The Rabbit Factor

Only the unborn are happy.

Life isn’t a loan; it is a payment fraud.

I don’t need to know how other people are doing. I don’t want to know what they’re thinking, what they’ve done or how they experience things. I don’t want to know what they are planning, their hopes and aspirations. So I don’t ask.

I was more of the belief that we don’t have to go out of our way to find difficulties in this life; before long, they will find us.

And there is no logic anywhere because nobody seems to need such a thing.

Who was that man?’ I ask. Lizard Man answers almost immediately: ‘The last mathematician.

Look at the choices we make. If we are healthy, we make ourselves ill by smoking cigarettes, drinking alcohol and over-eating. If we want to bring about societal change, we vote for options that make our situation worse. When we should be thinking about what is rational, people start talking about how they feel. The most important thing is making sure that nothing rational accidentally happens. The most successful people are those who talk the least sense and blame everybody else for it.

Life isn’t a loan; it is a payment fraud. It is a project, lasting on average seventy-five years, whose sole aim is to maximise our own stupidity.

A fanciful and unrealistic approach to the laws of probability makes people try their luck in situations that have nothing to do with luck – be it personal relationships or making a quick buck. For this reason, I didn’t gamble in any way, shape or form. To me it was like swimming in a pool half filled with sharks: though the sharks only took up half the pool, it was still their pool.

Time passes. Although, time never does anything else. This is a one-way street. In one of the definitions of time that I have read somewhere – the continuous and essentially irrevocable progression of existence and events from the past to the future via the present moment – my attention is drawn to the word ‘irrevocable’. For this reason alone, time should come with a warning label.

The most successful people are those who talk the least sense and blame everybody else for it.

I know what home renovations are really like. They cost twice as much as the original quote and take twice as long as was originally intended.

Even as a child I saw mathematics as the key. People betrayed us, numbers did not.

If we want to bring about societal change, we vote for options that make our situation worse.

I have problems, and finding a solution to those problems is literally a question of life and death.

The accounting and financial discrepancies were foremost in my mind, getting to the bottom of them was my top priority. Not this kind of … what exactly? I didn’t know, specifically, generally or even vaguely. And why was I still standing there, still looking at Laura Helanto’s eyes?

I just realised I haven’t asked what you do for a living.’ Laura’s words brought me back to the office. ‘I am an actuary,’ I said. ‘Well, I gave my notice two weeks ago.’ ‘Because of YouMeFun?’ I shook my head. ‘I didn’t know about this park at the time. I resigned because I couldn’t stand watching my workplace turn into a playground. Then I inherited one.’ Was Laura Helanto smiling? I didn’t think I’d said anything amusing. She had raised a hand in front of her mouth. When she lowered it again, her expression was neutral.