People generally trust clearly communicated information and doubt anything vague. Whether it’s setting goals, sharing strategies, or giving feedback, ambiguity slows teams down and sparks conflict. In fact, unclear communication drives roughly half of workplace friction. So the first pillar of trust, Clarity, is essential. Clarity comes in two forms: communication clarity – shared meaning so what’s said matches what’s heard – and strategic clarity, which links the mission to priorities and daily work. It also demands balance: share openly where you can, and keep what truly needs protecting confidential.
To build clarity quickly, use the “ODC tool”: define the outcome, set a specific deadline, and ask clarifiers like “What might get in the way?” or “What would success look like next week?” A further method is to ask “How?” repeatedly until a concrete task can be defined. On the final “How?” include who, when, and where. Amplify the information you get from asking “How?” with a quick 90-day plan: Ask yourself “Where am I now?” “Where will I be 90 days from now?” and “Why does it matter?”
Clarity builds trust fast – but be sure to keep it up over time as noise creeps in and memories fade.
Compassion, the second pillar, earns trust because your intent beyond yourself is visible. Acting on behalf of others – offering help, giving grace, showing up fully in conversations – is more than simple kindness; it’s a workplace asset. Teams that feel cared for are more resilient, loyal, and willing to speak up. That’s because when people feel psychologically and physically safe, they share ideas, offer candid critique, and celebrate wins, which lifts performance. Care can also widen perspective and cascade outward – when employees feel cared for, customers tend to feel it too.
Use the acronym LAWS to make care tangible: listen without distractions, appreciate specific effort, wake up to needs in the moment, and serve through small, concrete acts. From hallway chats to high-stakes meetings, people can tell whether your focus is on them. When they feel seen and genuinely valued, they contribute more, collaborate better, and stay.

#trust_matters_more_than_ever

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What would you say is your biggest flaw? Perhaps you’re an inveterate procrastinator. Maybe you feel like you’ve failed as a parent. Whatever it might be, you’re not alone. We all have our flaws and foibles. It’s how we deal with them that matters.
In her research on shame and its effects on the human mind, author Brené Brown has gathered thousands of stories from people around the US. From these stories, a powerful pattern has emerged: Those who find ways to embrace their imperfections, lead happier, more fulfilled lives than those who don’t. While being aware of your flaws is an important first step, it’s not enough. The true transfomative power lies in learning to love yourself.
That’s easier said than done. So how do you do it? Let’s find out.
Along the way, you’ll learn why everything looks better when you zoom out;why you should devote a decent portion of your life to play; andwhy you should define yourself with slashes.

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Most people would like to live a life that is true to who they are; in other words, we’d like to be as authentic as possible.
Unfortunately, a handful of factors stand in the way: for example, a lack of self-confidence or pressure to conform. As a result, we feel we are inauthentic people, too weak to live honestly. But this is simply untrue!
Authenticity isn’t a quality that you either have or don’t. Rather, it’s a choice, one that reflects how we want to live. It’s the daily decision to be honest, embrace our vulnerability and to not care what others think.
And because it’s a choice, we thus have the option to be authentic on some days and less authentic on those other days when we’re too tired.
If you do, however, choose to act with more authenticity, then you’ll need to practice courage and compassion.
You’ll need the courage to speak your mind and allow yourself to be vulnerable in front of others. To look at this in practice, think about the next time you really want something to happen, like winning a contest or nailing an interview. Try not to play down your hopes in these situations. Acting like failure is no big deal won’t make the pain of failure any easier. In contrast, being honest about your hopes makes it possible for you to find support when you need it.
Furthermore, exercising compassion allows you to recognize that you aren’t alone, and that, in fact, everyone around you struggles with the exact same issues as you.
Compassion, in contrast with sympathy, is a relationship between equals: in order to relate to the struggles of others, you have to acknowledge your own, as well. By understanding that everyone around you has likely gone through what you’re going through now, you’ll have an easier time opening up to them and finding support

