What do you think?
Rate this book
On Settling
The hidden value of settling
In a culture that worships ceaseless striving, "settling" seems like giving up. But is it? On Settling defends the positive value of settling, explaining why this disdained practice is not only more realistic but more useful than an excessive ideal of striving. In fact, the book makes the case that we'd all be lost without settling―and that even to strive, one must first settle.
We may admire strivers and love the ideal of striving, but who of us could get through a day without settling? Real people, confronted with a complex problem, simply make do, settling for some resolution that, while almost certainly not the best that one could find by devoting limitless time and attention to the problem, is nonetheless good enough. Robert Goodin explores the dynamics of this process. These involve taking as fixed, for now, things that we reserve the right to reopen later (nothing is fixed for good, although events might always overtake us). We settle on some things in order to concentrate better on others. At the same time we realize we may need to come back later and reconsider those decisions. From settling on and settling for, to settling down and settling in, On Settling explains why settling is useful for planning, creating trust, and strengthening the social fabric―and why settling is different from compromise and resignation.
So, the next time you're faced with a thorny problem, just settle. It's no failure.
In a culture that worships ceaseless striving, "settling" seems like giving up. But is it? On Settling defends the positive value of settling, explaining why this disdained practice is not only more realistic but more useful than an excessive ideal of striving. In fact, the book makes the case that we'd all be lost without settling―and that even to strive, one must first settle.
We may admire strivers and love the ideal of striving, but who of us could get through a day without settling? Real people, confronted with a complex problem, simply make do, settling for some resolution that, while almost certainly not the best that one could find by devoting limitless time and attention to the problem, is nonetheless good enough. Robert Goodin explores the dynamics of this process. These involve taking as fixed, for now, things that we reserve the right to reopen later (nothing is fixed for good, although events might always overtake us). We settle on some things in order to concentrate better on others. At the same time we realize we may need to come back later and reconsider those decisions. From settling on and settling for, to settling down and settling in, On Settling explains why settling is useful for planning, creating trust, and strengthening the social fabric―and why settling is different from compromise and resignation.
So, the next time you're faced with a thorny problem, just settle. It's no failure.
128 pages, Paperback
First published September 16, 2012
7 people are currently reading
285 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
June 29, 2016
This slim text is a clearly written and thoughtful essay on what is meant by settling which, curiously enough, was stimulated by a conference here in Melbourne on Values and Public Policy a few years ago. The author appears a well-travelled American who currently holds positions in the UK and in Australia.
Goodin ventures into the value of settling, what it is and isn't and settling in aid of striving, which isn't bad for 74 pages of actual text.
"Settling" is more complex that you might think, or at least I thought. Here, it's broken down into Down (a situation and a place), In (accommodating ourselves to circumstances and place), Up (with people we have displaced, unsettled or otherwise wronged), For (learning to make do in newly settled circumstances, then settling One's Affairs and Settling On (a belief or value, project or commitment, way of being or living).
Much of the early part of the book relates to what are known as settler societies e.g. those of the US, Canada, South Africa, Australia and New Zealand where people from one country came to live in another and the obvious difficulties with those already resident. This part is excellent in explaining the issues facing my country in particular, given my own status as a descendant of settlers who arrived in the 1850s.
A quest for what he calls "fixity" runs through these categories, which isn't a rigidity but what appear to be presumptions about where they are personally, where others are and consistent features of the social environment. A kind of context that you can act on or "exercise your agency" effectively as he puts it. Trust and confidence come into this scenario. "Striving" or perhaps effective striving comes from that situation.
I'd like to write more, but I would be repeating word for word what the book is saying. This is one of the few texts I have read where I feel a compulsion to read again, as soon as possible. It's a quiet book that makes you think, well constructed and knowledgeably argued. It's not a polemic and it is a pleasant experience for train or chair, or anywhere
Goodin ventures into the value of settling, what it is and isn't and settling in aid of striving, which isn't bad for 74 pages of actual text.
