The Voluntary Life

Back in episode 217, my wife Hannah and I spoke about the beginning of our adventure moving to Panama. In this episode we talk about a lot of big changes that have happened since then! The episode provides an insight into our story, but it also touches on many themes important to The Voluntary Life. We discuss travel, minimalism, and adapting to big changes in life. Show Notes:

• TVL Episode 217: Panama Our Adventure Begins
• TVL Episode 77: Internationalising Yourself
• Becoming Who You Are

Entrepreneurship is not just about building a business, it is also about building yourself. I see entrepreneurship as an intensive personal development program. This episode is from a recent interview that I gave about this topic on the Valiant Growth podcast. Show Notes:

• Valiant Growth Podcast
• Becoming an Entrepreneur by Jake Desyllas
• Job Free by Jake Desyllas
• Drive by Dan Pink

This episode contains the introduction of the audiobook version of Jake Desyllas' latest book, Job Free. Whether you want to achieve financial independence and retire early, or simply never work for anyone else again, this book provides an essential guide to the different lifestyle-design strategies open to you. You can get hold of the audiobook on Amazon and Audible, and it will shortly be available on iTunes. If you prefer reading, you can also get a paperback or e-book version on Amazon. Show Notes:

• Job Free audiobook, paperback, and e-book on Amazon
• Job Free audiobook on Audible.com

If you are interested in minimalism or a travel-oriented lifestyle, moving to a digital-only book library is a great benefit. Even if you don't plan to travel, switching to e-books has a ton of other advantages over maintaining paper books. This episode is all about the tools and techniques for managing an e-book library, including:

• Making the transition from a physical to a digital library.
• Choosing a database application for managing e-books.
• Organising an e-book library with tags and other metadata.
• Having a system for keeping your own notes about books.

Show Notes:

• TVL Episode 115 How To Go Paperless Part 1
• TVL Episode 157 How To Go Paperless Part 2
• Free e-books at the Mises Institute and Online Library of Liberty
• Calibre (Free e-book management App)
• Evernote

This episode is about the role of rational thinking in life. Rational thinking is a discipline of self-mastery, similar to the discipline of achieving physical fitness. I tackle some misconceptions about rational thinking and answer these questions:

• What does cognitive science tell us about thinking rationally?
• What are the costs of thinking rationally, and what are the benefits?

Show Notes:

• How To Think For Yourself Series: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3
• Bill And Ted's Excellent Adventure
• They Live

If you want to think rationally, what role do your emotions play? Is there a conflict between thinking rationally and experiencing feelings? In this episode, I explain the history of ideas around reason and emotion, and provide an overview of how to think rationally about feelings. Although the Enlightenment was a revolution in thinking rationally, Enlightenment philosophers never resolved their contradictions about the relationship between reason and the emotions, leaving a legacy of confusion about this topic. Instead of slavishly following feelings or repressing and ignoring them, rational thinking gives you a deeper, richer emotional life. Rational thinking enables you to pay attention to your feelings and make use of their valuable information. Show Notes:

• Othello by William Shakespeare
• The Man Who Mistook His Wife For A Hat by Oliver Sacks
• Episode 189— Envy: A Theory Of Social Behaviour by Helmut Schoek

So far, the Thinking Rationally series has generated more listener feedback than any previous episodes! In this episode, I respond to feedback on the topic of faith versus reason. Here are the questions covered:

• Can reason be accommodated within religious faith?
• Don't we all live by some kind of faith, anyway?
• Do I argue that we are "nothing more than matter in motion"?
• Did I present a fair history of Christianity?

Show Notes:

• Episode 243— Thinking Rationally Part 1: Faith Versus Reason
• How To Think For Yourself Series: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3
• Job Free by Jake Desyllas
• How To Leave A Review on Amazon

Rational thinking transforms your life, by giving you autonomy and the freedom of the individual. Since it spread during the Enlightenment, rational thinking has also transformed society and created the modern world. Yet many influential philosophers explicitly rejected rational thinking, because they understood where it would lead and did not like what they saw. This episode is about anti-rational ideas. I cover how these ideas emerged as a reaction to the Enlightenment, and why such anti-rational ideas are so popular today among contemporary philosophers. Show Notes:

• Explaining Postmodernism by Stephen Hicks (free pdf and audiobook on author's website)
• Intellectuals by Paul Johnson

The biggest challenge of thinking rationally is not learning new techniques, it is overcoming irrational and anti-rational ways of thinking. In Part 1 of this series, I talked about how religious faith conflicts with your rational faculty. This episode is about a secular way of thinking that will derail your rationality. It is a way of thinking about society that seems to be very rational, but is in fact an abuse of reason. Listen to the episode to find out more! Show Notes:

• The Counter Revolution Of Science by Friedrich Hayek

Rational thinking is the engine behind all the great achievements of the modern world. It is the vital tool for making your own choices and for freeing yourself from prejudices and indoctrination. This series of episodes summarises all the best ideas that I've found about how to think rationally. Part 1 uses the example of the history of Christianity in Europe to explain the conflict between religion and rational thinking. Show Notes:

• The Closing Of The Western Mind by Charles Freeman
• If A Then B: How the World Discovered Logic by Michael Shenefelt and Heidi White