All is ephemeral,—fame and the famous as well.

Everything passes, including the people who were impossible to ignore. The names that dominate a field, a country, a school year, all fade within a generation or two, and so do the names of those who admired them. Held steadily, that is not bleak; it lowers the temperature on things that currently feel enormous.

When something at work or online feels overwhelming in its importance, ask whether anyone will remember it in five years. Most of the time the answer is no, and you can act with a lighter hand. Those few that do last are usually people rather than positions.