10,000 Hours of Love

I just downloaded the audio version of Malcolm Gladwell's latest book, Outliers. I haven't listened to it yet but from what I've heard much of it centers upon research done at Florida State which suggests that thousands of hours of deliberate practice are needed to become an expert in any complex field, whether you're a cellist or a neurosurgeon. This has become known as the 10,000 Hour Rule.

Gladwell says that the best practicioners in any cognitively difficult field have one thing in common - they put in 10,000 hours of deliberate practice to become the best. That comes out to about 3 hours per day for 10 years, skipping practice maybe every other Sunday. It got me thinking about what I want to be the best in the world at, and how little I practice these things.

When I held this principle up to my spiritual pursuits I saw something very clearly, something I believe is worth sharing. I deeply value the teachings of Jesus, and he once was challenged to choose which of God's commandments was the greatest. His answer:

'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.' This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.'

What if I practice Jesus' greatest commandments for 10,000 hours? What if I deliberately focus on loving God and caring for my neighbor the way I do for myself for three hours every day? Who would I be if I became one of the best in the world at Love?

And better yet, what if thousands of us practice loving our neighbors as ourselves three hours per day for 10 years? What would our neighborhoods look like then? Or our citis? Our countries? How might the world change if we all became experts at Love?

It's worth a try.

The Ethical Imperative

[Last minute post before the Idea Camp tomorrow. These topics are fascinating. I can't wait for the discussion]

Economics has lately been on most people's minds, and perhaps on mine more than some. Instead of the national and international economics favored by the evening news, I've been focused on personal economics - the economic decisions of individuals and families.

As I mentioned in my last post, my views on personal economics grow in the soil of my values, and the greatest value, as I see it, is the golden rule in its most positive form - love your neighbor as you love yourself. That is: give another person's needs the same consideration as your own.

It follows, then, that our personal economics must make room for other people's needs. But my observation of the American lifestyle shows me that we have trouble making room for ourselves. We carry bulging budgets, heavy with debt, obligation, and entitlement, unable to bear the weight of an outside request.

In my case, and in yours if you agree with me that empathetic love is a high value, a personal economic imperative has become clear: Simplicity.

As I prepared to write this I first tried to define for myself what the term Simplicity meant in regards to my personal economics. I have used it to describe what sort of house I wanted to live in, how many hours I wanted to work, even how many pots and pans I wanted to own. So it was hard to pin down a definition, but I think I've come close.

"Simplicity is the freeing up of your time, commitment, and money by limiting your personal needs and meeting them with a minimum of resources."

The importance is obvious - by using less of your resources on yourself, you have more to invest in others, in your neighbors as it were.

The practical ramifications of this sort of Simplicity are as difficult as they are obvious, especially for American accustomed to a self-serving consumer culture. Here are a few examples, I'm sure you can add many more:

• Don't live in the most expensive house you can afford. Choose the least expensive house that meets your needs.
• Don't trade in your used car just because the sexy new coupe is out. If it runs, keep it.
• Share and borrow things like power tools, sports equipment, even cars and computers if you can.
• Stay out of consumer debt.
• Eat out less.
• Make your own entertainment instead of buying it.
• Rethink excessive holiday gift giving.
  

The list could go on. I'd love to hear your ideas on Simplicity! Now to bed. Big day tomorrow.

Personal Economics Gone Interpersonal

As I've been working through more thoughts related to economics, I've realized that my values have deeply shaped my economic opinions, like a place's climate gives rise to its crops. So I feel that it's fair at the outset to tell you that I believe humanity's highest virtue is this: Love your neighbor as yourself.

Call it loving your neighbor, call it transcending the self, call it lovingkindness, empathy, mirror neurology; call it whatever you like. In my opinion, our ability as humans to place the needs of another person on the same level of importance and priority as our own is our highest calling.

My ideas about personal economics grow in this soil.

Posts to come include thoughts on simplicity, ethical economics, generosity, and perhaps more. Looking forward to a continued conversation.

On Language and Transcendence

This is just a quick post, but is a snapshot of a massive thought I've been pushing into.

I've talked a lot lately about love - the kind of love that Jesus described when he said "Love your neighbor as yourself."  I often say that it means caring for another person the same way that you care for yourself.  I say that it's the foundational virtue, that it's the greatest commandment, that God is love.

I'm always thinking of new ways to describe it because I build understanding through description.  The other day I was describing what I meant by love and found myself using the term "transcendent."  Love, I said, is transcendent; its goal is for someone to transcend himself so as to see himself and others in their natural equality.  And having said it, I was a little taken aback at how 'eastern' I sounded.

Transcending the self is of prime importance in Hindu and Buddhist traditions.  In my understanding, "Nirvana" can be passably defined as transcending the self.  And here I was describing Jesus' teachings in the same terms, and being very impressed by well how those terms embraced his message.

In fact, my current favorite description of love is: the transcendent virtue.  To love is to act upon the observation that those around you deserve your care as much as you do.  Love is transcendence.

If transcendence, the means and ends of much eastern religion, is so similar to love, the means and ends of much western religion, I wonder how many other similarities we aren't seeing.  I wonder how many of our differences, which we feel must be solved through persuasion and debate (or worse), could be aptly overcome by a good translator.