A Study of One

That is the only study that matters.  It doesn't matter what happens to everyone else.  All that matters is what happens to you -- personally, individually.

Most ideas are merely wishful-thinking.  People are uniquely individual -- so what works for one, or for the many, may not necessarily work for you -- but it is each individual's task to find out -- for themselves, what works best for them.  That is the deception of mass media -- that one size fits all, so one has to get with their program -- or face dire circumstances.

But one may already be facing insurmountable problems that the experts are hopeless to solve -- but they still want you coming back as a steady customer.  Even if they don't have what you need, they'll still sell you what they have to sell.  That is their business, and only concern.  What you do afterwards, is none of their business, or concern.

In many cases, they don't really know better -- or at least, have to clear out their inventory, before they can consider anything else.  And if nobody wants their old inventory, they'll hang on to it until it becomes fashionable once again.  That is especially true if one has cornered the market for that product -- or is the exclusive authorized reseller.

In the previous century, having inventory was everything, and the name of the game -- but now, it is more advantageous to travel as light as possible into the future.  Having that space, allows one to consider everything -- and not that one has no room for anything else, even if it works.  They are already overburdened with everything that does not work -- that they have no space, time or interest, for that which might actually work, and reduce their need for anything else.

Always, one is better off with nothing -- than all the wrong things.  That is the advantage of those born entirely in the new age.  They are unburdened by the baggage and clutter -- and are prepared to move on to better.  That is the default that conveys greatest advantage.  But most lose that advantage by grabbing onto all they can -- whether it is actually good and useful to them -- for the rest of their lives, leaving little room to embrace the new.

That could be ideas as well as things.  One should change, and not just remain the same forevermore.  Living that way, predictably, one grows less responsive with age.  Of course that is a failing formula for remaining viable throughout one's life.  Yet many decide at some point in their life that that is the way to be, and nothing will change that.  Of course they fall by the wayside and become irrelevant.  One wouldn't expect anything else.

So that manner of aging is obviously not working -- nor would one expect anything else.  While one size doesn't fit all, one can always learn from others -- what works and what doesn't work, and not that shit will happen no matter what -- like in the old days.  They just didn't have the right answers -- and probably even didn't know there was a problem.  That was simply life as they proudly knew it.  That's just the way the world worked -- badly, and there was nothing they could do about it, but eat, drink and be merry -- before things invariably got worse.

That was regarded as the normal course of life -- that accelerated as one got older, and never reversed.  That was the unthinkable.  It just indicated that they hadn't found the answer to their problems -- yet.  Many even gave up trying long ago.  They would leave it to future generations to figure out -- and the next.  In their own lives, all was futile, and hopeless -- and anybody saying any different, was simply uninformed.

Much easier and faster than finding out what works for everybody, is simply finding out what works for themselves -- and letting it go at that, and moving on to the next challenge.  They don't have to convince everybody else, before they can benefit themselves -- from their own discoveries.  They don't even have to market it to prove its validity and acceptance.  It just has to work in their own life -- even if it works for no others.  That is the beauty and simplicity of life: it just has to work for oneself -- and no other proof or validation is required.

And then after one has developed the prototype, it could work for others as well -- but that is not one's original intent or purpose.  The motivation is entirely selfish -- but that is not a bad thing.  It really is how each individual life serves the rest of humanity -- by solving the problems of their own living -- as best they can, and in doing so, blazing the trail for others to come.  In that manner, value piles on top of value -- in creating something immensely greater, and not just each competing against every other, to be the sole person at the top.

Undoubtedly, many embark on such singular quests -- as though it is a service to mankind.  They fail to realize they are already beginning at the top -- when they know they know nothing, and are eager to find out.  But once their minds are full, they have no room for any new information -- and are trapped in that past, forevermore.  It doesn't have to be that way.