The idea that life should be one third learn, one third earn, one third return is appealing, even if not necessarily complete (where is the time for playing, for reflecting, for relaxing etc?), and provides a neat encapsulation of Charles Handy's advice that we should carefully "chunk" our time in order to lead a "portfolio life".
Others are trying to scale this idea to the societal level, advocating living in intentional communities.
If third sector, independent sector, voluntary sector or social sector all have their limitations, should we instead call it the humanity sector?
Aristotle coined the term phronesis, meaning practical intelligence. It's the kind of wisdom that emerges from the long training of mind, body, character and engagement with a tradition. This chimes with Malcolm Gladwell's recent assertion that acquiring true expertise in a discipline requires an average of 10,000 hours of practice.
