See Randomness

This is a short but very good essay.

http://www.paulgraham.com/randomness.html

One of the things that studying the geosciences will give you is a surfeit of perspective. Letting go of your ego enough to recognize that it's not all about you, that most of the universe is just stuff happening, can feel threatening at first. But once you get used to it, it's strangely comforting. There's so much less malice out there than it seems when you perceive bad things as directed attacks. No. Most of the time, it's just stuff happening that you're on the wrong side of...