Farnam Street
Mastering the best of what other people have already figured out
“We shall never have more time. We have, and have always had, all the time there is.” *** Despite having been published in 1910, Arnold Bennett’s book How to Live on 24 Hours a Day remains a valuable resource on living a …
Sometimes in the debates about how to improve equality in our society, the reason why we should desire equality gets lost. In his classic text The Subjection of Women, John Stuart Mill explains why equality is critical for solving the …
Fear is a state no one wants to embrace, yet for many of us it’s the background music to our lives. But by making friends with fear and understanding why it exists, we can become less vulnerable to harm—and less afraid. Read on to …
Nearly four decades after her death, many of Ayn Rand’s works remain controversial and divide people into two camps: love them or hate them. Her lesser known book on philosophy provides broad, timeless insights. Here are her thoughts …
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe’s (1749–1832) Maxims and Reflections is a terrific source of philosophical wisdom. The German writer, statesman, lawyer, playwright, and polymath was brilliant at distilling complex questions and concepts into …
Letters to My Daughter is both a simple and a complex read, which makes it at once engaging and thoughtful. Simple because we can see ourselves in the various stories it shares. Complex because it demonstrates how hard it can be just to …
One big mistake people repeatedly make is focusing on proving themselves right, instead of focusing on achieving the best outcome. I call this the wrong side of right. People never work as hard as they do when they are trying to prove …
Innovation does not always have to be the result of serious study and agonizing progress. As Steven Johnson so eloquently argues in Wonderland: How Play Made the Modern World, many of the activities and endeavors we have undertaken for …
Simone de Beauvoir (1908-1986) wrote The Ethics of Ambiguity in 1948. In many ways, it can be read as a reaction to World War 2, an attempt to make sense of all that war entailed, and therefore teach us what it means to be human in the face …
Kahlil Gibran (1883–1931) published his masterpiece, The Prophet, in 1923. The work endures as a timeless meditation on the art of living. Gibran’s thoughts on love and giving offer a glimpse into his genius. Reminding one of the …
In Rest: Why You Get More Done When You Work Less, Alex Soojung-Kim Pang argues that work and rest are not opposed but rather complementary to each other. “When we define ourselves by our work, by our dedication and effectiveness and …
“Every battle is won before it’s ever fought.” — Sun Tzu The metagame is about understanding the bigger picture and outsmarting the competition by doing something they can’t or won’t do. When you understand why your …
Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900) explored many subjects, perhaps the most important was himself. A Farnam Street member directed me to the passage below, written by Richard Schacht in the introduction to Nietzsche: Human, All Too Human: A …
If we see someone throwing money away, we call that person crazy. Money has value. Wasting it seems nuts. And yet we see others—and ourselves—throw away something far more valuable every day: Time. Unlike the predictable reaction we have to …
In 1923 the Lebanese-American artist, poet, and philosopher Kahlil Gibran (1883–1931) published his masterpiece, The Prophet, which endures as a timeless classic meditation on living. While Kahlil’s thoughts on love capture his …
We’ve written before about why Plato matters. What about Aristotle? The Greek philosopher Aristotle believed that questions of the state, how it should be organized, and how it should pursue its ends, were fundamental to the …
In 1923 the Lebanese-American artist, poet, and philosopher Kahlil Gibran (1883–1931) published his masterpiece, The Prophet, which endures as a timeless classic meditation on living. The essence of his brilliance is captured in the section …
“Straw Dogs is an attack on the unthinking beliefs of thinking people.” — John Gray *** We like to think that the tide of history is an inexorable march from barbarity to civilization, with humans “progressing” from …
I’ll bet you think this article is about you. “We all know selfishness when we see it,” writes essayist Kristin Dombek opening The Selfishness of Others: An Essay on The Fear of Narcissism. She’s right. We see it …
One of Charles Darwin’s less famous works, his The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals, released in 1872, kicked off the idea that emotions carry distinct facial expressions. We read these emotions naturally, from birth, all the …
“I am a person who listens for a living. I listen for wisdom, and beauty, and for voices not shouting to be heard.” *** Krista Tippett, the host of the compelling podcast On Being, is an incredible conversationalist. From poets and …
“A journey of a thousand miles must begin with the first step.” — Lao Tzu *** Change is hard. But what if we could make it a little easier? As Lao Tzu so eloquently puts it, maybe we just need to focus on that first step. This …
There is no definite way to confirm that we know anything at all. Only from our direct experience can we claim any knowledge about the world. *** The role of perception in knowledge It is hard to imagine a world that exists outside of what …
Carol Dweck‘s concept of Mindset permeates through every aspect of our lives. One area particularity affected is in the workplace. We spend half of our day at work (some of you likely spend more than half) and both your mindset and …