How many wealthy techies I know in Silicon Valley who boast they have not read a book "since college." They read trade mags in their discipline but that's it. And yet they make strident opinions on everything going on everywhere. They stoke the fires of narcissism.
I would say it's more ignorance than narcissism, but you confirm what I've seen in my world. Not many read for the intellectual pleasure of learning much less for it as art and a broadening enjoyment of what's inside a piece of work.
Here are some I listen to: Neil deGrasse Tyson, The four Moonshot intellectuals, Mo Gawdat, Ray Kurzweil, Charles Stross, David Sinclair, Heather Cox Richardson, and many more on this level. Most are wealthy because of their intellect, and Ted!
At the moment, it seems the twin metrics of money ($) and popularity (followers) are treated too seriously; a culture of status, not substance. Take Nicholas Carr, who called the alarm on social media during a time when it was virtual sacrilege to do so. He doesn't nearly get the respect he deserves for being so farsighted.
Nicholas Carr is great! His book The Shallows was one of the first books that shaped my views on what's going on with us and the digital media. He totally deserves all our respect
I'm so sick of seeing "news" stories that note that so-and-so has however many thousands of "followers" on whatever social media platform. And people are so desperate, or so bored, that they'll click on pictures of food.
I live in Oxford, UK and what is striking is the number of recently built university buildings named after billionaires, some of whom had no prior connection to the university until their "philanthrophy". Leonard Blavatnik, Ratan Tata, the Reuben brothers, Stephen A. Schwarzman, Wafic Said... none of these could be considered intellectuals in the traditional sense, just very wealthy benefactor with controversial associations.
Admittedly this is not a recent development, as Cecil Rhodes (who did a single term at Oxford and did not complete his education) also infamously paid with his illgotten fortune to have his name associated with a scholarship and building at Somerville College with his statue.
I suppose Harvard should be glad they never opened a Jeffrey Epstein Center or established an Epstein Trust.
Philip Adams is a public intellectual. Anand Giridharadas is a public intellectual. Melvyn Bragg is a public intellectual. Three examples from three countries and very different social backgrounds. Men who have dedicated their life and work to learning and questioning and discussion, instead of pontificating and being a pompous pain in the arse. None of the billionaire wannabe “I’ll comment on everything coz I’m rich” gits fit that bill, frankly.
Re: Howard Hughes; the man had OCD at a time when it was considered untreatable. He locked himself away and didn’t bathe because (not rationally) he feared germs from outside rather than his own filth. He had the money to live out his compulsions to the extreme, and he’s why the OCD stereotype in our culture is germs/cleanliness rather than, say, someone who obsessively reads the state law code online to make sure they haven’t accidentally committed an obscure misdemeanor, even if their rational mind tells them they shouldn’t be so viscerally anxious.
I just think that would be an important caveat to include before making comments about his reclusiveness/personal hygiene.
And to my fellow OCD patients: there’s help, but it’s not in regular talk therapy (which makes it worse). It’s ERP )and possibly Rx)
Most likely Hughes was so messed up not because of his money but the crashes he endured during his aviation career, especially the last one, presumably giving him what we now call "traumatic brain Injury" and possibly the OCD. He actually was an aviation pioneer.
While we're talking aviation, that expert pilot Charles Lindbergh didn't cover himself with glory for his sage evaluation of the Third Reich. The public noticed, too.
Small world department: my first boss's roommate at Cornell was Clifford Irving, author of the book which aroused Hughes.
A close friend of mine has OCD and definitely has a germ phobia, and that whole hand washing thing. You do not want to have OCD. The root emotion is fear.
What's so puzzling to me is how much credence the public attributes to these rich faux intellectuals and their opinions or half-baked stances, when often the source of their immense wealth is mostly luck, or worse, nefarious means(Epstein being one, but SBF comes to mind as well). Nevermind the rich celebrities who seem to think their opinions on the world matter and are correct simply because they are rich and famous, but Ricky Gervais did a wonderful job discussing that.
I’m not sure we can have another author like Eric Hoffer, a longshoreman, who could write a book on his observations of cult behavior without PhD or millionaire status.
