"How much of your life should you devote to the past? The bare minimum. using the past as a resource, however, learning lessons from it and letting go of unrealistic expectations, will help you make it through the present in one piece." - Rolf Dobelli in "The Not To Do List"
Everyone knows people like the one from Springsteen's "Glory Days." And their status ultimately depended on their ability to 'move on'. I knew a guy who always had to let you know where he went to college...at though it matters ten years later.
Stoicism reminds us to "Control what you can control." The past is not subject to our control.
"Learn from the past but don't live there."
Living in the past can never craft our future.
"History doesn't repeat but it rhymes."
Darwin didn't coin the term, "survival of the fittest" and preferred "natural selection. And it was Leon Megginson who said, "it is not the most intellectual of the species that survives; it is not the strongest that survives; but the species that survives is the one that is able best to adapt and adjust to the changing environment in which it finds itself."
Many complain about changing circumstances, "recruitment by prep schools, NIL and transfers, and the second apron in the NBA." Complaining doesn't improve our circumstances.
Lagniappe. A memorable list from Kobe. My favorite three:
1) Improve daily
2) Practice mindfulness
3) Become a storyteller
The Mamba Mentality wasn’t an accident.
— Greg Berge (@GregBerge) July 19, 2026
Kobe Bryant lived by 10 rules: https://t.co/pQuZN4yPbV pic.twitter.com/8S8KZPCMz7
