Astonishment

Lately, I've been wondering when we stopped being surprised by things.

AI can write code, create art and probably do my job, yet somehow I am more concerned about whether my food delivery will arrive on time. Humanity has come a long way.

We have survived wars, watched empires collapse, and discovered things our ancestors would have mistaken for black magic. Tell someone from the 1700s about the internet and they'll faint. Tell someone from 2010 about AI and they'll ask why it can't make better videos.

Perhaps astonishment is becoming a lost art.

Or perhaps we have simply become very good at pretending that nothing surprises us.

I wonder when we last astonished ourselves. Not the world, not our parents, not LinkedIn. Ourselves.

When did we last do something that made us reconsider what we were capable of?

The world will continue being ridiculous. Someone will invent something, someone will destroy something, and someone will make a podcast explaining both.

But somewhere in between, perhaps we should try to surprise ourselves.

Read the book. Take the road. Make the thing. Become the person you keep postponing until you feel ready.

After all, the world has enough people who think they know what they're doing.

Be someone who surprises even you.