1. It enables me to effortlessly keep track of what I’ve done and thus how productive I have (or haven’t) been.

At the end of each day, iDoneThis sends me an email. “Hi there,” it says, “Take 30 seconds to write out what you got done today.” So I do—and that’s that. Keeping track of what I’ve done isn’t something I have to think much about; with iDoneThis it’s just a question in my inbox that I respond to in less than a minute.

2. It motivates me to get the right things done.

I have a handful of things I want to do each day and knowing that I’m going to report what I did sometimes gives me just enough added motivation to take action on the most important things when I otherwise would not.

For example, I normally treasure reading to my son. Sometimes, however, particularly when I’m tired, I waver between going upstairs to read to him and skipping it. Then I remember that I’ll be able to report the activity to iDoneThis by email—and just that much tips me to read. Shortly thereafter, I’ve read two or three short books to my son and strengthened not only an important habit but also a vital relationship—and I’m feeling more energetic to boot.

3. It keeps me honest about what I have actually done.

It can be easy to blame outside factors for not getting things done or not being happy. After all, other people and chance events can influence both of these things. But iDoneThis keeps a clear and definitive record of what I do each day, and when I look back on what I have done I can see the results of my decisions and actions.

For example, I can see that over the past month I read many more books for my own enjoyment than I had planned and, partly because of this, wrote much less. Without iDoneThis, it would be easy to tell myself that I was productive, having read so much, and leave it at that. But with the record that iDoneThis provides, I can see that my indulgence in reading, however productive on one level, precluded me from doing the writing that I wanted to do. This enables me to adjust my plan for the following days, weeks, and months.

There are other ways iDoneThis helps me boost my productivity, and other ways it can help you boost yours too. If you want to give it a try, you can sign up to use the app here. (It’s free.)

If you enjoyed this post, consider subscribing to The Objective Standard and making objective journalism a regular part of your life.

Lisa Wirthman contributes to this year’s hand-wringing over the day with an article for the Denver Post. “Holiday commercialism crosses a new line this year as Black Friday sales encroach on Thanksgiving,” meaning that some stores will offer shoppers the chance to drop by Thursday as well. “Black Friday and Thanksgiving Thursday don’t mix well,” she warns. “Thanksgiving is a time to be grateful for what we have and spend hard-earned time with family and friends. Black Friday, on the other hand, is a chance to get as much as we can for our hard-earned dollars.” So, according to Wirthman, although it’s okay “to be grateful for what we have and spend hard-earned time with family and friends” on Thursday, to go bargain shopping with our hard-earned dollars on Friday is somehow less than noble. What does she consider more worthwhile? She tells us: Occupy Wall Street’s “protest against corporate greed and income inequality.”

Even setting aside that last absurdity, Wirthman and other shunners of so-called “Black Friday” are effectively Thanksgiving’s equivalent of the Grinch.

Wirthman ignores her own lessons about expressing gratitude. Where is her gratitude that, despite the economic slump and encroaching economic controls, Americans enjoy the greatest prosperity in human history? The fact that we can buy abundant foods from around the world, clothing in virtually limitless designs, and labor-saving kitchen gadgets is a wondrous marvel of productivity and relative economic freedom, not a cultural blot. That the average person can afford to buy cameras, pocket computers, televisions, video games, and other electronic equipment—things that Medieval kings could not have dreamed possible—signals the glory of modern America. And the fact that Americans still retain significant freedom to live, produce, and trade as they see fit is a cause for celebration.

Wirthman also concocts conflicts where none need exist. Many people enjoy shopping with friends or family, just as many enjoy seeing a movie together or dining at a restaurant. True, some shoppers get out of control or simply lose their manners, just as some sports fans do, but that does not damn shopping any more than it damns soccer. Similarly, the fact that some people devote their time over Thanksgiving to berating relatives hardly justifies a blanket condemnation of the holiday. Most holiday shoppers retain a friendly attitude and enjoy their Friday (or Thursday) excursions immensely. In fact, for many people shopping is a preferred way to “spend hard-earned time with family and friends.”

