themarginalian.org

How to Promise and How to Keep Promises from Breaking

Even the most sincere promise is but a tenuous handshake — not between us and others, but between our present selves and our future selves. Nothing is more discomposing to our self-image than watching ourselves break a true promise on the edge of the awful recognition that our future selves are only ever a fantasy of who we would like to be, not a prediction of who we will become.

readtheprofile.com

The Profile: The CEO making Eli Lilly huge & the founder bringing robots to life

"Your reputation is who you are based on everything someone thinks they know about you. Your character is who you are even if you're the only one who knows. And your integrity, the real measure, is how closely those two things align."

themarginalian.org

Middle Age and the Art of Self-Renewal: An Extraordinary Letter from Pioneering Education Reformer Elizabeth Peabody

The perilous time for the most highly gifted is not youth. The holy sensibilities of genius — for all the sensibilities of genius are holy — keep their possessor essentially unhurt as long as animal spirits and the idea of being young last; but the perilous season is middle age, when a false wisdom tempts them to doubt the divine origin of the dreams of their youth; when the world comes to them, not with the song of the siren, against which all books warn us, but as a wise old man counselling acquiescence in what is below them.

3quarksdaily.com

Writing Advice from Scott Alexander

The English language hates the slightest whiff of dishonesty, even levels so small you wouldn't naturally notice them yourself. It punishes you by making your writing worse.

honest-broker.com

Why Read the Classic Books?

These older books have a sense of integrity. This project was just an opportunity for me to go back to some of my favorite books and look at the ways that's true.