The Stories that Drive Us

Sweet Bites for April 11, 2025

Mind Candy is a newsletter on practical philosophy and human flourishment—aka how to live “the good life.” Each month we tackle a new theme.

This month we’re exploring the theme of Story.

Welcome to another edition of Sweet Bites, Mind Candy’s bite-sized newsletter with thought-provoking finds to send you into the weekend with.

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🍰 Mini Bite

“I don't know anything, but I do know that everything is interesting if you go into it deeply enough,” Richard Feynman once said.

From an early age, Feynman allowed his curiosity to drive much of his direction in life.

If most of us experience life through an endless series of responsibilities, Feynman saw life as an endless series of things to be discovered.

Curiosity was the lens through which he experienced everything. It was never enough to just accept the life he was experiencing, rather, he was always asking why something was the way it was.

As a kid, this curiosity led him to repairing radios and making security systems for his bedroom, and as an adult it lead to a Nobel Prize for his work in quantum electrodynamics, the Manhattan Project, and his work to uncover the O-Ring issue that led to the Challenger explosion.

Some of us are immediately drawn to certain things. For Feynman, that was science, driven by his love of uncovering why the world functioned the way it did.

“My interest in science is simply to find out about the world,” he said.

Each of us have stories that dictate the actions we take and it is from these stories we form desires and interests, as well as create direction for our lives.

The key is trying to figure out which stories most drive us—most excite us—and lean into those.

🧘🏻This Week’s Monday Meditation

🦉 This Week’s Wednesday Wisdom

✏️ This Week’s Most Popular Note

📚 Wisdom

“Narrative is an accumulation of knowledge about the future.”

Sarah Ruhl

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“It’s a mistake to think of one's life as plot, but there's foreshadowing everywhere.”

Maggie Smith

Source: You Could Make This Place Beautiful

🎥 Video Worth a Watch

🎙 Podcast to Listen To

Ryan Holiday speaks to Daniel Pink about his latest book, The Power of Regret.

Think someone you know would enjoy these? Hit below to forward and spread the love.

Until next time,

D.A. DiGerolamo

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