Harvard psychologist Ellen Langer
— Focus: The Hidden Driver of Excellence (Daniel Goleman), Loc. 539–9
October 29, 2026 comment:
I’m… I am… I am shy to say, that I befriended her on Facebook back in 2014, when I was reading this book (and used Facebook).
It felt so weird. I googled her, there was her Facebook page, not-too-popular, and I couldn’t do better than just send her that friend request. Which she accepted! I felt as if I’m tricking her into something. I don’t know. It’s some kind of a special memory to me, because I’m so thankful for her to accept that friend request. I could have written her something, but I don’t remember me doing that. I didn’t want to bother her. The very fact that someone can be so accessible felt magical and enriching.
My friend then commented (on some other occasion) that it’s as if I live in the same world Elon Musk lives (and others too), and I couldn’t understand his meaning. The fuck is that, course I do, we all do, we’re sharing the same fucking world, are we not? However, I do agree, when you directly interact with some people like that, it feels magical. By the way, I did directly interacted with Musk back then. A few times even. Fuck, that’s not something special, or at least it wasn’t back then. We just chatted (exchanged a couple of messages) on Twitter about something. It’s just you reply to him, and he replies back. It’s both magical and trivial at the same time. It’s so sad the guy turned full-fascist russian-supporter mode. He could be the true visionary, instead he’s some rich loser. Rich. But still loser. So pathetic. If we were buddies, I think I’d be ashamed of him today. But, we are not. And that’s another story.