"We are the Borg. Resistance is futile."

I remember being fascinated by the Borg (from Star Trek). The Borg are cyborgs linked into a hive mind called the Collective. They would descend on a world, crush the resistance, and assimilate all the tech and the people (turning them into drones).

On the one hand, I appreciated their dedication to getting better, and how they tried to take the best of everything around them.

On the other hand, I can't say I was a big fan of their campaign of genocides.

They travelled in these gigantic cube ships (perhaps it was the most efficient shape?) and they terrorized all who they came across. They would always announce themselves:

"We are the Borg. Resistance is futile."

For many people, it WAS futile. They became assimilated.

But for Captain Picard, Captain Janeway, and the others, they triumphed, even if it seemed touch and go at times.

To me, in a way, this feels like the tyranny of stats.

Resistance was USUALLY futile, but it wasn't ALWAYS futile.

We gotta remember, stats are an assessment of a group of data points to find trends.

If Captain Picard looked at the stats and said "well, the Borg are only defeated 6.8% of the time, so we better run." then there would have been a lot more deaths as the Borg that he didn't stop swallowed entire worlds.

AND we would have missed out on primo entertainment.

In your life, there's only one data point that really matters - you.

So when someone comes to you and tells you: "These are the stats. Resistance is futile." - you gotta ask yourself: "Is resistance worth it here?"

The stats may show that smoking increases your odds of cancer. Maybe that's not a battle you need to fight.

And if the stats show that most people aren't happy?

Or that most people will never achieve their dreams?

Maybe THAT'S a sentence worth resisting.

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"Resistance is Futile" 🚀⚙⚙