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Are you a perfectionist? If you are, do you consider it to be a positive quality?
Perfectionism, despite maybe sounding positive, isn’t worth pursuing. It’s different than striving to be your best, and is unrelated to self-improvement. Rather, it revolves around the fundamental fear of shame.
Perfectionism, in short, is the belief that, if we look perfect and live and act perfectly, then we’ll be able to shield ourselves from criticism, judgment or blame. This shield, in other words, is supposed to protect us against shame.
However, life as a perfectionist is emotionally unhealthy, because it makes our own self-worth dependent on approval or acceptance from others. Not only is perfectionism unhealthy, but it’s also addictive and self-destructive. In fact, perfectionism is futile, as perfection itself is illusory!
The perfectionists’ mindset, however, doesn’t recognize these traps. Instead, whenever they inevitably fail to achieve perfection, perfectionists blame themselves for their inability, and tell themselves to “do better,” regardless of whether that’s actually possible.
They become, in effect, addicted to improvement.
Perfectionism can also lead to life paralysis, that is, the inability to put oneself out into the world, due to fear of imperfection. People suffering from life paralysis might, for instance, be unable to send that email to someone they admire out of fear it won’t be well received, or might leave their writings unpublished out of fear of criticism.
Luckily, we can avoid the constraints of perfectionism by simply being honest about our fear of shame and by reminding ourselves to do things for ourselves rather than for others.
So the next time you want to get fit, for example, don’t let others’ opinion of you and your body be your motivation. Instead, tell yourself that exercise and a healthy diet will make you feel better and healthier, and that your success or failure in getting fit won’t affect your worth as a person.

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How many of us have tried to lose weight, but instead give up at the first sign of trouble? So many of us lack the resilience necessary to achieve our goals. Luckily, we can change that tendency. Let’s start by looking at where resilience originates:
Resilience comes from practicing hope. While hope is often considered an emotion based on circumstances outside of our control, researcher C.R. Snyder argues instead that hope is actually a cognitive process that can be both learned and practiced.
Hope comes from telling yourself where you want to go, recognizing how you can get there and telling yourself that you have what it takes to succeed. You can make the light at the end of the tunnel appear closer or brighter by dividing larger goals into smaller, more manageable ones.
Next time you face a daunting challenge, like giving up nicotine, make a conscious choice to take it one day at a time. Thinking about your efforts for a day is easier than thinking about it for a year or the rest of your life. And once the habit of not smoking sinks in, your resilience will build on itself.
Resilience can also be developed by adopting a critical, broadened perspective towards the adversity you face. It’s easy to feel terrible when the camera is zoomed in on you, and all you see are your “imperfections.” But if you pan out a bit, you’ll start to see that you are surrounded by people who share your struggle.
Many people who have issues with body image as a result of media pressure, for instance, could benefit from adopting a broader perspective.
They should ask themselves: are the images that I’m seeing real or fantasy? Am I the only person who feels dissatisfied with my body after seeing these images?
Answering these questions can help people remain critical, see that they aren’t alone in their struggle, and resist societal expectations, instead refocusing on self-worth.

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It’s common sense that you’re happier when you’re grateful for the things you have, rather than when you’re lamenting that you don’t have enough. This gratitude, much like hope, is not an accidental emotion, but is a mindset that can be consciously trained.
While most people think of gratitude as the feeling that follows positive experiences, in reality it is a practice that fosters happiness. This has major implications for how we live our lives: it means that joy isn’t merely the accidental result of external conditions over which we have no control. Rather, we actively choose joy by practicing gratitude.
One way to actively choose gratitude is by telling yourself that what you have is enough – or more than enough – rather than seeing everything in terms of scarcity.
We often fall into the bad habit of faulting ourselves for not having enough: we’re not rich enough, not thin enough, we don’t have enough time and so on. Instead, we should focus on the things we already have, and understand that we could have less. With the grateful perspective, you’ll soon find yourself feeling more grateful no matter how prosperous you are.
But above all else, the key to gratitude is to find value in the ordinary moments that make up your life – things like tucking your child into bed, sharing a good meal or walking home on a sunny day.
That it is a choice to have a grateful perspective helps people who have experienced severe trauma or sadness. People who have undergone intense, traumatic experiences, such as the loss of a child, violence or genocide, attest that they tend to remember fondly the mundane aspects of daily life before the traumatic experience.

