Wisdom: Less is More

A different kind of minimalism for 2025, and a free course for parents

Many of you will now have heard of Jonathan Haidt because of his work on low screen childhoods, but he’s long been an influence on my thinking, not least his theory about moral tastebuds (also know as moral foundations. Fun test here.) You can listen to my my Sacred podcast with him if you’d like to get a sense of the breadth of his work. Here is a quote from him I’m sitting with for the New Year:

Wisdom is now so cheap and abundant that if floods over us from calendar pages, tea bags, bottle caps, and mass e-mail messages forwarded by well meaning friends. We are in a way like residents of Jorge Luis Borges’s Library of Babel - an infinite library whose books contain every possible string of letters and, therefore, somewhere an explanation of why the library exists and how to use it. But Borges’s librarians suspect they will never find the book amidst the miles of nonsense.

The Happiness Hypothesis, from which this comes, was written in 2006. What was then a trickle is now a tsunami. Podcasts were barely embryonic, social media just beginning to ramp up. The library of babel is exponentially more vast, the key to it hidden under even more miles of nonsense.

I have been wondering lately if the “meaning crisis”, discussed most famously by John Vervaeke, is driven not by a scarcity of meaning, but it’s over-abundance. As Haidt says

We might already have encountered the Greatest Idea…words of wisdom, the meaning of life, perhaps even the answer sought by Borges’s librarians - all of these may wash over us…. But they can do little for us unless we savour them, engage with them…and connect them to our lives”.

Or, wisdom is useless unless we work it. Unless we walk in it.

This idea has helped clarify for me why I continue to find myself, somewhat to my surpise, most at home in just one tradition, one stream of “ancient wisdom”. It isn’t because I don’t believe there is gold beyond it, or because I look down on my many jewish/buddhist/taoist/animist/muslim /pagan/astrologer/hindu/stoic/other friends. I have such respect for travellers of good will on other paths, and for my friends that are spiritually polyglot - both of which I know make up a lot of readers here. I’ve loved learning from you all, but I have never felt like I had the capacity to engage deeply. The wisdom my tradition offers - most centrally, love God and love your neighbours (and your enemies) - seems quite enough to be going on with. Moving that statement from intellectual assent to embodied expression will be, I’m quite sure, the work of my lifetime. It is costly, in time and attention, continually undercutting my desire for comfort, convenience, status, and cheap thrills with the promise of a deeper satisfaction. I know how easily I want to distract myself from walking this narrow way, which sometimes feels like a tight rope, by flirting with other paths. When it seems both too simple and too difficult I entertain myself with ideas that I have no real intention of seriously applying. I have already spent too much of my life being ‘this guy’:

Don’t fool yourself into thinking that you are a listener when you are anything but, letting the Word go in one ear and out the other. Act on what you hear! Those who hear and don’t act are like those who glance in the mirror, walk away, and two minutes later have no idea who they are, what they look like¹.

Life is short, and my attention finite. I want to know what I look like, want not to muddy my soul-work by attempting too much, or (more likely) not even attempting it because I have confused intellectual knowledge with spiritual growth (this is a HUGE temptation for me). All of which requires I build a much higher tolerance for boredom. I am learning to distrust my seeking after novelty, the belief that the key to fully aliveness is in the next substack I read or podcast I listen to, that this is the year I will discover the real hot secret². I don’t want to be running through the library, frantically in search of something, anything, to settle my soul. I have chosen to anchor myself mainly in one place, in hope that if I give these practices, one book, one path, one congregation enough time, they might actually change me.

This year, maybe don’t worry about chasing novelty or shaking everything up. If you think you have found a seam of wisdom, stay with it. Actually walk in it. Give it time. You might call this approach wisdom minimalism. Whatever path you are on, I’d be interested to hear your reflections.

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I wanted to let you know about an opportunity being run by some friends of mine over at The Nearness. Because of some philanthropic support, they are able to offer their amazing new course without charge.

Rooted in Values: An 8-Week Journey for Parents

Want support sharing your core values with your kids? Looking for more mindful rituals together?

Check out this free 8-week course from Nearness with support from the John Templeton Foundation. You'll be matched into a small group with other parents to meet one hour every week and work through expertly-created conversations, with optional videos, podcast episodes, and reading to go deeper where you want to. Sessions will cover topics like incorporating meaningful rituals into family life, exploring how your own upbringing has shaped your values and parenting, and leaning into mindfulness techniques, especially during moments of conflict as a family. But, above all else, the experience is about connecting deeply with other parents, in a safe, vulnerable space.

Sign up for a free info session to learn more or visit https://www.nearness.coop/journeys/rooted-in-values.

Other things:

• I’m giving a lecture in Rugby on 1st February and would love to see you there

• I’m speaking at literature festivals in Oundle and Winchester in the coming month

• And will be back in the US for a series of East Coast events later in the Spring. The Mockingbird Festival 1-3rd May is in New York City and open for booking now.

• Finally, I nearly fell off my chair when I heart Fully Alive in the book recommendations at the end of the Ezra Klein podcast this week, thanks to the wonderful Oliver Burkeman.

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1. James 1:22-25, The Message translation.

2. If this post makes you unsubscribe to this substack and/or listening to my podcast becuase you are decluttering your inputs, so be it. God speed!