# The Second Mountain: a quest for a moral life - David Brooks Created: 2022_02_27 21:29 Tags: [[Psychology]] [[Advice]] [[Book]] ![[The Second Mountain.excalidraw.svg]] In this podcast, David Brooks discusses his book "The Second Mountain" and the four commitments that lead to a meaningful life: *a commitment to a spouse or partner, a commitment to a vocation, a commitment to a philosophy or faith, and a commitment to a community*. He emphasizes the importance of identifying one's core sin and working on it every day to build character. Brooks also discusses the pernicious *lie of our culture that people who have achieved more are worth more* than others and the *need to focus on the desires of the heart and soul*. He suggests that reading the great books of Western civilization can be a way to commit oneself to the intellectual life. Brooks also talks about the importance of building strong communities and the need to relearn the skills of convening. He concludes by stating that the best definition of a commitment is falling in love with something and building a structure or behavior around it for those moments when love falters. ## First Mountain The first mountain is the one that society pushes you towards, the mountain of the self, building yourself up, going to school, learning a trade, skills and so on. It is building yourself to be a functional member of society. People confuse this for being "their purpose", they think "Well I can just work really hard to find meaning," and that doesn't work. When this happens, you get into a productivity mindset, causing you to value your work more than the very people who would actually allow you to feel fulfilled. The core of this mountain is the individualistic value system. I'm going to improve myself to make myself have purpose. > **David Brooks**: The first mountain is the mountain society wants us to climb. You get out of school, and you want to have a good career, you want people to think well of you, and you want to carve out an identity and make a mark on the world. This is what our meritocracy tells us to want. “If I make enough money, if I have a good career, people will think well of me, and I’ll be happy.” I think that’s a lie. I think there’s certain lies embedded in our meritocracy. One is that career success leads to fulfillment. I can guarantee you that’s not true for most people. The second is, “I can make myself happy,” that happiness is an individual achievement if I just lose a few more pounds or get better at golf or something. ## The Valley In between the two mountains is a valley, it is where you realize that you have been working towards something that may not have been as fulfilling as you thought. It leaves you with a loss of desire. This can be triggered by many things, health problems, loss of someone close a change that you just were not expecting. ## Second Mountain The second is the mountain of meaning, where you find the meaning of why you went up that first mountain in the first place: some big ones are family, fulfillment, kids and so on. It is all about committing yourself to something that is larger that allows you to develop an identity. The core of this mountain is the collective value system. That by committing ourselves to others we feel fulfillment. ### 2 Freedoms 1. Freedom as a sense of restraint, I can do whatever I want 2. Freedom of capacity, to have the freedom to play piano, you have to chain yourself down and practice so that you can play ### Vocation vs. Career A **career** is something you look at the *skills you have* and match that with what *the marketplace needs*. A **vocation** is not your choice, it is your calling. Something which Nietzsche called "The law of your very nature", you might even get to the point of a double negative. "I can't not do this. This is who I am. I'm a teacher." Asking "**What do I want from life?**" is the wrong question, the better question comes from [[Man's Search for Meaning - Viktor Frankl]] "**What is life asking of me?**". What is the big problem that I'm called to deal with? What problem am I uniquely suited to deal with? ## References - https://www.artofmanliness.com/character/advice/david-brooks-second-mountain/ - [[The Instagram Life A Selection From David Brooks’ the Second Mountain]]