Friday Links 09-02-20

From the Web

Authenticity – Seth Godin explains that “doing what you promise” is more important than “being yourself”.

Don’t Major in Business – Cal Newport argues against the common wisdom to take a business major because it is more practical. Despite being a business major myself, I completely agree. Following your passions will give you more experience and learning opportunities than taking a path you aren’t interested in.

From the Archives

Overcoming Discouragement – “Life is full of failures, rejection and more than a fair share of discouragement. I believe that the difference in how persistent people are often comes down to how they handle the discouragement that comes from the same situation.”

From the Shelf

Tao Te Ching – I recently had a chance to read Lao Tzu’s classic book on philosophy. The central premise is that underlying everything there is the Way, people have free will to act in accordance with the Way, but also have the freedom to be led astray. I believe anyone who has been raised in a western country should consider this book mandatory reading since it offers such a beautiful contrast to Judeo-Christian philosophy.

Here are some of my favorite passages:

Give yourself to loss and when you’re lost you will be at home.

To live until you die is to live long enough.

Living people are soft and tender. Corpses are hard and stiff. … The hard and great go under. The soft and weak stay up.

Wise souls don’t hoard; the more they do for others the more they have, the more they give the richer they are. The Way profits without destroying. Doing without outdoing is the Way of the wise.

To bear and not to own; to act and not lay claim; to do the work and let it go: for just letting it go is what makes it stay.