Lately I’ve been missing the old sense of wonder and enthusiasm I once had for the future. It seems to be a natural development in the life cycle: it was easier to get excited “when I didn’t know any better,” or hadn’t “seen it all before.” I’ve been able to get some leverage on that [...]
Tagged as: awe, change, emotions, experience, henry adams, jacques barzun, machines, religion, society, technology, utopias
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How much do I love Jacques Barzun? The exemplary historian and teacher, proponent of the Great Books tradition, Dean of Faculties and Provost at Columbia University for over a decade, who also graced the cover of Time magazine for a feature on American intellectuals, etc, etc, etc… wrote this about amateurs: A world of professionals [...]
Tagged as: amateurs, expertise, higher education, history, jacques barzun, learning, professionalism, professions, universities
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Robert Fulford’s recent column addresses a favourite topic, irritating phrases: A boss I endured in my youth told me early in our relationship that he favoured “forward planning.” His voice spoke of stern commitment to management principles. Afflicted as I was by the frightened politeness of the young, I lacked the nerve to say that [...]
Tagged as: clichés, communication, editing, grammar, insignificant verbiage, jacques barzun, language, robert fulford, vocabulary, writing
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I won’t get into preaching here. I think we each oughta be responsible for finding our own heroes and moral exemplars (if that’s not already being too preachy of me). Unfortunately even that might not even be within easy reach. There’s an article in the March Weekly Standard called “The Age of Irresponsibility” by Matthew [...]
Tagged as: barack obama, elitism, heroes, jacques barzun, moral exemplars, morality, politics, populism, role models
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This may or may not be interesting to anyone (I’m assuming it’s not) but I feel like I need to write this to get a more coherent sense of the influences that shaped my thinking. Or maybe that’s not it — I don’t really know why I feel like I need to write this, I just [...]
Tagged as: alfred north whitehead, autobibliography, bibliography, business books, confucianism, darwin's dangerous idea, discipline, eupsychian management, friedrich nietzsche, jacques barzun, jose ortega y gasset, peter drucker, plato, political theory, positive psychology, pragmatism, reading, richard rorty, self-becoming, self-creation, william james, writing
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