[jameshart]

Funny that you give ‘the road less traveled’ as an example of the ‘unique experience’ that adds value to your life.

In the poem the point is that the two roads forked in the woods and the poet chose one arbitrarily. After having walked it and experienced the journey, in looking back he tells himself he took the ‘road less traveled’ - though in truth he has no idea. It’s about our tendency to look at the arbitrary choices and random luck we’ve had in our life, but to look back on that and form a narrative that our choices, our random path, was somehow more noble or novel or interesting than the paths we didn’t choose - or that other people have walked.

Essentially, the moral of ‘the road less traveled’ is to stop thinking that you’re special just because you only drink Sumatran coffee imported by this little place that roasts all their own beans. Or because you go to a Korean spa that has a cold immersion tank.

You’re just wandering in the forest with the rest of us.

[em-bee]

when i was young, i used to dress differently to distance myself from my schoolmates. then i realized that by doing that i still allowed them to influence me because if they had started to copy me i would have changed my style. so i changed to wear what i like with complete disregard of everyone else, to feel as myself and not to feel special.

there is enough unique experience in just doing things that interest me, and that i care about. but it being a unique experience is not the goal. it being worthwhile is.