Books, A to Z On 2 of the 12 ideas

Four Thousand Weeks

Oliver Burkeman 2021

1 Cites1 Echoes

Ideas we link to this book

Keep your death in mind

Echoes, in his own writing

On his own site, Burkeman calls confronting our finitude “the key to a fulfilling and meaningfully productive life”. He credits no one there for the idea.

by the 2nd c. BCE
“So teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom.”
Psalm 90. Earliest we can find, more than 2,100 years earlier.
2021
“Confronting our radical finitude – and how little control we really have – is the key to a fulfilling and meaningfully productive life.”

Author’s own words, from oliverburkeman.com. Oliver Burkeman, Four Thousand Weeks (2021).

This book is still in copyright, so we read the author’s own words about it, not the book.

Sources

oliverburkeman.com: oliverburkeman.com/fourthousandweeks.

Life is long enough if you use it

Cites Seneca, in an interview

In his own words on Daily Stoic, Burkeman calls Seneca’s On the Shortness of Life “one of the most penetrating examinations of the matter” and credits Seneca: “Life’s not really short, he insists”.

c. 49 CE
“We do not have a very short time assigned to us, but we lose a great deal of it: life is long enough to carry out the most important projects”
Seneca, On the Shortness of Life. Earliest we can find, about 1,970 years earlier.
2021
“Seneca’s On The Shortness of Life is still one of the most penetrating examinations of the matter. Life’s not really short, he insists”

Author’s own words, from Daily Stoic. Oliver Burkeman, Four Thousand Weeks (2021).

This book is still in copyright, so we read the author’s own words about it, not the book.

Sources

Daily Stoic: dailystoic.com/oliver-burkeman-interview.

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