In week 5 of my humanities crash course, I read Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics and Poetics. I also listened to more Bach, looked at Italian Baroque sculpture, and watched a classic – if somewhat boring – movie. Getting through it despite the difficulties was part of the point. Readings Let’s start with the Nicomachean Ethics. It’s available as a beautiful free ebook over at Standard Ebooks. That said, I opted for a paid version from Amazon. Why? Because I found the book hard to read. For the first time in this course, I felt like I was being forced to eat my broccoli. Aristotle is brilliant, but he’s also circuitous. The Kindle version I bought included an outline that made it easier. Nicomachean Ethics looks to answer a key question: “What’s the purpose of life?” Aristotle’s answer is happiness, but not in the sense we think of. Most of us associate happiness with pleasure. Aristotle means it in a different sense. He uses the term eudaemonia, which is something like flourishing through living a life of virtue for its own sake. It’s not something inherent in us, but something we work towards because we want to develop our full potential. Aristotle outlines four stages to virtue: Unvirtuousness - rejecting virtue altogether Incontinence - knowing what’s virtuous but failing to do it Continence - doing what’s right despite internal resistence True virtuousness - doing what’s right for its own sake Virtuousness isn’t about thinking or talking about doing good but actually doing good – i.e., adopting virtuous habits. Paraphrasing another famous philosopher, good is as good does. What is “good”? There are no canned answers; we must evaluate situations as they come. Often, the answer lies in the mean between extremes. For example, courage lies somewhere between cowardice and recklessness. Aristotle contrasts other extremes in areas such as generosity and pride. Friendship is central to Aristotle’s conception of happiness. Humans are social animals; our well-being depends on our relations with others. Aristotle provides a taxonomy that ranges from friendships of convenience to those motivated by virtue. These latter are the most valuable and rare. Aristotle’s approach is highly pragmatic. He advocates practical rather than theoretical wisdom. For example, he acknowledges that happiness requires a baseline of material comfort. Self-mortification won’t get you there. The book reminded of the Asian concept of the Middle Way. Like Confucius, Aristotle rejects extremes and encourages wisdom and judgment based on practice rather than theoretical understanding. Practical wisdom is more important than abstract knowledge. On to the Poetics, which is both shorter and easier. It’s an analysis of narrative forms. Aristotle suggests the purpose of art is imitating life. There are various means of doing so; the Poetics focuses on the theater. Aristotle distinguishes three kinds of narratives: Tragedy deals with serious issues and noble characters Comedy deals with common people and everyday situations Epics are longer narratives that deal with heroic subjects The Poetics explores what makes them tick. Aristotle’s advice remains relevant; e.g., the famous “three act” structure comes from his analysis. Audiovisual Music: Bach’s Cello Suites. I’ve heard this work many times; I own Yo-Yo Ma’s 1998 recording, so that’s the version I know best. For this exercise, I checked out a version by Pablo Casals. (I prefer the Ma recording.) Art: sculpture by Gian Lorenzo Bernini. As I’ve mentioned in previous entries, sculpture is hard to appreciate online. That said, I found a video with useful footage of key works: This video says a lot about our times. At first, I was excited: a free hour-long documentary about Bernini’s work! The footage seemed well-done, with professional lighting and lots of close-ups of the work. The film also featured a calm, somber narration with an “erudite” English accent. But there were also signs that this was an amateur effort. Graphics (e.g., titles, photos) and edits looked unprofessional. Halfway through the video, I realized the narrator was an AI and the script taken verbatim from another website. Fooled me! But I did learn about Bernini and saw his sculpture closer than ever. Cinema: as I’ve done in the last two weeks, I asked AI for a movie recommendation. In this case, I asked Perplexity for classic films that reflect Aristotle’s ethics. It suggested four: 3:10 TO YUMA (2007) THE SEVENTH SEAL (1957) MY DINNER