A Reading Odyssey

Thankful for Darwin

On this 150th anniversary of Charles Darwin's publication of "Origin of Species", I'm thankful for his multi-decade effort to understand one of the greatest questions of human history: where do we come from?

When I asked Stanford biologist Robert Sapolsky which 10 books the general public should read to gain a basic understanding of biology, nine of the books were published in the last 10 years. Only one book he recommended was older than 10 years. You know the book - it's 150 years old today.

In the fast-changing world of science and evolutionary biology, it's amazing that a 150-year old book is still relevant.

As we celebrate the 150th anniversary of this great book, reflect onthe example Darwin has set.

Other authors we have read in the Reading Odyssey have set similar examples from different domains. My favorite line in any book comes from Thucydides' introduction when he says he's not writing for "applause of the moment but as a possession for all time."

2500 years later Thucydides' history still stands as a great possession. When we read Thucydides in the Reading Odyssey we are completing hismission - we are shaking his hand through history. We are telling him that he succeeded. His book has indeed become a possession for all time.

Darwin was also not writing for the short-term. He developed his initial thinking about evolution by natural selection decades before he published. Darwin's method created Darwin's greatness. His long-term, patient approach to amassing the evidence and testing his hypotheses stands as a model for all humanity for all time.

Ironically, by virtue of evolution, humans are endowed with a tendency to think and act in the short-term. But, this tendency is not our destiny. Darwin and Thucydides and others show that we can live our lives as if what we do today will matter for decades and centuries beyond us - and for that lesson I give much thanks.

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Celebrate *today* 150th anniversary of Darwin's "Origin"  

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We are co-sponsoring two great events today, Tuesday, November 24.

- E.O. Wilson and the British Council at 1pm New York time 

No registration needed but you do need the latest version of Adobe Flash. Go here at 1pm *or later* on Tuesday, Nov 24: 
http://www.open2.net/darwinlecture

- New York Academy of Sciences at 6pm New York time 

Live webcast with Nobel Prize winners and other leading scientists. Register *free* here: http://www.nyas.org/darwin150 

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Our Facebook group on Darwin

- 260,000+ members

Please keep spreading the word and go over and write your thanks to Darwin on the wall.

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=53320310123 

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The great recession, Herodotus and hidden treasures?

The great recession we are experiencing reinforces a timeless observation made by the pioneering Greek historian Herodotus: "Human prosperity never abides long in the same place."

The New York Times concluded a recent article about the recession with this quote from an unemployed construction worker in Phoenix: "You'd think that someone would have seen this coming and been more prepared."

With all respect to the construction worker, why would he think that someone would have been prepared?

I was reading Herodotus for the first time during the boom and Herodotus' observations were instructive. We humans have - for good  evolutionary reasons - a strong bias towards short-term thinking and a tendency to forget the past. A few years after the dotcom boom and bust, we got the real estate boom and bust. And somehow we had difficulty remembering what had happened just a few years earlier. Herodotus shows us that humans not only had this tendency two years ago but we had it 2,500 years ago.

Reading Herodotus and discussing it with others in a community might not change these boom and bust patterns but it does have multiple other benefits, including teaching us the following:

1) We are not alone in our mistakes 

We learn that we are not particularly or uniquely screwed up in the early years of the 21st century. Humans have been screwing up like this for thousands of years - and I find that somehow soothing. It certainly contradicts the widely held notion that everything that is happening today is either the best or worst. No. We are ordinary humans.

2) Joy is possible even in hard times 

We can learn and be joyful even in the midst of our mistakes. Reading these great books and discussing them in a community of readers is joyful. It just is. The stories, ideas, methods all better prepare us to live, learn and create through the ups and downs of life.

3) Reading "hard" books is possible and inspiring 

When members of the Reading Odyssey read a great book like that written by Herodotus or Darwin, they discover several things. First, they discover that they *can* read an author like Herodotus. That is where part of the joy referenced above comes from. It's delightful for readers to discover the possibility of reading books like these. Then, readers also discover the history of ideas. It doesn't matter, for example, that Aristotle's biology is wrong on many points. What matters is to discover the grandeur of the attempt he made - with the limited tools he had - to understand everything around him. It's inspiring.

4) The importance of connections and conversation 

Reading these challenging but wonderful books together - this collective habit of wisdom, as Aristotle might call it - can help people become more connected to the past, to the present and to people both dead and alive. I often claim Herodotus, Darwin, Lincoln and others as my mentors. I am connected to them even though they have no idea who I am and probably never will. These social and historical connections really mean something. A community of learners connected to each other and to 2,500 years of human conversation makes each reader stronger.

5) Great treasures are available to all 

This may be a great recession but humanity has survived much worse - as you learn when you read Herodotus or the other great Greek historian, Thucydides. We in the 21st century are lucky to have 2,500 years of great thinking and great writing to delight, inspire and to teach us. I for one am grateful to have this great treasure of writing and thinking. This is one way we are very different from the humans of 2,500 years ago - they did not have 2,500 years of written scientific inquiry, of literature, of great histories, of epic poetry. We do.

That's some of what I have to say for now on the benefits of reading these great books.

