Yuval Noah Harari’s new book recently came out. It’s called 21 Lessons for the 21st Century. I got it the day it was released and started reading it immediately. It’s as thoughtful and mind-expanding as his first two: Sapiens + Homo Deus.
Here’s a quick recap of those great books. Sapiens “surveyed the human past, examining how an insignificant ape became the ruler of planet Earth.” While Homo Deus “explored the long-term future of life, contemplating how humans might eventually become gods, and what the ultimate destiny of intelligence and consciousness might be.”
This one is all about the “here and now.” Harari’s focus “is on current affairs and on the immediate future of human societies. What is happening right now? What are today’s greatest challenges and most important choices? What should we pay attention to? What should we teach our kids?”
I highly recommend it in general and specifically if you’d like to step outside of your little cocoon of self-absorption and think big. Like really big.
Which leads us to the point of Today’s +1.
As I was reading the book and underlining every other sentence and putting an absurd number of “wow”s on every other page, I thought of my Memento Mori coin.
I like having that coin in my pocket and flipping it throughout the day because it reminds me that TODAY is the day to be my best self so I can fully experience and enjoy this precious life.
So… As I was reading this book and wrapping my brain around Harari’s take on 21 of the biggest global challenges facing humanity, I thought to myself, “Memento Tiny.”
I’m tiny.
Infinitesimally (!) small in the big picture. And yet, as per our +1 on our Infinite Self, I’m also infinite.
Fascinating. Gotta love paradoxes.
Now, I was observing some tech-free Deep Work time when I had that insight so I went old-school and wrote this +1 by hand.
When I went online to type it out, I visited Google for some help with Latin translations.
Google: Please let me know how to say “tiny” and “infinite” in Latin…
Memento minima. And memento infinitus.
That’s Today’s +1.
Let’s remember we’re infinitesimally tiny. AND infinite.
Then let’s remember that TODAY’s the day to do our optimus best and give the world all we’ve got.
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