Category: education

• November 29, 2012

  Goodbye, New York

  You come to New York thinking that you have a pretty good idea what it is you’re looking for, only to discover that, once you live here long enough you have no pretty good idea at all. New York is a great instructor that way. I remember speaking with a man in his early 40s…
• November 27, 2012

  E.F. Schumacher on the moral and the economic

  I’ve been having some good conversations with people at the New Economics Institute, formerly the Schumacher Society, about alternative economic models and, in my searches, I came upon this remarkable essay by E.F. Schumacher, “Buddhist Economics” (reprinted in his very well-known book, Small is Beautiful). In lieu of summarizing the argument Schumacher makes, I would prefer…
• November 26, 2012

  Paul Graham on good startup ideas

  This weekend I read an uncannily familiar essay by Paul Graham called “How to Get Startup Ideas.” What was uncanny about the essay was that it seemed–as all good voices do–as if he were saying more clearly the sorts of things I’d come to independently. Also uncanny because I’ve never had more than half a foot…
• November 21, 2012

  Coming to earnestness

  The slow youth are dim, dim-witted, and droll; they remain there and get decent jobs. The clever ones are boundlessly sarcastic, for they have discovered how to stretch and bend their voices and twist their faces. They can say one thing, mean the opposite, and make themselves ugly in the bargain. But sarcasm is only…
• November 20, 2012

  The relationship between direct speech and philosophical inquiry

  Direct Speech and Philosophical Inquiry I believe we creatures of habit, we too-clever beings have learned all forms of indirect speech. To overcome indirectness, I have sought to teach direct speech. Indeed, I have insisted that a philosophical conversation cannot begun unless the philosophical guide and the conversation partner engage exclusively in direct speech. In…