Stephen Dubner

So what am I going to do?

It worked for Gwyneth, didn't it?

It really worked.

Everybody made fun of her.

I don't know anything about her really, but I do know that she said that about the relationship.

That would be my first answer to your question going back is you can't care

There's a quote I like by John Wooden, the late, great UCLA basketball coach who coached these teams some absurd number of college championships in a row, but was also known to be a great, it sounds like such a cliche, but a leader, a teacher, a coach.

He really, really affected the men that he coached, many of whom were very famous and many of whom became NBA players afterwards.

But anyway, he said two things about character that I like.

Because character is something I think about a lot.

Oh, exactly.

So you did your homework.

So this is from John Wood, and I could never make this up.

He said two things about character.

One of them is fairly famous, and I don't love it.

He said, character is what you do when no one is watching.

That's fine, but it's got a little bit of a godly, moralistic feeling to it.

I grew up in a family where that was a feeling, and it's not my preferred mode of feeling.

Anyway, the other thing he said, though, is that people should worry more about their character than your reputation.

Because reputation is simply what other people think of you.