The world is malleable
Current position (as of 2025-07-04)
Sourced from Steve Jobs, endorsed by Zaid (via saving and keeping the quote). Everything around us — institutions, tools, lives, expectations — was built by people no smarter than us. That means life is not a fixed structure you live inside. It's a malleable object that responds when you push on it. Once you internalize that, passivity stops being available.
From 2025-07-04-poke-life (Jobs):
The minute that you understand that you can poke life and actually something will — if you push in, something will pop out the other side, that you can change it, you can mold it. That's maybe the most important thing — is to shake off this erroneous notion that life is there and you're just gonna live in it, versus embrace it, change it, improve it, make your mark upon it.
Status of this position
Zaid hasn't written this position in his own voice. But he saved the quote and keeps it in his philosophy collection, which I'm treating as endorsement. If a later piece articulates this in his own words — or pushes against it — update this page accordingly.
Tensions
This is the most agency-maximalist stance in the corpus and sits in direct tension with the acceptance-heavy pieces (letting-go-is-central, no-singular-self). See agency-vs-acceptance.
Related positions
- every-moment-branches — the internal, continuous version of this external claim
- purpose-is-constructed — if the world is malleable, purpose is likewise not found but built
Related themes
History
| Date | Position | Note |
|---|---|---|
| 2025-07-04 | As above | Endorsed via saving the Jobs quote |
Sources
- 2025-07-04-poke-life — curated source, Jobs original