Literature of Success, Week 1
Readings: Studs Terkel, “Working” (1972), Steve Young, “Great Failures of the Extremely Successful” (2002), Martin Seligman, “Authentic Happiness” (2002), Robert Nozick, “The Examined Life” (1989)
Theme: What is Success?
- Personal selection of Success story: the Mason, the Organizer, the pro Tennis player, the motorcycle President
- Great people have great failures: Teddy Pendergrass, Abraham Lincoln
- Happy people live longer. Take care that endings are happy. Exercise strengths and virtues (altruism, delayed gratification, humor) for happiness, not shortcuts.
- We like increasing happiness more than decreasing – its not just the total amount in our lifetime we care about.
- We care about what things actually are, not just how they feel to us. We care that experiences are shared by others. We want free choice.
- Do we eliminate all wants to be happy? We actually just want to be told of something we can strive toward that will eliminate all want.
- Anticipation is better than realization.
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