Old Ideas for New Problems
The Lindy effect suggests that ancient wisdom is as relevant as ever
What resources do you turn to when life proves challenging or overwhelming?
As I write this, I’m dealing with two, gaping holes in my bathroom wall because of an upstairs leak.
Less than three weeks ago, there was a four-alarm fire in San Francisco’s Hayes Valley neighborhood.
This morning, the top headline in The New York Times states that troop deaths and injuries in the Ukraine War near 500,000.
Calamity and destruction are everywhere. The hostilities of war are everywhere.
But none of this is new.
The Mesopotamians built clay sewer pipes around 4,000 BCE, so plumbing issues have existed for millennia.
The entire city of San Francisco nearly burned down in 1906. I discussed it here.
And we have waged war since the cavemen fought over the last piece of meat.
So if our obstacles are as old as time, where do we go for answers?
Who or what can we trust?
The Lindy effect (or Lindy’s Law) is a theory that the future life expectancy of some non-perishable things, such as a technology or an idea, is proportional to their current age.
Here’s an example:
If a book has been in print for 40 years, the Lindy effect argues that it should remain in print for another 40 years. If that same book remains in print for another 10 years (making it 50 years old), then you should expect it to remain in print for another 50 years. And so on.
The longer something survives, the longer its remaining life expectancy.
Put differently, where the Lindy effect applies, the mortality rate decreases over time.
So, what’s the point?
Burn old logs. Drink old wine. Read old books. Keep old friends.”
In times of turbulence, I find strength and comfort in old ideas.
I seek the ancient and avoid the flash in the pan.
Rather than follow a recent trend — like the craze over using the diabetes drug, Ozempic, for cosmetic weight loss — I prefer to train like an Ancient Greek olympian.
If I need to prepare for Armageddon by building a fort, I won’t use faux brick. Instead, I’ll rely on Florida limestone, which is approximately 35 million years old.
That is the mission of The Eudaimonic Education.
Here, we study time-tested ideas and apply them to any modern challenge:
Allegory of the Cave — pursue knowledge over ignorance (2,000+ years old)
Eudaimonia — lead a flourishing life (2,000+ years old)
Memento Mori — know that you’ll die, so remember to live (2,000+ years old)
Shinise — take a long-term perspective (1,400 years old)
Amor fati — embrace fate as good or necessary (over 100 years old)
Through future wars, destruction and climate change, these ideas will persist.
In spite of any daily obstacle, you can persist.
And these ancient principles will help.
Bravo! 🙌