Alain de Botton and a gentler philosophy of success
It often happens to me that, of the 2-3 TED talks I view in a week, one chimes strongly with a notion already playing on my mind, following a conversation or recent epiphany.
And so it is with Alain de Botton’s ‘Gentler Philosophy of Success’ (below).
I had been talking to Pete about some of the confidence-building training his company excels in, and asking whether issues from childhood arise during these sessions.
Indeed, the sessions explore the ‘life sentences’ we all hand ourselves from our earliest years — “I’m not clever”, “I’m not creative”, “I’m no good at that” — which have no basis in adult life, but stymie us throughout it.
I have at least two myself — what are yours? — which, during my current career-break period of reflection and self-examination, are being closely scrutinised!
De Botton asks us to consider whether our own markers of success are indeed our own — or whether they are ‘sucked in’ from society, our peers etc forcing us to chase pointless goals — and how ‘failure’, in an increasingly meritocratic society where the potential for success rests solely in our hands but is never attributed to luck, becomes all the more crushing for those who experience it.
So taken was I by de Botton’s style, wit and outlook (and I recognise, judging from the comments, that’s not a unanimous take!) that I’ve tracked down a few of his books and am currently reading “Essays in Love” (another area of self-examination – sigh). It currently lives up to Jan Morris’s plaudit — “I doubt de Botton has written a boring sentence in his life”.
Categories: lifestyle
I’ve read a couple of his, and they’re both very engaging. ‘Consolations’ is great – although he’s preaching to the choir in my case – and ‘Status Anxiety’ is very interesting and thought-provoking. I’ve not read ‘Proust’, although I hear that’s also brilliant.
Bastard.