Perhaps not the kind of book you’d expect to find on a business website, this book is a compelling read. It makes you think about life and our own mortality, whether your parents are aging, or you consider your own place in the world, this book will really make you think. Here are the key points I pulled out of the book.
How we spend our time
How we seek to spend our time may depend on how much time we perceive ourselves to have. We all require devotion to something more than ourselves for our lives to be endurable. Loyalty shows us outside ourselves the cause which is to be served, and inside ourselves the will which delights to do this service.
How we choose
We want to retain the autonomy to be the authors of our lives, whatever the limits we face. Take responsibility for your own life, (you are the product of the choices you have made) and remain consistent to your character. If time becomes short, what is most important to you?
On the role of medicine
What is the function of medicine/ doctors? To fight the battle/war against death. But it is a losing battle, so you need someone who knows when it’s worth fighting and when it’s time to give up.
“Courage: first seek out the truth of what is to be feared and what is to be hoped. Act on the truth we find.”
The story of our lives
There is the remembering self and the experiencing self. In the end, people don’t view their life as merely the average of all its moments (mostly nothing much, plus some sleep). Life is meaningful because it’s a story – an arc that is defined by significant moments, the ones where something happens.
