“What the son wishes to forget the grandson wishes to remember.”

Thirty years later, a wave of “Slow” movements have spread to dozens of other areas of life. Architect John Brown has proposed Slow Home—an antidote to cheap and easy suburban sprawl. Psychologist David Tresemer has proposed Slow Counseling—an antidote to “one pill fits all”

Infinite Browsing Mode comes with a cost: When we spend our time frantically seeking out new experiences, we miss out on the deeper experiences that can only arise from sticking with something for a long time.

I wrote this book because I believe whether we resolve this tension—whether more people click out of Infinite Browsing Mode and join up with the Counterculture of Commitment—matters. The stakes are high. On a personal level, they’re high because browsing forever can lead to great despair, while dedication can lead to great joy. But the stakes are h

The Polish philosopher Zygmunt Bauman has a great phrase for what I’m talking about: liquid modernity. We never want to commit to any one identity or place or community, Bauman explains, so we remain like liquid, in a state that can adapt to fit any future shape. And it’s not just us—the world around us remains like liquid, too. We can’t rely on an

People want to be held accountable, because accountability gives us meaning.

Why is commitment necessary to change? Because change happens slow, not fast. Everything that matters takes time—there are no shortcuts.

But this Culture of Open Options is not a neutral holding pattern. It’s a culture that arranges our economy against loyalty to particulars: particular neighborhoods, particular people, particular missions. It’s a culture that substitutes a morality of honor—guiding people toward the good and away

First, we have a fear of regret: we worry that if we commit to something, we will later regret having not committed to something else. Second, we have a fear of association: we think that if we commit to something, we will be vulnerable to the chaos that that commitment brings to our identity, our reputation, and our sense of control. Third, we hav