This page really is a goldmine. In the spirit of not being afraid to ask stupid questions, I don't understand a couple of them - anyone care to explain?
> When you die you take absolutely nothing with you except your reputation.
Is this saying that your reputation dies with you? I don't get this, surely people will remember how you acted when you were alive. I'm probably taking it too literally.
> Don’t ever respond to a solicitation or a proposal on the phone. The urgency is a disguise.
A disguise for what? I'm not sure I get what they mean by this. I'm guessing the author is advising that you don't let yourself be rushed into agreeing to something over the phone, think about it and take your time, don't be pressured
> When you die you take absolutely nothing with you except your reputation.
The opposite. When you die, you don't take anything material with you. No money, no assets, nothing. Your own personal experience dies with you as well.
The only thing that doesn't die is how people will remember you.
It's also a hidden paradox. You might aim for widespread fame and acclaim, yet totally forget about the people closest to you who might end up not having a high opinion of how you acted towards your goals.
In a sense, a better way of approaching reputation is as a by-product or a secondary goal to what you pursue. Your primary goal would be: how do I make a positive impact on the world around me? First and foremost, my own community?
> A disguise for what?
It's a bait and switch: them trying to make their priorities, your priorities. The urgency itself is the bait: it's an appeal towards your empathy as well as your desire to act from your gut/instincts (we are bad at instinctively guestimating opportunity cost) rather then sit back and figuring out the bigger picture.
Context matters, and so this gets sometimes obscured by a lot of tangential circumstances. For instance, it's easier to see this one through if the caller is a stranger rather then a friend or acquaintance, or even someone who comes at you from a point of authority such as a business partner, your boss or someone who is either wealthy or owns an experience you desire yourself.
After all, it's a proposal. An invitation. Not an order or a command made from a place of authority.
>> Don’t ever respond to a solicitation or a proposal on the phone. The urgency is a disguise.
>A disguise for what? I'm not sure I get what they mean by this. I'm guessing the author is advising that you don't let yourself be rushed into agreeing to something over the phone, think about it and take your time, don't be pressured
Most of the time when someone pressures you into making a decision quickly, it's for their benefit not yours. Think "if you make this decision now, you'll get a 10% discount!". You don't have the time to decide whether you really need this or not, but that discount sure sounds nice.
>> When you die you take absolutely nothing with you except your reputation.
>Is this saying that your reputation dies with you? I don't get this, surely people will remember how you acted when you were alive. I'm probably taking it too literally.
I interpret this the other way around: nothing you gain in life matters/retains value/sticks (to you?) after you die except your reputation
>> Don’t ever respond to a solicitation or a proposal on the phone. The urgency is a disguise.
> A disguise for what?
I think:
Something not quite right or something worse.
It's easier to get away with things when they aren't face to face. People often know when they are trying to get away with something and leak the truth or information about the truth in body language.
Also it is quicker to communicate over the phone. If they are desperate they can deliver a proposal( ask for stuff?) over the phone within a quicker time frame.
I think the argument is flawed. If you don't exist to feel the loss of rep or what people think of you afterwards. It doesn't matter at all. It's as non-existent as other things.
> When you die you take absolutely nothing with you except your reputation.
I look at it slightly differently. I interpret it as, you take your reputation with you to the grave because when you die, your reputation as it stands, is as dead as you are.
How you act while you're around will be interpreted in one way, but when you're gone, you are no longer around to defend your reputation, or to act in a way that reflects the times.
In this way many people, and especially white males, have had their reputation tarnished. Instead of being good, accomplished, respectable people, they have been labeled racist or sexist or misogynist, and have had their achievements diminished or taken away from them entirely.
Don't believe me? Look for articles in the Guardian or NY Times about Albert Einstein, Shakespeare, Gandhi, Nietzsche, Bill Hicks, DH Lawrence, and on and on and on and on.
Apparently it's trendy to take people out of the context in which they existed, and judge them based on a different one entirely.
It doesn't take a superhuman effort to do better than the society you're in. It just takes recognising the issue, and then a small amount of introspection every now and then; that's beyond most people, but it's still possible.
The amount we can (unhypocritically) criticise these people for not doing better than their times is proportional to the likelihood that they would've noticed the systematic issues in their society, of which they played a part.
Nietzsche and Gandhi… well, they definitely should've known better. Albert Einstein? He probably was exposed to feminist ideas, but I doubt he internalised them. Shakespeare? We can probably give him a pass.
And remember: achieving great, good things doesn't mean you haven't done bad things. It just outweighs them.
I think you just proved my interpretation of the quote.
When you die you take absolutely nothing with you except your reputation.
People will judge you based on the values and trends of the day, and chastise you for not being or doing X or Y better.
In other words, you took your reputation with you when you died.
I bet these filthy men also contributed to the spread of disease, there's no way they washed their hands for 20 seconds every time. I bet these immoral citizens compromised the health of their children by painting their walls with leaded paint too.
> When you die you take absolutely nothing with you except your reputation.
Is this saying that your reputation dies with you? I don't get this, surely people will remember how you acted when you were alive. I'm probably taking it too literally.
> Don’t ever respond to a solicitation or a proposal on the phone. The urgency is a disguise.
A disguise for what? I'm not sure I get what they mean by this. I'm guessing the author is advising that you don't let yourself be rushed into agreeing to something over the phone, think about it and take your time, don't be pressured