security + risk (relative v. absolute)
Relative security is imperative. Absolute security is a fiction.
From the relative perspective, security has become much more important to me. I enjoy taking big risks. At thirty-four years old with a wife and baby, I’m much less interested in betting the proverbial farm than I was a year ago. This means taking calculated risks, not being over-leveraged, and consistently acting with financial discipline. To be in a creative, innovative headspace, you can’t be concerned with security. Don’t take risks that keep you up at night, at least not when you have a family (duh). Observing my risk tolerance change dramatically over the course of the year has been interesting. That said, there is great wisdom in taking risks. Naval Ravikant said, “Embrace accountability and take business risks under your own name. Society will reward you with responsibility, equity, and leverage.”
Are you willing to fail publicly, under your own name? If so, there is great leverage to be had. Naval has a great podcast episode on the Kelly Criterion. Take big risks, but never bet the farm, risk going to jail, or cause your reputation harm.
Security is an illusion, at least from the absolute perspective. For there to be security, there must be a subject-object relationship, an individual (subject) to be secure from external events (objects). Security is an appealing concept; we typically think with security comes peace of mind. For example, if I only had more money in my retirement account, if I could get into this school or land that job, etc., then I’d feel at ease. We all know how this pattern goes – the untamed mind will always seek more. Lasting peace of mind is always right around the corner.
Seeking security is an activity the mind does when it perceives the individual as a separate entity fending off perpetual threats of “otherness.” True security is found when the ego is transcended when the activity of the mind is seen for what it is: emptiness. But then concepts like security make no sense. I want to wake up to oneness, but I (the separate entity) want to be there when it happens (great little zen joke, right?). It doesn’t work like that.
What I'm reading: Total Freedom: The Essential Krishnamurti. Here are some of my favorite quotes on education from the talk “Life Ahead.”
Perhaps the greatest difficulty the educator has to face is the indifference of parents to a wider and deeper education. Most parents are concerned only with the cultivation of some superficial knowledge that will secure their children respectable positions in a corrupt society.
For the total development of the human being, solitude as a means of cultivating sensitivity becomes a necessity. One has to know what it is to be alone, what it is to meditate, what it is to die; and the implications of solitude, of meditation, of death, can be known only by seeking them out. These implications cannot be taught, they must be learned.
In the cultivation of the mind, our emphasis should not be on concentration, but on attention. Concentration is a process of forcing the mind to narrow down to a point, whereas attention is without frontiers.
