What if I was wrong?
Reviewing my time as Eudaemonology Editor of New Escapologist magazine
Between 2007 and 2016, I was the Eudaemonology Editor of New Escapologist magazine. This was a semi-serious job title that I insisted on as an excuse to explore eudaimonia, Aristotle’s term for the highest human good (sometimes translated as ‘happiness’).
New Escapologist was a niche publication and not the kind of thing you could buy in a newsagent, but its message was strong, telling readers to escape the chains of the 9-to-5 and become a bohemian. I sometimes wonder if I would still agree with all the things that I confidently proclaimed in its pages; what if I was wrong?
I have a sense that if people were more accountable for the things they wrote — if they went back and checked the outcomes of their punditry — they might become better thinkers. And so, this week on the newsletter, I have decided to republish my old articles with a comment saying if I now think they are sound or ill-judged.
Issue One: Identify your escape routes
The Marshmallow Liberation
Walter Mischel’s marshmallow test (maybe) hasn’t survived the replication crisis, so take this article with a grain of salt. The optimist in me would like to think we can all learn to defer gratification and I am probably at least 10% less impulsive than I was ten years ago, although that could just be age.
Issue Two: The War Against Cliche
Escaping your possessions
This is the article I feel most ambivalent about. It is an excessive celebration of minimalism. And I am pretty sure I regret chucking out some of those records.
The Anti-Cliché Manifesto
I’m ambivalent about this one as well. I understand one gets energy from questioning everything from first principles, but it sounds totally nihilistic in 2022.
Issue Three: The Practicalities Issue
Escape Depression
It feels arrogant now to judge David Foster Wallace’s life on the basis of a Rolling Stone article. Ill-judged.
Issue Four: Bad Faith
Escaping Distractions
I like that I wrote this in the second-person: advice sounds better in the second person because it dissociates it from both the author and the reader. Advice is easy to give and difficult to practice.
How to Rewrite Your Script
At some point, I really got into Neurolinguistic Programming and this was the height of that period. I haven’t thought about NLP in years and tend to associate it with psychopaths, but despite being overhyped I think it could still be helpful to some people.
Issue Five: The Bohemias Issue
The Bohemian Beard Experiment
This was a fun article about how the world gets used to whatever crazy things you do and that experimentation makes time go slower.
Bohemianism and Entropy
Entropy is a rather abstract concept when applied to daily life, so I don’t think this one works. It is basically me complaining about having to clean the house.
Issue Six: Against the Grain
The Sulking Ape
It’s nice to see some obsessions reflected back at you and this was from a time I was obsessed with chimpanzees.
Issue Seven: On the Lam
How to Make Decisions Like Steve Jobs
Another obsession. I still think that, despite his character flaws, what Steve Jobs achieved in Apple is astonishing.
Issue Eight: Staying In
Drawing the line: an essay on integrity
I had forgotten I had already written up the talk I republished a few weeks ago. I think the talk transcript is better.
Notes towards becoming a good citizen
The first time that I interviewed Ellie Harrison and is about having a social conscience rather than being merely obsessed with personal success. For more on Ellie, check out the podcast interview I did with her for week two of this newsletter.
Escape Thought
For all you overthinkers, this one may still be useful.
Issue Nine: Take the Money & Run
How to think about ‘How to Change the World’ in a World of Wicked Problems
At the time this was written it was a cliché for Silicon Valley CEOs to talk about wanting to change the world. Informed by Horst and Rittel’s idea of wicked problems (and, surprisingly, the earlier iteration of effective altruism), I tried to think about the consequences of political action. I think this one is still sound.
Issue Ten: Tell Him Your Plans
Numbers
You don’t hear much about the Quantified Self movement these days. It was a big thing in 2014. Even back then, though, you could tell that the insights were feeble.
Practical interventions to make life less absurd
This article is an example of what is known as “phoning it in.” It is a greatest hits of my Eudaemonology insights without any emotional thread running through it.
The Absurdity of Utopia: An Interview with Ewan Morrison
It was a privilege to interview Morrison, he is a spiky character who thinks for himself. This is still very entertaining, I think.
Issue Eleven: Small is Beautiful
Imagining Russell Brand’s Revolution
There is a dividing line in left-wing politics between grassroots localism and top-down global revolution. Localism has always seen more attractive to me, but it is easy to see how it can get swept away by global forces. I stand by my assessment of Brand’s project, though, which despite his lurid YouTube videos, hasn’t changed all that much since 2014.
Issue Twelve: One Foot in Front of the Other
Thoughtspasms of the Posthumous Trudger
The title is an unsuccessful rewrite of Rousseau’s Reveries of a Solitary Walker. The entire piece is somewhat melancholy and is an attempt to achieve integration. I certainly wouldn’t recommend pretending to be dead, but perhaps out of this dark situation came my interest in vitalism.
Issue Thirteen: Outliers
Outsiders Against Competition
This was the final issue of the magazine. I was convinced by then that there were structural flaws in society that couldn’t be fixed by individual actions. This starts with a funny opening paragraph (I’ve actually toned it down from the ruder original) but gets quite earnest towards the end.
Everything I've learnt about happiness and productivity in the last ten years
A list post featuring 116 little pieces of advice I had accumulated over the ten years. I like the fact that in the introduction I say the purpose is to “jolt you into being.” We all need a reminder occasionally.
Issue Thirteen Launch Talk
This is a condensed version of the above.
What Kind Of Outsider Are You?
Everyone likes a multiple-choice magazine quiz, right?
Take the quiz at Buzzfeed!
This feels like the 12 days of Christmas come all at once. Thank you for this lovely gift.