To Be Independent, First You Must Learn How To Depend On Others
New Job Openings at Cosmos
Hey, we at Cosmos are building the academy for philosopher-builders: a new type of entrepreneur who combines contemplation and action. If that mission resonates with you, we are hiring in a big way:
Head of Operations: Build the infrastructure that allows Cosmos to scale: systems that work, a team that delivers, and a culture built on fast feedback loops.
Head of Finance: Build a finance operating system that scales across our ecosystem, covering daily workflows, and strategic decisions.
Head of Talent and Network: Build and steward a high-trust network of philosopher-builders – top researchers, technologists, and founders.
General Application: If our mission resonates, and you feel you can significantly contribute feel free to pitch us a role.
Now, back to the regular scheduled programming…
This is a really special interview for me. My guest Axel Honneth is one of my first teachers who made me fall in love with philosophy.
In college, my biggest struggle was dealing with my own craving for external validation. I found myself racking up achievements I didn’t need, to pursue careers I didn’t want, all in order to impress people I didn’t particularly like.
When I realized this, I decided that I needed to be free from external validation altogether if I wanted to build a healthy self-esteem. So I deleted all of my social media. I moved to Nepal to practice in a Tibetan monastery: I was genuinely considering renouncing the world. Encountering Axel’s work saved me from this other extreme and made me realize I was operating under a false dichotomy.
The way to build a healthy self-esteem is not by rejecting validation altogether, it is by gaining the right kind of external validation. The right question is not: “how do I stop caring what others think of me?” The right question is: “how, from whom, and when should I care?” That is what you will learn in this interview: how to stop living for others, and discover a life truly your own.
But what moved me even more than Axel’s ideas is who he is as a person. As one of the most important philosophers, he spent hours every month taking me 1-on-1 carefully through his works. His generosity showed me what a philosophical life was all about.
This interview is special then because it gave me the opportunity almost a decade later to revisit the works that started my journey into philosophy.
Topics We Cover:
2:52 All Struggles Are Struggles of Recognition
7:39 Not All Jobs Get Social Esteem
15:29 From Occupy Wall Street to Woke Capital
24:28 The ‘Self’ is a Product of Love
53:23 You Can Demand Rights, Not Esteem
1:20:39 Freedom Requires Recognition
1:35:55 The Overlegalization of America