Paul - This was a deeply thought-provoking read. I appreciate how you distinguish between the possession of desirable outcomes and the integrity of how one acquires them, something our culture often confuses or bypasses entirely.
Your articulation of success as doing rather than having resonates with the ethical backbone of ancient moral philosophy and also with how I’ve seen people struggle in therapy when their achievements feel misaligned with their deeper values. When what we’ve gained doesn’t reflect who we’ve tried to become, it can leave us feeling strangely hollow, even amid outward success.
I also value your emphasis on building a personal philosophy, a life architecture rooted not in borrowed belief, but in self-examination. It reminds me that we don’t inherit a coherent framework by default. We cobble it together from lived experience, unexamined assumptions, early internalizations, and often, it’s not until something breaks or stalls that we begin the slow process of asking what truly guides us.
Thank you for offering a practical and rigorous way to begin that journey.
I am going to screenshot and save it because reading your articulation what I was trying to say is so valuable to me. I learned so much from this. I always appreciate when you take the time to comment on my work.
Thank you Paul! I appreciate you and also you saying so. So please, when the spirit hits you as you've already done so respectfully before, come knock on my door, office hours/visits are always welcomed- meaning, I love your work and if you ever want or need a comment - or another discerning eye - well, you know what I'm saying, we know where to find one another :)
Wow! I'm really impressed. I'm excited for the course, although curious of the price 😅
I'm interested to see what you think of exposing implicit micro-philosophies. How do we make those implicit beliefs explicit? What about analyzing drives like the denial of death, immortality projects, and sexual reproduction?
Some people have asked me about whether I will go into psychology as a way to uncover what's buried deep inside our psyche. I am not a psychologist, so I wont take that route anytime soon, but I am definitely interested in uncovering implicit micro-philosophies. In fact, that is one way to think about the very purpose of the course: to help someone look within themselves and interrogate themselves with the proper questions and frameworks.
Out attitudes towards death are definitely a key influence on how we live and our worldview. I haven't written much about death on here, but I plan to in the future.
The course is available now for pre-sale until July 19th. I am not sure if you saw my announcements on Subtack, but I just wanted to respond to your question here just in case you missed them. :)
I'm really enjoying the elegant practicality of this series! However, I think we need another word for 'success'. Like 'achievement', success is a concept so thoroughly warped by our oppressively totalizing cultural-economic system as to be meaningless to the point of solipsism. It a sum of random 'metrics', an [illusory] end state of some optimization process. The observation, 'You are the CEO of your life', while a useful simile, is an example of how Byung-Chul Han's 'achievement society' has become universally internalized. Even philosophers find it easier to imagine the end of the world than to imagine the end of capitalism!
I've known a few CEOs, and their business philosophies, strategies, goals and core values are always one and the same: Make number go up. Likewise, their 'success' is always due to some mix of luck, exploitation (including self-exploitation) and just rewards. Mostly luck and exploitation. There are better hypothetical role models for self-actualization. I'd like to nominate the great philosopher Kurt Vonnegut, whose many casually profound musings include, 'We are dancing animals...here on earth to fart around, and don't let anyone tell you different.'
Success, like happiness, is intermittent, hyper-subjective and - since we are all Dasein! - contingent, an occasional byproduct of our farting around. I don't know how one might measure a life well-lived, or if it's even possible (if 1,000 people were to willingly show up at my funeral I'd consider my life successful, but I wouldn't be around to consider it). But I truly appreciate your wonderfully infectious, thoughtful positivity and Montaigne-like efforts to make philosophy accessible by making it useful by constantly asking, 'What do I know?' Capitalism's perversions of language and ideals is not your fault, obviously, and you're always a joy to read. Thank you, Paul!
I totally agree with the first paragraph and the extent to which the meaning of certain concepts can be fundamentally co-opted by capitalism. But I don't want to allow that fact to prevent me from being able to use a word! That would seem to be giving into the system rather than resisting it. So I don't think that because the word has been ruined by capitalism we should avoid it. The greeks theorized about a successful human life before capitalism, and I think that was useful. Now, if I am using it capitalistically, that's another problem... that would make me feel some internal shame.
Regarding the CEO, the better analogy for most people would be small business owner. I am certainly not a fan of dumb luck masked as expertise, and exploitation masked as "development".
I would create an opt-in form for your funeral so you can get a headcount before it all goes black. I am wondering what you think about the last moments of Ivan Ilyich's life?
Sometimes I think that Vonnegut is right, and things are really that simple. But we can't help but make our lives seem complicated from within. We are, after all, dancing animals, and dancing is hard!
Paul - This was a deeply thought-provoking read. I appreciate how you distinguish between the possession of desirable outcomes and the integrity of how one acquires them, something our culture often confuses or bypasses entirely.
Your articulation of success as doing rather than having resonates with the ethical backbone of ancient moral philosophy and also with how I’ve seen people struggle in therapy when their achievements feel misaligned with their deeper values. When what we’ve gained doesn’t reflect who we’ve tried to become, it can leave us feeling strangely hollow, even amid outward success.
