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Overview

It’s likely that most of you have heard of Adam Smith and his famous work, The Wealth of Nations. Most people who know about him consider him to be a conservative economist.

Adam Smith is famous for his book The Wealth of Nations. However, he also wrote another book called The Theory of Moral Sentiments. In this book, he discusses philosophy and psychology in great detail. This key point will show you how to use these theories to transform your own life by discussing the problems facing Michael Jackson and Bernie Madoff.

Big Idea #1: Humans are capable of behaving morally despite being inherently selfish.

Imagine learning that a distant earthquake has caused millions of people to die. Now, imagine you need your little finger amputated due to an infection. Which event would bother you more? You might want to tell yourself otherwise, but the loss of your pinkie would probably be worse than the death of strangers.

Philosopher Adam Smith called this tendency self-love. He said that humans are inherently selfish, and we can’t help but put our own needs above everything else.

Smith argued that we are fundamentally selfish and have limits to our self-interest. For example, if you were given the choice of saving your little finger or killing someone else, you would choose not to kill them because it is morally wrong. But why do we have this conscience? Smith argues that an internal observer helps us make moral decisions by evaluating our actions and pushing us to act honorably. In other words, we should listen closely to this observer in order to see what areas need improvement so that we can improve those parts of ourselves. The author had a habit of talking too much during his podcasts instead of letting his guests speak more often; however, after listeners complained about him being overly talkative on the show, he decided to change how he did things by listening more carefully for ways he could improve himself as a host in future shows. He eventually became better at podcasting because he listened closely for ways in which he could improve himself based on feedback from others.

Big Idea #2: If you want to be happy, you have to reject false praise and earn respect.

In the eighteenth century, Adam Smith thought he had found happiness. And we can sum up his ideas on happiness in one quote: “Man naturally desires to be loved and to be lovely.”

People want to be respected and honored in modern times. They also want to deserve respect and honor.

Praise won’t make us happy unless we feel we’ve earned it. Compare Warren Buffett, a successful investor, and Bernie Madoff, who was convicted of fraud after scamming people out of their savings.

It is clear that Madoff didn’t deserve the praise he got. So, it was impossible for him to be happy. Buffett earned his respect fairly, so he was able to be happy about it. Therefore, we should reject false praise and earn our own respect fairly in order to be happier.

Sometimes, people flatter us just to get on our good side. However, we shouldn’t accept their praise without questioning it because it could be a lie. If we do that, then we might end up being loved but not lovable in the long run.

Big Idea #3: Don’t sabotage your own happiness by deceiving yourself.

We learned that we should reject false praise. There are other types of lies, however, that can make us unhappy.

To prove that, Adam Smith said people often trick themselves into thinking their behavior is better than it really is.

As it turns out, we often lie to ourselves. It’s easier than admitting our mistakes and flaws.