Tim Ferriss suggests that we begin thinking with more precision and that a good start would be to avoid using these 10 words:
1. Happiness
2. Success
3. Should
4. Responsible
5. Realistic
6. Reasonable
7. Spiritual
8. Good/Right
9. Bad/Wrong
10. Moral
He says these words are so overused that they’re meaningless. I disagree, of course, especially about the term happiness. It doesn’t matter if other people’s version of happiness is different from mine. I don’t expect us to be having the same image and feelings when we use the term. Yes, the term is vague, but that doesn’t mean there’s not a powerful concept behind it. A concept well worth exploring and discussing. And that, of course, is the purpose of this blog.
Flickr photo by Malingering. Creative Commons license.
6 comments ↓
Hmm, I think we would lose a lot if we stopped using some of those words. Maybe we should stop misusing them? I dunno.
Thanks for visiting my blog today! It’s always great to see someone new.
I don’t think these words are overused, they just have different meanings to different people.
Tim is an interesting guy. I love the irony of the title. I don’t really agree with what he says in the article – but it is certainly an article that will make me think twice before using these words.
Thanks for stopping by, Peter.
meaningless in a generic sense, but who uses happiness and success to define others anyway? It’s a personal value!
Jessica, Shirley and Daz,
Thanks for coming by. (Sorry I’m so late in saying that, Jessica and Shirley!) I agree, happiness is personal, and that’s one reason the subject is so fascinating. How dumb would it be if we couldn’t talk about important things just because we have different definitions.
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