I do this because right now, my interests are varied enough that no one person covers them all at a high level. The specialization process of adulthood will probably shrink the pool of yardsticks in another ten years or so.

“Way of life” includes work ethic, which is growing to be a rarer and rarer quality nowadays.

The problem with moral behavior is that it includes moral thought–simply saying, “this is bad because Cato would think so, and would know why” isn’t enough. And once you can understand the immorality behind something that may tempt you (or temptation itself), you don’t need to rely on the inspiration of others to act accordingly.

Don’t know if you’ve ever checked it out, but this was a cool idea I stumbled upon during the last book I read: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daimonic

Sort of like your Fight Club moments.

Mostly because your ambition and sponge-like approach to learning have paid off for you at such a younge age; and that with similar aspirations (skipping years of waste, fulfilling the insatiable drive inside me), you’ve made me realize that I have to make use of every minute of my day, and that laziness is no longer an option at all. I went from working about ten minutes a week to working 10-14 hours a day, within the last five months. It’s been a rough adjustment but the learning curve is high, I don’t regret a minute of it, even when I thought I couldn’t handle the pressure.

As to whether or not I’m letting you down… I’d say not, although the only basis for that is that I’ve exceeded everyone else’s expectations. But I always assume that I am–because I know that your standards for yourself are so high that you are surely much more difficult to please.