Monday Motivation: Free Will and What We Leave Behind 10.13.25
Neil deGrasse Tyson was recently on an episode of Diary of a CEO (DOAC) sharing some wisdom that I wanted to capture here:
NDT: Do we have free will? Ask me that — do we have free will?
SB: Do you have free will?
NDT: What choice do I have? No. If you don’t have free will, then you don’t even have an option to say you don’t. So you just live life — just live your life so that the world is better off for you having lived in it.
SB: And what does that mean for you?
NDT: It means people are better off — the institutions are better off. People are happier, healthier, wealthier, safer, better fed. That rationality matters in politics and lawmaking, and that helps ensure the stability of anything you build going forward. But yeah, that’s all. It’s not complicated.
You were talking about meaning before. I stopped looking for meaning decades ago because I realized any of us has the power to make meaning in life. If you’re going to look for meaning, where are you looking? Under a rock, behind a tree?
It’s as though meaning is sitting there waiting for you to find it — “Oh, I found meaning. There it is. Now my life is complete.” That feels so powerless, as though you have no control over your own destiny.
Whereas I make meaning. I want to learn something today that I didn’t know yesterday. I want to lessen the suffering of someone today compared to how that person was living yesterday. I want to use what I learn to well up within me and manifest as wisdom. Because information isn’t really useful until it becomes knowledge. And knowledge is good — you can show off if you have a lot of knowledge; that’s what these game shows do. But in the end, the best use of knowledge is when it becomes wisdom.
People say, “I don’t like getting older. I want to be young again.” I don’t want to be young again. When I was 30, I was an idiot. Even when I was 30, I thought I was brilliant. So don’t get older unless you have wisdom to show for it. It’s when you don’t have something to show for your age that you want to be younger. You’re just getting old with nothing to show for it.
I continue to learn things every day, passively and actively. Passively, you just notice — open your eyes sometimes and see what’s happening, where things are headed, what people are doing. You learn. Not all things you learn are good. And if they’re bad or need adjustment or need help, do something about it if you can.
That’s how I derive meaning. Hence my tombstone: Be ashamed to die unless you’ve scored some victory for humanity. There’s the meaning for you.
Full interview here:
✌🏽. ❤️. 📈 . 🤲🏾