This Oppenheimer quote snapped procrastination like a twig.
I love going to a movie alone.
I unashamedly relish in it. When I make plans to take myself to a film I’ve been wanting to see, it’s heel-clicking joy for me.
I know it’s not everyone’s cup of tea, but if you’ve never tried it simply because you’re scared of what people might think, that’s all the more reason to give it a go. Attending things all by your lonesome is deliciously empowering. Not to mention, finding a supreme seat in the theater is much easier when you’re flying solo.
One of the last movies I saw by myself was Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer.
Don’t worry, movie buffs, I did it right. Nolan intended for the movie to be experienced in 15 perf / 70 mm film, and our local IMAX theater was one of the few in a handful of locations in the US showing it this way. $20 well-spent.
I waited for the initial release fuss to die down, but even so, had to buy my ticket 2 weeks in advance just to get a seat.
When the day of my showing came, I took myself on a little walk through Capitol Park, excited to finally catch this flick I’d only been hearing great things about.
The film itself did not disappoint, and left me in a swirl of sober emotions as I silently made my walk back through the park to make my way home.
A repetitive line throughout the movie, and one that has seemed to resonate with many others, stuck with me:
“Theory will only take you so far.”
This line is weaved throughout the screenplay as Oppenheimer and his band of colleagues race to create the atomic bomb, struggling through the limitations of their knowledge, disagreements in calculations, hypotheses, experiments, and the risk of testing something potentially world-ending.
If the fate of the world relied on my ability to do math correctly… Well, this whole earth thing has been a wild ride, ya’ll. Thanks for coming out.
History and nerve-wracking movie plots aside, the line “Theory will only take you so far” has become a go-to snap out of analysis paralysis since I heard it.
And, as much as I love going to the movies alone, I love analysis even more. I’m addicted to pulling things apart and going on a juicy deep dive into research about whatever topic has caught my fascination.
Taking notes and notes and notes as I think and think and think.
Things are kept safe in my head, and the scarier they are to me, the deeper I bury them there, which makes the truth of this Oppenheimer quote irritatingly disjointing.
“Theory will only take you so far.”
I equate the wisdom of this short line to the similar analogy of riding a bike.
You can’t learn to ride a bike until you physically get on one.
No amount of reading about bikes, thinking about bikes, or visualizing yourself on a bike will accomplish the goal of learning to ride one. Analysis helps, but it will only get you so far. Until you get your butt on the seat and your feet on the pedals and try to move forward, you’ll never know the joy of your hair blowing past your eyes and the glide of a great ride.
Until then, there’s no way to sidestep the risk of falling on your face.
I’m coming to find many things worth having unfortunately has this dumb caveat.
Where are you stuck in theory?
What in your life have you been swimming around in thoughts about forever?
What potential are you keeping captive in the safety of “planning” and “strategizing” and “vision boarding”?
Maybe it’s
Beginning therapy
Reading that book you know is going to kick you in the pants
Joining that gym that you have no idea how to navigate
Signing up for that class where you know no one
Starting that business/blog/Etsy shop you’ve always talked about
Asking out your crush
Starting to date
Thinking, planning, and “meaning to” will only get you so far.
Whatever it is, how can you put theory into practice?