Very interesting. I know several people who work or have worked for intellectuals producing “their” intellectual products for them. It seems today that a public intellectual is at most like a TV news host.
There are people out here that are dealing in the real world. No fanfare. No glitz. No crypto named after us. Yet, attempting to help others through this Wonderland.
1. "Consider the case of City College of New York, where the finest minds of the proletariat got book learning on the cheap."
This was in large part because at that time, The Better Sorts Of Educational Institutions were basically finishing schools for the wealthy, and were not exactly famously hospitable towards immigrants, Jews and the like.
2. The reason we see billionaires as public intellectuals is because for better or worse, the value of a thing is increasingly measured in terms of its utility, and by extension, that means money. "If you'se so smart, how come you ain't rich?" Even if an SBF weren't smart, it wouldn't matter.
How and why we got to this is another question. In the meantime, start liking it.
During the pandemic, the media quoted Bill Gates constantly on healthcare policy and other matters healthcare related, like vaccines. Why? He didn't even earn a bachelor's degree from Harvard, let alone any degree related to healthcare. Guess money is the right credential these days. So how about it, Ted? Want to discuss the afterlife equation with me? Most people know it as E = MC2.
How many wealthy techies I know in Silicon Valley who boast they have not read a book "since college." They read trade mags in their discipline but that's it. And yet they make strident opinions on everything going on everywhere. They stoke the fires of narcissism.
I would say it's more ignorance than narcissism, but you confirm what I've seen in my world. Not many read for the intellectual pleasure of learning much less for it as art and a broadening enjoyment of what's inside a piece of work.
At the risk of sounding like a typical Reddit "contributor":
"Epstein was given a keycard and passcode access to the facility for Harvard’s Program for Evolutionary Dynamics."
PED? Oh...
You can't make this stuff up.
We’re ready for a ‘Ted’s top 10 Substack intellectuals’ post!
Here are some I listen to: Neil deGrasse Tyson, The four Moonshot intellectuals, Mo Gawdat, Ray Kurzweil, Charles Stross, David Sinclair, Heather Cox Richardson, and many more on this level. Most are wealthy because of their intellect, and Ted!
Subscribe!
At the moment, it seems the twin metrics of money ($) and popularity (followers) are treated too seriously; a culture of status, not substance. Take Nicholas Carr, who called the alarm on social media during a time when it was virtual sacrilege to do so. He doesn't nearly get the respect he deserves for being so farsighted.
Nicholas Carr is great! His book The Shallows was one of the first books that shaped my views on what's going on with us and the digital media. He totally deserves all our respect
I'm so sick of seeing "news" stories that note that so-and-so has however many thousands of "followers" on whatever social media platform. And people are so desperate, or so bored, that they'll click on pictures of food.
What a world.
You should interview Heather Cox Richardson
Definitely and enthusiastically agree!
Time to dispel the myth that wealth always equals intelligence. That one failed us massively as a society.
I live in Oxford, UK and what is striking is the number of recently built university buildings named after billionaires, some of whom had no prior connection to the university until their "philanthrophy". Leonard Blavatnik, Ratan Tata, the Reuben brothers, Stephen A. Schwarzman, Wafic Said... none of these could be considered intellectuals in the traditional sense, just very wealthy benefactor with controversial associations.
Admittedly this is not a recent development, as Cecil Rhodes (who did a single term at Oxford and did not complete his education) also infamously paid with his illgotten fortune to have his name associated with a scholarship and building at Somerville College with his statue.
I suppose Harvard should be glad they never opened a Jeffrey Epstein Center or established an Epstein Trust.
Oxford should at least have the building names pronounced with confusing phonetic additions and deletions i.e. Magdalen.
Philip Adams is a public intellectual. Anand Giridharadas is a public intellectual. Melvyn Bragg is a public intellectual. Three examples from three countries and very different social backgrounds. Men who have dedicated their life and work to learning and questioning and discussion, instead of pontificating and being a pompous pain in the arse. None of the billionaire wannabe “I’ll comment on everything coz I’m rich” gits fit that bill, frankly.
