I have a single definition of success: you look in the mirror every evening, and wonder if you disappoint the person you were at 18, right before the age when people start getting corrupted by life. Let him or her be the only judge; not your reputation, not your wealth, not your standing in the community, not the decorations on your lapel. If you do not feel ashamed, you are successful. All other definitions of success are modern constructions; fragile modern constructions.

Nassim Nicholas Taleb (Commencement speech)

Of the few things my 18 year-old self thought I wanted, most were stupid and superficial. Nonetheless, Taleb’s remark captures one aspect of the feeling of aliveness that Joseph Campbell speaks of in a way that is very tangible for most of us. It’s in his use of the word corruption and the notion of shame that the point hits home. Despite the foolishness that our teenage wants might display, they also have much merit. In our youth we sense our potential and life’s potential – the passion we want to live with. The question then becomes: Between then and now, have compromise and mimetic desires (chasing the superficial desires of youth, or those dictated by neighbors and peers) taken center stage? Have we become the diminished and fragile person we vowed never to become when we were young, or are we antifragile?

Bottom line: Back when you were 18 and you knew everything, you actually knew next to nothing. The one thing you knew that was worth remembering is too often that which is forgotten.