I am indebted to Reverend Pondurenga Das who contributed material for
this conversation.
There is the story about the man who wanted to improve his chess so he
went to study with a chess champion.
He learned the Ruy Lopez and he learned the King's Indian. And after he
learned those two new moves, he noticed he didn't win any more games
than he usually did.
Then he went to study with a grandmaster.
He learned to queen side castle early and he learned to set up an en
passant. Yet neither did knowing those two new strategies give him an
edge to win any more games than he usually did.
So he went to study with Werner Erhard.
And he learned to develop his pawns.
* * *
Life, like chess, is a game. You have your piece in life for which you
are responsible. You have your pieces in chess. Of all the chess
pieces, pawns are the least conspicuous.
Unlike castles and bishops, pawns can't sweep across the chessboard.
Unlike knights, pawns can't jump other pieces. Unlike the queen, pawns
can't move both straight and diagonally. Unlike the king, pawns aren't
the center of attention. Yet pawns' strength is their ability to move
inexorably
forward, one square at a time. And there're more pawns than any other
piece on the chessboard.
When your power pieces are maximized, how do you avoid weakening the
advantage yet leverage the occasion to move?
Develop your pawns.
Werner Erhard distinguishes "life" from "living". "Life" is the never
ending series of circumstances we encounter and the situations we put
up with or try to change during our time on Earth. "Living" is simply
experiencing being here right now, right now, right now. There's
nothing to be except who you are. There's no place to get to except
here. There's no time to design a future except now. Living life this
way is called playing from win.
Your life has already turned out. This is it. So: what's next?
The next thing is the next thing and it's right in front of you. Choose
it. It's straight forward.