YouSaid · the spoken record

Alain de Botton

lines on the record: 105
first: 2015-11-10
most recent: 2015-11-10
sittings or episodes: 1
sources: podcast

Every line below is reproduced as it was said and linked to the record it came from. Nothing here is summarised or generated. Directory · Search · Corrections

“Sure. Well, I tend to start always with myself. So I'm a very personal writer. I'm the opposite of an academic. I'm looking for answers to the problems that I experience. I start with myself as the first case study. And I think if I'm getting myself right, if I'm understanding myself right, by definition, I'll be getting lots of other people right as well. So I'm a laboratory of one. Of course I step out of that. I read a lot. I meet a lot of people. I talk, etc. But as it were, I tend to start, the emotional energy comes from, you know, the first patient me. And I'm the one with all the problems. And they tend to also just happen to be problems that other people have as well. So quite early on in my life, I realized that there were two things which were deeply problematic for me. The first one was the area of love and relationships. And the second was the area of work. These were things that were giving me real trouble.”
2015-11-10 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #118: How Philosophy Can Change Your Life, Alain de Botton · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“That we're living in now, when the majority of people have got enough food, they've got a secure shelter, but life is still very tough in all sorts of ways. So it's not the old kind of toughness. When it was really about survival, it's toughness of a different sort. It's about trying to make sure that your brief time on Earth is well spent, that your talents.”
2015-11-10 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #118: How Philosophy Can Change Your Life, Alain de Botton · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Well, look, the easiest thing to say is that I'm a writer, but that doesn't really cover it because writers come in all shapes and sizes. If the conversation is allowed to go on a little longer, what I tend to tell them is I'm interested in emotional intelligence, in emotional health. It's a kind of topic that broadly pertains to all the things that make life difficult that are coming from the kind of emotional centers of our brain and functioning. You know, sometimes people joke about first world problems, right? They laugh at how we are in the United States or the UK and they say, you know, you guys are just, I've got first world problems. And it's supposed to be a joke. It's like people who are, you know, quibbling because the Chardonnay is not chilled enough or whatever. I actually think that there is such a thing as First World Problems not seen as a joke, but seen genuinely, which is really the problems of advanced civilization.”
2015-11-10 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #118: How Philosophy Can Change Your Life, Alain de Botton · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I just say I'm Alandabot and see what they say But you know, every school kid in England has done four or five years of reluctant French. And there's always a French teaching book with a character called allow. So they can just about manage that. But I mean, it's really all my fault, and I'm deeply apologetic. And what can I say? It's one of those things. That's what globalization brings us.”
2015-11-10 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #118: How Philosophy Can Change Your Life, Alain de Botton · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“You're so lucky to be called Tim. I was born on this earth with the name Alain de Boton. Alain de Boton. So, I mean, anything you can manage, just don't call me Alain. You can call me Alan, but I don't care. It's just one of those things that happened.”
2015-11-10 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #118: How Philosophy Can Change Your Life, Alain de Botton · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT