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Option Rot - by Willem Van Lancker - WVL

vanlancker.substack.com · 1,164 words · saved by 1 readers

Imagine a tree. A great, sprawling fruit tree, its branches weighing heavy. Each fruit is a possibility, an option, a future you might one day grab. The tree is vast, its bounty endless. You stand beneath it, gazing up at the broad canopy, thinking: I am free. I am limitless. But here’s the catch: the fruit is rotting. Not all at once, not in a dramatic collapse, but slowly, quietly, almost imperceptibly. The options are still there, still dangling, but they’re softening, browning, losing their vitality. The illusion remains—until you reach up and realize the fruit is already past its prime. This is option rot, the slow decay of potential that comes when we refuse to choose. When we refuse to pluck the fruit. Nick Saban, that sage of Alabama football, once said something so simple it takes a second to realize the revelation: “These guys, they all think they have this illusion of choice. Like I can do whatever I want to do. You have a younger generation now that doesn’t always get told

Option Rot The decay of infinite choice Feb 21, 2025 25 4 9 Share Still life with rotting fruit and nuts on a stone ledge , Abraham Mignon, 1670 Imagine a tree. A great, sprawling fruit tree, its branches weighing heavy. Each fruit is a possibility, an option, a future you might one day grab. The tree is vast, its bounty endless. You stand beneath it, gazing up at the broad canopy, thinking: I am free. I am limitless. But here’s the catch: the fruit is rotting . Not all at once, not in a dramatic collapse, but slowly, quietly, almost imperceptibly. The options are still there, still dangling,

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