Further, many people enjoy using their purchases together as much as they enjoy buying them together. Think of all the holiday photographs people will snap with their new digital cameras, all the football games families will cheer on their big-screen TVs, and all the intimate messages people will share through their computers and smart phones. That is not to say that quality time together requires big-dollar purchases; even something as simple as a new deck of cards (a rarity until the industrial era, when they were mass printed) can provide hours of social enjoyment.

Those who condemn “commercialism” or “materialism” tend to paint products as the enemy of human well-being. But such criticisms completely miss the point of producing goods and services: to enhance human life. Properly we pursue the values we need to live and to thrive, and our values range from the basics of sustenance, such as food and shelter, to the heights of spirituality, such as friendships and literature, to the peaks of science and technology, such as iPhones and artificial heart valves. While some of our values are more directly material in nature (e.g., warm sweaters and pumpkin pies), all of our values require some material expression. For example, to dine with friends we need food, cooking tools, and shelter to protect us from the elements. To enjoy literature we need ink and paper or a digital text reader. And to receive a heart valve or the like, we must rely on someone’s vision, intelligence, and long-range planning.

The point is that we should neither obsess over physical objects at the expense of our broader values, nor denigrate physical products as somehow lowly by comparison, but rather purchase and use commercial goods to live longer, healthier, happier lives.

Whether you like to shop over the Thanksgiving holiday or do other things with that time, do not let anyone make you feel guilty about enjoying the prosperity of our commercial society. Instead, celebrate that prosperity with exuberance.

Related:

• Capitalism and the Moral High Ground
• The Justice of Income Inequality Under Capitalism

Image: iStock

ARTICLES

ObamaCare v. the Constitution
by Paul J. Beard II

The Iranian and Saudi Regimes Must Go
by Craig Biddle

Interview with Reza Kahlili, an Ex-CIA Spy Embedded in Iran’s Revolutionary Guards

Interview with Historian John David Lewis about U.S. Foreign Policy and the Middle East

The Government’s Assault on Private-Sector Colleges and Universities
by Craig Biddle

Interview with Andy Kessler about the Virtue of Eating People

FILM REVIEWS

Iranium, directed by Alex Traiman
Reviewed by Daniel Wahl

Temple Grandin, directed by Mick Jackson
Reviewed by C. A. Wolski

BOOK REVIEWS

Surrender Is Not an Option: Defending America at the United Nations and Abroad, by John Bolton

Reviewed by Gideon Reich

The Infidel: Chapter One, by Bosch Fawstin
Reviewed by Joshua Lipana

Why ObamaCare is Wrong For America: How the New Health Care Law Drives Up Costs, Puts Government in Charge of Your Decisions, and Threatens Your Constitutional Rights, by Grace-Marie Turner, James C.

Capretta, Thomas P. Miller, and Robert E. Moffit
Reviewed by Jared M. Rhoads

Ethical Oil: The Case for Canada’s Oil Sands, by Ezra Levant
Reviewed by Andrew Brannan

Anti-intellectualism in American Life, by Richard Hofstadter, and The Age of American Unreason, by Susan Jacoby
Reviewed by Burgess Laughlin

His Dark Materials Trilogy, by Philip Pullman
Reviewed by C. A. Wolski

Moonwalking with Einstein: The Art and Science of Remembering Everything, by Joshua Foer
Reviewed by Daniel Wahl

Operation Mincemeat: How a Dead Man and a Bizarre Plan Fooled the Nazis and Assured an Allied Victory, by Ben Macintyre
Reviewed by Daniel Wahl

DEPARTMENTS

From the Editor

Letters and Replies

If you’ve not yet subscribed to TOS, you can do so online or by calling 800-423-6151. The journal also makes a great graduation gift. Subscriptions start at just $29 and are available in print, online, e-book, and audio editions.

Enjoy!

