People who are watched – and know it? They’ll feel so much unease about avoiding the perception of unproductiveness that they’ll worry their way into it. Surveillance of any kind is an enemy to long-term productivity – at least of the kind worth keeping.
Category: The Life Apprenticeship
We Don’t Recognize the World’s Justice
If you don’t think that evil is punished and good is rewarded, I get it. A fair number of corrupt people seem to enjoy wealth, status, and even long lives. Lots of war criminals and ordinary criminals get away with it. Few direct restitutions happen anymore. But justice is still working.
I Don’t Want To
“I don’t want to.” When was the last time you heard this from an adult? Children have no problem speaking their minds about their preferences. You’ll hear this several times a day at least from a 3 year old – […]
The post I Don’t Want To appeared first on James L. Walpole.
Are You Properly Enjoying Your Wealth?
It takes relatively little effort to provide for your own really essential needs: food, water, shelter, clothing. Setting aside people who feel the need to give their kids or spouses lots of unnecessary doodads, vacations, etc, the “bare necessities of life” have never been cheaper, particularly if you live in the West. A small amount of labor can keep us alive – anything over that is just bonus. But how many of us really appreciate or enjoy the freedom that comes with that wealth?
Elitism for Everybody
While not everyone is great, everyone can be. This may be my most American idea. As Gordon Wood argues in American Characters, we live in a populist country founded by elitists: a strange twist in history that has given to a mass population personal role models who had extraordinary (if flawed) personal character.
The Fatal Weakness of the God of Cynicism
To tell the truth at risk to your own reputation? To celebrate virtue? To say what you think to someone’s face? No one expects this behavior anymore, and so it is unsettling and difficult to counter.
Honor Is a Game of Chess, Not Checkers
There is honor in disrespecting the disrespectable. And yet there may also be times when honor requires you to admit your foolishness to fools or your guilt to the guilty.
Broaden Your Idea of What’s Possible for Your Life
In the last five years I discovered that it was possible for an awkward, non-technical, non-athletic farm kid to skip college and become an important part of a cryptocurrency tech startup, become a fairly avid trail runner, and become comfortable […]
The post Broaden Your Idea of What’s Possible for Your Life appeared first on James L. Walpole.
Be Someone’s Moral Measuring Stick
When I make the right (even if hard) decision, it is comforting to know that at least my father and grandfather would be proud. With them as fixed points in my mind I can afford to let the outside world get to me a little less.
Courage: Use It While You Have It
Youth gives us some natural boldness and courage. Testosterone helps. Anger or indignation might give us another temporary boost. Desperation drives us to boldness, as does loyalty and protection of those we love. But all of these motivators to courageous action are finite, though. And ignored often enough, they will start to burn less and less brightly.