and still writes with such hope and wonder toward what’s out there, I’m impressed but I don’t see that. I don’t see “wise men” in our generation. We put our wise men in nursing homes and most of the wise men are chasing women, battling debt and are controlled by addiction, self-loathing and fears of getting too old for sex, work, life and binge drinking.

I want men like Max to remain this way past retirement but I doubt that would happen. Max will be old fat and boring one day and it’s a shame because he’s such a smart guy. Fight the cycle Max. Do cool shit and keep reinventing yourself every day. You can do it. I believe in you.