One of the pleasures of writing these essays is the gradual realization of what it is that I am writing about. It’s a process like peeling, although I love all the layers equally, or like exhaling and sinking deeper underwater, although I like the surface, too. I worked on this essay for several weeks, and it was…
Category: Phenomenology
How Note-Taking Can Support Understanding: Writing as a Form of Thinking
Here is a video in which I consider a commonplace and apparently straightforward activity, note-taking, and try to show its strangeness and potential. What are we doing when we take notes? Are we simply keeping a record of what we have heard or read, or can note-taking become part of the process through which we…
A Chekhov Reading Project: Selected Stories (Pevear and Volokhonsky)
Starting this week, I’ve begun a reading project focused on Selected Stories of Anton Chekhov, translated by Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky. The plan is to read slowly and post a short video commentary on each story. I announced the plan last week in this video. Below is the list of the stories/videos to be…
Reading Erich Fromm’s On Being Human
“Today the primary issue is not the competition of people among one another and the antagonisms that result from the spirit of competition. Quite the contrary: People today form a team, a well-oiled group that works smoothly together, since this is the only way that large enterprises can function. Modern industry and economics have effectively…
Soulful Interviews
What is a soulful interview? Why is it important? How does it impact research and recruitment? Every interview has the potential to be a singular event, yet most interviews gravitate toward patterns that are frequently repeated. The spectrum between complete uniqueness and total repetition represents the range in which most interviews take place. Interviews, whether…