Today is Thursday, February 2nd, 2023.

Welcome to the Daily Article podcast.

Today's daily article is written by Dr. Jim Denison and narrated by Chris Elkins of the Denison Forum.

NFL quarterback Tom Brady announced his retirement from the sport yesterday.

For an excellent analysis of his decision and its life lessons for us,

see Dr. Ryan Denison's article, Tom Brady retires again,

the cost of holding on to success for too long.

A link to this article can be found in the episode notes of today's podcast.

Brady's decision is unusual on three levels. First, it comes a year to the day after he retired

last year only to change his mind and return for his 23rd season. Not many people retire twice from the same job. Second, most players

retire because they can no longer play the game well enough to compete as they once did. Not so

with Brady. Even though he was the oldest active player in the NFL this season, he threw

for 4,694 yards, the third most in the NFL this season, he threw for 4,694 yards the third most in the league

while completing 66.8% of his passes. Third, it would seem that Brady was no longer satisfied with

the direction of his life and career. This makes him an outlier in our society. According to Gallup,

85% of Americans are satisfied with their personal lives. This contrasts with only 17% who said

they were satisfied with the direction of their country, although the number has recently risen

to 23%. What explains this wide disparity between the way we view our country

and the way we view our personal lives? David Brooks responds to our question in the Atlantic,

and I quote, my basic take is that life in America today is objectively better than it was

before, but subjectively worse.

We have much higher standards of living and many conveniences, but when it comes to how we

...