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Your intuition is one of your greatest resources in decision-making. Unfortunately, however, many people find it difficult to trust their intuition.
In part, it’s because most people don’t understand what intuition is. They think of it as a “gut” feeling that has nothing to do with rationality or reason. In reality, intuition and reason are not mutually exclusive.
Rather, intuition works like a rapid-fire series of associations that happens unconsciously. How so?
When your brain makes an observation, it goes through your catalogues of memories in order to find relevant information. This information is compiled into the unconscious “gut feeling” that informs your actions.
It is this exact process of unconsciously drawing on previous experiences that allows athletes, like basketball players for example, to know the precise angle and force they need to shoot a three-pointer without having to sit down first to do the math.
So, we can’t think of intuition as the opposite of reason. Rather, intuition is simply a way of reasoning that leaves room for uncertainty when making decisions.
By embracing your intuition, you put trust in both yourself and the experiences that have contributed to your knowledge. This enables you to act with a degree of confidence despite not knowing how a situation will play out. The basketball player, for example, can’t be certain that the ball will swish through the hoop, but he can make an educated guess based on his intuition.
But why should you want to trust your intuition? Simply put: doing so can help you overcome your fear of risk.
Most people avoid risk and uncertainty, leading them to act hesitantly and make poor decisions. By learning to embrace intuition, you’ll become accustomed to taking action in the face of uncertainty, and thus persevere through the fear of making the wrong decision.

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We’ve all been there: waking up from a bad night’s sleep, we drift through the day like half-conscious zombies, yawning uncontrollably and unable to focus on our work. We dream about the moment we can get back to bed, but as soon as our head hits the pillow, we’re suddenly wide awake. It’s a nightmare.
But it doesn’t have to be this way. Sleep can be a wonderful, rejuvenating experience, a time for repairing our bodies and refreshing our minds. And although the modern world seems intent on destroying the sanctity of sleep with screens, artificial lights and strenuous demands on our time, you can use modern science to push back against this.
That’s where these blinks come in.They’ll equip you with the fundamentals of sleep science and their relationship to our physiology. And with them in hand, you’ll be armed with a host of practical, biology-backed tips, which will help you drift off faster and sleep deeper. This knowledge will have an instant, noticeable impact on your life.
In these blinks, you’ll learn Which specific hormones play a vital role in rest and recovery;Why sleep is more rejuvenating during a certain period of the night; andHow houseplants can improve our rest.
In our modern world, which prizes speed and productivity, sleep can seem like such a waste of time. If we’re swamped with work or overwhelmed by a laundry list of tasks, the first thing that we sacrifice is our sleep. This war on rest has become so acute that the average person’s sleeping hours have decreased from roughly nine hours to seven.
But there are big problems with painting sleep as the enemy of productivity. When you’re sleep deprived, not only are you slower and less creative – you also accomplish less.
One study, published in the medical journal The Lancet, found that surgeons awake for over 24 hours took up to 14 percent longer to complete tasks and made 20 percent more mistakes once they did. And if there’s one person you don’t want to slip up, it’s your surgeon.
One primary reason for this is that sleep deprivation reduces the brain’s glucose content – an essential carbohydrate that your grey matter uses as fuel. And this glucose starvation doesn’t affect all parts of your brain equally; the ones that are hardest hit are your parietal lobe and prefrontal cortex, which are involved with problem-solving and high-level thinking. After 24 hours without sleep, glucose in these regions decreases between 12 and 14 percent.
Furthermore, several studies have shown that skipping one night of rest makes us as insulin resistant as a type-2 diabetic. Having an insufficient amount of this essential hormone leads directly to weight gain, signs of aging and decreased sexual drive.
Thus, sleep is not the enemy of productivity or an obstacle to overcome. It is a necessary restorative state, vital for our physical and psychological well-being. We simply cannot be healthy or function at peak performance without good quality sleep.
That’s partly because being awake is catabolic, while sleep is anabolic. Catabolism occurs when molecules oxidize – they combine with oxygen, causing them to break down. Anabolism is the opposite of this: it constructs molecules from smaller units, literally building us up. So, while we sleep our bodies are repairing themselves – fighting signs of aging and strengthening our immune, muscular and skeletal systems.
Hopefully now you understand the value of a good night’s rest and that scaling back on sleep in the name of productivity is counterproductive. So, what can you do to increase the quality of your Zs? Find out in the next blink

