Thinking Out Loud #1
Session One: Rented Virtue
For our first reading circle, we’ll discuss “Rented Virtue” by Will Manidis and Nabeel Qureshi.
The essay traces how the Quakers built enduring businesses on principles they refused to compromise—and asks whether we’ve gradually replaced lived virtue with its institutional substitutes: ethics committees, mission statements, annual letters, and carefully curated values that are easier to display than to practice.
Whether or not you agree with its conclusions, it raises a question that reaches far beyond business:
What does it mean to live according to your principles when doing so is inconvenient?
We all encounter moments where comfort, ambition, belonging, or success pull us in one direction while our values pull us in another. The essay argues that integrity isn’t something we can outsource or retrofit later—it has to be practiced, imperfectly, in everyday decisions.
Come having read the essay if you can. If not, come anyway.
We will have 10 sets of physical print copies.
Bring your disagreements. Bring stories from your own life or work. Bring the questions you’ve been quietly wrestling with.
The goal isn’t to reach consensus. It’s to think together with people who are genuinely curious.
We’ll spend an hour discussing the essay—and afterward, probably play something involving dice.
The Venue:
We’ll meet in a cozy, library-like room filled with books, long wooden tables, and comfortable corners for conversation. There’s also a quiet backyard to wander into afterward, where we’ll serve tea and baklavas and let the discussion continue a little longer.