⬥ Level of Understanding
Fairly confident, this note has gone through quite a few revisions. I’m still working out the details of this supposed universal law, but I think I’m close.
When we look at the world of investing, one piece of advice is thrown around more than any other: diversify. The idea is simple: don’t put all your eggs in one basket. Chances for a positive return increase if you spread your investments over various different assets.
We can take this concept and apply it to pretty much any other area of life. For example, business building. Try a variety of ideas on a small scale and set them up with minimal investment. Once something works, you have the option to scale up and commit.
But even beyond investing and business building, diversification is the most important building block of a healthy psyche. A single source of truth will never be able to carry the burden of consciousness. If you only get meaning from one thing, whatever that thing may be, you will not be happy. This is closely related to the Paradox of Hedonism, first observed by Stuart Mill: "Only those are happy who have their minds fixed on some object other than their own happiness." Happiness, just like everything else, evaporates once you make it your singular source of truth.
Nurture several different sources of truth, like social relationships, leisurely pursuits, creative projects, penchants for a particular kind of food, and allow them to hold the construct of your reality. Happiness is the by-product of these kaleidoscopic experiences. These will secure your sense of meaning against falling apart the second something inevitably fails.
