The high-return activity of giving people permission
I don’t know who needs to hear this, but…
I give you permission.
Permission to be ambitious.
Permission to lead.
Permission to apply for that fellowship, drop out of school, and start that startup.
Permission to write about your passions and what’s on your mind.
Permission to be optimistic when everyone around you is a climate doomer.
Permission to be pessimistic on how the attention economy is warping society.
Permission to speak up and speak out.
Permission to be serious when everyone around you is having fun.
Permission to say no to drinks because you really just want to work this Wednesday night.
You. Are. Allowed.
You are allowed to be yourself. The people that care don’t matter. The people that matter don’t care.
You are allowed to own your weirdness and love the frontier.
You are allowed to stay up late and wake up late. Conversely, you are allowed to go to sleep early and wake up early.
You are allowed to take a break between jobs and take a day off at a job.
You are allowed to say that you’re good at neuroscience, even though you’re still learning.
You are allowed to learn new things. To change fields. To move cities.
You are allowed to say I don’t know.
You have the King’s Blessing, the Universe’s official seal of approval, and Obama’s endorsement.
These truths are self-evident. All people, even you, have the right to Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.
Nothing you are doing is illegal. The opposite, in fact. It is authorized & sanctioned. You have the correct licenses & clearances.
What you are doing is pro-social.
So why wait?
You have the go-ahead ✅, the thumbs up 👍, the 🆗, the green light 🚦.
…To ask dumb questions.
To leave your small town for college in America.
To go against your parents, your school, and society as a whole.
You know yourself best. They don’t know you.
Do art. Do science. Make love.
Breathe.
You will still be accepted. You will still be loved.
Follow your body.
Say the thing you think you cannot say.
Be honest. To be clear is to be kind.
People appreciate it and will appreciate you.
I give you cover.
The only thing I ask of you is to give this gift of permission to those around you.
Surround yourself with people who do the same.
Even if you don’t have someone telling you, give that gift to yourself.
Whisper “you are allowed” whenever you’re feeling tension, then take action.
And if someone tells you no, just tell them to talk to me. 😉
Warmth, Rhys ❤️
P.S. This work was inspired by a combination of two things:
Tyler Cowen’s classic The high-return activity of giving people permission:
At critical moments in time, you can
raise the aspirationschange the life course of other people significantly, especially when they are relatively young, simply bysuggesting they do something better or more ambitious than what they might have in mindgiving them permission. It costs you relatively little to do this, but the benefit to them, and to the broader world, may be enormous.This is in fact one of the most valuable things you can do with your time and with your life.
Danielle Strachman and Dylan Field on how one of the biggest benefits of the Thiel Fellowship is simple: it gives fellows permission.
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