10 Comments

Great work Johnathan!

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Hey Johnathan! Read that you quit your job; that's awesome! Especially given recents development in AI (see Leopold's essay at www.situational-awareness.ai) I think the need for this kind of introspection & understanding of self+history is incredibly valuable.

Also wanted to let you know that I think the link www.greatbooks.io is not working! Well at least for me :/ Wishing you the best!

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Thanks for flagging. It's greatbooks.io ... but not sure why www is not working odd. I'll look into it

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What’s your height?? Really curious

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6 foot savage

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Thank you very much for this.

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Wow as an teenager this is really deep...

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Looks like a slick production with some heavy hitting guests. However I take exception with your reasons for reading great books (I don’t think we’d agree on what “the” great books are—there have been bloody wars fought over that). While “understanding ourselves” and gaining historical insights are not undesirable, there is a greater attainment to be found in books: the elevation of the soul. When we read a great book we converse with the man or woman who wrote it, whether it was written fifty years ago or fifteen hundred years ago. We enter their mind, or rather they enter ours. Furthermore we bear witness the capacity of humanity for beauty, cruelty, love, and creation. This is the miraculous and the divine and supersedes what paltry applications we may make with the insights we might glean.

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As a current Columbia Philosophy student, this is awesome! Look forward to the series Johnathan.

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Brilliant!

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