Before Changing the World, Start by Caring About Yourself and the Life Around You

Robin: ‘In the story of Apple’s early years, Steve Jobs asked John Sculley whether he wanted to spend his life selling sugar water or join him in changing the world. Ever since, every entrepreneur has wanted to change the world. Personally, though, I suggest that we do not have to start with something so grand. Start by caring about yourself and the life around you.’ ----- Anthropologist Biao Xiang says we can begin making changes within the first 500 meters. In other words, pay attention to what is nearby. Take yourself as the starting point and care about things within 500 meters of you. Notice every person you encounter and pay attention to what happens around you. Strengthen your most basic connection to the world. Xiang says that modern society’s community infrastructure—whether physical, digital, or administrative—is so well developed that you can meet all your daily needs without coming into contact with anyone. Yet that extreme, undisturbed quiet also comes with by-products such as emptiness, anxiety, a sense of oppression, and psychological problems. Building this first 500 meters therefore means deliberately paying attention to the bustle of the world around you. It is an exercise in developing your sensitivity to social life. To borrow Xiang’s words, the danger of living in modern society is not having too many difficulties. It is losing the basic ability to understand difficulties and differences. From this perspective, experiencing difficulties is itself part of overcoming them. #DedaoHeadlines0815