Tuesday OList Happy Hour: Introspection and Pursuit of Values

It's Tuesday, which means tonight is OList Happy Hour on Twitter.

I got the idea for tonight's Happy Hour menu from a couple of very good, recent blog posts over at Kelly's blog, Reepicheep's Coracle.  She had posted them to the OAcademics list, and they really jumped out at me as great subjects for further discussion.

In the first one, Values Hierarchy and Sadness, she deals with the fact that she is putting so much time and effort into her highest value, that others are languishing.  She actually lists her top 13 values, in order of importance.  That's hard work in and of itself!

The following post, An Introspection and a New Action Plan, brings further inquiry and microscopic examination of her highest value, followed by the payoff, and a happy ending.  

Kelly's posts made me curious to hear what experience others have had with their own introspective examination of their values, and the organization of their value hierarchies.  

In The Objectivist Ethics, Ayn Rand defines 'values' as follows:

“Value” is that which one acts to gain and/or keep. The concept “value” is not a primary; it presupposes an answer to the question: of value to whom and for what? It presupposes an entity capable of acting to achieve a goal in the face of an alternative. Where no alternative exists, no goals and no values are possible.

Here's tonight's menu:

Appetizer:  How explicitly for yourself have you identified your values?  Have you ever written out a list, or do you keep a mental hierarchy of your values?  Do you periodically introspect and review your value-hierarchy, say around your birthday or New Year's?

Drink Special: Have your values ever changed, either significantly or in smaller ways?  If so, how/why?  If not, to what do you attribute your consistency? 

Happy Hour will take place from 9-10 p.m. Eastern and 6-7 p.m. Pacific, on Twitter.

For more info on the OLists, check out the OList Events page here.

New to Twitter and not sure how it works?  A simple tutorial on getting started can be found here.  

Your hosts for the Twitter OList Socials are @DianaHsieh, @laforgetm (aka William Green) and @Earl3d (that's me!)

Want to lurk and follow along with the discussion, without joining Twitter?  You can do that here.