They are happening to life. They don’t view the future as a static entity. They view it as something to be shaped by human action.
Sits closest to Letter No. 17: Passivity Is A Poison.
Resources
A letter every Wednesday. Here is where to begin.
Two years of Wednesdays is a lot to walk into cold, so begin with all of it at once. Under the Sun gathers Letters 1 through 90 into one volume, in the order they were written, so you can watch the thinking change. It is free.
Download Under the Sun Thank you. It is on its way to your inbox too.
New here? Start with these five.
- 01 Passivity Is A Poison.
It Wasn't Eve's Fault. Not Entirely.
The most-connected piece in the archive. Almost every other insight ends up leaning on it. Start here and the rest makes more sense.
- 02 Doing Nothing Ain’t Easy.
Il Dolce Far Niente.
The clearest example of what this newsletter does: an old Italian idea turned into something you can actually do on a Tuesday afternoon.
- 03 The Beauty Of Being An Amateur
What Pilates Taught Me About Beginning.
On being bad at something on purpose. The one to read if you have been putting off starting.
- 04 What Defines A Friend? It Takes 200 Hours.
Friends Are Like Planets.
Two hundred hours to make a close friend. The arithmetic changes how you spend a Saturday.
- 05 Death Bed Regrets
Well DONE, Good And Faithful Servant.
Uncomfortable in the way that turns out to be useful. Worth reading before you need it.
Read Elsewhere
Other people’s work, worth the detour.
Wednesdays Of Wisdom has never claimed to invent anything. These are pieces by other writers, worth reading in full, each one set beside the letter it sits closest to.
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The means by which we live have outdistanced the ends for which we live. Our scientific power has outrun our spiritual power. We have guided missiles and misguided man.
Sits closest to Letter No. 55: One Nation Under Idolatry: Red, White, And You.
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I find for myself that my first thought is never my best thought. My first thought is always someone else’s; it’s always what I’ve already heard about the subject, always the conventional wisdom.
Sits closest to Letter No. 107: Doing Nothing Ain’t Easy.
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The common denominator of success – secret of success of every individual who has ever been successful – lies in the fact that he or she formed the habit of doing things that failures don’t like to do.
Sits closest to Letter No. 64: The Single Antidote To Procrastination.
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To do that, one must not work backward from organization charts or compensation systems but forward from strategy.
Sits closest to Letter No. 4: Being Busy Is Counterproductive: Protect Your “Yes”
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there is one and only one social responsibility of business — to use its resources and engage in activities designed to increase its profits so long as it stays within the rules of the game, which is to say, engages in open and free competition without deception or fraud.
full text at the University of Michigan
Sits closest to Letter No. 112: The Cost Of Becoming: Fee Or Fine?
Not sure where to land? Two ways in.
Let five questions choose for you.
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Your five, in order.
Or read by where you are right now.
- Wisdom & Philosophy The oldest questions, asked again this week.
- Purpose & Identity Who you are before you are anything else.
- Time & Focus The hours you have and where they go.
- Friendship & Relationships The people, and what they cost you.
- Leadership & Business Lessons from people who built something.
- Creativity & Craft Making things, and learning how.
- Resilience & Growth What the hard parts are for.
- Rest & Stillness Doing nothing, deliberately.
Beyond the letters.
The W.O.W Book Club
All 35 books →A book a month for twelve months, an easy way to read a dozen books in a year.
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The Diary Of A CEO Steven Bartlett -
Good To Great Jim Collins -
Unreasonable Hospitality Will Guidara -
The Go-Giver Bob Burg & John David Mann -
Go For No Richard Fenton and Andrea Waltz -
Atomic Habits James Clear
Conversations
All of them →The people whose hard-won lessons ended up in a Wednesday.
- Alex Jones, CEO of Hallow Christ, Christianity, Noise, and Surrender - Alex Jones, CEO of Hallow
- Daniel Tweedal, CEO of Tweeds A.I & The Line In The Sand
- Francis Lyons, Emmy-winning entrepreneur "You Can’t Take Yourself Too Seriously", Says Emmy Winner, Entrepreneur, And CEO Francis Lyons:
- Francis Lyons, Emmy-winning entrepreneur The Social Media Epidemic
- Jon Batiste, musician Jon Batiste: Be Yourself
- Maya French, co-founder of Koia and HappyPop 2 Startups Turned National Brands, Forbes 30 Under 30: Maya French
Then take the whole thing weekly
One practical insight every Wednesday. Free, always.
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