Looking in the mirror at Life's Buffet

b1-66er: Fast Living and Foreign Dealings: An F.B.I. Spy Hunter's Rise and Fall https://www.nytimes.com/2023/08/14/nyregion/fbi-mcgonigal-oligarch-nyc.html?smid=nytcore-android-share

D4rw1n: Pretty dramatic 

b1: It's weird to see his late-career-decay like that.

Don't you fricken do that.

D4: Not likely but thanks for the warning 

I've got a fairly high functioning wife and a friend group to call bullshit if I start decaying 

And lots and lots of psychoanalysis 

b1: All of which sit at about the same level of importance on The Life Gameboard...

Which is to say, "lots of importance."

D4: Yes, taken together, a pretty secure safety net

b1: You need it.

They don't keep whales secure with a guppy screen.

The thing I saw/see the most in The Valley are people getting overconfident.

That's what killed Steve Jobs.

D4: Also, I am mildly insecure, slightly introverted, and easily shamed. So not going out on a lot of long limbs

b1: Right.

(I still find the insecurity side of you surprising.

From my side? I don't see it. 

At all.)

D4: Yes it is somewhat managed by a combination of ambition, people-pleasing, competitiveness, and public speaking training

b1: I like that answer.

Is this conversation KTXT-able, or is it too personal? 

(My defining/deciding mind can't tell...

It's the classic fascinating ideas v 'intimate details' problem.)

D4: It's on the border, but it's perfectly fine with me. Thanks for asking.

b1: Okay.

I'm going to think about it today and will let you know my decision.

I think personal struggle is probably the most interesting battle everyone eventually has to face (think: addiction, big efforts [like climbing Everest], aging, disease).

It's where the soft rubber of the human spirit hits the hard road of reality...

... And it's easier for most people not to think about it at all.

(Or if they do, it's almost impossible  to think about the concepts broadly, and so objectively.)

Here's a piece furthering what we were talking about earlier today...

Addiction Treatment Eludes More Than Half of Americans in Need https://www.nytimes.com/2023/08/15/health/addiction-treatment-opioids.html?smid=nytcore-android-share