To be or to be seen as such

your intellectual opinions don't cancel your private life

“If your private life conflicts with your intellectual opinion, it cancels your intellectual ideas, not your private life.” (Taleb, 185)

This is one of my favorite lines in the whole book. It explains in one sentence an issue that’s bothered me for years that I could never properly put to words.

This is the person who lectures you on micro-agressions and then says they feel “uncomfortable” at the bar when people who don’t look like them show up.

This is the person who denounces capitalism while on a luxury vacation on a tropical island.

This is the person who protests “colonialism” on the other side of the world while living on colonized land and saying nothing but “thank you for your land” when they host celebrations on someone’s indigenous land.

Your intellectual opinion doesn’t cancel out your private life. Your private life cancels out the virtue behind your opinions.

To call on an earlier chapter, the excuse “I would do it if everyone else did” is no excuse at all. I know of no virtue that depends on the actions of other people.

Stop wasting time pretending to be virtuous in your intellectual opinions. Instead, spend your time practicing real virtue in your own home.

Question of The Day

What is an intellectual opinion you have that doesn’t match your private life? How can you become more virtuous?

Your Friend,

Noah BigNerd Sochaczevski

PS. This, Chapter 13, is one of the best in the entire book. If you have access, I would recommend reading it in its entirety. 7 pages packed with wisdom to make you think about your own life more clearly.