> you yourself cannot solve, say, climate change

Could one person maybe catalyze the solving of climate change though?

They can maybe make an impact... Maybe... but the problem I find is that anyone out front who's not actually "doing" anything beyond "catalyzing" is often viewed by the converts as a messiah and the skeptics as a charlatan. See: Greta Thunberg, Al Gore, etc. If they have a track record of execution in a different field they get a little more credibility, but still lots of derision. Ex: Bill Gates.

In theory, sure, maybe. In practice, there’s a lot more oars than wheels and a lot more of them seem to sit empty for want of people willing to do the work.

Maybe, but most of what I see people doing is doomscrolling and shitposting. It feels like doing something but the primary output is anxiety.

Absolutely. Although the most impactful changes need to be done at a large level, there are two things that need to happen locally that one person absolutely can do:

1. Lots of issues within local government related to transportation, buildings, energy (these issues intersect closely with climate change) come up without members from the public saying anything. Having one voice from a normal member of the public (not a lobbyist, not an activist, not a government staff person, not a journalist, not someone paid to be there) gets attention from policy makers, it says people really care and elected officials should act accordingly.

2. There are a lot of groups out there doing work and pushing for policy changes with varying levels of “spice” (spice being how much they try to influence elections and get public attention) these are groups like rotary clubs, environmental voter project, citizens climate lobby, 350.org, Sierra club, sunrise, third act, extinction rebellion, and many more. Some are active in your community. The work of connecting between them and other parts of the community is crucial because coalitions need to be made and that is hard work. If you are involved in a group (company, neighborhood association, hoa, club, trade group, professional organization, any kind of group) that is interested in doing anything on climate, you could be a connector between them and a policy advocacy group. Find ways to work together towards a set of common goals. That’s when outcomes really start to proliferate.

> be the kind of person where if everyone acted like you, it’d make the world you want to live in.

My wife and I think exactly this way and we did just that: precisely for that very reason, we decided to have one kid. Not three. Not two (could have happened with twins but that's uncommon).

And if everybody were to do like us for a few generations, most of our problems would be solved in a few generations (and couple could start having two kids on average again).

And I do not care about the broken promises of failing states who need ever more young people to pay for the impossible-to-sustain pension schemes.

What makes the world valuable to you (or say more valuable than some other beautiful planet lightyears away)? Probably that more people (or intelligence in general) can experience it. Less people seems counterproductive then.

I think your reasoning only works as a concept in your head. As a short-lived dream were you can enjoy an image of the world in a future state.

Depopulation won't fix it. The problem is greed. But you live the life you want to live. It ain't hurting anyone.

>We’ve got a tendency towards hero culture as a society, in which we expect one person to solve the problem. That fails on almost any problem of reasonable size and impact - you yourself cannot solve, say, climate change - and it leads us to feel like we’re not doing anything if we’re not doing everything.

Being a hero is far more exciting and feels more "action-oriented" than the actual solution to most problems: consistent concerted effort over a long period of time. But it's the latter that actually works, whether in something as personal as healthy living or something as broad as national policy.

> We’ve got a tendency towards hero culture as a society, in which we expect one person to solve the problem. That fails on almost any problem of reasonable size and impact

We're past hero culture as far as I can tell. We're firmly in superhero culture aka entertainment divorced from reality.

Also, I don't think there exists a coherent culture anymore. 'Anyone can do whatever they want as long as I get mine' is not a culture - it's a canary in the coalmine and the canary is dead.

I'm glad that I recognized that we (Gen Z) were growing up with this narrative pretty early on--if you get a job, you have to be best in the field. If you start something, it has to be big. Small successes or positive changes just weren't adequate. I wrote about this in more detail here: https://www.tor.com/2021/05/25/anyone-can-be-a-hero-in-brand... and I said it better in this paragraph than I can right now:

"Because the real world has never been saved by a few superheroes. It has always saved itself on its own, each person doing their own little bit. In the real world, although many people feel—and sometimes are—helpless because they’re not the “right” gender or race or caste or class, there are many, many more people who have made their own little impacts on the lives of others, be it buying groceries for elderly neighbors during the lockdown, running a lemonade stand to raise funds for cancer treatment, offering free therapy, teaching kids in slums, or distributing food to protesters. Our world is humanity’s collective effort, one big project that we always keep working on.

The problems all of us are fighting are too big to change individually—they are too massive in scope, with too many variables. But collectively we have changed some things for the better, and we’ve done it by being whoever we are and doing what we can, while also learning and taking tiny steps forward..."

The way I see it is that all living systems inevitably grow in complexity until they decay and die. This is their nature. As we are part of the system we can't help feeling trapped when the decay and pain is creeping in, but if we can take a larger (Taoist) look at the processes and flow itself then we can find peace as well as our own place within that flow.

By letting go we can achieve the greatest well-being for ourselves and others. We can perform our work and step back, letting things be as they are. The only way they can ever be.