The One Rule for Life

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Kant was one of the most influential thinkers in modern history. His
philosophy of morality doesn't just have lofty, theoretical implications. We
can apply it to our everyday lives as well.
21 minute readPhilosophy

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D epending on your perspective, Immanuel Kant was either the most

boring person on the planet or a productivity hacker’s wet dream. For over 40
years, he woke up every morning at 5:00 AM and wrote for exactly three
hours. He would then lecture at the same university for exactly four hours. He
followed that up with lunch at the same restaurant each day. Then, in the
afternoon, he would go on an extended walk through the same park, on the
same route, leaving and returning home at the exact same time. Every day.
Kant spent his entire life in Königsberg, Prussia. I mean that literally.
He never left the city. Despite the sea being an hour away, he never saw it.1

Kant was efficiency personified. He was so mechanical in his habits that his

neighbors joked they could tune their clocks based on when he left his
apartment each day. He would leave for his daily walk at 3:30 PM, have
dinner with the same friend every evening, and return home to finish work and
go to bed at exactly 10:00 PM.

It’s easy for us to scoff at a guy like this. What a dweeb. Seriously, get a life,
dude.
But Kant was one of the most important and influential thinkers in modern
history. He did more to steer the world from his single-room apartment in
Prussia than most kings and armies ever did before and since.2