New Year's Resolutions

Overthink

Ellie Anderson, Ph.D. and David Peña-Guzmán, Ph.D.

Philosophy, Society & Culture, Education

4.7 • 550 Ratings

🗓️ 29 December 2020

⏱️ 49 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

On episode 10 of Overthink, Ellie and David debate the merit of New Year’s Resolutions. Only 8% of people keep the resolutions they set – so why do we continue to make resolutions? The duo discusses the importance of questioning the resolutions we make and desire. To understand the January 1st phenomena, they dive into Stoicism and Nietzsche.

Interested in works discussed?

William B. Irvine, A Guide to the Good Life
Epictetus and Sharon Lobell, The Art of Living
Marcus Aurelius, Meditations
Nietzsche, On the Genealogy of Morals
Hannah Arendt, The Human Condition

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Hi, I'm Ellie Anderson.
0:08.8	And I'm David Peña Guzman.
0:11.2	Welcome to Overthink.
0:12.7	The podcast where two friends, who are also professors, put philosophy in dialogue with the
0:17.8	everyday, because big ideas are within everyone's reach.
0:21.6	Ellie, 2020 has been a heck of a year.
0:33.6	Yeah, you're telling me.
0:35.6	And now we're heading into the new year. And I recently read
0:40.0	an article about how millennials are the most likely of generations to make New Year's resolutions.
0:46.8	And so I'm wondering whether you've made any resolutions this year and if so, what they are.
0:52.5	I have not yet made my resolutions because I always do so on exactly
0:56.4	December 31st, but I will have some resolutions. I make some every year and they're usually
1:02.9	pretty broad picture, like focus on work more, look at phone less, etc. But one that I really want to implement this year is less dual screen time.
1:15.6	If I'm watching TV, why am I also scrolling my phone?
1:19.2	It's not even fun.
1:20.9	Oh, my God.
1:21.8	You are one of those violators.
1:23.6	Yes.
1:24.4	Well, but this is the thing.
1:25.6	I usually only do it when I'm alone or when I'm with my mom. Sorry, Mom. But I watch a lot of TV and movies by myself and I'm just scrolling, scroll and scrolling. I've grappled with trying not to look at my phone first thing in the morning. I'm usually reading the news from bed with my phone two inches from my face because I have such
1:47.4	terrible eyesight and I haven't even put my contacts in at that point. I've grappled with whether I want
1:52.8	to let that one go, but it feels like going cold turkey would be pretty difficult. So I think I'm
	...

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