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Sleep is a basic life need we cannot compromise on. And now that we’ve seen the light, it’s time to talk about just that: light. It’s something we usually take for granted, but it has a huge impact on the quality of our rest.
To understand this, we need to understand melatonin. This is a hormone produced by our brain’s pineal gland, and it has powerful rejuvenation and antioxidant properties. But, most importantly, it regulates the body’s circadian rhythm – our internal body clock, which tells us when to sleep.
Our production of melatonin is heavily affected by exposure to light; when the sun goes down in the evening, our bodies naturally release the hormone, making us sleepy. And people exposed to light early in the mornings will produce more melatonin in the evenings, allowing them to fall asleep faster and in a deeper state once they doze off.
This is why we should try to maximize light exposure during the day. And it’s particularly important to expose ourselves to sunlight early in the morning, because bright light also prompts our brains, organs and glands to wake up and be alert. With this in mind, try getting a short walk in somewhere between the hours of 6:00 a.m. and 8:30 a.m.
At the other end of the day, in the evenings, limit your exposure to screens, starting 60 minutes before bed. Electronic devices pump out a heavy blue spectrum of artificial light. Your body is especially sensitive to this spectrum, and exposure to it in the evening inhibits the release of melatonin, making it harder to sleep. There is software available for phones and computers that filters this blue spectrum out, but it’s better to steer clear of the screens completely and read a book before bed instead.
Also, ensure you’re sleeping in a pitch-black room. Light isn’t just absorbed through our eyes, but our skin as well. Nightlights and daylight rays peeking through curtains inhibit melatonin production, which leads to lighter and shorter sleep. Studies have shown that light in bedrooms can suppress melatonin levels by over 50 percent, so blackout blinds are a must for those sleeping after sunrise!
But an easier – and cheaper – way of blocking out light is to ensure we get all of our rest when the sun is down. And this leads us onto our next important factor for sleep: timing.

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It’s all well and good to do the right thing, but doing it at the wrong time is completely counterproductive, like applying sunscreen in the evening or watering flowers in the rain. This is especially true for sleep. We can do everything right, but if we don’t pay attention to our timing, we won’t get the best rest we possibly can. So let’s look at some timing tips that will improve our nightly rest.
First, we should respect our internal body clock by going to bed within 30 minutes of the same time every night.
The modern world of work encourages us to cut down on sleep during the week and catch up on weekends – but this wreaks havoc with our circadian rhythms. Our bodies don’t know when it’s Sunday; they just can’t adapt quickly enough to incorporate our late-night Netflix binges on weekends! If we hit the hay at a consistent time, our circadian rhythm will run smoothly, and we’ll find it much easier to fall asleep and wake up.
Second, we should tuck in and wake up early.
One 2008 study by researchers at the University of North Texas makes the case for early mornings. It found that students identifying as morning people achieved higher academic grades, averaging a 3.5 GPA, compared to just 2.5 for night owls.
The reason for this is encoded into our DNA. Humans are a diurnal species, meaning that we’re active during the day. And for most of human history, we’ve been hunter-gatherers. Our ancestors were programmed to sleep at sundown because snoozing during the day was a very effective way of being eaten by a predator.
So, for thousands of years evolution has conditioned humans to react to the Earth’s patterns of light and darkness. Only in the last 150 years have humans started to override this instinct with the invention of the light bulb. But 150 years is a fleeting moment on the grand scale of evolution, and our bodies haven’t caught up to our new nocturnal habits.
Third, we should take advantage of the magic window of sleep between 10:00 p.m. and 2:00 a.m. This is when our bodies reach their peak production of hormones such as melatonin and human growth hormone. This means that sleep during this time is deeper and more rejuvenating than sleep after 2:00 a.m. That’s bad news for night-shift workers: they can sleep a full 8 or 9 hours after work, but they’ll have a less restorative sleep than someone who sleeps during money time.

