There’s nothing sadder than someone who is in their 30s and still hasn’t learned to be sincere, who is still regularly sarcastic, who has a quip for everything, who judges people constantly. They just look lost and small. Because they are. These people are usually quite smart, somewhere in the middle of an organization, but too afraid or cowardly to go for the big job or take the big risk, and part of it is that they hear their own judgmental voice lingering incase of failure. As their peers succeed they say luck and they say favoritism and they say they’re not that good. They say anything but the truth, which is that the people they criticized actually tried and risked criticism. There is no prize for potential. And there are no friends for the cynical, only commiserators, willing only to pull others into their circle of lament. Enough quips. Actually do something. Be happy for people. There’s a good chance if you don’t break the cycle by 40 you never will.