A teacher of mine once asked, “If you could travel in time and go forward or backward five thousand years, but couldn’t take anything with you—no books or photographs, no tools or technology—what could you possibly tell the people you’d meet that might help them to live healthier, happier lives?”

I often wonder, despite all our comforts and conveniences, the knowledge we’ve accumulated, and all our discoveries and creations, if we’re really any better off—whether we’re truly happier and healthier—than the generations who’ve lived before us.

What do you think?

What have you learned that you think could improve the quality of life for human beings in any time and place?

The book I’m writing—which I’m not-so-humbly calling Brilliant’s Guide to Good Living—is my attempt to answer that question.

I think about something Mark Nepo said when I interviewed him.

He said that common writing advice is “Write what you know.”

But that’s not what he does. Instead, he writes what he needs to know, and in that way each of his books become his teachers.

I realize I have a lot to learn. The book I’m writing continues to teach me.