The trouble is that staying home gets easier with practice. The more comfortable we grow in familiar surroundings, the less inclined we are to venture beyond them. And without our noticing, our world begins to shrink. Not because we've lost interest in life, but because we've found so many convenient ways to watch it without taking part.

Businesses come and go. Careers rise and fall. Money is earned and spent. Accomplishments that once seemed terribly important eventually fade into memory. What remains are the people who shared the journey. The people who believed in us. The people who made us laugh when life got difficult and reminded us that tomorrow was still worth looking forward to.

And somewhere in the middle of all that, I arrived at a surprisingly comfortable conclusion, best expressed by that great sailor and underrated philosopher, a man whose entire health plan consisted of canned spinach: "I yam what I yam."

There are real problems in the world. There always have been. There will be new ones. Some will be manageable. Some will be exaggerated. Some will disappear because technology changes. Some will require collective action. Some will be considerably worse than we initially thought. And occasionally, we will simply be wrong.

There may be technologies we should enthusiastically pursue. Others we should pursue cautiously. Some we should delay until we understand them better. And perhaps there are things humanity will eventually become capable of doing that we collectively decide we simply shouldn't do.

The primary question may be: can humanity control itself? Can nations resist developing a technology merely because an adversary might develop it? Can corporations delay releasing a profitable product because its societal consequences are uncertain? Can researchers walk away from an experiment because the potential knowledge doesn't justify the potential risk? Can individuals possessing extraordinary technological capability voluntarily choose not to use it irresponsibly?

For most of human history, progress has meant overcoming limitations. We learned to travel farther. Build higher. Communicate faster. Live longer. Produce more. Harness greater energy. Manipulate matter. Manipulate life. And perhaps now, create forms of intelligence unlike our own.

Not all who hold office are leaders. Some are simply occupants. Others are managers of their own security. The distinction matters more than ideology, more than policy, and more than party—because it determines whether a political system remains self-governing or begins to decay from within.