Simon Ings

Help over the hump

Forget about selflessness, says Kieran Setiya. Do something for the love of it. And don’t wish you’d lived life differently

Losing our way in life’s trackless forest, whither should we turn for solace and advice? Wisdom used to be the special province of our elders, though for no better reason than that old people were less common than they are now. Aristotle had their measure: ‘As they have a lot of experience,’ he wrote, ‘they are sure about nothing, and under-do everything.

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