Amor Fati: Love of Fate

Amor Fati is Latin for “love of fate”. It is an attitude of acceptance of the events or situations that occur in one’s life.

This acceptance does not preclude an attempt at change or improvement the situation but to accept circumstances with a sense of contentment.

Practicing Amor Fati helps release us from being dragged down by our past and frees us to make the most of our future.

Amor Fati is a better lens through which to view the world.

Thinks of Hanlon’s Razor as a special case of Amor Fati.

Hanlon’s razor is an aphorism expressed in various ways, including:

Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity.

It helps us keep our cool by providing a disinterested approach to eliminating unlikely explanations for human behavior and its consequences.

We tend to immediatly jump to the conclusion that we have been maliciously slighted in interaction where in many cases the reality is that someone just made a mistake or was too busy to respond in the way we think appropropriate.

Applying Hanlon’s razor can save us from responding aggressively to a perceived slight and having to deal with the consequences of someone feeling ambushed by our attack.

It can discipline us toward more humane and efficient behavior.

And, as Yuval Harari reminds us:

Never underestimate human stupidity.

Cultivate the reaction space between what befalls us and our response with Hanlon’s Razor and Amor Fati.