{"id":175,"date":"2009-09-22T16:39:01","date_gmt":"2009-09-22T16:39:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/flirtingwithfaith\/2009\/09\/more-thoughts-on-successand-failure-alain-de-botton-at-ted.html"},"modified":"2009-09-22T16:39:01","modified_gmt":"2009-09-22T16:39:01","slug":"more-thoughts-on-successand-failure-alain-de-botton-at-ted","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/flirtingwithfaith\/2009\/09\/more-thoughts-on-successand-failure-alain-de-botton-at-ted.html","title":{"rendered":"More Thoughts on Success&#8230;and Failure: Alain de Botton at TED"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>Justice is impossible to achieve, consumption is more about needing love than wanting stuff and a society without some kind of transcendent focus (i.e. God, gods, nature, etc.) leaves its citizens with little choice but to make themselves the God of their own lives. These are just a few of the thought-provoking points shared by author\u00c2\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.ted.com\/speakers\/alain_de_botton.html\">Alain de Botton<\/a>, a self-described secularist, to the TED audience in this July, 2009 clip. Thanks Glynn for pointing this out in your comment on yesterday&#8217;s\u00c2\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/flirtingwithfaith\/2009\/09\/the-secret-to-my-success.html\">Secret to My Success and Satisfaction<\/a> post.\u00c2\u00a0<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<p><object width=\"446\" height=\"326\"><param name=\"movie\" value=\"http:\/\/video.ted.com\/assets\/player\/swf\/EmbedPlayer.swf\" \/><param name=\"allowFullScreen\" value=\"true\" \/><param name=\"wmode\" value=\"transparent\" \/><param name=\"bgColor\" value=\"#ffffff\" \/><param name=\"flashvars\" value=\"vu=http:\/\/video.ted.com\/talks\/dynamic\/AlaindeBotton_2009G-medium.flv&amp;su=http:\/\/images.ted.com\/images\/ted\/tedindex\/embed-posters\/AlaindeBotton-2009G.embed_thumbnail.jpg&amp;vw=432&amp;vh=240&amp;ap=0&amp;ti=605&amp;introDuration=16500&amp;adDuration=4000&amp;postAdDuration=2000&amp;adKeys=talk=alain_de_botton_a_kinder_gentler_philosophy_of_success;year=2009;theme=not_business_as_usual;theme=unconventional_explanations;theme=speaking_at_tedglobal2009;theme=new_on_ted_com;event=TEDGlobal+2009;&amp;preAdTag=tconf.ted\/embed;tile=1;sz=512x288;\" \/><embed src=\"http:\/\/video.ted.com\/assets\/player\/swf\/EmbedPlayer.swf\" pluginspace=\"http:\/\/www.macromedia.com\/go\/getflashplayer\" type=\"application\/x-shockwave-flash\" wmode=\"transparent\" bgcolor=\"#ffffff\" width=\"446\" height=\"326\" allowfullscreen=\"true\" flashvars=\"vu=http:\/\/video.ted.com\/talks\/dynamic\/AlaindeBotton_2009G-medium.flv&amp;su=http:\/\/images.ted.com\/images\/ted\/tedindex\/embed-posters\/AlaindeBotton-2009G.embed_thumbnail.jpg&amp;vw=432&amp;vh=240&amp;ap=0&amp;ti=605&amp;introDuration=16500&amp;adDuration=4000&amp;postAdDuration=2000&amp;adKeys=talk=alain_de_botton_a_kinder_gentler_philosophy_of_success;year=2009;theme=not_business_as_usual;theme=unconventional_explanations;theme=speaking_at_tedglobal2009;theme=new_on_ted_com;event=TEDGlobal+2009;\"><\/object><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Justice is impossible to achieve, consumption is more about needing love than wanting stuff and a society without some kind of transcendent focus (i.e. God, gods, nature, etc.) leaves its citizens with little choice but to make themselves the God of their own lives. These are just a few of the thought-provoking points shared by&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":181,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-175","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-spiritual-growth"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>More Thoughts on Success...and Failure: Alain de Botton at TED - Flirting with Faith<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/flirtingwithfaith\/2009\/09\/more-thoughts-on-successand-failure-alain-de-botton-at-ted.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"More Thoughts on Success...and Failure: Alain de Botton at TED - Flirting with Faith\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Justice is impossible to achieve, consumption is more about needing love than wanting stuff and a society without some kind of transcendent focus (i.e. God, gods, nature, etc.) leaves its citizens with little choice but to make themselves the God of their own lives. These are just a few of the thought-provoking points shared by&hellip;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/flirtingwithfaith\/2009\/09\/more-thoughts-on-successand-failure-alain-de-botton-at-ted.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Flirting with Faith\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2009-09-22T16:39:01+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Joan Ball\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"More Thoughts on Success...and Failure: Alain de Botton at TED - Flirting with Faith","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/flirtingwithfaith\/2009\/09\/more-thoughts-on-successand-failure-alain-de-botton-at-ted.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"More Thoughts on Success...and Failure: Alain de Botton at TED - Flirting with Faith","og_description":"Justice is impossible to achieve, consumption is more about needing love than wanting stuff and a society without some kind of transcendent focus (i.e. God, gods, nature, etc.) leaves its citizens with little choice but to make themselves the God of their own lives. These are just a few of the thought-provoking points shared by&hellip;","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/flirtingwithfaith\/2009\/09\/more-thoughts-on-successand-failure-alain-de-botton-at-ted.html","og_site_name":"Flirting with Faith","article_published_time":"2009-09-22T16:39:01+00:00","author":"Joan Ball","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/flirtingwithfaith\/2009\/09\/more-thoughts-on-successand-failure-alain-de-botton-at-ted.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/flirtingwithfaith\/2009\/09\/more-thoughts-on-successand-failure-alain-de-botton-at-ted.html","name":"More Thoughts on Success...and Failure: Alain de Botton at TED - Flirting with Faith","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/flirtingwithfaith\/#website"},"datePublished":"2009-09-22T16:39:01+00:00","dateModified":"2009-09-22T16:39:01+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/flirtingwithfaith\/#\/schema\/person\/581859119d5895db46006b4beb0c1f27"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/flirtingwithfaith\/2009\/09\/more-thoughts-on-successand-failure-alain-de-botton-at-ted.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/flirtingwithfaith\/2009\/09\/more-thoughts-on-successand-failure-alain-de-botton-at-ted.html"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/flirtingwithfaith\/2009\/09\/more-thoughts-on-successand-failure-alain-de-botton-at-ted.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/flirtingwithfaith"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"More Thoughts on Success&#8230;and Failure: Alain de Botton at TED"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/flirtingwithfaith\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/flirtingwithfaith\/","name":"Flirting with Faith","description":"Beliefnet Voices - Joan Ball","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/flirtingwithfaith\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/flirtingwithfaith\/#\/schema\/person\/581859119d5895db46006b4beb0c1f27","name":"Joan Ball","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/flirtingwithfaith\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/flirtingwithfaith\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/6b5\/6b5b96362ce68b986f37a822881ca1f5x96.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/flirtingwithfaith\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/6b5\/6b5b96362ce68b986f37a822881ca1f5x96.jpg","caption":"Joan Ball"},"url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/flirtingwithfaith\/author\/jball"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/flirtingwithfaith\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/175","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/flirtingwithfaith\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/flirtingwithfaith\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/flirtingwithfaith\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/181"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/flirtingwithfaith\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=175"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/flirtingwithfaith\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/175\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/flirtingwithfaith\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=175"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/flirtingwithfaith\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=175"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/flirtingwithfaith\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=175"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}