"Waste no more time arguing what a good man should be. Be one." –Marcus Aurelius
When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child; but when I became a man, I put away childish things. – 1 Corinthians 13:11 One of the parts of modern life that I find most disturbing is the gradual infantilization of adulthood. People’s life…
This is going to be a little controversial, and easily misunderstood, but I think it’s an important thought. It’s on the relationship between pain and weakness. I say controversial and misunderstood because I don’t mean weakness as an insult. I’m not even sure I mean it as the opposite of strength. I mean as the…
In the budget series, we discussed housing as an item. Let’s revisit the housing discussion. It’s not clear a house is always better but this time we are assuming you have decided to buy a house. Let’s further assume you are a young couple (or individual). What kind of house should you buy? I’m going…
Recently, I was talking to a friend of mine. He’s getting married soon, and is getting a little tired of the process of planning the wedding. He told me that he’s not sure that it is worth it because he doesn’t know how much more he would enjoy the ceremony than simply eloping or doing…
I spent most of this past year traveling the world with my wife as part of a time off work. We were taking a sabbatical before we start the next stage of our lives – having children. We spent almost 9 months in Latin America, Europe, and Asia. In total, I’ve spent about 18 months…
I’d like to share some thoughts on the relationship a man has with rules throughout his life. How do we first encounter rules? What is the difference between a rule and a principal? What is the mark of a mature man in this context? Children start out without any rules or sense of boundaries, possibly…
When I was a kid self-esteem began to be promoted in schools. A lot of adults seemed to have a problem with it, but almost nothing is more conformist to the next idea than education. It’s a part of teachers’ identity to always be doing the next thing. So it stuck. At the time, I…
I sometimes hear about how online learning will supplant traditional schools and universities. But is a recording the same as having a teacher? I’ve taken some classes recently through Coursera and CodeAcademy, and here are my thoughts on how it stacks up. It very cheap. Many courses are free – others cost a lot less…
If you’re a mature man, you have some sense of your values and your vision in your life. Boys and young men often don’t know what they want – or they may know many things they want, but have not actually decided what’s most important to them. But a man has made some basic decisions…
There is a tendency for men who go to the gym to strength train to fall victim to the technology trick. By that I mean they over-complicate their workout with sciency stuff rather than focusing on the good, simple stuff that is the foundation of strength training. People will go for machines and complicated routines…