So what “entirely different parenting model” does Chua advocate as “superior” to this ineffectual Western parenting approach?  That of what she ascribes to the typical “Chinese mother”: to “override all of [one’s] children’s own desires and preferences” in favor of what the parent deems best for them and then to “excoriate, punish and shame the child” for poor performance in these activities. Toward this end, Chua boasts that Chinese mothers forbid their children from participating in school plays, attending sleepovers, and dating—meanwhile pelting them with insults such as “stupid,” “worthless,” and “garbage” for failing to live up to the parent’s demands. As shocking as these methods may seem to the typical Westerner, they do get results of a sort: It is an uncontestable fact that the children of Asian parents, on average, tower over the children of Western parents when it comes to academic and musical achievement.

Unsurprisingly, however, such achievement often comes hand in hand with misery. While extolling the virtues of Chinese parenting, Chua fails to mention that the incidence of anxiety, clinical depression, and even suicide among Asian adolescents and adults is consistently higher than among American adolescents and adults.

Must we then choose between, on the one hand, forcing our children to achieve at the expense of their happiness and, on the other, carefully treading so as not to harm our children’s self-esteem in the short-term, but at the expense of achievement and thus lasting self-esteem? Which is superior—the cruel and overbearing Chinese mother or the caring yet ineffectual Western parent?

Neither. The superior parent does not choose between achievement and happiness. The superior parent teaches his children how to achieve—so that they can be happy.

To be happy one must choose, acquire, and maintain profound and complex values, such as a career, hobbies, friendships, and romance. In the adult world, the achievement of such values requires disciplined effort that must be sustained for years. A proper approach to parenting prepares children for this reality—a world in which actions have consequences and work is required to fulfill one’s desires—by gradually giving them greater degrees of responsibility for choosing and pursuing their own goals. For instance, whereas Chua would dismiss her daughter’s wish to go to Disneyland as a frivolous impediment to her violin studies, and whereas a stereotypical American parent would, finances willing, unthinkingly grant that wish, a superior parent might recognize and take the opportunity to teach his daughter how to turn that wish into a goal and achieve it, possibly by requiring her to help raise funds for the trip by saving a certain amount of her weekly allowance. If the daughter impulsively spent her savings on toys and candy, a superior parent would hold her accountable for her actions by informing her that she hasn’t saved enough money to pay for the trip and suggesting that she reconsider her spending decisions. In other words, the parent would make sure his daughter reaped the consequences of her own failure to follow through and maintain self-discipline in the pursuit of her goal. Over time, a child faced with such facts and consequences will learn that self-discipline and effort enable her to fulfill her desires, and that irresponsibility and sloth lead to frustration and misery.

The parenting style of many Western parents is clearly not conducive to developing responsible, motivated, self-disciplined adults capable of achieving authentic happiness on their own. But nor is the parenting method Chua describes, which consists in manhandling and belittling children, and forcing them to work towards ends that the parent alone chooses, often on the second-handed basis of what promises to bring the child and parent “prestige” in the eyes of others. Far from developing responsible, self-disciplined adults, this method suppresses the very means of achieving a lifetime of success and happiness, namely, knowledge of and practice in the art of making good, life-serving decisions for oneself. In fact, for all its problems, the worst Western parenting is superior to that of Chinese mothers such as Chua: While Western methods may not greatly aid a child in her journey to happy adulthood they certainly do not hinder her the way that Chua’s methods do.

There is ample room for Western parents to improve. But unless parents want to participate in the evil of abusing their children and transforming them into hapless automatons, they must reject Chua’s recommendations and instead offer their children guidance in choosing and pursuing their own values.

See also:

• Lisa VanDamme Responds to WSJ Article “Why Chinese Mothers Are Superior”
• Asian Students, Depression, and Suicide: Begin with the Parents!
• The Growing Rate of Depression, Suicide Among Asian American Students
• The Four Styles of Parenting (references interesting research relating some general parenting styles to the happiness and ability of children)

The contents of the Winter issue are:

From the Editor
Letters and Replies
Essay Contest Winner

ARTICLES

The Republicans’ Opportunity to Restore America . . . and Their Obstacle
by Craig Biddle

The Educational Bonanza in Privatizing Government Schools
by Andrew Bernstein

An Interview with Andrew Schiff about Fishing Nets, Hut Gluts, and other Economic Matters

