Arthur Brooks

And my son, Carlos, my middle son, he's a special operator. He was a scout sniper in the Marine Corps, where his job was to jump out of helicopters at night, down a rope, into a theater of battle, and with a high-powered rifle and then shoot with optics at night. That's a really dangerous thing to do. That's an incredibly dangerous thing to do. That was super fun for him at 20.

I don't want to have anything to do with that. Why? Why was he willing to do this? And the answer is because he did not have adequate synaptic development between his limbic system and his prefrontal cortex.

I don't want to have anything to do with that. Why? Why was he willing to do this? And the answer is because he did not have adequate synaptic development between his limbic system and his prefrontal cortex.

I don't want to have anything to do with that. Why? Why was he willing to do this? And the answer is because he did not have adequate synaptic development between his limbic system and his prefrontal cortex.

It's like being a CEO, by the way. If you're a CEO of a company, you're probably going to have to leave in disgrace. If you're the prime minister of the UK, you're going to leave in disgrace.

It's like being a CEO, by the way. If you're a CEO of a company, you're probably going to have to leave in disgrace. If you're the prime minister of the UK, you're going to leave in disgrace.

It's like being a CEO, by the way. If you're a CEO of a company, you're probably going to have to leave in disgrace. If you're the prime minister of the UK, you're going to leave in disgrace.

Oh, yeah. But why do they do it? Because the disgrace that they're almost inevitably going to face is worth what they're going to enjoy in the meantime, in terms of the prestige. That's how much neurophysiologically we want that reward. By the way, Aquinas was really good on this. Thomas Aquinas, I don't think you've actually, you haven't talked very much about Thomistic thinking, right? No.

Oh, yeah. But why do they do it? Because the disgrace that they're almost inevitably going to face is worth what they're going to enjoy in the meantime, in terms of the prestige. That's how much neurophysiologically we want that reward. By the way, Aquinas was really good on this. Thomas Aquinas, I don't think you've actually, you haven't talked very much about Thomistic thinking, right? No.

Oh, yeah. But why do they do it? Because the disgrace that they're almost inevitably going to face is worth what they're going to enjoy in the meantime, in terms of the prestige. That's how much neurophysiologically we want that reward. By the way, Aquinas was really good on this. Thomas Aquinas, I don't think you've actually, you haven't talked very much about Thomistic thinking, right? No.

So Aristotle was brought to the modern world through St. Thomas Aquinas in the Summa Theologiae. He was a Platonist, but he said, the pupil is greater than the master, and introduced Aristotle to more modern audiences in the 13th and 14th centuries. And he said that we are animated by four idols. that God is what we ultimately want. But God is inconvenient.

So Aristotle was brought to the modern world through St. Thomas Aquinas in the Summa Theologiae. He was a Platonist, but he said, the pupil is greater than the master, and introduced Aristotle to more modern audiences in the 13th and 14th centuries. And he said that we are animated by four idols. that God is what we ultimately want. But God is inconvenient.

So Aristotle was brought to the modern world through St. Thomas Aquinas in the Summa Theologiae. He was a Platonist, but he said, the pupil is greater than the master, and introduced Aristotle to more modern audiences in the 13th and 14th centuries. And he said that we are animated by four idols. that God is what we ultimately want. But God is inconvenient.

You know, God is hard to understand and a lot of one-sided conversations and a ton of rules. And so we take things that have kind of a God-like feeling to them and they're fourfold. He was an outstanding behavioral scientist. He could stand up to anybody today. He said that the four idols that we have that substitute for God are money, power, pleasure, and prestige.

You know, God is hard to understand and a lot of one-sided conversations and a ton of rules. And so we take things that have kind of a God-like feeling to them and they're fourfold. He was an outstanding behavioral scientist. He could stand up to anybody today. He said that the four idols that we have that substitute for God are money, power, pleasure, and prestige.

You know, God is hard to understand and a lot of one-sided conversations and a ton of rules. And so we take things that have kind of a God-like feeling to them and they're fourfold. He was an outstanding behavioral scientist. He could stand up to anybody today. He said that the four idols that we have that substitute for God are money, power, pleasure, and prestige.

So there's the three macronutrients that we've talked about are enjoyment, satisfaction, and meaning. And we dug in on enjoyment. We could do exactly the same thing for satisfaction and exactly the same thing for finding meaning. What is meaning? How do you interrogate meaning in your life? How do you actually find it? And that would get us back to discernment.

So there's the three macronutrients that we've talked about are enjoyment, satisfaction, and meaning. And we dug in on enjoyment. We could do exactly the same thing for satisfaction and exactly the same thing for finding meaning. What is meaning? How do you interrogate meaning in your life? How do you actually find it? And that would get us back to discernment.

So there's the three macronutrients that we've talked about are enjoyment, satisfaction, and meaning. And we dug in on enjoyment. We could do exactly the same thing for satisfaction and exactly the same thing for finding meaning. What is meaning? How do you interrogate meaning in your life? How do you actually find it? And that would get us back to discernment.

Because discernment is the essence of actually finding that particular macronutrient.