Outline | Thinking Alive

0 This is a kind of ‘living book.’ Although this is essentially a personal attempt to keep the love of learning alive, it’s also a social enterprise.

0 I started conceiving it in 2000 when I came out of university precisely when the tech bubble started collapsing. I almost went into advertising but changes gave me doubts about the future there — and then thinking about the future became a more appealing career anyways. When 9/11 happened in 2001 I started taking this project very seriously, gravitating towards long-form journalism that addresses underlying problems — not just the challenges we face in the world, but how we think about them. As my thinking progressed the specific aims of this project have continued to evolve, but I always have (and always will) come back to the search for ways to address society’s biggest challenges and opportunities.

0 Although I write on a lot of different topics — from economics, business, war, politics, history, science, and technology, to media, design, comedy, and music — I try to focus on the most important topic of the moment. Right now that is the economy — which also provides great metaphors for my larger framework of ideas about human nature, knowledge, creativity, metaphysics, and the future.

0 I call it an “autobibliography” because it pretty much took over my life — I don’t have much of a biography apart from this. Around 2004 I got the sense the book was writing itself and I was just doing the typing. It’s as if the book is telling its own story. Gimmicky or whatever, but the “autobibliography” thing worked as an organizing theme to keep it together and moving forward.

0 It begins and ends as a philosophical project. Don’t ask me why I felt like I had to do it. In fact, that’s essentially what I’ve been trying to do: understand and explain why I’d even begin such a thing. (This is where the idea of a “book writing itself” came from.)

0 I was encouraged to learn that other people have had the same feeling — and that those people are none other than David Hume and Ludwig Wittgenstein (among others, I imagine… though, no doubt others who are far more obscure and may have died miserably on account of it). Both of those great philosophers went away from the world for a couple of years in their mid/late-20’s because of an urge to understand everything. It wasn’t even a choice — just as it wasn’t a choice with my experience. William James went through the same thing at the same age but wasn’t so inclined to document it right away. Emerson and Nietzsche went through it a few years later after being successful in (and then abandoning) careers that provided almost-but-not-quite enough intellectual freedom.

0 (Check out the Essays I’ve marked with three or four stars to get a sense of where I’m going.)

0 Whether or not the philosophical outcome was worth it (it would be ridiculous to hope it measures up to any of those giants), the education it put me through has surpassed my dreams and would have been impossible any other way. That’s why this bibliographical account I just finished is important to me.

0 More important than the books I’ve read is the practice of finding, evaluating, understanding, synthesizing, and adapting them to specific uses. Personal responsibility, self-discpline, and creative freedom cannot be taught. By definition, any education designed and directed by a system of set grades and credits cannot be creative in the fullest sense of the idea.

0 Part of my original aim was to develop a “creative education” that could be systematized. I certainly failed but I wouldn’t say it wasn’t a success. After all, I managed to get a creative education myself, and I couldn’t create something approaching it until I got that much at least.

0 Along with the 6000 word bibliographical essay I just published, I have 16,000 word essay on the “career” aspect of it (one particular argument is excerpted here). That makes reference to a lot of management and business theory, which ”grounds” the high-flying philosophy in the context of real-world, practical opportunities and challenges.

0 I’ve also made some progress with some of the softer, more literary or “thematic” aspects of it. The big picture has been germinating in my head for a half-decade, and the rough structure is taking shape in these outlines (also see my Résumé/Manifesto — a kind of pre-outline mission statement). My recent post about my old notebooks was a bit of a walk-through.

0 There are a lot of interwoven metaphors involved in order to make the philosophy work. The autobiographical and autobibliographical stuff is part of that (a few links to particular notions are here). The danger of mixed metaphors is not as great as the danger of philosophical tension. Besides their poetic quality, the metaphors assist the philosophy by soften the ideas without weakening them. They’re like complementary muscle tissue that release and stretch to help the body move effectively.

0 Narrative Bibliography: “A Bunch of Stuff I’ve Read”

0 First Outline: Résumé/Manifesto

0 Recent Notes:

0 Creative Philosophy

0 Exceptions to Every Rule, and Rules For Every Exception

0 Personal Moral Codes

0 Virtues of Idleness

0 Change Will Be Prolific

0 Designers’ Ego

0 Personality Type

0 Serial Development

0 Personalized Specialization