Do You Have Habits, or Just Commitments?

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Being and Time: An Interesting Book You Probably Shouldn’t Read

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I just spent the last two months doing a deep dive trying to understand Martin Heidegger’s seminal work, Being and Time . You probably shouldn’t read it. It’s also one of the most interesting and thought-provoking books I’ve read in the last decade. This post is my attempt to reconcile those two beliefs. The reasons not to read Being and Time are obvious. The book is only half-finished. Of what was written, the second division is so muddled, that even after taking a companion class with dozens of hours of lectures, I still have no idea how to make sense of it. Also, Heidegger was a Nazi . It’s not clear how much Heidegger’s politics influence his writing. Especially around 1927 when this book was published. Still, there’s an undeniable ick factor. However, even if you do separate Heidegger’s politics from his philosophy, he may have bigger problems. Philosopher Philippe Lemoine describes Heidegger, half-jokingly, as “The only man about whom one can truly say that being a Nazi was...
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Words That Changed History

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Why Lincoln, Henry, and Sojourner Truth Stood Out People have delivered countless speeches in history. But even speeches delivered by the most prominent people, on the most auspicious occasions, routinely make little difference. Think of presidential speeches, like inaugural or State of the Union addresses. How many of them had any lasting impact? Just a few, like John F. Kennedy’s 1961 exhortation to “ask not what your country can do for you—ask what you can do for your country.” What makes great historic orations so powerful? Typically, they combine well-crafted words, clarity of thought, moral passion, and an uncanny sense of historical timing. Many of the greatest speeches of history were not destined to become great. Often the speaker was not the most famous person in the room, or was not giving the keynote address. Sometimes the oration was so unexpected that we don’t even have the text of the original speech. But that combination of apt, passionate words, delivered at the rig...
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A Rising Tide Lifts All Boats

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How Companywide Bonuses Can Help Everyone Feel the Float Historically, the office wasn’t a place Americans strove to participate in endeavors larger than themselves. Got to the office to earn a living, the thinking went. Leave horizon-broadening for church and volunteer activities – or maybe a gardening club if you’re into that sort of thing. It need not be that way. With the right incentives, many employers today are helping their teams feel like they’re contributing to something beyond themselves. And that, in turn, is helping the bottom line. To be sure, money is an important part of the equation – for most people that’s the point of going to work. And many employers figure their workers will perform better by dangling individual, performance-based bonuses. But companies actually can increase their own revenue by parceling out extra pay based on firms’ financial returns. It’s not a form of socialism, but good business. When the tide started rising The idea is actually rooted ...
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