What doesn't kill you...
That's Philosophical #33
We’ve heard this quote so many times, most people don’t really look into it. I think it’s a brilliant thought that is worth exploring.
Friedrich Nietzsche is one of the most influential philosophers ever lived. The guy is famous for going against established European beliefs and values around Christianity. One of his sayings was literally- “God is dead”. He argued that humanity has gone past the point of needing an authority to guide us. He believed humans can still stay true to their moral values without the support of religion.
Human values were a big deal to him because he believed that humans will always find time for disagreements.
Nietzsche also liked the concept of perspectivism- the world is how you wish to see it. He thought truth is whatever you make it, there is no universal truth. Every person is different, our answers to life are different too. For Nietzsche, there were no facts, only interpretations.
Similar principles are described in stoicism and other philosophies. We decide how to respond to external events. I discussed one of them here:
The Philosophy
Perhaps his most famous saying was this one:
“That which does not kill us makes us stronger.”
I used this philosophy for a long time. It helped me during the hardest periods of my life.
The pandemic was the first time in my life when I felt like I don’t have any control over it. Many things were taken away from us and the thing that kept me going was the thought that everything happens for a reason. Every event, be it good or bad happens for a good reason.
And it did.
Despite all the terrible consequences of that year, my life still had a lot of positive outcomes. I met new people and understood myself better. I explored new interests and became more thoughtful. This experience shows how even the worst things can result in something positive if you look for it.
It didn’t kill me- it didn’t end my life. It made me stronger, it made my life better, and made me ready for anything.
The quote basically says that anything you live through makes you more experienced in life. And if we look from a totally positive perspective, the only bad experience is the end of your life. But who cares? You won’t get anything when you die. That’s why every experience you go through is beneficial. Even in the hardest times, life still keeps going and it’s how we look at it that matters.
Scientific evidence
In 2019, a paper called Early-career setback and future career impact was published by Y. Wang, B. F. Jones, and D. Wang. The aim of this research was to see how failures at the beginning of scientific careers affect people’s performance further in life.
Researchers analyzed data of scientists who applied for grants from the National Institutes of Health between 1990 and 2005. They split the scientists into two groups: those who almost got the funding, and those who were just above the threshold.
Then they looked at the publishing of these scientists over the next 10 years to see which papers turned out to be hits (high number of citations).
They found that those who didn’t receive funding, still published just as many papers, and more hit papers, than those who got the money. People who didn’t get the grant, were 6.1% more likely to publish a hit paper over the next 10 years compared to the other group.
“The fact that the near-miss group published more hit papers than the just-made-it group is even more surprising when you consider that the just-made-it group received money to further their work, while the near-miss group did not”
- B. Jones
6% might not be significant, but it’s still surprising that both groups stayed more or less the same in terms of their output. Even after a disappointing setback for the first group.
“There is value in failure, we have just begun expanding this research into a broader domain and are seeing promising signals of similar effects in other fields.”
- D. Wang
Final thoughts
This is still a controversial topic. I believe in consistency and I think that the best way to learn is to fail and avoid that mistake later on. Everything you do in your life has value, any risk you take, any person you meet will have a positive impact on you.
Sometimes I am scared to look at my life this way, but this mindset never failed me and it continues to keep me happy even during difficult times. Do you think anything that doesn’t kill you makes you a better person?
“What doesn’t kill you... simply makes you stranger!”
- Joker, The Dark Knight
Thank you for being a part of this journey <3 A warm welcome to the new members of That’s Philosophical!
Let me know if you enjoyed this week’s issue!
👇
Yes, I enjoyed it—quite interesting!