Conversation

Your best chance at having decent mental health as an adult is if your life turns out about 10% better than you expected at 14, by your definition of “better”. Or alternately, being able to look back and say, honestly, “it was 9% *unexpected* luck” (serendipity).
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Replying to
The degree of serendipity you read into your life story (again, *unexpected* luck) is what determines how much you feel “chosen” by the universe. It’s nice and conducive to mental health to believe you have 9% “chosen one” DNA.
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I suspect, in a high mobility society, people self-regulate their social mobility in particular to hit this 10% sweet spot. Overshooting too much turns “chosen-oneness” into a burden to live up to rather than a charmed life to enjoy. And of course being a “cursed one” is no fun.
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Hmm. The 10% is a bit like the engineered “pop” of a good IPO. Your IPO being when you first feel comfortable acknowledging the nature of your life story to others. The middle class mostly buys the story IPOs of the poor and rich. Our own IPOs are not interesting beyond family.
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