Writes Making History & Lifelong Learners - https://danallosso.substack.com/ I had subscribed to Lifelong learners after reading a few posts on ‘How to Read a Book’. He later merged Lifelong Learners and Making History.
2024-08-05 - Opening doors for inquiry
- https://danallosso.substack.com/p/opening-doors-for-inquiry
- Open inquiry into complex topics - nuclear family, falling birth rates, demographic replacement, etc.
- Review of a podcast b/w Eric Weinstein and J.D. Vance → Vance’s views on family. Vance is a critic of childlessness and nuclear family model.
- Concepts of “pronatalism” (support increasing birth rate) and “antinatalism” (does not support the push to increase birth rate). Laura Lovett’s book “Conceiving the Future.” Lovett was Dan’s professor at UMass. Lovett’s critique of pronatalism was based on the burden it puts on women and women being told that “their main role or highest purpose was the breed the next generation”.
- Dan asks - “But isn’t it also true that a nation or a culture that doesn’t care at all if its people reproduce, is going to disappear relatively quickly?”
- There probably has to be a balance b/w balance between antinatalism and the necessity of reproduction for cultural continuity.
- It made me think how the world would be if one section of people in the world reproduce faster than others. There is this fear everywhere. The fear is that the majority who see all of their cultural influences around foresee a future where their culture would be wiped out by the newer generations. It makes it all the more important to spread the knowledge to everyone, treat everyone with respect and aim for peaceful co-existence. People know what works well for humanity instinctively.
2024-08-03 - Niall Ferguson’s lopsided worldview
- https://danallosso.substack.com/p/humanities-western-canon
- The post is a critique of the 2.5 hr interview of Niall Ferguson, a historian by Lex Fridman.
- I’ve watched and listened to a few of Fridman’s podcasts. He brings in famous people. People with opposing views on current issues. Very accomplished people from whom there is a lot to learn.
- The post says that Ferguson claims that learning European classics is essential to being “grown up” or fully human. What about Eastern literature?
- Ferguson talks a lot about fighting against wokeness but seems to be actually promoting narrow ideas around European exclusivity and ignoring other cultures.
- This reminded me of Kerry Walters’s post on foxes and hedgehog (2024-08-03 - In Praise of Foxes & Babblers) and Naomi Kanakia’s post on the Great Books (2024-07-30 - Western Civilization vs Western Literature).
2024-08-01 - Filling Empty Notes
- https://danallosso.substack.com/p/filling-empty-nodes
- Dan reviews his obsidian graph often to find out how many purple nodes are there. This is a good practice that I should also follow.
- Purple nodes are nodes that have no content. You an create them as you write on obsidian by using double square brackets.
- Which empty notes to fill? - Prioritize based on their number of connections.
2024-07-30 - Research Rabbit Zotero Integration
- https://danallosso.substack.com/p/research-rabbit-zotero-integration
- I didn’t know about research rabbit before this. The site seems to be a great asset to people who do research. It looked it like could replace LitMaps and do many more things.
- I signed up and created a collection. Zotero integration didn’t work though.
2024-07-29 - Peterson Academy
- https://substack.com/inbox/post/147124287
- I had heard of Peterson Academy last week. It came on either the pixel-google-search feed or youtube feed. I had made a mental note to check it out but forgot. So, when I saw this, I was like, I need to check it out now.
- Gist of the academy- 8-hour video courses, taught by famous professors from elite universities, alternative to a 4-year degree, fraction of the cost.
- There was a lot of criticism from Peterson on the current college degrees. He says they promote woke ideology. Also says professors get paid less in colleges.
- As someone who liked the college degree experience, I’m not fully onboard with the critics of college degrees.
- These online programs will attract young people, they will attract older people more, I think. People who missed out on learning literature and philosophy during college days and are working now.
2024-07-28 - Teachers & Students
- https://danallosso.substack.com/p/teachers-and-students
- Traditional relationship b/w teacher & student is changing since people are moving to a lifelong learning model.
- Teacher is an advanced learner guiding a student who is earlier in the journey.