We all know about and have experienced the phenomenon of fear that we are missing out on something. The so called FOMO that moves our imagination and does not let us feel that we've arrived. It makes us restless, anxiously looking about and scanning for something that we cannot exactly lay our hands on. We know it's irrational, we might suspect that it's not exactly good for us. Maybe we'd be ashamed to admit it to ourselves, much less to others. And yet here we are, chasing stuff, whatever it may be, just in case we might be missing out. Better have a look, better be there, better regret it than think of what might have been, better sorry than late. It's everywhere, among normies who still care about what their peers think of them and want to go some party to fill in their caveman dread of being ostracized by others and left to die outside the camp, with no fire, no help to hunt, and no females to propagate the next generation with. Among degenerates who sit in their sweaty caves watching manga and eating Doritos whilst they're simultaneously posting stuff on reddit. And among an elites like us, who read rss feeds in the terminal on their custom setup computer whilst listening to renaissance viola de gamba music and drinking home made kombucha. I should like to propose for myself a different way of thinking, a different mode of being. "The eye is not filled with seeing, neither is the ear filled with hearing. What is it that hath been? the same thing that shall be. What is it that hath been done? the same that shall be done. Nothing under the sun is new" (Ecclesiastes, chapter I) Reflecting upon my life I see that almost all of what seemed so urgent was not that important. Almost all that I though I could not live without is already gone and forgotten. Objects of passionate attachments? Indifferent. Hoarded treasures? Dusty and abandoned. I do not say they were not real. But time transformed them for me. I will never be filled because filling desires is like filling the stomach: temporary solution to a permanent problem. Fasting over time teaches one a lot about the nature of eating, poverty teaches one about what is necessary. There comes a moment where poverty turns into riches. I have experienced this myself. Some examples: - I was inspired after watching Japanese movie to sleep on the floor. It was at first painful on my hips but after a while it became comfortable and I could sleep anywhere with the same comfort as I slept at home. Any piece of floor could be my bed quite comfortably. If I was forced to sleep on a bed I felt that I was doing harm to myself bu becoming softer again. - I spend many years doing some sort of fasting. I never felt more energetic and also filled as when keeping up this discipline. After a while I just needed to eat once a day and felt no trouble for it. I lost that now. How much more free is a person who does not have to think much about food. - I did a lot of calisthenics. No equipment beyond pullup bar (or rings). I missed out on some exercises but I felt rich as I had no dependencies (almost) to be able to do exactly what I want. Just give me a piece of floor or something I can pull myself up on. I could multiply examples but shan't. In all of them there's an element of lack of something that could be taken as deprivation but is experiences as liberation instead, becoming a source of joy even. And such discipline gives clarity, it gives boundaries. Boundaries are source of creativity such as one finds when one decides to write a poem in some predefined form, or play a folk instrument in the authentic style, or write a program in C using unix philosophy in the design. Boundaries create an identity beyond joy, and identity gives one clarity and clarity help one to make decisions with facility. If I have all of this, then I learn discernment. Then I stop the fear of missing out because I start to see what will serve who I am and what will not serve me. I do not have, for example, a fear of missing out on newest, trendy tech because I know that this is not the type of person I am, this is not the way I want to go, this will not serve to make me happier, better, more at peace. I do not have fear that some great party or meeting will pass me by because I know myself and my temperament and my values. The opposite is true, I am filled with joy that I can missing out on almost everything without a detriment. I actively want to miss out on most things because I know that I am only a limited person in a sea of limitless noise and if I am to follow the tune that resonates in my head and chest then I want a silent inner chamber. My limitation is my liberation.