“Every person can reach a full life.” It’s a pretty strange thing for a physicist to say. I think Goldratt focused on it because what most people think they want is an easy life. He didn’t think that was very worthwhile.

“You want an easy life,” he used to ask. “That’s simple. Just hit yourself in the head with a hammer hard enough and life will be so easy they’ll even bring you your food.” He wanted a full life, and TOC was his way of teaching everyone that they could have one too.

What he meant by full life was the ability to work toward one’s goal. He didn’t think you should live his way, or some other arbitrary way. He wanted you to live your way, to move toward your goal. But he saw that most of us get caught in useless circles of endless repetition during which we have no forward movement. For Goldratt, a full life was a life of movement toward your goal, always seeking, always progressing.

We can do that. We just have to use logic.