It’s interesting how our feelings about the same ideas change over time.

I have seen this picture online countless times over the years.

• At first I thought it was funny

• After a few times I thought it was deep

• Today I saw it again and thought most problems in life are actually a variation of this comic

It’s not like I didn’t get the actual meaning of the picture the first time. I did, but somehow it didn’t register. It felt cliché.

I think that repeated exposure gave my mind more time to relate with the idea itself, and connect it to my own experience, so now it feels more profound — but it's the same idea!

This is probably the problem with clichés: they are deep insights, passed on too rapidly for their real meaning to register anymore. But if we slow down, we can find incredible wisdom almost everywhere.