"Settling" is more complex that you might think, or at least I thought. Here, it's broken down into Down (a situation and a place), In (accommodating ourselves to circumstances and place), Up (with people we have displaced, unsettled or otherwise wronged), For (learning to make do in newly settled circumstances, then settling One's Affairs and Settling On (a belief or value, project or commitment, way of being or living).
Much of the early part of the book relates to what are known as settler societies e.g. those of the US, Canada, South Africa, Australia and New Zealand where people from one country came to live in another and the obvious difficulties with those already resident. This part is excellent in explaining the issues facing my country in particular, given my own status as a descendant of settlers who arrived in the 1850s.
A quest for what he calls "fixity" runs through these categories, which isn't a rigidity but what appear to be presumptions about where they are personally, where others are and consistent features of the social environment. A kind of context that you can act on or "exercise your agency" effectively as he puts it. Trust and confidence come into this scenario. "Striving" or perhaps effective striving comes from that situation.
I'd like to write more, but I would be repeating word for word what the book is saying. This is one of the few texts I have read where I feel a compulsion to read again, as soon as possible. It's a quiet book that makes you think, well constructed and knowledgeably argued. It's not a polemic and it is a pleasant experience for train or chair, or anywhere
July 6, 2022
This is a very short (about 70 pages!) book, but for me it was a refreshing read. Although he contrasts settling to striving (and discusses the relationship between the two), I couldn't help but think about the implications for public policy. The most common refrain in policy these days is that we need to be adaptive, being flexible and constantly updating based on new information. The notion of setting on some things while you work on others is contrary to that, but it makes more sense from a practical and psychological perspective. Despite decades of calling for more "adaptive" policies, it has never worked, and I think a big part of that is the fact that we need to settle on some things to provide some stability, and it just isn't possible to constantly change based on new information. Goodin discusses the fact that this is suboptimal - both from an economic and Bayesian perspective - but suggests that's as true as it is irrelevant. I really liked the simplicity and brevity of this book. He walks you through what settling is, what it is not, and its relationship to striving. Striving is put on a pedestal, and settling is seen as giving up in modern society. Goodin makes the case for the importance of settling, even in a world that sees striving as the ideal. We need settling in order to strive, but we need a judicious mix of both. I think this is a great coffee table or waiting room book for anyone, but I do think you'll get even more from this book if you've read Goodin's other work.
August 11, 2014
I settled on this book as part of my striving to acquire more knowledge about the world and myself. Although a lot of the philosophy of this book is over my head, the basic idea is that we settle on things in order to strive to achieve other, (sometimes) more important things. We can't move forward in our lives until we've settled certain issues. Settling isn't 100% permanent, but we need to see it as permanent for the foreseeable future. We eventually change, and settle on new things, as our knowledge, experiences, needs, and abilities change.
Despite being above my head in terms of philosophy (i.e., I'd never heard of Bayesian probability before), it was a fairly short and easy read. I recommend it both to friends who are "into" philosophy and friends who simply like reading interesting, thought-provoking non-fiction.
Despite being above my head in terms of philosophy (i.e., I'd never heard of Bayesian probability before), it was a fairly short and easy read. I recommend it both to friends who are "into" philosophy and friends who simply like reading interesting, thought-provoking non-fiction.
August 11, 2024
This took forever because wow the book is dense even though it’s only 70ish pages. It’s a great read for anyone in a transient period of their life, but not exclusively because honestly it’s a human book.
I’ll have to read so many cheap rom coms to recover from this cerebral read
On settling
Robert E Goodin
The analogy loved in this book is the donkey looking at two seemingly equal piles of hay and deciding which to eat, the donkey dies of starvation while evaluating which he should eat. If the donkey simply settled on eating it. Now an important note is settling MUST be commited like a relationship it is not one off. The donkey must be so happy and full from that hay.