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Understanding the biological aspects of sleep is an enormous help, but biology is only one side of the coin. To push our sleep game to the next level, we need to combine this knowledge with the right lifestyle.
First up, we need to set an unbreakable caffeine curfew.
Caffeine is a nervous system stimulant, one that on a molecular level is very similar to adenosine. Adenosine is a chemical that our brain produces while we’re awake, and once our adenosine levels hit a certain point, we start to get sleepy.
Because of its similar nature, caffeine fits snugly into the very same receptors in our brain that adenosine is trying to enter, blocking its path. That’s why we don’t feel tired after drinking a coffee.
But caffeine has a half-life of eight hours, meaning that 200 milligrams at 7:00 a.m. becomes 100 milligrams at 3:00 p.m., and 50mg at 11:00 p.m. In short, it sticks around a long time. That’s why we should refrain from caffeine after 4:00 p.m. It allows our bodies to flush enough of it out that we can rest.
Evening alcohol consumption is another thing we should curb.
Although a few drinks might help us to fall asleep, it’s highly disruptive once we’re away, limiting the amount of time we spend in the deeper stages of sleep. In particular, alcohol interferes with REM sleep – the sleep stage responsible for memory processing. This means that alcohol-laced snoozes are terrible for memorizing facts and fortifying intelligence. Sorry, students!
So if you’re out drinking, try laying off the booze a few hours before you hit the sack. Also, drinking a glass of water for every alcoholic drink you have will help combat the nasty effects alcohol has on your body.
Thankfully, though, there is some good news in this blink: you should have an orgasm before bed.
That’s because having a big O is a natural sedative, releasing a cascade of chemicals into your system, like serotonin and oxytocin. These two compounds are natural stress reducers, and they trigger the release of feel-good hormones called endorphins. With this cocktail of relaxing chemicals and hormones coursing through your system, you’ll find it much easier to drift away.

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As we’ve seen, good quality sleep is essential for maintaining a healthy body and a sharp mind. But the opposite is also true: a healthy body and mind are vital if we want a good night’s sleep.
Let’s start with the body. Did you know that one of the benefits of exercising is better quality sleep?
Because exercise creates micro-tears in our muscle tissue, which our body needs to repair, our brain lets loose a host of rejuvenating anabolic hormones like testosterone and human growth hormone (HGH). All this repair work means the body induces a deeper, more restorative sleep.
Supplementing with magnesium is another great way to stay healthy and supercharge your snooze.
This mineral is responsible for over 300 biochemical reactions in the body, but it’s particularly good for reducing stress and calming our nervous system. Magnesium balances blood sugar levels, optimizes blood pressure and relaxes muscles, which all translate to a more relaxed state and a higher-quality sleep.
But when supplementing magnesium, apply it to your skin in cream form. This is the most effective way, because much of this mineral’s power is lost during digestion, making oral supplements weaker.
Some will know it’s possible to supplement melatonin – the hormone closely associated with sleepiness. This can be effective, particularly for insomniacs, but there are risks involved with it. The most important takeaway is that supplementing melatonin can inhibit your body’s ability to produce this naturally. For that reason alone, it should be considered a last resort.
Maintaining a healthy mind is also key to high-quality sleep – and for this, we need look no further than meditation.
It’s estimated that more than 50,000 thoughts run through our minds each day. And although most of them are short-lived, our inner monologue often intensifies when we’re trying to drift off to sleep. But meditation can change this. The simple act of closing our eyes and focusing on our breathing, even just for 10 minutes, is proven to lower stress and release feel-good endorphins into our system, priming us to drift off. In short, meditation is like a tonic for our manic, hyperactive minds.
And what better place to start meditating than in your new sleep sanctuary? Find out more about that in the next blink.

🎅 @keep_learning_english

What’s the use of all these sleep suggestions if we’re going to ignore the place we sleep in? Our surroundings have a huge impact on the quality of our rest, so taking sleep seriously means taking our bedrooms seriously by creating a sleep sanctuary.
The key point here is that our sleep sanctuary should have fresh, clean air and provoke feelings of relaxation.
Introducing house plants into the bedroom is a great way to achieve this. The organic sights and earthy smells of greenery have been shown to induce calm and increase happiness, and plants are excellent natural air filters. And maintaining good air quality is crucial when creating sleep sanctuaries.
That’s because air contains ions, which are simply atoms with electric charges. Ions with a negative electrical charge are extremely energizing, and they improve our health by oxidizing mold, parasites and toxic chemical gases. But over time, the air we breathe becomes stale as the oxygen content drops and ions lose their negative charge.
Plants fix this, converting carbon dioxide into oxygen and recharging the air’s ions. One great houseplant for your sleep sanctuary is English Ivy. Not only is this plant extremely hardy; it was also found by NASA to be the best air-filtering houseplant, pumping out oxygen and absorbing formaldehyde, a harmful neurotoxin all too common in industrialized countries.
Another great choice is mother-in-law’s tongue. This is a tough piece of flora, needing minimal water and light to flourish – perfect for a dark bedroom! Most remarkable, though, is its ability to convert carbon dioxide into oxygen at night; most plants only do this during the day.
But if there’s one golden rule for sleep sanctuaries, it’s this: keep work out of the bedroom.
Bringing phone calls, texts and emails into our sleeping space is one of the worst things we can do. That’s because it creates a spike in our cortisol levels – a hormone closely associated with stress and wakefulness. It also leads our brains to create a negative association with our bedroom, which subconsciously makes it more difficult to sleep there. We need to be strict with ourselves and not allow work to enter our sleep sanctuary; this is a place for us to switch off and zone out.
All that’s left now is to enter your new sleep sanctuary armed with all of these practical sleeping tips, and to get ready for the best night’s rest you’ve ever had!