India’s Commonwealth Games: A National Disgrace
by Chak Kakani

Andrew Carnegie: The Richest Man in the World
by Scott Holleran

The Conclusion of Loving Life
by Craig Biddle

FILMS REVIEWED

Waiting for “Superman,” directed by Davis Guggenheim
Reviewed by Sean Saulsbury

Burzynski: The Movie, directed by Eric Merola
Reviewed by C. A. Wolski

BOOKS REVIEWED

How Barack Obama is Endangering our National Sovereignty, by John R. Bolton
Reviewed by Daniel Wahl

The Dhandho Investor: The Low-Risk Value Method to High Returns, by Mohnish Pabrai
Reviewed by Daniel Wahl

Appetite for America: How Visionary Businessman Fred Harvey Built a Railroad Hospitality Empire That Civilized the Wild West, by Stephen Fried
Reviewed by Jules Klapper

Mind Over Mood: Change How You Feel by Changing the Way You Think, by Dennis Greenberger and Christine A. Padesky
Reviewed by Daniel Wahl

Repotting Harry Potter: A Professor’s Book-by-Book Guide for the Serious Re-Reader, by James W. Thomas
Reviewed by Daniel Wahl

If you have not yet subscribed to TOS, why not do so today? Subscriptions start as low as $29 (8 ¢ a day) and are now available in six formats: print, online, Kindle, audio, e-book, and premium. Full descriptions and pricing can be found on the subscriptions page of our website.

TOS also makes The Perfect Christmas Gift for friends, relatives, and coworkers. You could complete your Christmas shopping in minutes and change their worldviews for life.

Enjoy the issue and the holidays!

The print edition of the Summer issue has been mailed, and the online version has been posted to our website. The contents are:

From the Editor

Letters and Replies

ARTICLES
An Interview with a “Capitalist Pig”: Jonathan Hoenig on Hedge Funds, the Economic Crisis, and the Future of America

Justice Holmes and the Empty Constitution by Thomas A. Bowden

Energy at the Speed of Thought: The Original Alternative Energy Market by Alex Epstein

A Brief History of U.S. Farm Policy and the Need for Free-Market Agriculture by Monica Hughes

The Is–Ought Gap: Subjectivism’s Technical Retreat by Craig Biddle

BOOKS REVIEWED
Animal Spirits: How Human Psychology Drives the Economy, and Why It Matters for Global Capitalism, by George A. Akerlof and Robert J. Shiller (reviewed by Eric Daniels)

Life Without Lawyers: Liberating Americans From Too Much Law, by Philip K. Howard (reviewed by David Littel)

Fooling Some of the People All the Time Updated and Revised: A Long Short Story, by David Einhorn (reviewed by Daniel Wahl)

The Box: How the Shipping Container Made the World Smaller and the World Economy Bigger, by Marc Levinson (reviewed by Heike Larson)

Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity, by David Allen (reviewed by Amy Peikoff)

The Objective Standard makes for great summer reading! How about giving gift subscriptions to the active-minded students and graduates in your reach? One mind at a time—that is how to fight for the future.

Enjoy the issue, and have a wonderful summer!

Unfortunately, the New Year’s commitment to self-improvement is widely viewed with cynicism—in part because New Year’s resolutions go so notoriously unmet. After years of watching others—or themselves—excitedly commit to a new goal, only to abandon the quest by March, many come to conclude that New Year’s resolutions are an exercise in futility that should not be taken seriously. “The silly season is upon us,” writes a columnist for the Washington Post, “when people feel compelled to remake themselves with New Year’s resolutions.”

But this attitude is false and self-destructive. Making New Year’s resolutions does not have to be futile—and to make them is not silly. Done seriously, it is an act of profound moral significance that embodies the essence of a life well-lived.

Consider what a New Year’s resolution consists of: we look at where we are in some area of life, think about where we want to be, and then set ourselves a goal to get there. We are tired of feeling chubby and lethargic, say, and want the improved appearance and greater energy level that comes with greater fitness. So we resolve to take up a fun athletic activity—like tennis or a martial art—and plan to do it three times a week.