A second analog is used to illustrate this commitment from goodfellas “why don’t you get yourself a nice girl?” Asks the mother to her son, “I do almost every night” reply’s the son, “but a girl you could settle down with” to which the son reply’s “I do every night” again you MUST commit to settling.
Settling is fixing things in your mind and life for a time could be a month (TDY in KY) or your lifetime (marriage). For that month in KY I cannot be missing home and mopey.
You should gleefully pursue whatever you settle on
If settling is the positive opposite of striving then resignation is the negative opposite of striving.
I saw somewhere you can only have 5 things in your mind at any given moment, settling frees up those (idk if it’s true) spots for things we are striving for.
Settle on some things to strive for others
Is the fig tree a river all flowing to the same point?
You can only reach higher plateaus; successful job, better financial capital, human capital, marriage if you settle and stick with it
I’ll have to read so many cheap rom coms to recover from this cerebral read
On settling
Robert E Goodin
The analogy loved in this book is the donkey looking at two seemingly equal piles of hay and deciding which to eat, the donkey dies of starvation while evaluating which he should eat. If the donkey simply settled on eating it. Now an important note is settling MUST be commited like a relationship it is not one off. The donkey must be so happy and full from that hay.
A second analog is used to illustrate this commitment from goodfellas “why don’t you get yourself a nice girl?” Asks the mother to her son, “I do almost every night” reply’s the son, “but a girl you could settle down with” to which the son reply’s “I do every night” again you MUST commit to settling.
Settling is fixing things in your mind and life for a time could be a month (TDY in KY) or your lifetime (marriage). For that month in KY I cannot be missing home and mopey.
You should gleefully pursue whatever you settle on
If settling is the positive opposite of striving then resignation is the negative opposite of striving.
I saw somewhere you can only have 5 things in your mind at any given moment, settling frees up those (idk if it’s true) spots for things we are striving for.
Settle on some things to strive for others
Is the fig tree a river all flowing to the same point?
You can only reach higher plateaus; successful job, better financial capital, human capital, marriage if you settle and stick with it
September 10, 2025
Philosophical discourse on the concept and practices of Settling. Has a strong opening. Discussions on different modes of settling with reference to political history and the value of settling are stimulating, though they accumulate into a somewhat underwhelming conclusion - platitude about balancing striving and settling in life plus some vague advice ..
November 18, 2023
Not as pithy as I wanted, but I'll settle for it.
July 28, 2025
a short book but still entirely too long. a one or two page essay would have been sufficient to convey the main ideas here. the rest is a semantic exploration of all variations of the word "settle"
January 8, 2013
Australia is a pretty, dangerous continent. My wife’s brother is living there, so we get to hear tales of salt-water crocodiles and other various forms of poisonous vermin. The travel writer, Bill Bryson, in his book on Australia, In a Sunburned Country, described the dangers: “If you are not stung or pronged to death in some unexpected manner, you may be fatally chomped by sharks or crocodiles, or carried helplessly out to sea by irresistible currents, or left to stagger to an unhappy death in the baking outback.” Australia can be unsettling.
So leave it to an Australian philosophy and government professor, Robert Goodin, to pen a remarkable little book, On Settling. The ad copy touted the book as an argument for settling. The book seemed the exact opposite of the self-help and business books that constantly urge us to strive for more, so I was intrigued. Goodin, in part using Australia and the American West, makes a great case for the benefits of settling. In harsh climate and terrains, a settlement is where you want to be. Settling provides stability.
Laws serve the purpose of settling our society. We can enter contracts and business arrangements knowing that the law is settled. Being able to rely on an established outcome brings confidence to our transactions. This is why any major new legislation has numerous people wondering and worrying about the new law’s impact. It takes time for the new law to settle. When a crisis hits, such as in 2008, the economy goes into freefall because so much is unsettled. You can’t be effective in business -- or life -- when things aren’t settled.
