Enough by Design · Chapter Twelve

The Art of Life Itself

Ammanuel Santa Anna · ORCID 0009-0008-3244-0306

Chapter Twelve of Enough by Design: Scarcity, Abundance and the Art of Living Well.

Abstract

Near the end of "Economic Possibilities for our Grandchildren", after he has forecast that the economic problem will be solved within a century, John Maynard Keynes turns to what comes after it. He calls it man's "real, his permanent problem": how to use his freedom from pressing economic cares, how to occupy the leisure, which science and compound interest will have won for him, to live wisely and agreeably and well. And then he says who will manage it. Not the money-makers, who "may carry all of us along with them into the lap of economic abundance", but "those peoples, who can keep alive, and cultivate into a fuller perfection, the art of life itself and do not sell themselves for the means of life".

Read the PDFRead the whole bookdoi:10.5281/zenodo.23989364

Cite this chapter

Santa Anna, A. (2026). The Art of Life Itself. In Enough by Design. Luminous Prosperity Inc. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.23989364

@incollection{santaanna2026enough12,
  author    = {Santa Anna, Ammanuel},
  title     = {The Art of Life Itself},
  booktitle = {Enough by Design},
  chapter   = {12},
  publisher = {Luminous Prosperity Inc.},
  year      = {2026},
  doi       = {10.5281/zenodo.23989364},
  url       = {https://business.hautelumiere.life/library/enough-by-design/12-the-art-of-life-itself/}
}

References

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  2. Huberman, M., & Minns, C. (2007). The times they are not changin': Days and hours of work in Old and New Worlds, 1870–2000. Explorations in Economic History, 44(4), 538–567. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eeh.2007.03.002
  3. Mani, A., Mullainathan, S., Shafir, E., & Zhao, J. (2013). Poverty impedes cognitive function. Science, 341(6149), 976–980. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1238041
  4. Wicherts, J. M., & Scholten, A. Z. (2013). Comment on "Poverty impedes cognitive function". Science, 342(6163), 1169. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1246680
  5. Killingsworth, M. A., Kahneman, D., & Mellers, B. (2023). Income and emotional well-being: A conflict resolved. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 120(10), e2208661120. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2208661120

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  1. Chapter OneThe Year on the Letterdoi:10.5281/zenodo.23989349
  2. Chapter TwoA Letter to the Grandchildrendoi:10.5281/zenodo.23989350
  3. Chapter ThreeWhere Abundance Overreachesdoi:10.5281/zenodo.23989351
  4. Chapter FourWhat a Person Is Able to Bedoi:10.5281/zenodo.23989352
  5. Chapter FiveThe Balance Sheet Cannot Seedoi:10.5281/zenodo.23989353
  6. Chapter SixOpening the Librarydoi:10.5281/zenodo.23989354
  7. Chapter SevenThe Hours Keynes Promiseddoi:10.5281/zenodo.23989355
  8. Chapter EightThe Field Manualdoi:10.5281/zenodo.23989358
  9. Chapter NineHow to Know It Workeddoi:10.5281/zenodo.23989359
  10. Chapter TenThe Hard Conversationsdoi:10.5281/zenodo.23989360
  11. Chapter ElevenEnough at Homedoi:10.5281/zenodo.23989363
  12. Chapter TwelveThe Art of Life Itselfdoi:10.5281/zenodo.23989364
  13. AppendixThe Workbookdoi:10.5281/zenodo.23989367

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The licence

Free to read, share, quote, translate and teach, non-commercially, for ever, under the Luminous Library Licence 1.0. Every other right is the Author’s. Deposited on Zenodo in the Luminous Prosperity community.