I recently taught some Georges Méliès and Buster Keaton films in a class of future middle-school teachers. They were all thrilled by the films and thought they would make great material for teaching teenagers.
"In other instances, you will dismiss certain authors—but then realize how valuable they were years later. Your first introduction to them plants a seed inside your soul, and it grows over time."
One book I find very important but that nobody seems to know is "Hannibal and Me" by Andreas Kluth. I think every teenager and college student should read it, so that they'll be ready for the twists and turns, advances and setbacks in career formation. Kluth is very well-versed in history and a very vivid writer, and he covers the career paths of many people, all the way from ancient times to the 20th century. Hannibal won every battle he ever fought but accomplished nothing in the long run. Meriwether Lewis flamed out early, while his partner William Clark went on to a happy career. Kluth's own uncle had nothing going for him until he was 50 and the US forces put him in charge of his area's economy in Germany. Then he wound up as the architect of the entire postwar German Economic Miracle. It's good instruction on how people's lives follow all kinds of paths and how success can result in failure and failure can result in success.
I would love to try this, but the reality is that I have responsibilities like a 15-year-old autistic son and trying to keep my head above water financially. I also have vision problems that limit my eye usage. In the past 50 years, I have read some of these books, but now I focus my reading and writing on current problems like AI taking over the world! Maybe if I didn't have to sleep, I could read all these books!
I think most of us have reading limitations, so we can use the list like a trail path or something into the back country...no fekking way I can read these in a year (It takes months to read Ulysses, lol) however he also says he reads 250 pages a week per limit, so it is more like an overview
You can start! I promise. Reading old books is a great answer to immersing yourself in AI. Plus you will be a better parent. I was surprised at the drama of Socrates' death in Plato, and how moved I was. I wish I hadn't put it off. And the beauty of reading the Odyssey is that it starts with a young man not much older than your son. I don't mean to sound like Pollyanna but I just want to encourage you. Maybe tell yourself you'll read at half-speed, or that you'll get up a half-hour early to read every day.
I'm old. I'm dumb. I'm diving in. Just ordered the first four weeks of books cuz I figure we'll probably want to keep them and write notes. Thank you for this! This is something I've been wanting to do forever.
Consume consume, consume, keep that space between stimulus and response filled without stopping to carefully examine what you read. Read one paragraph and reflect deeply upon it for days or just one book carefully is not part of this consumerism. The space between stimulus and response is not to be kept filled but be used for reflection as that space is where our greatest freedom and personal growth comes from, not from consumerism.
This is a nice idea in general Ted. I congratulate you that you have the time to do this. Unfortunately many of us are caught up in the machinery of modern life (a.k.a the digital control grid) and do not have the luxury of doing a project like this. I would also question whether putting a timeline on this work possibly subtly feeds into the notion of a time-driven existence that we are pushed into in our consumer culture. For example I really hate how Bezos started stamping the time required to read a Kindle book and how that has now spread to the mainstream media. Like we’re all corporate execs trying to budget our time down to the last millisecond. Sorry for the rant. Cheers.
For me, the timeline assured that I would, in fact, finish. I took an extra week here or there as I needed, but I learned a lot by committing to the "fast read." I didn't look at it as driving me to consume but rather as insurance that I wouldn't get stuck. My goal was to create a scaffolding for future reading and writing, and I didn't want to spend forever just with this list.
There are two Japanese films, both easily accessible, called "Swing Girls" and "Tampopo". What both have in common is that someone desperately urges a person who doesn't know what he's doing to be their teacher and mentor and it somehow still works out.
Very inspiring! I definitely want to start reading Plato/Aristotle now. Or perhaps a deeper dive on Aristotle first? He sounds'cool' 😎👍 As I'm not planning on squeezing everything into a year.
Amen for the 52 films
"Maybe the best solution would be to add one movie per week to the assignments—that would give us 52 films over the course of the year."
PLEASE, we want the 52 films!
I recently taught some Georges Méliès and Buster Keaton films in a class of future middle-school teachers. They were all thrilled by the films and thought they would make great material for teaching teenagers.
