I first heard of the British philosopher Alain de Botton over 10 years ago when my brother read Status Anxiety and was blown away. He left it on my coffee table and there it sat, formidably, for years, essentially untouched. De Botton’s subjects of interest were so applicable it was impossible for me to resist referencing his work at dinner parties and wowing rapt audiences with the brief synopsis from the book jacket or a first paragraph from a recent New Yorker contribution. My poor brother, hip to my uninformed nonsense, would just roll his eyes.