Long time horizons change our incentives, usually in good ways. This is one of the core findings of game theory: people treat each other better when they intend to interact repeatedly in the future.

The cadence of your work shapes your temperament. When you’re a day trader, every phone notification matters. But when you’re a committed buy-and-hold investor, you can mostly ignore them. The longer your time horizon, the calmer life becomes. Zoom out far enough and once-gargantuan hurdles turn into tiny speed bumps on the road of life.

Chesterton argues that people are ultimately fulfilled not by riding the bandwagon but by acts of commitment — loving, working, and tending to things worthy of care and affection, often without rational justification. He writes: “The man who is most likely to ruin the place he loves is exactly the man who loves it with a reason. The man who will... See more