At any moment, billions of people in the world are experiencing their own unique version of life. Some lead a far simpler lives while others could be living something unimaginably sophisticated than yours. Some could be living their best moments, while others—enduring their worst nightmares. I sometimes wonder what their lives are like—the people you see at the gym, the strangers across the street whom you'll never see again, those extras in a music video whose names don't even make it into the end credits. While randomly surfing the internet, I came to know that this realization has a name: sonder.
If the universe were a simulation, I wonder how it manages all of these billions of lives running simultaneously. Does it do what games do to save compute power? Does it not render the "objects" that are outside your field of vision? If I am all alone in my bedroom, are my parents still there? Are you still there?
Back to the topic—I often ask people who have seen more of life than I have, and whom I consider to be wise, what
advice they would give to their younger selves. It is always fascinating to hear their answers, but one piece of advice
that stuck was goes something like:
Just be nice. You don't know what the others are going through, so be kind.