- Unsupervised Learning
- Posts
- Be Worthy of a Wikipedia Entry
Be Worthy of a Wikipedia Entry
I had an idea the other day about life achievement: if you currently have no plans to be worthy of a minor blurb on Wikipedia then you don’t really have any plans. That’s a low bar, and yet it’s miles above what 99% of people I know will ever accomplish.
Let’s unpack that.
What could you do in life that’s worthwhile that doesn’t earn one a quick footnote on Wikipedia? The easy answer is parenting, but it’s too easy. Being supportive of one’s biological offspring isn’t noteworthy to me, any more than eating when hungry is. You eat when you’re hungry, and you raise your progeny to be successful–that’s nature. Like Chris Rock said, “That’s what you’re supposed to do!”
So if those things don’t qualify, then what would? A few candidates: building schools for the poor, writing a popular book, being a successful artist, inventing a cure for a disease, being the first person to space in a homemade craft, or having a small radio show that touches people’s lives.
Again, the bar is very low. The standard is to make a ripple. To produce something. To affect the world in some positive way other than “He provided for his children.”, or, “She was nice to his friends.”
Quite simply, if you’re not working on something worthy of a Wikipedia entry, and you have no plans to, then what are you doing? TV shows, office cubes, paychecks, a couple of laughs, and then an eternity of silence.
Don’t be that. Be as least worthy of a Wikipedia entry.
::