WITH ANDRE (1981) THE FOUNTAINHEAD (1949) I’d never heard of 3:10 TO YUMA, but it didn’t fit my criterion for “classic.” I’d read The Fountainhead and seen THE SEVENTH SEAL and neither seemed apt. So I went with MY DINNER WITH ANDRE, which had been on my to-watch list for a long time. I knew the film’s premise: an intimate dinnertime conversation between two semi-fictionalized versions of Wallace Shawn and André Gregory. It turned out to be mostly Gregory talking. This clip gives you a taste: Reflections As with Nicomachean Ethics, I found MY DINNER WITH ANDRE hard to get through. Wikipedia says it’s supposed to be a “comedy-drama,” but it’s neither funny or dramatic. Instead, I found it mostly boring. That said, I see how it illustrates ideas in the book. Both characters are working through the purpose of life. Wally has become complacent, eking out joy from simple pleasures (e.g., not finding cockroaches in his coffee) while André sacrifices intimacy for extreme experiences. Their friendship gives them a way to reflect on their pursuits, but they’re both stuck in self-centered framings that keep them from eudaemonia. Wally might come closest. By film’s end, he’s recaptured some connection with reality. But André seems lost. At one point, he says of other people, They’re living in an insane dreamworld. They’re not looking. That seems very strange to me. I felt the same about his narratives. He traveled great physical and psychic distances looking for fulfillment he could’ve found at home if he could only see clearly. Alas, as with Travis in PARIS: TEXAS, the 1960s counterculture ideology distorted André’s worldview. Pining for extremes, he exchanges reality (e.g., his work in the theater, domestic life with his wife, Bonita) for abstract ideals. Remaking the world from scratch is a fool’s errand; bills eventually come due. At middle age, both Travis and André come up short. Watching this film and reading the Nicomachean Ethics were exercises in flexing Aristotelian continence. I finished both but didn’t enjoy them. Why did I push through? Because this course is a worthwhile endeavor, and that entails sacrifice. It’s to do easier by keeping the broader goal in focus. The point isn’t getting pleasure from every book or movie; it’s becoming the kind of person who acts from practical wisdom. Notes on Note-taking I used AI to understand the Nicomachean Ethics. As I read on my iPad, I swiped between the Kindle and ChatGPT apps. For example, I asked the AI about the relationship between continence and willpower. Among other things, it said that While Aristotle acknowledges the value of continence (self-control), his ultimate goal is to cultivate a state of virtue where desires and reason are harmonized. He argues that this is achieved not through raw willpower but through proper education, practice, and environment. By fostering good habits and practical wisdom, individuals can overcome the internal conflicts that lead to incontinence and live a life of flourishing. This was useful. As with previous weeks, I also looked to YouTube for help in understanding the reading. This conversation was particularly useful: After finishing the books, I created notes for each in my Obsidian vault. But I edited these notes in Emacs using obsidian.el rather than Obsidian. The reason for this is I’m experimenting with gptel, which lets me work with AIs in Emacs. Using gptel, I have a running Claude chat window alongside my notes. I can include particular buffers and files as part of the context that gets sent to the LLM. I can also highlight particular regions and send that. I’m just starting these experiments, but it already seems like a more flexible way of developing texts with LLMs. (Albeit one that requires effort: Emacs isn’t for everybody. Again, continence!) Up Next We’re reading Plato’s Symposium and books 1 and 6-8 of Herodotus’s Histories for next week. I read the Histories a couple of decades ago and loved them, so I’m looking forward to revisiting them. Check out Gioia’s post for the full syllabus. Also, I’ve started a Substack to share what I’m learning in this course. Head over there if you want to subscribe and comment.

Nikki Anderson interviewed me for her User Research Strategist podcast. Our focus was AI’s impact on research and informaton architecture – and how practitioners can take advantage of this new technology. See the episode page, which includes show notes. If you want to learn more about my experiments in AI, check out this page.

