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MICRO MISCONCEPTS

On the roads not taken

Published about 2 months ago • 1 min read

Micro Misconcepts

On the roads not taken

28th August 2026 | Read on misconcepts.org​

From me

It's easy to look backwards and romanticise the paths we didn't take, believing them to be better, then suffering for the fact that they are now closed to us. But the paths we didn't take only look better because we've never had to live them.

Every road comes with friction. Daily stressors. Hidden trade-offs. The roads we left behind appear greener because we compare our high-resolution reality to a low-resolution fantasy. And a fantasy wins every time.

If you had chosen the path you romanticise about, perhaps you'd be standing here today wishing for yet a different path.

The grass is greener on the other side. But it's also greener where you water it. And you can only water the path you're on.

​Read the full piece →​

From others

Writer Sylvia Plath on the cost of indecision:

"I saw my life branching out before me like the green fig tree... I wanted each and every one of them, but choosing one meant losing all the rest, and, as I sat there, unable to decide, the figs began to wrinkle and go black."

Source: The Bell Jar (1963)

Philosopher Søren Kierkegaard on the only direction life can travel:

"Life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forwards."

Source: Translated from his Danish journals (1843)

For you

What's one thing you'd start doing on your current path if you stopped wishing for a better one?

See you next week,

Syn Yun

Learn more at misconcepts.org​

Misconcepts are the explanations we hold about how the world works, synonymous with mental models but named deliberately to acknowledge their fallibility. Misconcepts is itself a misconcept and we're always iterating. Reply to this email if you have thoughts. We'd love to hear from you.

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MICRO MISCONCEPTS

By Syn Yun and David

A weekly newsletter exploring one mental model and what a better iteration looks like. Under five minutes. Free.

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