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What makes a person just? And how can we define a just city? Answers to these types of questions are what Socrates, the gadfly of Athens, seeks to ferret out over the course of the Republic.
Though Plato wrote this dialogue more than 2,000 years ago, it is still the centerpiece of both philosophy and political theory. Indeed, Sir Alfred North Whitehead, the mathematician and metaphysician, once called all of philosophy “a footnote to Plato.” An indispensable part of the Western canon, the Republic puts you in the shoes of one of Socrates’s students, following him around as he questions various people on the roles played by justice, philosophy and art in the forming of the city and of the soul.
So in these blinks, you’ll find out why merely appearing to be just is the worst type of injustice;why the “noble lie” ties people to their community; andwhy the soul is composed like a speech.

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How do you define justice? No matter how well considered your response may be, Socrates would probably be able to dismantle your definition. Throughout the dialogue between him and his interlocutors, he examines and questions several definitions of justice.
The first definition comes from Polemarchus, who claims that justice is to give each person what they are owed. In response, Socrates tries to undermine this definition by finding exceptions to it. What if weapons are owed? Although one should return what one owes, one should not offer weapons to someone who is insane and threatening to harm someone.
So, the definition of justice as “giving what is owed” doesn’t always hold.
Polemarchus then provides another answer: Being just means assisting friends and harming enemies. To this, Socrates queries whether there are circumstances under which it is moral to do harm. He finds that there aren’t. Animal trainers, he says, don’t benefit animals they harm; likewise, people become less moral if harmed. Additionally, one can mistake friends for enemies, and enemies for friends, and therefore end up benefiting those one meant to harm.
So, since harming someone isn’t beneficial and our judgments cannot be absolutely accurate, this second definition also falls apart.
The third definition, posited by Thrasymachus, is that justice is whatever is advantageous to the ruler.
Socrates questions whether this definition also applies to those in other positions – such as, say, a doctor. The health of the patient, rather than the doctor’s benefit, should be the doctor’s main concern. A ruler that seeks to benefit himself, instead of his people, is not a just ruler. Like the doctor, the ruler should aim to do good for his “patient,” i.e., the city.
This third definition is also inadequate and so the first attempts to define justice come to an aporia, an impasse in the dialogue.

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After this impasse, Socrates proposes his own definition of justice: minding one’s own business. This, he says, has both a private and a public aspect to it.
To mind our own business is to responsibly play our appropriate role, and thereby benefit both ourselves and our city. The citizens of a city that functions in a just and well-organized fashion each have their role, perfectly suited to them. Because of this, no one person has to take care of everything themselves.
Socrates specifies that a city should include craft workers, doctors, merchants, rulers and soldiers and that each person should acknowledge their individual role and then ably fulfill it. Knowledge of one’s role depends on the city’s having just institutions that educate inhabitants on their appropriate duties.
Once they know what their duties are, individuals mind their own business by carrying out their role in a just and appropriate manner. This, in turn, reverberates through the city, making it either just or unjust.
Socrates explains that not everyone is appropriate for every role, however. For instance, someone suitable for being a general won’t necessarily make the best horse-trainer.
Each person’s job must benefit the community at large – that’s its social role. Take the example of the ruler: a just ruler reigns for the city, whereas a tyrant rules for his own gain. So, a tyrant’s actions reflect the corrupt society he controls, while a just ruler’s actions reflect the just city he rules.
Justice for each person cannot therefore be viewed independently of justice for the city.
Determining one’s role is never an individual’s decision, but is shaped by the needs of the city and by the individual’s skills.
In an ideal and just city, the city’s needs and the individual’s needs work symbiotically, the city benefitting from its people and its people benefitting from it.

