Poison, plagues, and probabilities
You can just do things.
In 1558, Italian sculptor Benvenuto Cellini started writing his autobiography.
Here are some of the things he did:
Survived multiple poisonings.
Fought in the Sack of Rome in 1527.
Murdered a rival goldsmith and others in duels and brawls.
Created the bronze masterpiece Perseus with the Head of Medusa.
Escaped imprisonment from Castel Sant'Angelo by climbing down its walls.
And here are some things he claimed to have done:
Cured himself of the bubonic plague.
Conjured up a legion of devils in the Colosseum.
Successfully turned base metals into gold via alchemy.
Received divine intervention to ensure the success of his sculptures.
Cellini’s autobiography is considered to be “one of the most important documents of the 16th century.”
And today, it still teaches a good lesson:
You can just do things.
Sure, times are different.
Most of us will be subject to no more than one poisoning attempt in our lifetimes. Duels have been replaced by tweets. I’ve never turned a can of Campbell’s Soup into a bar of gold.
But go read the Wikipedia page of any random person pre-19th century. Every painter was also an author. Every philosopher was also a baker. People just did things.
And now?
People forget that they can just … do things.
Nothing in life is final. You might say death is final, but 57% of the world believes in the afterlife, so you’d be in the minority there.
You can change all your decisions. You can reroute all your paths. You can abandon, you can adjust, you can reinvent.
Most people limit the scope of things they can do in life because they either:
• Overestimate the finality of their choices.
• Overestimate the barrier of entry to do things.
• Overestimate how difficult it is to start something from scratch.
Imma let you in on a secret:
Most of us have very, very similar thought patterns. Like, alarmingly similar.
You know how you doubt yourself?
→ So does everyone else.
You know how you compare yourself?
→ So does everyone else.
You know how you always move the goalposts?
→ Yep. So does everyone else.
But all that means is that most people disqualify themselves from being able to do things based on myths made up in their minds, forgetting that 99% of the world is doing the same, leaving the 1% who say “F*ck it, I’ll give it a shot” with such a big advantage that success is more likely than not.
You can just do things.
And since no one else is doing them?
Odds are, they’ll work.