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My favorite story on the topic — https://www.odessa.edu/current-students/_documents/pdfs/a-story-of-priorities-and-a-jar.pdf https://www.odessa.edu/current-stud
by Swizec 6y ago
My favorite story on the topic — https://www.odessa.edu/current-students/_documents/pdfs/a-story-of-priorities-and-a-jar.pdf https://www.odessa.edu/current-students/_documents/pdfs/a-st...
The following story is one that’s been circulating for awhile. I believe it holds a very important message regarding appropriately setting priorities in our lives.
A professor of philosophy stood before his class with some items in front of him. When the class began, wordlessly he picked up a large empty mayonnaise jar and proceeded to fill it with rocks about two inches in diameter. He then asked the students if the jar was full.
They agreed that it was full.
So the professor then picked up a box of pebbles and poured them into the jar. He shook the jar lightly and watched as the pebbles rolled into the open areas between the rocks. The professor then asked the students again if the jar was full.
They chuckled and agreed that it was indeed full this time.
The professor picked up a box of sand and poured it into the jar. The sand filled the remaining open areas of the jar. “Now,” said the professor, “I want you to recognize that this jar signifies your life. The rocks are the truly important things, such as family, health and relationships. If all else was lost and only the rocks remained, your life would still be meaningful. The pebbles are the other things that matter in your life, such as work or school. The sand signifies the remaining “small stuff” and material possessions.
If you put sand into the jar first, there is no room for the rocks or the pebbles. The same can be applied to your lives. If you spend all your time and energy on the small stuff, you will never have room for the things that are truly important.
Pay attention to the things in life that are critical to your happiness and well-being. Take time to get medical check- ups, play with your children, go for a run, write your grandmother a letter. There will always be time to go to work, clean the house, or fix the disposal. Take care of the rocks first – things that really matter. Set your priorities. The rest is just pebbles and sand.
——
An often seen addition:
A student then walks up to the jar and pours in a beer. It flows into the little gaps between the sand and the pebbles and the rocks.
There’s always time for a beer with friends.
- HenryBemis 6y agoYes, I paused reading your note, to read the PDF, and I came back to add the coffee/beer comment, but it was already there! Yes.. even if your time is all blocked up, you can always have time/space for a coffee with a loved one!
- thaumasiotes 6y agoI find it a little weird that this story is being attributed to a "philosophy professor", when the lesson imparted is religious advice unrelated to what philosophers talk about. As far as examining how the concept of "fullness" applies to jars, it's pretty straightforward to say that the jar is full every time, including before the giant rocks are added, but what it is full of changes. You can go in different directions from there -- say that "full" is underspecified and the students must infer a more specific meaning from context, or ask whether, if you cap a jar full of air with an airtight lid and chill it, it is still "full" -- but one place you can't go is "these rocks are actually your family".
- Swizec 6y agoIt’s a parable to illustrate a useful lesson and worldview. It’s not a philosophy master thesis. You don’t need to hackernews this one. I bet you it isn’t even factual and no such class ever happened.
- thaumasiotes 6y agoI didn't say it was factual. I said it was strange that the person relating the parable-within-the-parable is identified as a "philosophy professor". This is a comment on the narrative properties of the outer parable. Followup: why isn't this demonstration given by a "history professor"? They wouldn't be more relevant, so...?
- Swizec 6y agoI think the target audience most easily identifies a person with such a lesson as a philosopher. Other options include guru, yogi, etc. But then the target auidence puts story in the woo-woo category and doesn’t take to the point.
- SamBam 6y ago> unrelated to what philosophers talk about Plenty of philosophers talk about how to live a full, meaningful and happy life. Plato, Aristotle, the Stoics, St. Augustine, and plenty more. It's not all metaphysics, qualia, or master-slave dialectics.
- jsight 6y agoHere's a pretty famous video on exactly this demonstration: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zV3gMTOEWt8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zV3gMTOEWt8
- Bakary 6y agoOne issue is see with this metaphor is that having enough sand or pebbles to not have to work for a living (or chose what to work on) would be the most single most important addition to the expected quality of your rocks that you could make assuming you don't sacrifice too much of the latter to get it. If you consider the life of a person in a poor region, the lack of sand is often the most salient feature that underpins their relation to the world and to others. At the extreme end, a homeless vagrant cannot escape preoccupation with sand and sees their life entirely directed by its lack. Those already at an enviable position on the Maslow hierarchy cannot see the value of the sand anymore because they've always had enough.