"In other instances, you will dismiss certain authors—but then realize how valuable they were years later. Your first introduction to them plants a seed inside your soul, and it grows over time."
This is real. I can relate.
Please do films!!!!!
One book I find very important but that nobody seems to know is "Hannibal and Me" by Andreas Kluth. I think every teenager and college student should read it, so that they'll be ready for the twists and turns, advances and setbacks in career formation. Kluth is very well-versed in history and a very vivid writer, and he covers the career paths of many people, all the way from ancient times to the 20th century. Hannibal won every battle he ever fought but accomplished nothing in the long run. Meriwether Lewis flamed out early, while his partner William Clark went on to a happy career. Kluth's own uncle had nothing going for him until he was 50 and the US forces put him in charge of his area's economy in Germany. Then he wound up as the architect of the entire postwar German Economic Miracle. It's good instruction on how people's lives follow all kinds of paths and how success can result in failure and failure can result in success.
I would love to try this, but the reality is that I have responsibilities like a 15-year-old autistic son and trying to keep my head above water financially. I also have vision problems that limit my eye usage. In the past 50 years, I have read some of these books, but now I focus my reading and writing on current problems like AI taking over the world! Maybe if I didn't have to sleep, I could read all these books!
I think most of us have reading limitations, so we can use the list like a trail path or something into the back country...no fekking way I can read these in a year (It takes months to read Ulysses, lol) however he also says he reads 250 pages a week per limit, so it is more like an overview
You can start! I promise. Reading old books is a great answer to immersing yourself in AI. Plus you will be a better parent. I was surprised at the drama of Socrates' death in Plato, and how moved I was. I wish I hadn't put it off. And the beauty of reading the Odyssey is that it starts with a young man not much older than your son. I don't mean to sound like Pollyanna but I just want to encourage you. Maybe tell yourself you'll read at half-speed, or that you'll get up a half-hour early to read every day.
I'm old. I'm dumb. I'm diving in. Just ordered the first four weeks of books cuz I figure we'll probably want to keep them and write notes. Thank you for this! This is something I've been wanting to do forever.
You will love it! It's work but it's incredibly worthwhile.
When you develop your reading list for the mysticism focus, I hope you alert us.
Consume consume, consume, keep that space between stimulus and response filled without stopping to carefully examine what you read. Read one paragraph and reflect deeply upon it for days or just one book carefully is not part of this consumerism. The space between stimulus and response is not to be kept filled but be used for reflection as that space is where our greatest freedom and personal growth comes from, not from consumerism.
This is a nice idea in general Ted. I congratulate you that you have the time to do this. Unfortunately many of us are caught up in the machinery of modern life (a.k.a the digital control grid) and do not have the luxury of doing a project like this. I would also question whether putting a timeline on this work possibly subtly feeds into the notion of a time-driven existence that we are pushed into in our consumer culture. For example I really hate how Bezos started stamping the time required to read a Kindle book and how that has now spread to the mainstream media. Like we’re all corporate execs trying to budget our time down to the last millisecond. Sorry for the rant. Cheers.
For me, the timeline assured that I would, in fact, finish. I took an extra week here or there as I needed, but I learned a lot by committing to the "fast read." I didn't look at it as driving me to consume but rather as insurance that I wouldn't get stuck. My goal was to create a scaffolding for future reading and writing, and I didn't want to spend forever just with this list.
Hey, I just read The Luzhin Defense, too! The chapters about the protagonist's boyhood, in particular, are among the best things he ever wrote.
There are two Japanese films, both easily accessible, called "Swing Girls" and "Tampopo". What both have in common is that someone desperately urges a person who doesn't know what he's doing to be their teacher and mentor and it somehow still works out.
sounds ambitious I fancy a go
Very inspiring! I definitely want to start reading Plato/Aristotle now. Or perhaps a deeper dive on Aristotle first? He sounds'cool' 😎👍 As I'm not planning on squeezing everything into a year.
💎💕📚💕💎