In Praise of Doing Nothing: “Idleness is Fatal Only to the Mediocre”

French philosopher Albert Camus perhaps put it best when he wrote, “Idleness is fatal only to the mediocre.”

Put Down Your Phone And Go Do Something – Just About Anything – Else

We’d all like to be a little happier. The problem is that much of what determines happiness is outside of our control. Some of us are genetically predisposed to see the world through rose-colored glasses, while others have a generally negative outlook. Bad things happen, to us and in the world. People can be unkind, and jobs can be tedious.

What are the Ethical Consequences of Immortality Technology?

Immortality has gone secular. Unhooked from the realm of gods and angels, it’s now the subject of serious investment – both intellectual and financial – by philosophers, scientists and the Silicon Valley set. Several hundred people have already chosen to be ‘cryopreserved’ in preference to simply dying, as they wait for science to catch up and give them a second shot at life. But if we treat death as a problem, what are the ethical implications of the highly speculative ‘solutions’ being mooted?

What Did Max Weber Mean by the ‘Spirit’ of Capitalism?

Max Weber’s famous text The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism (1905) is surely one of the most misunderstood of all the canonical works regularly taught, mangled and revered in universities across the globe.