Thoughts on Stories & Experiences

We all have a story.

That story is all part of a collective story.

It feeds into us. Inspires us. Motivates us. Makes us want to get up in the morning.

God, is what people view as the writer of that collective story. Some people don’t believe there is a writer, or necessarily needs to be one.

You don’t need children to have a legacy. You’re already living one. Everyone has a legacy. We all play a part in the collective story.

What is important is where your story will take you. What purpose you’re here to accomplish, whether or not you’re aware of it, accept it, and execute it. Whether or not you’re someone who levels up the world, or levels it down. Tolerates the status quo, lowers it, or rises it even higher.

Needless to say, your story will be forgotten. As the collective story is infinite. Endless. It will go on and on. But your part, determines where and how soon that story evolves and progresses.

Your part will merely play a droplet in the experience of the future for those living within it, rather than a trophy piece or a wikipedia article read by all, just an experience they’re living through, thankful for, but not sure who to thank. That’s your impact.

It is said, there is nothing more important, than an idea whose time has come. And that is why we are here. To bring ideas to fruition whose time has come. To continue the story, for the next person, and the next, and the next. To hopefully, leave the story in a place of endless progress. Albiet, progress is inevitable, as the chain reaction began, and can never stop.

This is why movies like Cloud Atlas resounds with us soo much. They show us, how each of us, despite how insignifcant our stories may appear, add into this collective awe inspiring jaw dropping story. An ocean, made of thousands of insignificant droplets.

This is why legacies like Steve Jobs, Mahatma Gandhi, Muhamed Ali, inspire us so much. They show us, people who left the collective story better, with their droplet. Shaping the future of the ocean forever.

It also seems that this is all also about experience. A story is not a story, if it isn’t made up of experiences.

So what is an experience? Everything. But what is an experience that matters? One that incites the feeling of love.

I feel strongly about this now that I realise this. When I look back on my life, if I remember individual events, they are meaningless, like insignifcant drops in the ocean, but if I tie them together, to create a story, that reminds me of an experience and elicits an experience in those who hear it. It creates change. It elicits love.

This also applies to everything. Not just our memories, but our goals, our dreams, our work.

Let’s take DocPad:
- It’s the best experience for developers creating websites
- It’s now becoming the best experience for clients wanting websites
- And soon it will become the best experience for end-users wanting websites too

And take Bevry, Open-Companies and Open-Collaboration in general:
- They are the best experience ever for those wanting to change the world

And Gratipay:
- It’s the best experience for those wanting to receive money for their efforts in changing the world

Things win, because they provide the best experience. People win, because they can show us what is possible, they can inspire, they change things.

So what are you chasing? What experience do you want to see cemented into the world of the future?