Settling, when done right, isn’t passive or even conservative, but rather a concerted effort to reach a beneficial balance. As citizens through our proxy legislators, we need to demand the laws be designed to settle current conflicts and societal strife, not exacerbate them. Pioneers didn’t settle the Salt Lake Valley by making sure the status quo continued. They worked hard, fought off drought and pestilence and created a settlement that continues to this day benefiting us all. This proactive settling is how we need to debate our laws.
Maybe it is the constant striving in the American identity, but settling carries a unfortunate negative connotation. Yet, in litigation settling almost always makes sense. As an attorney, talk to a client about settling a case and suddenly you are dealing with every negative emotion the client has relating to the case. Settling litigation is hard work and rarely comes easily. Each side is vested in its narrative of past events and resolution means that something must be surrendered. Yet, a good settlement takes into consideration the strengths and weaknesses of both sides of the argument. Consideration can be given to aspects that may be unrelated to the lawsuit itself, particularly the emotional and financial cost of continuing the litigation. Settling can lead to better long term outcomes for both sides.
At the end of his book, Goodin points out that settling serves an important purpose in our striving as well. As humans and a society, we need a settled base to strive from. Without the settling effect of our laws and regulations, our striving would take place in an environment that is even more dangerous than Australia.
So leave it to an Australian philosophy and government professor, Robert Goodin, to pen a remarkable little book, On Settling. The ad copy touted the book as an argument for settling. The book seemed the exact opposite of the self-help and business books that constantly urge us to strive for more, so I was intrigued. Goodin, in part using Australia and the American West, makes a great case for the benefits of settling. In harsh climate and terrains, a settlement is where you want to be. Settling provides stability.
Laws serve the purpose of settling our society. We can enter contracts and business arrangements knowing that the law is settled. Being able to rely on an established outcome brings confidence to our transactions. This is why any major new legislation has numerous people wondering and worrying about the new law’s impact. It takes time for the new law to settle. When a crisis hits, such as in 2008, the economy goes into freefall because so much is unsettled. You can’t be effective in business -- or life -- when things aren’t settled.
Settling, when done right, isn’t passive or even conservative, but rather a concerted effort to reach a beneficial balance. As citizens through our proxy legislators, we need to demand the laws be designed to settle current conflicts and societal strife, not exacerbate them. Pioneers didn’t settle the Salt Lake Valley by making sure the status quo continued. They worked hard, fought off drought and pestilence and created a settlement that continues to this day benefiting us all. This proactive settling is how we need to debate our laws.
Maybe it is the constant striving in the American identity, but settling carries a unfortunate negative connotation. Yet, in litigation settling almost always makes sense. As an attorney, talk to a client about settling a case and suddenly you are dealing with every negative emotion the client has relating to the case. Settling litigation is hard work and rarely comes easily. Each side is vested in its narrative of past events and resolution means that something must be surrendered. Yet, a good settlement takes into consideration the strengths and weaknesses of both sides of the argument. Consideration can be given to aspects that may be unrelated to the lawsuit itself, particularly the emotional and financial cost of continuing the litigation. Settling can lead to better long term outcomes for both sides.
At the end of his book, Goodin points out that settling serves an important purpose in our striving as well. As humans and a society, we need a settled base to strive from. Without the settling effect of our laws and regulations, our striving would take place in an environment that is even more dangerous than Australia.
February 7, 2014
Summary with a nudge to read this book:
Stop looking around for the best book to read. Settle on this one and strive for understanding it. Settle in order to strive. Settle in some place. Settle with someone. And finally settle for something. ;)
Stop looking around for the best book to read. Settle on this one and strive for understanding it. Settle in order to strive. Settle in some place. Settle with someone. And finally settle for something. ;)
December 26, 2013
Dry, as expected from a philosophy book. I didn't realize all the types of settling. Little gem of a book, especially the last chapter.
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews