Better Questions: To Thine Own Self Be True?

"To thine own self be true." Wonderful advice. But what exactly is a self? Is it something we discover, something we create, or something we spend our lives trying to understand? And what happens when being true to yourself means becoming somebody different?

What it is:

Better Questions is a salon-style gathering for curious adults: part talk, part performance, part guided conversation. It is for people who love big questions, serious play, and the pleasure of thinking out loud with other curious people.

For our next gathering, we're taking on one of the most familiar—and most mysterious—ideas in modern life: authenticity.

Shakespeare gave us "To thine own self be true." Alcoholics Anonymous put it on medallions. We've turned it into a cultural commandment. But the line comes from Polonius, one of Shakespeare's most comically questionable dispensers of wisdom. And the more seriously we take his advice, the stranger it gets.

What did it mean to have a self in ancient Greece? What changed when Augustine turned inward and discovered that he was a mystery to himself? What did Shakespeare understand about the roles we play, the stories we tell, and the people we become? And how did we arrive at a world in which "being yourself" is both a moral ideal and a marketing slogan?

We'll spend the evening traveling through some of the great transformations in how human beings have understood themselves—and asking whether we can finally improve upon Polonius.

Do we have a true self waiting to be discovered? Are we the same person with our parents, our friends, our lovers, and our coworkers? Is authenticity about expressing who we already are, or having the courage to become someone new?

And perhaps the biggest question of all: What if being true to yourself sometimes means refusing to remain the person you've always been?

What you'll leave with:

A few ideas big enough to chew on for weeks. A richer sense of how our most intimate ideas about ourselves have a history. Language for things you've felt but could never quite name. The rare experience of thinking out loud with people who are actually interested. And—if the night does its job—a better set of questions than the ones you walked in with.

You'll also leave having conversed with people, if you so choose. The evening opens with a lively introductory talk and a few big ideas made accessible, then opens up: time for Q&A and a full hour of guided, freeform conversation with other attendees. Come as you are, share as much or as little as you like—participation is always invited and never required.

You do not need a background in philosophy to attend. Come with questions, leave with better ones.

This is an experiment in thoughtful community: a room for people who want intellectual life to feel social, alive, generous, and real.