The Evolutionary Benefit of Friendship
Healthy friendships offer far more than a reliable person to share a beer with. Research shows they can make us healthier, wealthier, happier and overall more successful. Here’s how. *** Is friendship …
Aristotle
First Principles: The Building Blocks of True Knowledge
First-principles thinking is one of the best ways to reverse-engineer complicated problems and unleash creative possibility. Sometimes called “reasoning from first principles,” the idea is to break …
The Fairness Principle: How the Veil of Ignorance Helps Test Fairness
The Basics If you could redesign society from scratch, what would it look like? How would you distribute wealth and power? Would you make everyone equal or not? How would you define fairness and …
Tyranny, Democracy, and the Polity: Aristotle’s Politics
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 …
Ethos, Logos and Pathos: The Structure of a Great Speech
“A speech is like a love affair. Any fool can start it, but to end it requires considerable skill.” — Lord Mancroft *** The structure of a great oral argument has been passed down through …
Lee Kuan Yew’s Rule
Lee Kuan Yew, the “Father of Modern Singapore”, who took a nation from “Third World to First” in his own lifetime, has a simple idea about using theory and philosophy. Here it …
The Ten Golden Rules of Leadership: Classical Wisdom for Modern Leaders
How many of today’s problems are the result of leadership? What’s lacking, the author of The Ten Golden Rules of Leadership argues, is the lack of real leadership. Here the problem may lie …
Aristotle on Time
Aristotle, in The Physics, produces “a statement of the difficulties about the attributes of time.” Next for discussion is time. The best plan will be to begin by working out the …
Produce More by Removing More: The Disciplined Pursuit of Essentialism
Aristotle talked about three kinds of work: theoretical, practical, and poetical. The first searches for truth. The second is practical with an objective around action. The third, however, is lost in …
The Stoic Way of Life
The Stoic way of life is the expression that encompasses the Stoic’s attitude toward practical affairs. It really is “an anachronism,” writes Ludwig Edelstein in his book The Meaning …
Contagious: 6 Reasons Things Catch On
Wharton marketing professor Jonah Berger spent the last 10 years looking into what makes things popular. Questions like: Why are some stories, ads, and rumors more infectious than others? Why do some …
The Tragedy Of The Commons
What is common to many is taken least care of, for all men have greater regard for what is their own than for what they possess in common with others. — Aristotle The rules pay you to do the wrong …
Bertrand Russell: On Avoiding Foolish Opinions
We’d all like to avoid folly, wouldn’t we? Avoiding stupidity is easier than seeking brilliance. It doesn’t take a genius. Only a few simple ideas. Philosopher Bertrand Russell …