Obliquity
The best strategy for getting what you want out of life, according to the economist John Kay, is to stop pursuing your goals. He argues that goals are best achieved indirectly, what he calls Obliquity. A few of us went to see Kay talk about this at The School of Life, in a very quirky alternative sermon that involved singing Talking Heads songs. His book on Obliquity deals with the art of decision-making in the modern age. An Aristolean thought, Kay argues that happiness is a by-product of fulfillment in work and life, not by pursuing it directly. If you look at the most profitable companies the world he says, they are not the most dedicated to profit. Even a toupee profiteer like Donald Trump says, “I don’t do it for the money. I do it to do it. Deals are my art form.” The planned cities of the world like Canberra and Dubai, are dull and soulless. The great cities of the world like Paris and London, evolved of their own accord. Obliquity is being described as a revolutionary, if paradoxical concept. However, us Mother lot left John Kay at the pulpit with the distinct feeling that we’d heard it somewhere before. Is there really a difference between ‘obliquity’ and ‘serendipity’ (the happy accident)? Isn’t obliquity what John Lennon was getting at when he sang ‘Life is what happens when you’re busy making plans’? Perhaps John Kay would whole-heartedly agree, in which case, he’s given us one more word with which to describe the delightful art of ‘going with the flow’.
Thanks to rob and jess for this one.
