I was reading Paulo Coelho’s blog and he mentioned “The Law of Jante”
As Google is our first best friend, Wikipedia is our second best friend, so here’s the Law of Jante:
There are ten different rules in the law, but they are all variations on a single theme and are usually referred to as a homogeneous unit: Don’t think you’re anyone special or that you’re better than us.
The ten rules are:
- Don’t think that you are special.
- Don’t think that you are of the same standing as us.
- Don’t think that you are smarter than us.
- Don’t fancy yourself as being better than us.
- Don’t think that you know more than us.
- Don’t think that you are more important than us.
- Don’t think that you are good at anything.
- Don’t laugh at us.
- Don’t think that anyone cares about you.
- Don’t think that you can teach us anything.
I love this law, since it puts an end to our ego and selfishness, and tells us that we are not better than anyone else, and we should be humble.
By knowing we are not special, that does not mean we are not really special, it just means that we don’t have to act special and show off in front of others.
I think the 10th one should have an extension:
you can learn something from anyone, but it’s not obvious what.
no so-called ‘teacher’ shouldn’t enforce his teachings.
but I definitely agree that not believing ‘i can teach X about Y’ makes you more humble and nicer.