Don’t apply for “a job.” That’s too general. Apply for a specific opportunity to create a specific kind of value for a specific company. If you apply for something, that’s actually what you’re doing anyway. So you might as well adopt a mindset that’s congruent with the task.
Tag: value
What Parents Can Really Do to Help Prepare Their Teens for Success
Regardless of how you may feel about climate activism, the key message to parents is that school can be stifling and anxiety-inducing for many teenagers who crave and need meaningful work. Adolescents are meant to come of age within the adult world, surrounded by a diverse group of mentors and engaged in authentic, real-life pursuits. This gives them both experience and personal reward.
You Can’t Have Civil Rights Both Ways
People who want their rights as gun owners respected often advocate a massive government welfare program, carried out through taxation and land theft, in order to build a border wall, which violates the right of association and the right of people to move about freely. They also demand a police state where you can be stopped and checked for your papers.
What Does it Mean to Live Free?
Humans are good at adding layers of justification and passive aggression to our words and actions. Pretty soon, it’s impossible to identify our own desires. Denying yourself the use of manipulative tactics forces you to come to terms with your thoughts and feelings. Why do I want her to go on a walk with me? How much do I value it? Why might she value it? What could make it more valuable than her alternatives?
Beware ‘It’s Getting Worse’ Narratives
I’m skeptical of any argument that says X or Y are worse than they used to be. Not because things can’t get worse. I don’t hold to the Whig theory of history. I’m skeptical because the ‘things are getting’ worse framework is always accepted and no one demands evidence.
Two Economic Tragedies
Two economic tragedies: 1. Refusing to acknowledge any forms of value that don’t make money. 2. Resenting markets for not rewarding all the things we value in terms of money.
Community, True and False
I distinguish true community and false community. The line that separates them is the locus of points at which people bring government compulsion to bear to compel those who disagree with them to fall into line or suffer punishment, the line that separates those who recognize and respect everyone’s natural rights and those who do not.
You Already Have It
You don’t have to be rich to start practicing the mindset. Generosity is the willingness to share what you have to offer with confidence that someone will be enriched even by your smallest contribution.
One More Reason People-Pleasing Fails
Instead of being ruled by the people you please, throw them a little off-kilter by taking the initiative yourself. You’ll be happier, they’ll be happier, and no one will have to live with the resentment of half-voiced wants and unchosen obligations.
When Reputation Matters
I wrote recently about the need to let your reputation die so you can remain free and not become a slave to the good opinion of others. But is concern for your reputation only dangerous, or does it provide value as well?