I also value your emphasis on building a personal philosophy, a life architecture rooted not in borrowed belief, but in self-examination. It reminds me that we don’t inherit a coherent framework by default. We cobble it together from lived experience, unexamined assumptions, early internalizations, and often, it’s not until something breaks or stalls that we begin the slow process of asking what truly guides us.
Thank you for offering a practical and rigorous way to begin that journey.
Thanks for this note Bronce.
I am going to screenshot and save it because reading your articulation what I was trying to say is so valuable to me. I learned so much from this. I always appreciate when you take the time to comment on my work.
Thank you Paul! I appreciate you and also you saying so. So please, when the spirit hits you as you've already done so respectfully before, come knock on my door, office hours/visits are always welcomed- meaning, I love your work and if you ever want or need a comment - or another discerning eye - well, you know what I'm saying, we know where to find one another :)
When are your office hours Bronce? I would love to stop by.
I think we can make that happen. A DM on this note makes sense. I know you are busy so just DM here when time and the feeling aligns.
Is there a link to Foundations? I can’t find it
Hey ploppie,
You can learn more about it here: https://microphilosophyfoundations.com/
Let me know if you have any questions!
Awesome read, enjoyed it a lot
Thanks, I appreciate that!
Here, here!
Wow! I'm really impressed. I'm excited for the course, although curious of the price 😅
I'm interested to see what you think of exposing implicit micro-philosophies. How do we make those implicit beliefs explicit? What about analyzing drives like the denial of death, immortality projects, and sexual reproduction?
Great work.
Thanks!
Some people have asked me about whether I will go into psychology as a way to uncover what's buried deep inside our psyche. I am not a psychologist, so I wont take that route anytime soon, but I am definitely interested in uncovering implicit micro-philosophies. In fact, that is one way to think about the very purpose of the course: to help someone look within themselves and interrogate themselves with the proper questions and frameworks.
Out attitudes towards death are definitely a key influence on how we live and our worldview. I haven't written much about death on here, but I plan to in the future.
You can read more about the course at: https://microphilosophyfoundations.com/ if you're interested.
I'm assuming you will send us a reminder when the course is up?
The course is available now for pre-sale until July 19th. I am not sure if you saw my announcements on Subtack, but I just wanted to respond to your question here just in case you missed them. :)
You can read more about the course at: https://microphilosophyfoundations.com/
I love the archer analogy. Success is defined by our intentions and actions, not on outcomes.
Even if other people don't see it!
I'm really enjoying the elegant practicality of this series! However, I think we need another word for 'success'. Like 'achievement', success is a concept so thoroughly warped by our oppressively totalizing cultural-economic system as to be meaningless to the point of solipsism. It a sum of random 'metrics', an [illusory] end state of some optimization process. The observation, 'You are the CEO of your life', while a useful simile, is an example of how Byung-Chul Han's 'achievement society' has become universally internalized. Even philosophers find it easier to imagine the end of the world than to imagine the end of capitalism!
I've known a few CEOs, and their business philosophies, strategies, goals and core values are always one and the same: Make number go up. Likewise, their 'success' is always due to some mix of luck, exploitation (including self-exploitation) and just rewards. Mostly luck and exploitation. There are better hypothetical role models for self-actualization. I'd like to nominate the great philosopher Kurt Vonnegut, whose many casually profound musings include, 'We are dancing animals...here on earth to fart around, and don't let anyone tell you different.'
Success, like happiness, is intermittent, hyper-subjective and - since we are all Dasein! - contingent, an occasional byproduct of our farting around. I don't know how one might measure a life well-lived, or if it's even possible (if 1,000 people were to willingly show up at my funeral I'd consider my life successful, but I wouldn't be around to consider it). But I truly appreciate your wonderfully infectious, thoughtful positivity and Montaigne-like efforts to make philosophy accessible by making it useful by constantly asking, 'What do I know?' Capitalism's perversions of language and ideals is not your fault, obviously, and you're always a joy to read. Thank you, Paul!
Thanks for this thoughtful note Eric.
I totally agree with the first paragraph and the extent to which the meaning of certain concepts can be fundamentally co-opted by capitalism. But I don't want to allow that fact to prevent me from being able to use a word! That would seem to be giving into the system rather than resisting it. So I don't think that because the word has been ruined by capitalism we should avoid it. The greeks theorized about a successful human life before capitalism, and I think that was useful. Now, if I am using it capitalistically, that's another problem... that would make me feel some internal shame.
Regarding the CEO, the better analogy for most people would be small business owner. I am certainly not a fan of dumb luck masked as expertise, and exploitation masked as "development".
I would create an opt-in form for your funeral so you can get a headcount before it all goes black. I am wondering what you think about the last moments of Ivan Ilyich's life?
Sometimes I think that Vonnegut is right, and things are really that simple. But we can't help but make our lives seem complicated from within. We are, after all, dancing animals, and dancing is hard!
Pleasure to read. Liked the structure. 👍
Thanks Adrian. I am always working on becoming a better writer. I am glad that it was enjoyable to read.