Believe it or not, confirmation bias has helped me make peace with life at many stages. I only realized this through my writing practice.
When I started writing, I was surprised by how tough it was to come up with ideas. So I turned to the things that had moved me — quotes that had stayed with me over the years. One idea was to write a series of blog posts on the quotes that had left a deep impression on me. For some strange reason, they’ve always had an outsized influence. I began mentally collecting them.
One quote that stuck with me was: “When the student is ready, the teacher will appear.” Teachers have magically appeared multiple times in my life. They’ve shown up in all kinds of forms — a book, a quote, an article, a movie, or, on rare occasions, a real person.
Looking back, I realize I was drawn to the books, quotes, or people that validated insights I was already beginning to believe. It wasn’t so much that a teacher appeared — I appointed them the instant something echoed what I already sensed.
Ironically, some of the most meaningful “teachers” were just anonymous internet wisdom — not Socrates or Seneca.