Is this a laughable act of self-delusion? Hardly. If it were, then how would anyone ever achieve anything in life? In fact, to make a New Year’s resolution is to recognize the undeniable reality that successful goal-pursuit is possible—the reality that everyone at one time or another has set and achieved long-range goals, and profited from doing so. Indeed, not only is it possible to achieve long-range goals, it is necessary for success in life. To make a New Year’s resolution is also to recognize the undeniable reality that secure finances, rewarding careers, and romances do not just happen automatically—that to get what we want in our lives, we must consciously choose and achieve the right goals. We must be goal-directed.

Unfortunately, a goal-directed orientation is missing to a large extent in too many lives. It is all too easy to live life passively, acting without carefully deciding what one is doing with one’s life and why. How many people do you know who are in the career they fell into out of school, even if it is not very satisfying—or who have children at a certain age because that’s what is expected, even if it’s not what they really want—or who spend endless hours of “free time” in front of the TV, since that’s the most readily available form of relaxation—or who follow a life routine that they never really chose and don’t truly enjoy, but which has the force of habit?

Too often, the goal-directedness embodied by New Year’s resolutions is the exception in lives ruled by passively accepted forces—unexamined routine, short-range desires, or alleged duties. It is the passive approach to happiness that makes so many resolutions peter out, lost in the shuffle of life or abandoned due to lost motivation. More broadly than its impact on New Year’s resolutions, the passive approach to happiness is the reason that so many go through life without ever getting—or even knowing—what they really want.

It is a sad irony that those who write off New Year’s resolutions because so many fail reinforces the passive approach to life that causes so many resolutions—and so many other dreams—to fail. The solution to failed New Year’s resolutions is not to abandon the practice, but to supplement it with a broader resolution—a commitment to a goal-directed life.

This New Year’s, resolve to think about how to make your life better, not just once a year, but every day. Resolve to set goals, not just in one or two aspects of life, but in every important aspect and in your life as a whole. Resolve to pursue the goals that will make you successful and happy, not as the exception in a life of passivity, but as the rule that becomes second-nature.

If you do this, you will be resolving to do the most important thing of all: to take your happiness seriously.

Alex Epstein is an analyst at the Ayn Rand Center for Individual Rights, focusing on business issues. The Institute promotes Objectivism, the philosophy of Ayn Rand—author of Atlas Shrugged and The Fountainhead.

Copyright © 2008 Ayn Rand® Center for Individual Rights. All rights reserved.

The print edition of the Winter issue of The Objective Standard is at press and will be mailed shortly; the online version will be accessible to subscribers beginning December 20. For promotional purposes, “Capitalism and the Moral High Ground” and “Reason or Faith: The Republican Alternative” are available early and to all.

The contents of the Winter issue are:

From the Editor
Letters & Replies

ARTICLES
“Capitalism and the Moral High Ground” by Craig Biddle
“Reason or Faith: The Republican Alternative” by John David Lewis
“Net Neutrality: Toward a Stupid Internet” by Raymond C. Niles
“Bubble Boy: Alan Greenspan’s Rejection of Reason and Morality” by Gus Van Horn
“The Assault on Energy Producers” by Brian P. Simpson
“Demystifying Newton: The Force Behind the Genius” by Gena Gorlin
“Errors in Inductive Reasoning” by David Harriman

BOOKS REVIEWED
New Deal or Raw Deal? How FDR’s Economic Legacy Has Damaged America by Burton Folsom Jr. (reviewed by Eric Daniels)
Better Day Coming: Blacks and Equality, 1890–2000 by Adam Fairclough (reviewed by Gus Van Horn)

If you have not yet subscribed to TOS, you can do so online or by calling 800-423-6151. And the Standard makes a great Christmas gift for your active-minded friends, colleagues, and relatives. Everyone concerned with the future should be reading this journal today.

Unfortunately, this ritual commitment to self-improvement is widely viewed as something of a joke—in part because New Year’s resolutions go so notoriously unmet. After years of watching others—or themselves—excitedly commit to a new goal, only to abandon the quest by March, many come to conclude that New Year’s resolutions are an exercise in futility that should not be taken seriously. “The silly season is upon us,” writes a columnist for the Washington Post, “when people feel compelled to remake themselves with new year’s resolutions.”