In episode 2 of the Traction Heroes podcast, Harry shared an extreme personal experience in service to exploring the question: How can we act skillfully in unfamiliar circumstances? I considered adding a trigger warning – Harry’s story made me wince. That said, we landed in a practical place. I’m excited about Traction Heroes. These conversations are more personal than those in my previous show, while providing lots of value. IMO of course – I’d love to hear your thoughts. Traction Heroes ep. 2: Unprecedented

I’m undertaking a year-long crash course in the humanities. These are my notes for week 4. Following Ted Gioia’s curriculum, this week I read the Analects of Confucius. As I did last week, ChatGPT helped me select a movie to complement this reading – albeit indirectly. Readings I’d heard of Confucius and occasionally seen some of his sayings, but hadn’t read the Analects. It wasn’t easy. The text consists of pithy statements attributed to Confucius or his disciples. It’s fragmentary and non-linear. I suspect much nuance is lost in translation. (I used the Penguin edition translated and commented by Annping Chin.) It was produced in and for a different context. (Chin’s notes helped.) That said, themes emerged. Confucius values “humaneness”: a way of being and doing good. As with Socrates, what this might mean is illustrated through examples and interactions with others (primarily, disciples.) The humane person aspires to do good for others – often at their own expense. The individual’s relationship to social structures is perhaps the book’s central concern: Master You [Youzi] said, “It is rare for a person who is filial to his parents and respectful to his elders to be inclined to transgress against his superiors. And it has never happened that a person who is not inclined to transgress against his superiors is inclined to create chaos. A gentleman looks after the roots. With the roots firmly established, a moral way will grow. Is it not true then that being filial to one’s parents and being respectful to one’s elders are the roots of one’s humanity [ren]? Individuals should cultivate wisdom and knowledge. The following statement might well be a raison d’etre for this crash course: The Master said, “I suppose there are those who try to innovate without having acquired knowledge first. I am not one of those. I use my ears well and widely, and I choose what is good and follow it. I use my eyes well and widely and I retain what I observe. This is the next-best kind of knowledge.” Audiovisual Music: Gioia recommended The Hugo Masters, an anthology of Classical Chinese music. Apple Music has volume one, which focuses on bowed instruments. I was surprised by the similarities between this music and that of the old American west. (Perhaps it’s recency bias from Ry Cooder’s PARIS: TEXAS soundtrack.) Art: Gioia recommended a website that highlights ancient Chinese arts and crafts. I’m sorry to say I gave this only minimal attention. My first “fail” in the crash course. Cinema: as I did last week, I asked ChatGPT for movies I could pair with this week’s reading. Specifically, I asked for movies that reflected Confucian values. It gave me the following list: “Ikiru” (1952) - Akira Kurosawa “To Kill a Mockingbird” (1962) - Robert Mulligan “The Family” (1915) - Fei Mu “Tokyo Story” (1953) - Yasujirō Ozu “It’s a Wonderful Life” (1946) - Frank Capra “Rashomon” (1950) - Akira Kurosawa “The Joy Luck Club” (1993) - Wayne Wang “The Godfather” (1972) - Francis Ford Coppola I gravitated towards (3) because it seemed a) older and b) directed by a Chinese director. Alas, THE FAMILY is a hallucination. While Fei Mu is indeed an important Chinese director, he didn’t direct this film – indeed, he was nine in 1915. Sigh. But I hadn’t heard of Mu before, and this mention led me to discover another film of his, SPRING IN A SMALL TOWN. It’s available in its entirety (with English subtitles) in YouTube: As with many older films, it moves glacially. It also felt more staged than contemporary Western films. (Compare its cinematography with CITIZEN KANE, which is seven years older.) That said, it does reflect Confucian values, at least as I understood them. Two short lectures by Prof. Christopher Rea help contextualize the film and explain its significance: YouTube is a source of endless treasures for someone driven to self-education. Reflections Confucius’s approach is what we might call “conservative”: social and filial responsibilities overrule individual desires. Rather than rethinking old ways of being, we’re encouraged to play our assigned roles without complaint.Being good means fulfilling established duties toward family and community. (“With the roots firmly established, a moral way will grow.”) In the movie, Yuwen sacrifices her love for Zhichen because of her commitment as Liyan‘a wife. In a modern Western context, this feels quaint. For us, “lived experience” trumps older “received” knowledge, especially when dealing with social relations. We wince at the notion of having “superiors.” Confucius would say we’ve lost sight of the roots. Or worse, we see them but believe they’re rotten and must be hacked out. But our individual selves don’t amount to much; it’s the broader context that matters. Our duty is keeping the context healthy and moving forward. Self-effacement is especially important in times of tumultuous change. The movie is set after the end of the Sino-Japanese war and during the Chinese revolution. The ruins we see onscreen are the result of one way of life giving way to another. Mu seems to say the way forward lies in looking to traditional structures – a radical statement in a time of revolution. While not experiencing outright war, many of us are living through tumultuous change. Technology (especially AI) is upturning long-standing ways of being. Politics is in turmoil, as are global and local economies. What’s the best way of living under such conditions? Confucius would encourage us to return to our roots and value the context above ourselves. It’s a worldview that calls for trust, humility, and self-sacrifice. A tall ask in our individualistic times.