Author Ryan Holiday reflects on a New York Times profile where his statement about marketing and shamelessness was quoted out of context.
Insight
Holiday argues decades of corporate conformity permanently destroys visionary leadership potential.
“The system is shaping you every day that you are in it. And you are internalizing its values and its personality and its identity. And the idea that, like, yeah, that you're gonna go along to get along for 40 years and then be a visionary, rule-breaking leader…”
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Holiday: Every Retired Pro Athlete Regrets Not Enjoying Playing More
“There's not a single athlete That you've, you will ever talk to who's retired, who doesn't say something like, I wish I enjoyed playing more, because at some point it just goes away, and then at that point the winning and losing stops mattering, and all they t…”
Insight
Holiday argues ed-tech shortcuts fail because true learning requires difficult friction.
“I think sometimes we look for technological solutions to make things easy, and the whole point is some things are supposed to be hard. You know, it's supposed to be difficult, and it is in the difficult part that you're scratching it into the steel, and then i…”
Insight
Holiday: Historical Accuracy Matters Less Than Moral Lessons in Kids' Stories
“Whether they're true or not is much less important to me than whether they have some kind of moral lesson that sticks with them that, by the way, when they get into situations in life I can be like, this is like that thing that we learned about.”
Insight
Holiday: Pursuing an enduring posthumous legacy has zero value
“I think a lot of people, they spend all this time trying to create this, not just success now, but this monument that endures for all time, as if that's of value. Like, it isn't. It's not only something you don't control, even if it was guaranteed. It doesn't …”
Insight
Holiday: Ancient Stoicism was repetitive practice for crisis, not abstract theory
“We tend to think of philosophy as, like, theoretical and abstract and very high-minded, but for the ancients, it was this kind of thing that you practiced and you went over, over, and over again so that, like, in big moments, like, when you have a big life dec…”