More doing, less talking
“The way is made by walking in it.” - Zhuangzi 4/2/33
The ancient Chinese teachers were less concerned about their students accurately describing the world as such and more concerned that they learn to live well in this world.
My philosophical training is analytic philosophy. Analytic philosophy is built on symbolic logic and on linguistic accuracy. Currently, this school dominates much of academic philosophy.
As a result of my training, the main goal of doing philosophy for me became that of accurately describing and explaining things/states of affairs. Most analytic philosophers would agree with this. For that reason, an academic philosopher will often refuse to comment on existential questions, or say things like, “I’m a historian of philosophy. I don’t adhere to any school”, or “I’m a philosopher of science, not a moral philosopher.”
There’s nothing wrong with wanting to accurately describe reality. We really want to make sure our words map onto the world—it helps us understand the world around us better. However, only focusing on semantics can turn us into talkers with no action. And already the majority of us are talkers. There is only a handful of us who are doers.
A good philosopher first and foremost must be a doer. So what if you can poke holes in people’s arguments? Anyone can do that. But not many people ever achieve self-discipline.
The quote from Zhuangzi is a good reminder to talk less and do more. The journey to antifragility begins with doing and not talking.