Michael Smoak

And I told you that story about Alexander the Great, which is how we read the quote of Alexander saying, and Alexander wept for he saw there were no more worlds to conquer, as his ambition being able to outstrip reality's ability to challenge him.

Oh, he was bigger than the world and he reached the edge of it and couldn't keep going, but would have done.

But that's not the actual quote.

The actual quote is him realizing that there are infinite worlds and he hasn't even yet become the Lord of one.

So he's crying at how puny and minuscule his accomplishments are.

And I think that that's actually much closer to how we all feel.

Like who has ever reached the edge of their ambition?

Their ambition continues to outstrip it.

You're right.

If you raise your standards, you...

regularly disparage your accomplishments even in the process of them.

And there's a John Bellion song, Why, with Luke Combs, and in it he says, if the higher I climb is the further I fall, then why love anything at all?

He's talking about opening up to someone, but I think the same thing works for just

hard charging and overachieving.

Well, if I permanently overachieve, then eventually I might get there, but you never arrive.

There's obviously a lot of sexiness around memento mori.

People think about, remember that you're going to die, stoicism thing.

They've got it on a coin that Ryan Holiday has given to them.

I think that there's a memento mori for productivity.

You will never get on top of all of the tasks that you have to do.