Re: Howard Hughes; the man had OCD at a time when it was considered untreatable. He locked himself away and didn’t bathe because (not rationally) he feared germs from outside rather than his own filth. He had the money to live out his compulsions to the extreme, and he’s why the OCD stereotype in our culture is germs/cleanliness rather than, say, someone who obsessively reads the state law code online to make sure they haven’t accidentally committed an obscure misdemeanor, even if their rational mind tells them they shouldn’t be so viscerally anxious.
I just think that would be an important caveat to include before making comments about his reclusiveness/personal hygiene.
And to my fellow OCD patients: there’s help, but it’s not in regular talk therapy (which makes it worse). It’s ERP )and possibly Rx)
thanks for a thoughtful response.
Most likely Hughes was so messed up not because of his money but the crashes he endured during his aviation career, especially the last one, presumably giving him what we now call "traumatic brain Injury" and possibly the OCD. He actually was an aviation pioneer.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Howard_Hughes
Something similar happened to Ernest Hemingway:
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/hemingway-and-his-wife-survived-two-plane-crashes-just-one-day-apart-180982884/
While we're talking aviation, that expert pilot Charles Lindbergh didn't cover himself with glory for his sage evaluation of the Third Reich. The public noticed, too.
Small world department: my first boss's roommate at Cornell was Clifford Irving, author of the book which aroused Hughes.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clifford_Irving
A close friend of mine has OCD and definitely has a germ phobia, and that whole hand washing thing. You do not want to have OCD. The root emotion is fear.
What's so puzzling to me is how much credence the public attributes to these rich faux intellectuals and their opinions or half-baked stances, when often the source of their immense wealth is mostly luck, or worse, nefarious means(Epstein being one, but SBF comes to mind as well). Nevermind the rich celebrities who seem to think their opinions on the world matter and are correct simply because they are rich and famous, but Ricky Gervais did a wonderful job discussing that.
I’m not sure we can have another author like Eric Hoffer, a longshoreman, who could write a book on his observations of cult behavior without PhD or millionaire status.
Love Hoffer. I’m doing a book club for “The True Believer” next month.
Very interesting. I know several people who work or have worked for intellectuals producing “their” intellectual products for them. It seems today that a public intellectual is at most like a TV news host.
There are people out here that are dealing in the real world. No fanfare. No glitz. No crypto named after us. Yet, attempting to help others through this Wonderland.
1. "Consider the case of City College of New York, where the finest minds of the proletariat got book learning on the cheap."
This was in large part because at that time, The Better Sorts Of Educational Institutions were basically finishing schools for the wealthy, and were not exactly famously hospitable towards immigrants, Jews and the like.
2. The reason we see billionaires as public intellectuals is because for better or worse, the value of a thing is increasingly measured in terms of its utility, and by extension, that means money. "If you'se so smart, how come you ain't rich?" Even if an SBF weren't smart, it wouldn't matter.
How and why we got to this is another question. In the meantime, start liking it.
Yup yup - time to start liking AI too. That's progress. You can't avoid progress, just like you can't avoid Trump and Musk.
As a feral cat, there are lots of things i have to live with, because they're not going to go away
So what you're saying is Trump will never go away. That is terrifying.
No, Trump is like that obnoxious pit bull that lives near me. He'll go away eventually. Pit bulls in general, not so much.
But he is progress too. If we have to live with AI, we have to live with him too.
He'll live to a 100 and the day he dies Republicans will start investigation his murder. Mark my words.
Even if Trump were to drop through a crack in the earth, the forces gave rise to Trump would still be here.
During the pandemic, the media quoted Bill Gates constantly on healthcare policy and other matters healthcare related, like vaccines. Why? He didn't even earn a bachelor's degree from Harvard, let alone any degree related to healthcare. Guess money is the right credential these days. So how about it, Ted? Want to discuss the afterlife equation with me? Most people know it as E = MC2.
Lord preserve us from the plethora of billionaire nitwits, knuckleheads and ignorant buffoons running our country into the ground.