Farnam Street
Mastering the best of what other people have already figured out
In the search for happiness, we often confuse how something looks with how it’s likely to make us feel. This is especially true when it comes to our homes. If we want to maximize happiness, we need to …
In his piece in 2014’s Edge collection This Idea Must Die: Scientific Theories That Are Blocking Progress, dinosaur paleontologist Scott Sampson writes that science needs to “subjectify” …
Even if we often think of sleeping as ‘switching off’, it’s a complex state during which a lot of important things occur in our bodies. In particular, dreams are vital for helping our brains to …
“In the great chess-board of human society, every single piece has a principle of motion of its own.” — Adam Smith *** One of our favorite dictums, much referenced here, is an idea by …
“Who is rich? He who is satisfied with his lot.” — Ben Zoma *** A short parable on contentment today, from Plutarch’s Life of Pyrrhus, one of a series of biographies by the great …
“The big question about how people behave is whether they’ve got an Inner Scorecard or an Outer Scorecard. It helps if you can be satisfied with an Inner Scorecard.” — Warren Buffett …
“The best things in life happen to you when you’re alone.” *** Agnes Martin was a famous abstract painter and minimalist. In this short interview with Chuck Smith and Sono Kuwayama …
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, …
Our resistance to thinking about failure is especially curious in light of the fact that failure is so ubiquitous. ‘Failure is the distinguishing feature of corporate life,’ writes the economist Paul …
A passage from Happiness: A Philosopher’s Guide explaining, in part, why it’s easier to describe what makes us happy than answer the question what is happiness. I can say that I’m happy …
Happiness: A Philosopher’s Guide is worth reading. Frederic Lenoir explores what the greatest thinkers — Aristotle, Plato, Chuang Tzu, Voltaire, Spinoza, Schopenhauer, Kant, and Freud — have to …
Aristotle came to the conclusion that what a person wants more than anything else is to be happy. But what makes us happy? Is it that next vacation? A new car? A promotion? In 1961, the US …
If I were to ask you if you wanted to be happy, 100% of you would say yes. But how many us live our lives in a way that makes us happy? “The days are long, but the years are short. Time is …
An insightful piece by Oliver Burkeman on the folly of the all-positive thinking movement and its rejection of the possibility of failure. “The psychological evidence, backed by ancient wisdom, …