You're Just a Monkey With a Plan
Don't take yourself so seriously
I read this quote in The Almanack of Naval Ravikant by Eric Jorgenson, and it keeps coming back to me every once in a while. I think it’s a great way of saying something that we might not like to hear. We’re not that important. We’re 1 of the 8 billion humans living right now, and many more have lived or will live.
This doesn’t mean you shouldn't try to make an impact in the world, though. People like Nikola Tesla and Johannes Gutenberg made amazing breakthroughs that have changed the way we live. They were monkeys with better plans than 99.999% of the people. I didn’t know them personally, but I don’t think they thought of themselves as semi-gods. At the end of the day, they were humans with needs and desires similar to everyone else's.
We always worry about stuff that has no importance in the grand scheme of things. Stuff that nobody will remember. The Spotlight Effect (the psychological phenomenon by which people tend to believe they are being noticed more than they are) is sometimes hard to avoid. We think that people will see if our hair looks bad or if we wear a particular item of clothing. Most of them won’t, and almost nobody will remember one week after the fact, even if they initially did notice it.
In an experiment by Gilovich, Medvec, and Savitsky at Cornell University, participants wore T-shirts with recognizable figures and guessed how many classmates would notice. Results consistently showed participants overestimated how many noticed, with estimates averaging around 50%, while the actual recognition rates were much lower, typically around 25%.
Realizing that most people don’t care much about what you do can feel disappointing at first, but it’s actually liberating. Imagine living with the tension of having to please thousands of people every day! Once you start shifting away from this habit, you will begin feeling freer. Did I say something stupid? Is my business idea ridiculous? Who cares!
What other people think of me is none of my business. Wayne W. Dyer
There’s a framework that helps me in situations where I know I might not do what I really want because of what others might say: asking your 90-year-old. Will you regret not doing what you really want when you are on your deathbed? Let the old you answer the question.
Releasing ourselves from this social pressure will greatly enhance our authenticity, too. Many constantly seek external validation; they let others decide what is right and wrong for them. If you start pursuing your interests without caring about what others might think, you will find what you genuinely enjoy and what you want to dedicate your life to.
This will separate you from the “competition,” and you will be rewarded both in terms of personal satisfaction and financial terms if you find a way to give value to society through your unique skills.
Let’s summarize the main ideas of this post so that we don’t forget them:
You are not that important (and that’s a good thing!)
Don’t take yourself so seriously.
Make an effort to free yourself from other’s opinions and expectations.
Seek authenticity.
I hope you enjoyed this post! I’d love to hear your opinions and insights, whether they are positive or negative! If you liked what you read, consider subscribing! Please leave a comment or message me on X, Instagram, or Facebook, and we can chat! Thanks for reading!
See you later!
I like this, but there are also times where you need to be keenly aware of how you're being perceived. For example, if you're in a situation where there is a bias or any of the "isms" (racism, sexism, etc.) In situations like that, you can be in physical danger and have to navigate accordingly.