Table of Contents
Introduction 1
1 Why Greatness Is Not Good Enough 13
The Origins of "Good Enough" 17
A Long History of Overcoming Greatness 19
Recalibrating 22
The Two Economies 26
Lost Einstein Myths 30
But, Come On, Aren't There Good Forms of Greatness 33
Cold, Broken, But Still Hallelujah 35
A Good-Enough Life for All 38
2 For Our Selves 42
In the Beginning 46
It's Not Just the Economy, Stupid 48
The Return of Virtue 52
Meritocracy, No. Greatness, Maybe. 62
Virtues beyond Greatness 70
The World As It Already Is 74
Satisfaction Not Guaranteed 78
Philosophies Born of Struggle 86
3 For Our Relationships 95
Romantic Stories 100
A Circular Journey 105
A Theory of Laughter 109
The Paradoxes of Kindness to Strangers 111
To Heaven or A-fishing 116
As Zhuangzi and Huizi Were 118
We'll See 122
If This Is Good Enough 124
A Good-Enough President? 130
4 For Our World 135
The Path of Pinheads 145
The Road to Serfdom 152
The Good Enough Transformation 161
Why Philanthropy Is Not the Answer 166
Some Plans for a Good-Enough World 170
Limiting the Positional Economy 184
A Thought Experiment 195
5 For Our Planet 197
Wired for Whatever 203
Surviving the Fittest 207
Evolving to Be Good Enough 213
The Risk of Great Green Revolutions 216
More with Less, or More from Less? 221
Sharing in the Burden and the Bounty 227
A Good-Enough Relation to Nature 231
The Good-Enough Sublime 233
Conclusion 236
Acknowledgments 241
Notes 243
Bibliography 283
Index 311
