DTH-XII-0070
“I stood somewhere vast and beautiful and felt grateful just to have witnessed it.”
There's a particular gratitude that comes from beauty too big to possess, a canyon, an ocean, a mountain that was here before you and will be here after. You can't keep it, can't own it, can only have witnessed it. That's the whole human condition in one moment: brief, conscious, and lucky to have seen any of it at all. Let it shape how you spend the rest.
Your Practice
- Stay in it longer than feels useful. Let the scale recalibrate what you think is urgent.
- Name what looks trivial from here. Carry that perspective home.
- Tell someone about it, not to brag, but to share the gift of having seen it.
- Seek out more of these moments. Awe is one of the few things that makes a finite life feel full.
The Architects
“There's this culture at Stripe of just really prizing the small details. And we talk a lot about craftsmanship and rigor and abstractions that can endure over decades and sort of really getting those right.”
Patrick Collison, Dean's Speaker Series fireside chat, UC Berkeley Haas School of Business, April 16, 2024 (Haas Newsroom writeup published April 30, 2024)