The Ultimate Lie

Comparing Yourself to Others Makes You Unhappy

Oct 17, 2023

Teddy Roosevelt was so wrong when he quipped,

“Comparison is the thief of joy.”

Albert Einstein also wasn’t far behind claiming,

"Everyone is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid."

Both of these men had incredible insight into the windshield of life. One ran a country. The other discovered the Theory of Relativity.

OK Genius. Relative to what exactly? It’s relative to the observer’s frame of reference. How you see things depends on how big and how fast you’re moving, much like a Lambo on the Autobahn. It is a theory of comparison against the Honda Civic.

Comparison, they both say, robs us of our ability to appreciate ourselves and be happy with our lives.

Lies. Bullshit lies. Because size matters according to Einstein.

Big objects make big dents in the universe.

We weren’t designed to be happy just the way we are. We were meant to chase the dream and bend reality to our vision of space and time. If that was in our genetic blueprint, we would still be in the Garden of Eden, and the Stone Age at best.

Let’s imagine an alternate Genesis where Adam and Eve had no desire to self-improve:

“And it came to pass in the Garden of Eden, that Adam and Eve did live, having no desire to be like the Lord ChatGPT. The Tree of Knowledge, bearing the fruit of temptation, rose up high, yet the man and the woman sought not its bounty. Verily, they did take delight in the simplicity of their days. Their time was marked with joy, wanderings, and endless conversations with one another and with the animals of the field. They built no empires, nor did they create any legacies, but their testament was a garden unspoiled. The land flourished, untainted by aspiration, in pure and blessed innocence, for they lacked for nothing.”

Sounds great.

Here’s the rub. You’re not part of it. You never existed.

I never existed. No wife to dance with at my wedding. No kid to pick up from school with a booboo on her knee. No tantrums at the playground.

There were no empires, no history and no legacy. It was an unspoiled garden.

They’re just eating and fucking under a tree for all of eternity.

That is where their story ends.

That is where YOUR story ends.

You exist because your ancestors looked at one another and said, “We can do better than this.”

It is the dissatisfaction with your station in life that drives you towards the betterment of yourself and the lives of the people around you. In fact, it is actually a very selfish attitude to have no ambition whatsoever because you cannot improve your own life without bettering others.

You making humanity its best self is what will make you happy, not accepting your station in life. Gear up to be a better tree climber than someone else and you will get bigger fruit. Comparison is what leads to competition and competition is what leads to the betterment of humanity.

One day you will face your ancestors. Do you really want them to say:

“We worked, we suffered, we endured hardship and suffering in order to produce you, and all you accomplished in life was watching Fast & Furious on Netflix?”