Charlie

A Leap of Faith

Reviewed: 08-17-24

If the thing you WANT to do is believe in a western God, brother Aquinas is your guy.

I was really interested in hearing out a view from a man so widely revered, not really knowing what to expect and having spent a fair bit of time with other greats (Socrates, Aristotle, etc…). I’ve heard it now and, well, big surprise it’s pretty medieval. 🤷‍♂️

I’ did wonder at times whether there might be a relationship between Aquinas’ inability to genuinely close the deal and Kurt Goedel’s incompleteness theorem. It may well be that Goedel is expressing a similar idea in math as what Aquinas is expressing in theology, but it’d be above my pay grade to elaborate the details or to know for sure if that were even approximately correct. And if Aquino’s is going there, it seems to me that this is likely unintentional.

The professor does a wonderful job rstating and describing where Aquinas is coming, and furthermore connecting to other thinkers (Sartre, Kant, etc…) where sensible.

The presentation is great. I just found Aquinas himself more than a little uninteresting, except for a few nuggets like the 5 circles exercise.

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Moving

Reviewed: 06-22-24

I remember the testimony very clearly. I remember thinking “man DTs mafia machine is going to do everything it can to undermine this guy but I doubt they can achieve that”. Reading this all this time later I’d say that was correct but not entirely relevant. Mainly I hope this book reaches and connects with responsible republicans. I know they’re out there,

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Courage

Reviewed: 12-29-23

Honorable LC did a wonderful thing here, capturing not just the facts but the perspective of a principled person grappling with what her team-mates were up to. She simply refusing to go down that frightened and dark little road that so many of them (though certainly not all) chose when the bully came knocking. Having thought for so many years that some sort of financial literacy test ought to be a requirement for membership in congress, I now wonder whether they should have to watch the Wizard of Oz and write a book report on what the Lion represents before taking office. I think she did a good job distinguishing core Republican ideals from what's driving the action in the party now. One hopes her voice can reach open minded people of all political stripes. Can we kick the lunatic fringe back to the fringes where it belongs? A man can dream.

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Everything I expected and then some.

Reviewed: 09-24-23

It’s been a while since I’ve read Hitchens, this audiobook reminds me to go back and read more. I still remember reading Love, Poverty, and War when it came out and thinking “Where did this guy come from? “ This book answers the biggest part of that question. Tragically he left us too soon, and we’re surely poorer not having his vibrant-if at times abrasive-voice in the conversation today.

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A perspective with hearing

Reviewed: 05-27-22

I've read a good number of leadership books throughout my life. At this point I've read enough really great ones that when I read a new one it's not as if I'm looking for new information. It's more that I am looking to be reminded of things, and even more than that I'm interested in hearing a different perspective on the basic principles and possibly fresh examples of those who have lived them. My own view on this is that even once you "know" the stuff, a good book or two on the subject each year is a small investment to keep your thoughts evolving.

Wherever you are on your leadership journey this seems to me a perspective worth hearing. It's not ALL that the book is about - far from it - but there is a recurring theme of how a young person (that's not me!) ought to consider how leadership and its principles and practice fit into their fledgling life plan. I'd say a hardcover version of this book would make a wonderful gift to a person just wrapping up his or her undergraduate studies,

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Satisfied a lot of my curiosities about things

Reviewed: 10-12-14

I'd say this is the most helpful book I've found on the question of how our civilization has come to be the way it is. The book itself is magnificent, the author is, well, authoritative, and the narrator seemed to me to be exceptionally well suited to this material.

Durant is quick to point out that much of history is guessing, and the rest is prejudice, and attempts at several points throughout the book to delineate when he is venturing into what he sometimes calls the "mists of history" whose factual basis may be further solidified under further archeological progress or other research, or may not ever be further solidified. Some of what is dealt with in this book goes back to what little information we have and what we may or may not infer about the civilization (or at least the beginnings of it) that Cro-Magnon Man had. Yes we are well into the mists of history there, but there is some precious little that we do know, and some extrapolation from the available data makes for a very compelling picture.

It took me a very long time to finish this one, but I wanted to take my time with it. Also very early on in the listening I decided to purchase a paper copy of the 11 volume set (of which this book is volume 1).

If you ever wonder how our civilization came to be the way it is, and what forces drove that, this is a book well worth the (50 hour!) time investment. I will insist that my son read this.

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Really useful food for thought

Reviewed: 05-17-14

There is much to say here but I'll limit myself to a brief review. First off, the discussion on cognitive bias alone was worth the price of admission in my opinion. Much more to this series than that though. I intend to listen again. Very interesting from a professional perspective but also I believe these concepts apply to the decisions we make in our personal lives as well.

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2 people found this helpful

Useful practical information

Reviewed: 05-17-14

I found this series of lectures to be loaded with practical information and general guidance. I wouldn't characterize it as a "how to" manual, but more of a synopsis of what studies have to say about what works with children.

There was a good amount of time spent on the Montessori methods, how they were developed and what science (very recently) has to say about what this brilliant lady came up with a long time ago. Also gives some general guidance on how to verify that a school really practices that way or if it just has the Montessori sign out front.

It also does a good job balancing all of this concern for optimizing learning and development in children with the common sense observation (again, backed up by science, and again, only very recently) that kids need a certain amount of time for just plain old play.

Lots of other tips that may seem small but could turn out to be significant and not the kind of thing I would have ever thought of. For example, when kids do well at something, it's apparently better to praise their efforts than to praise their smarts or other innate abilities (i.e., "you worked hard on that, it worked out great, and I'm proud of you" is apparently much better vs. "Look at how well you did on that - I'm so proud of what a smart fellow you are"). Lots of little tips like that caused me to make adjustments to my approach/style on certain things. Has to do with what they call attribution style. Interesting stuff.

These are some of the elements that stood out in my mind. As a parent I'm glad I listened to it, and would recommend it to other parents.

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18 people found this helpful

Knowledge, Conduct, Governance --> Philosophy!

Reviewed: 03-18-14

It's a significant time commitment, but do not be deterred by this.

There is much to say, but to borrow from Protagoras, given the "shortness of human life" I'll just say that for anyone interested in the story of who we are, and how we've come to be this way, this belongs in your library.

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Didn't like it

Reviewed: 03-09-14

I'd return this if I could... it seems that I waited too long on that one.

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