In the scale of the universe, a lot of the things we worry about seem meaningless.
The same could be said of our innovations.
It is statistically improbable that you will experience any events of magnitude in the scale of the universe during the span of a single human life.
(I’m welcome to accept this may change if we achieve some form of substrate independence—brains in machines, machines in brains— or significantly extend the average human lifespan.)
We’re constrained by locality and temporality.
However, there’s a much greater chance you will experience an innovation that changes life on earth and multiple events that change life in your city.
Your insignificance in the scale of the universe does not make your individual life insignificant.
You have significant potential to impact the earth, on some locality, within your lifetime.
Your impact might not be widely covered in newspapers, but the ripples of everything you do will reach further than you might imagine.
I remember the day I heard that Maki Kaji died. You may have never heard that name before. He was the Godfather of Sudoku.
Kaji started a quarterly puzzle magazine in 1980’s Tokyo called Nikoli. The company was named after a race horse that won the 1980 “2000 Guineas Stakes” race in Ireland.
A puzzle that was featured in Nikoli’s early issues was something he encountered but didn’t invent. He called it Sudoku.
His work still touches lives each day in every corner of the globe.
Find the locality where you can have the most impact, and how that impact spreads might surprise you.