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10 truths about life – @ideas

A neat summary from Lachlan Brown on Ideapod: These 10 brutal truths about life will help you get your shit together. There’s a lot of Stoic thinking in these: 2. What other people think about you really doesn’t matter. 3. We don’t have much control. 9. Worrying is useless. Read the full list and detail, […]

Command the room – @artofmanliness

As a sovereign professional, you spend an inordinate amount of time entering unfamiliar rooms, full of strangers. It’s unavoidable. You need to meet new clients and potential clients. You need to attend conferences, training and those semi-social-semi-business occasions. You may even feel that life is a little too long, so you burn some surplus life-energy […]

When people get around to writing dictionaries – #Writing

Kurt at Cultural Offering has a great story about Willmoore Kendall, which in turn comes from the National Review. From the latter, I rather liked this quote: “It is not a sign of arrogance for the king to rule. That is what he is there for.” I hadn’t heard of Willmoore Kendall, before. I’m either […]

Happy birthday, Adam Smith – @ASI

June 16th is Adam Smith’s birthday. His namesake organisation, the Adam Smith Institute summarises his influence: “Smith’s ideas were highly influential. The great free-trade era they ushered in, and the enormous rise in wealth it created—particularly for the poor—did indeed amaze the world.” A great overview and a reminder for those tempted by populist, drawbridge […]

The true doctrine of self-reliance, self-help and self-mastery

The ever rich and varied Hammock Papers has this great quotation from Theodore Roosevelt: Something can be done by good laws; more can be done by honest administration of the laws; but most of all can be done by frowning resolutely upon the preachers of vague discontent; and by upholding the true doctrine of self-reliance, […]

In praise of poetry #Writing

The Art of Manliness blog lists “20 classic poems every man should read“, stating: “However, we do ourselves a great disservice when we neglect the reading of poetry. John Adams, one of the founding fathers of the United States, commended poetry to his son John Quincy. Both Abraham Lincoln and Theodore Roosevelt committed their favorite […]

The Basics: Confidence – Nicholas Bate

Another in Nicholas Bate’s series of the Basic 7s. This one is interesting. Working independently as a freelancer, portfolio worker, sovereign professional or even as an individual contributor within a large organisation, it’s easy to have lapses in confidence. Here are seven basic steps to follow: “2. Read about those who inspire you and copy their […]

Inspiration for a Friday – Cultural Offering

Kurt’s Cultural Offering has an inspiring quote for Friday and the weekend: “Inspiration is for amateurs. The rest of us just show up and get to work.”

Equality vs freedom, a timely reminder from Cultural Offering

“A society that puts equality before freedom will get neither.  A society that puts freedom before equality will get a high degree of both.” Milton Friedman (1912 – 2006) A timely reminder from economist Milton Friedman, via Kurt Harden at Cultural Offering.  

Marcus Aurelius, by Matthew Arnold

I read somewhere (now lost) that the Victorian writer and critic Matthew Arnold was responsible for bringing Marcus Aurelius to a broader, modern audience. Here’s Arnold’s essay, originally published in The Victoria Magazine in 1863, and here republished by the University of Adelaide. For the impatient, the real discussion starts at paragraph 9: “[Aurelius] is perhaps […]

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