Does everything really happens for a reason?
A short story, 10 Ice breaking questions, A 1970s Abortion Ad in India and many more...
In this week’s newsletter: 10 Ice breaking questions, A short story, a 1970s Abortion Ad in India and many more...
gm 👋 Prado here
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Every Friday, I publish one essay & 10 interesting things that will help you become healthy, wealthy and wise 👇
Essay of the week - A lost suitcase
This week I met a few friends of mine and we all were working out of Starbucks. Out of nowhere, I got a random question on my mind.
I don’t know why this Tweet reached 30k people but I guess the majority of the people agreed with this question.
But I kept asking this question to myself and it reminded me of a story called “A lost suitcase” (I wrote a storycard on it too)
In the month of Dec 1922, Ernest Hemingway was in Switzerland as a correspondent for the Toronto Daily Star.
The journalist Lincoln Steffens was also there and he liked Hemingway’s writing and wanted to see more
Hemingway’s wife, Elizabeth Hadley Richardson was in Paris, they were newly married.
Hemingway used to write a lot of fiction and asked her to bring all his work.
She packed everything in a single suitcase including the originals, the carbon copies, and all handwritten notes.
While the train was at a station, she went to get some water and when she came back, the suitcase was gone.
She met Hemingway and told him everything that happened.
He didn't believe her and rushed back to Paris.
She wasn't lying. All his work was lost.
He hadn't published anything till now.
He had to figure out a way to show something he had written and rather than giving up, he found an interesting way to adapt.
With the pressure of time, Hemingway pivoted his writing style.
Shorter sentences & cleaner paragraphs. Simplifying stories.
He could write faster this way.
Four years later, The Sun Also Rises was published and become a bestseller.
In 1954, he was awarded the Nobel prize for Literature.
A pivot is a change in strategy without a change in vision - Eric Ries
Now, there are two lessons here.
He pivoted. He didn’t give up.
Everything happens for a reason.
If his wife wouldn’t lose the suitcase, he wouldn’t have pivoted.
He was put in a terrible situation and somehow he kept faith in himself, figured out a way and everything worked out pretty well.
Maybe losing everything happened for a reason.
I was almost convinced that everything happens for a reason.
Then I read this reply to my tweet.
Does any type of Trauma have a reason? Will it reveal itself in future?
Malala got shot and become one of the world’s biggest education activists.
But what about the other women and kids that got hurt and didn’t survive? Did their family ever find a reason for it?
I’m not talking about a good reason or a bad reason. Just a reason.
Does everything really happen for a reason or do we as humans always come up with one?
The one that comforts us.
I think that’s my belief.
Not everything happens for a reason but whenever something happens, sooner or later we eventually find a reason that comforts us.
What do you think?
10 Interesting things for you 🙌
1. When you change the world and no one notices (Blog)
2. Something from my Twitter👇
3. Internal Memo from 1977 titled "Principles" by Rob Strasser, Nike's first head of marketing
4. 7 incredible short quotes (Tweet)
5. Interesting Human of the week:-
6. Interesting Question of the week:-
7. Interesting Picture of the week:-
8. Current read: Still reading Project Hail Mary (Enjoying as slow as possible)
9. Meme of the week:-
10. Quote of the week:
"I would rather have questions that can't be answered than answers that can't be questioned" - Richard Feynman
(Tweet this quote)“Wealth consists not in having great possessions, but in having few wants.” - Epictetus
Words are the only things that last forever; they are more durable than the eternal hills. -William Hazlitt
(Tweet this quote)
Check out some previous newsletters:
Diderot Effect (Read)
Life’s lines of Closeness (Read)
Cathedral Thinkers (Read)
Join in if you want me to trigger your curiosity every week👇
Personal Announcement 🚨
Sorry, I was supposed to send this newsletter on Friday but I got stuck with some Diwali stuff. Thanks for understanding.
Happy Diwali ❤️
In This Together,
Prado
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