Pick Up, Live Life: towards an enjoyable yet sustainable lifestyle

Kane, on himself:

When I was chibi-sized I wanted to be a journalist. School life was pretty good to me — I was a pragmatist with a competitive streak. I graduated high school and in my naivete unsuspectingly moved on to the fields of law and accountancy. Looking back, I guess I was deceived by the corporate smoke screen. When I started out my degrees I thought that a career in law would be bitchin’.

A corporate career is an arduous climb up an immense ladder, an epic trial against the vagaries of fellow climbers and gravity. It is also aptly named the rat race — you’ll find me a short distance from the starting line, trying to chew a way out of the maze. There is plenty of cheese outside.

This life still looks pretty bitchin'. For every one of us that can make it to this level, there are hundreds of shattered dreams. The same could be said for entrepreneurship. Food for thought.

Is it worth the effort to leave the comfort of the maze? That depends entirely upon who’s asking. I will sculpt the world to fit my dreams, not the other way around. Entrepreneurship is definitely not for everyone. A certain vision that stretches the boundaries of societal norms combined with a decisive attitude towards handling risk is necessary. Like anything worth doing in life, achieving my dreams is not going to be easy.

You see, I’ve never cared for people, yet he was always the man I respected, but I didn’t know until today that what I felt was… that he was the only man I ever loved…

– Ken Danagger, regarding Hank Rearden; Atlas Shrugged

In everyday life, ppl pigeonhole those that they meet via general categories (e.g. “acquaintances”, “snotty”, “LJBFs/nice guys”, “non-existent”), for ease of contact management. In contrast, when one falls in love – the object of affection is transcended from such approximate pigeonholing, and sublimated into a category within the lover’s heart – a category both unique and irreplaceable.

Similarly, Kane does not occupy just any generic spot in Trigger’s heart head: Trigger is not a naturally sociable individual, and can only be bothered to keep close friends – by merit of humour, intellect, personality, sociability (to a lesser extent), and thirst for life. Kane was the first person Trigger met, whose various power levels were over 9000 – an intricate[1] distribution of sociability, learnedness, ambition, pragmatics, and looks[2]. It wasn’t long before Trigger was smitten[3], and it won’t take long before the readership is too. From a female’s POV, Kane is the perfect package – too bad the Dagnys will never know who John Galt is.

FOOTNOTES
1. And dare I say, unfair.↑
2. Gay-dars only work on secure ppl.↑
3. Platonically. Notwithstanding Rule 34, which is out of our control. And God’s.↑