Learning to Be a Loser: A Philosopher’s Case for Doing Nothing
seem to realize that in succumbing to such diversions, they were squandering the very stuff of existence. Seneca risks sounding like an uptight pleasure-hater here—after all, what’s so bad about a bit of sunbathing?—and to be honest, I suspect he probably was. But the crucial point isn’t that it’s wrong to choose to spend your time relaxing, whethe
... See moreOliver Burkeman • Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mortals
Seneca, in On the Shortness of Life, came down so hard on his fellow Romans for pursuing political careers they didn’t really care about, holding elaborate banquets they didn’t especially enjoy, or just ‘baking their bodies in the sun’: they didn’t seem to realise that in succumbing to such diversions, they were squandering the very stuff of existe
... See moreOliver Burkeman • Four Thousand Weeks
Nothing draws us away from those questions like material success—when we are always busy, stressed, put upon, distracted, reported to, relied on, apart from.
Ryan Holiday • Ego is the Enemy: The Fight to Master Our Greatest Opponent
To the philosophers of the ancient world, leisure wasn’t the means to some other end; on the contrary, it was the end to which everything else worth doing was a means. Aristotle argued that true leisure – by which he meant self-reflection and philosophical contemplation – was among the very highest of virtues because it was worth choosing for its o
... See moreOliver Burkeman • Four Thousand Weeks
Once we have properly surveyed the merits and demerits on offer, we may willingly choose to side with what the modern age typically considers to be a disaster: a quiet life. This is not from any lack of ambition, but from a more focused aspiration for what we now recognize to be the primordial ingredient of happiness: peace of mind.