The Meaning of History
“The present is the past rolled up for action and the past is the present unrolled for understanding.” — Will Durant *** In the audio version of The Lessons of History, you can find excerpts of …
Culture
Will Durant: The Age of Play
A breathtaking passage from Will Durant’s Fallen Leaves: Last Words on Life, Love, War, and God: See him, the newborn, dirty but marvelous, ridiculous in actuality, infinite in possibility, …
Henry David Thoreau on Success
In the classic Walden, Henry David Thoreau echoes Warren Buffett on having an inner scorecard and defining your own success: If one listens to the faintest but constant suggestions of his genius, …
The Role of Race in History
“History,” write the Durants in The Lessons of History, “is color-blind, and can develop a civilization (in any favorable environment) under almost any skin.” The ancient …
Keeping Things Simple and Tuning out Folly
Keeping things simple makes a huge difference and yet we are drawn to the sexiness of complexity. Einstein was a master of sifting the essential from the non-essential. And consider this from Charlie …
Focusing Illusions
My favorite chapter in the book Rapt: Attention and the Focused Life by Winifred Gallagher is called ‘Decisions: Focusing Illusions.’ It’s a really great summary of how focusing on the wrong things …
The Pursuit of Worldly Wisdom
Charlie Munger, the billionaire business partner of Warren Buffett and a major inspiration behind this site, is not only one of the best investors the world has witnessed, but he’s also one of …
Charlie Munger on Avoiding Computers
An anecdote found in Seeking Wisdom, that reminds me of a funny story from university and the use of calculators. First, the excerpt. When someone asked Charlie Munger if he used a computer, he …
Henry David Thoreau on Reading Deliberately
Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862) remains best-known for Civil Disobedience and for Walden, a beautiful ode to simplicity and self-sufficiency. Thoreau moved into a cabin he built by Walden Pond to …
Meditation: Why Bother?
Meditation can seem like a lot of time and work for no obvious pay-off. Yet the benefits are dramatic. Meditation can help us truly experience life, rather than just letting it pass us by. Here’s a …
Three Lessons of Biological History
Human history is a fragment of biological history. If we are to learn enduring lessons it is best to go back in time Our view of the world is fairly shallow. We look backward but rarely to a time …
In Praise of Slowness: Challenging the Cult of Speed
We live in a world scarce of understanding and abundant with information. We complain that we never have any free time yet we seek distraction. If work can’t distract us, we distract ourselves. …
The Busy Person’s Guide to Thinking
No skill is more valuable or harder to come by than the ability to critically think through problems. Thinking better than others means you’ll have more free time and fewer problems. If you …
A Meditation on Reading
One of the most timeless and beautiful meditations on reading comes from the 19th-century German philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer (1788–1860). For me, reading has always been about our tagline: …
Reads for the Curious Mind
Out of the 44 books I read from January to June, here are the 7 that resonated with me the most. (For the curious see the 2012, 2013, I can’t find the 2014 edition.) Pebbles of Perception: How a …
The Wisdom of Seneca: A Lawyer’s Advice For Life In The Fast Lane
Lucius Annaeus Seneca (around 4 B.C.—A.D. 65) was an insightful lawyer, senator, philosopher, and playwright best known for his pithy wisdom that still helps understand how to deal with anger, …