In a world that seems to care more every day, the real secret to success may be believing in your future.
This week, a big question on my mind has centered around the art of caring. There has been great debate across social media, friend groups, and families about how to approach relationships with those around us. Although many might urge you to interact, to love, and to appreciate the limited time we have with the world and those around us, what often goes unmentioned is the double-edged sword that comes with these emotions.
By this point in our lives, all of us have experienced both sides of this sword. And after these experiences, we are given a choice: to try again and continue to care, or to just stop.
Care introduces risk, which may lead to attachment, which eventually opens a Pandora’s box to the eerie word that nobody wants to hear — vulnerability.
While vulnerability is often framed as strength, it is, more practically, a liability. It invites unpredictability. It may offer a fighting chance at connection — a chance to leave a mark on the world you briefly pass through, perhaps even leave it better than you found it…or not.
Luckily, there is the second option: ensuring that the risks we take never outweigh the rewards that may come.
By minimizing emotion, we can almost completely eliminate uncertainty. Without attachment, there is nothing to lose, and the world around us can remain in our control. This approach serves as a strategic reduction of emotional investment. Remember to engage, but never fully. And always assume the other shoe could drop at any moment.
Through removing the chance for putting life’s meaning on other people, we can finally live life to its truest form — becoming something almost indistinguishable from artificial intelligence.
Never remember the moments with those you love — the smile on your friend’s face when you remembered a niche interest of theirs and bought them a perfectly chosen gift, or the feeling of being seen by someone who looks past the facades we put on for the rest of the world. Skip the special occasions when your family comes together, even if it’s only once a year. Never reach out to an old friend whose siblings you once could have almost called your own. Never go to a park bench on a beautiful day and sit beside someone who understands you without even saying a word. And most importantly, never open up authentically to those who have earned your trust time and time again.
Ignore pesky philosophers such as Aristotle, who claimed that “without friends no one would choose to live, though he had all other goods.” Or Simone de Beauvoir, who insisted that “one’s life has value so long as one attributes value to the life of others.”
Over time, this behavior will become less of a strategy and more of a discipline. With practice—great endurance, for there will be many who try to crack the walls you worked so hard to build—nonchalance will deliver you to a life where you can finally break free of these inconvenient attachments and remember that in life we can always “ball without you.”
