The Answer to How Is Yes: Acting on What Matters [Paperback]

Modern culture’s worship of “how-to” pragmatism has turned us into instruments of efficiency and commerce—but we’re doing more and more about things that mean less and less. We constantly ask “how? and still struggle to find purpose and act on what matters. Instead of acting on what we know to be of importance, we wait for bosses to change, we seek the latest fad, we invest in one more degree. Asking how keeps us safe—instead of being led by our hearts into uncharted territory, we keep our heads down and stick to the rules. But we are gaining the world and losing our souls.


Peter Block puts the “how-to” craze in perspective and presents a guide to the difficult and life-granting journey of bringing what we know is of personal value into an indifferent or even hostile corporate and cultural landscape. He raises our awareness of the trade-offs we’ve made in the name of practicality and expediency, and offers hope for a way of life in which we’re motivated not by what “works,” but by the things that truly matter in life—idealism, intimacy, depth and engagement.Introduction: Acting on What Matters

Part 1: The question
1. How Is the Wrong Question
2. Yes Is the Right Question
3. Defenses Against Acting

Part 2: Three qualities
4. Recapturing the Idealism of Youth
5. Sustaining the Touch of Intimacy .
6. Enduring the Depth of Philosophy

Part 3: The requirements
7. Claiming Full Citizenship
8. Home School Yourself
9. Your Boss Doesn't Have What You Want
10. Oh, by the Way...You Have to Give Up Your Ambition
11. Care for the Whole (Whether It Deserves It or Not)

Part 4: Social architecture
12. The Instrumental Imperative
13. The Archetypes of Instrumentality and Desire
14. The Role of the Social Architect
15. It’s a Mystery to Me
Bibliography
Acknowledgments