We all live our own lives starting from scratch. As we go through the different stages of life, we invariably hit challenges. As a child, it may be arguing with your parents, figuring out how to ask that girl out, or dealing with the school bully. As we grow up, it may be choosing a career, learning to achieve our goals, finding a person to marry, handling rebel children, etc. The challenges are all different, but because we start without knowing anything, each challenge seems like the biggest challenge in the world.

What often comforts me is knowing that my problem most likely isn’t a new problem. There have been generations of people that have come before me, and many (if not all) have hit the exact same challenges. Furthermore, many of them have figured out how to overcome the challenges.

What does this mean? First, most of my challenges are solvable. Second, there is much to learn from the people who have hit the challenge before I have.

People pass on lessons in various ways. They tell stories or pass on folk lore. They write books or articles on their experiences. Today, we have an even better option: publish to the Internet. Once a story is published, it is out there for all future generations, and can be immediately retrieved via a URL. This is extremely powerful, and one of the big reasons that I care so much about retrieving old content on the web. It isn’t simply accessing old content; it means helping people tap into the collective knowledge of the world when solving their life problems.

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P.S. This is post number #90 in a 100 day blogging challenge. See you tomorrow!

Follow me on Twitter @alexshye.

Or, check out my current project Soulmix.