But such a cynical attitude is false and self-destructive. Making New Year’s resolutions does not have to be futile—and to make them is not silly; done seriously, it is an act of profound moral significance that embodies the essence of a life well-lived.

Consider what we do when we make a New Year’s resolution: we look at where we are in some area of life, think about where we want to be, and then set ourselves a goal to get there. We are tired of feeling chubby and lethargic, say, and want the improved appearance and greater energy level that comes with greater fitness. So we resolve to take up a fun athletic activity—like tennis or a martial art—and plan to do it three times a week.

Is this a laughable act of self-delusion? Hardly. If it were, then how would anyone ever achieve anything in life? In fact, to make a New Year’s resolution is to recognize the undeniable reality that successful goal-pursuit is possible—the reality that everyone at one time or another has set and achieved long-range goals, and profited from doing so. Indeed, not only is it possible to achieve long-range goals, it is necessary for success in life. To make a New Year’s resolution is also to recognize the undeniable reality that rewarding careers and romances do not just happen automatically—that to get what we want in our lives, we must consciously choose and achieve the right goals. We must be goal-directed.

Unfortunately, a goal-directed orientation is missing to a large extent in too many lives. It is all too easy to live life passively, acting without carefully deciding what one is doing with one’s life and why. How many people do you know who are in the career they fell into out of school, even if it is not very satisfying—or who have children at a certain age because that’s what is expected, even if it’s not what they really want—or who spend endless hours of “free time” in front of the TV, since that’s the most readily available form of relaxation—or who follow a life routine that they never really chose and don’t truly enjoy, but which has the force of habit?

Too often, the goal-directedness embodied by New Year’s resolutions is the exception in lives ruled by passively accepted forces—unexamined routine, short-range desires, or alleged duties. It is the passive approach to happiness that makes so many resolutions peter out, lost in the shuffle of life or abandoned due to lost motivation. More broadly than its impact on New Year’s resolutions, the passive approach to happiness is the reason that so many go through life without ever getting—or even knowing—what they really want.

It is a sad irony that those who write off New Year’s resolutions because so many fail reinforces the passive approach to life that causes so many resolutions—and so many other dreams—to fail. The solution to failed New Year’s resolutions is not to abandon the practice, but to supplement it with a broader resolution—a commitment to a goal-directed life.

This New Year’s, resolve to think about how to make your life better, not just once a year, but every day. Resolve to set goals, not just in one or two aspects of life, but in every important aspect and in your life as a whole. Resolve to pursue the goals that will make you successful and happy, not as the exception in a life of passivity, but as the rule that becomes second-nature.

If you do this, you will be resolving to do the most important thing of all: to take your happiness seriously.

Alex Epstein is a junior fellow at the Ayn Rand Institute in Irvine, Calif. The Institute promotes Objectivism, the philosophy of Ayn Rand—author of “Atlas Shrugged” and “The Fountainhead.”

Copyright © 2006 Ayn Rand® Institute. All rights reserved.

Reports reveal that in 2005, there were no less than five cases of women who underwent surgery to become men in the Kingdom, according to Al Watan….

Some Saudi officials have reportedly laid blame for the shocking phenomenon on the blasphemous influences of the West, as well as on “psychological defects” of those who underwent the surgery.

However, according to other sources, the women embarked on the painful and dangerous transformation as a way to overcome the severe oppression and inequality that they reportedly encountered in Saudi society.

By becoming men, the women believe, they would have the opportunity to enjoy those privileges denied them as Saudi females but allowed to Saudi males, including rights taken for granted in other societies, such as driving a car or even going to public places unaccompanied by a male relative.

Not being able to drive cars or move freely are minor examples of the oppression women face in Saudi Arabia and other Islamic theocracies. Arranged marriages, domestic abuse, and honor killings are regular aspects of Muslim women’s so-called lives. When their alternative is to become a man or to suffer a lifetime of psychological and physical abuse, the big surprise is that more Muslim women haven’t had sex-change operations. Then again, maybe they have. Osametta? Abu Musabina? Hey, it’s worth an autopsy.