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There is a thread that runs through the dialogues on justice – the difference between essence and appearance. That is, how something appears as opposed to what it actually is. The greatest kind of injustice is for someone to seem just, when in actuality he is unjust.
Plato’s brother, Glaucon, now joins the dialogue. Both Glaucon and Socrates attempt to understand justice and present the idea that a just life is more desirable than an unjust life.
Glaucon, playing the devil’s advocate, makes a claim that he wants Socrates to disprove. His claim is that the majority of the population considers the mere appearance of leading a just life to be better than actually being just.
Socrates, however, not only refutes this but stresses that such a life is extremely unjust.
It’s comparable to someone who seems to be a skilled weapon-maker, when they are actually incompetent, he says. Such false claims would lead to robust-looking shields that disintegrate in battle. The point, here, is that one’s true character has nothing to do with appearances. Put someone to the test and you’ll learn what kind of metal they’re made of.
Finally, Socrates states that one can discern whether someone is just or unjust by studying their environment – the city – and the relations they have with others. Therefore, in order for an individual to be just, their city must be just, and not merely seemingly so.
Socrates then says that without a just city, just individuals cannot exist. So individuals who live in cities whose laws benefit the few, not the many, live in unjust cities, even if they appear to be just.
Such cities are often ruled by tyrants, whose unjust acts are used to build a reputation of justice. The laws of the tyrant always favor him and disfavor all who go against him. Rather than reaching for a common good, the tyrant seeks only to gratify his personal goals.

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Socrates postulates that education should instruct individuals to be just. Therefore, a sound education is one that enables individuals to have a healthy mind and body that can shield and strengthen the city.
For example, musical education paves the way to a healthy mind, and gymnastics leads to a healthy body.
Music helps educate the mind and soul through rhythm and harmony, both of which can bestow balanced mental order and lead to a just character. This balanced order is also needed for a variety of arts and crafts.
Gymnastics, on the other hand, promotes physical strength and solidifies group cooperation. In particular, Olympic sports foster both individual strength and group mentality.
Individuals strengthen themselves by running or javelin throwing. Groups train by wrestling and engaging in combat exercises, activities that necessitate cooperation among individuals, and thus improve group mentality.
The benefit of music and gymnastics is that they make citizens healthy in mind and body because they enable the progress and strengthening of a city’s culture and military.
While a healthy mind and body are advantageous to the individual, something else is necessary in order to promote justice and make the individual feel involved in the future of her city: a noble lie that connects individuals to their city and their community.
The noble lie teaches citizens that the Earth is their mother and nurse, and that all citizens have risen from beneath the city. As the city’s foundation is the Earth, so the citizens also depend upon the Earth, which bore them. According to Socrates, individuals must be told this lie – or an equivalent myth – by their guardians. It’s what makes them feel connected to their city.
The noble lie ensures that people will protect the city in times of conflict and reinforce it in times of peace.

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It’s impossible to study someone without also examining their city, Socrates says. Not only does a city create its citizens, but the citizens also form and develop their city. The just person and the just city need each other.
A city forms its citizens in accordance with its laws and institutions. Then, as citizens mature and take on different offices, they can alter laws and devise new ones, helping the city to progress along with them.
You cannot, therefore, have a just person in an unjust community, or an unjust person in a just community.
To demonstrate his point, Socrates draws an analogy between the city and the human soul.
When Glaucon requests that Socrates examine the soul of the just person, Socrates says the soul is like a speech, because it has reason and logic. The soul of a person can be revealed through conversation with that person and through her explanations of her behavior.
The just city is like a just person, only on a larger scale. Therefore, the speeches, dialogues and laws on which the just city is founded must be examined by way of discussion.
Since one can understand how a person thinks by conversing with that person, one can understand a city by talking about it with others.
If the city is just, it will give rise to just individuals who can offer an account of their actions and debate what constitutes their justness.
Understanding a just person, then, is also a matter of analyzing the just city via speeches and dialogues, such as those between Socrates and his interlocutors.

🎅@keep_learning_english