What do *you* think?

Frankenstein and the 4th of July?

We had a wonderful phone call this last week with Laurie

Sheck, poet and author of "A Monster's Notes" - a 

reimagining of Frankenstein.

Here is my suggested way to spend the 4th of July at

your picnic or on the beach.

1. While driving to the beach, listen to Laurie's 

wonderful lecture now avialable in mp3 format to

download:

http://tinyurl.com/LaurieSheckmp3

2. Then, read Mary Shelley's "Frankenstein"

http://tinyurl.com/MaryShelleyFrankenstein

3. And, then read Laurie Sheck's "A Monster's Notes"

http://tinyurl.com/MonstersNotes

What a great way to spend the long holiday weekend!

Send me photos of you on the beach with your

two Frankenstein books - impressing your friends

and delighting your neurons. 

Read comments from Laurie's audience here:

http://tinyurl.com/LaurieSheck2009

Feedback from the lecture included:

"What a great call! Laurie was just wonderful - so 

brilliant, sensitive, intuitive - it all came through 

in her story about the her process of writing the book. 

Really terrific!"

"That was Monstrous....wonderful & fun too. I really 

enjoyed hearing about Laurie's own writing life and 

her process of creating the beast that is a book."

"Great call! She's a lovely soul, and her passion for 

reading and writing is contagious."

Wisdom is a habit?

There's been a lot of discussion in the Reading Odyssey

community lately about wisdom, community and habits.

When we read the Bible, we saw that King Solomon got his

wisdom as a gift from God.  Wisdom was a divine attribute of

the individual, who was either wise or not, and wise decisions

followed from that.  The early Christians then borrowed their

approach to wisdom from the ancient Hebrews.

The Aristotle reading group is working through Nicomachean

Ethics.  Aristotle presents a very different perspective. He

argues that being virtuous, good and wise is a result of

habits and actions, not intentions - within a community.  We

had our first phone discussion on Nicomachean Ethics last week

(link to mp3 below).

In that discussion, reader Bill Swislow made a good comment

about how the ancient Greeks did not have a conception of

"inner states." Bill argued that idea was not widespread until

much later when Christianity became the dominant religion of

the Roman Empire.  For Aristotle, said Bill, ethics and

virtues were much more about the actions of people -

especially repeated actions or habits - within their

communities.   One becomes wise by a long process of

practicing habits and building relationships.

Peter Bevelin, author of "Seeking Wisdom: From Darwin to Munger", also delivered a lecture last week (he asked it not be recorded so we have no MP3). He agrees with Aristotle about wisdom as a habit and applies it to Darwin. Bevelin argues that Darwin was not a genius - that's not why he developed such a profound theory. Rather, he says Darwin had outstanding thinking habits - and that he practiced observing, thinking, reading, conversing with close confidants and challenging his own assumptions - and that's why he became so wise and developed one of the most important ideas in human history.

The modern conception of wisdom owes much to the Biblical

tradition--it relates to it as an individual "state" or

"thing" that people have or don't. For Aristotle, however, we

are wise because we create communities that read, reflect,

discuss and deliberate.

It certainly is true that each individual is endowed with

unique genes and a unique environment that helps express (or

not) those genes. And for those who are religious or spiritual,

there may be seen a divine endowment. Certainly, whatever

our beliefs, we can agree that we are not all equally endowed 

- but that does *not* mean that we cannot all practice the habit of wisdom.

Here at the Reading Odyssey, we believe that we can involve

potentially millions of adults in reengaging their

intellectual curiosity - despite however wise or unwise they

believe themselves to be as individuals.

Participants don't have to be smart to join a reading group or

lecture. Rather by developing the habit of regularly reading

and thinking and considering and questioning in a community,

folks can practice the habit of wisdom.

What do you think? Is wisdom a community habit rather than a

thing in an individual's head? Is it an activity rather than

an inner state? Some combination?

Links:

- Aristotle reading group mp3

http://tinyurl.com/AristotleJune2009

- Peter Bevelin's talk - comments and links to interviews 

and his book  http://tinyurl.com/BevelinJune2009

- Register for Barry Schwartz's talk

http://barryschwartz.eventbrite.com

Plane of possibility?

This is the inaugural newsletter of the Reading Odyssey - the informal organization (in process of becoming a formal nonprofit) that I began with the intent to help adults - including myself - learn to think and to see in new ways through reading and discussing some of the best books and ideas of humanity.

About 150 people have joined me in this odyssey since 2005, where in small phone/web-based reading groups, we tackle Homer, Herodotus, Thucydides, Plato, Aristotle, Darwin, and other great thinkers and writers.

And I am proud to say that over *250,000* have joined the campaigns on Facebook and participated in our large-scale free phone-based lectures by leading scientists, academics and writers. Yet, fewer adults are reading fewer books - especially books by the likes of Homer, Herodotus, Darwin, Plato and Miguel de Cervantes.

We think it matters that fewer adults are reading fewer books. And we want to change that.

Everyone is welcome but we do make a special effort to find the many adults who are interested and curious but have not read these kinds of good books (at least since college).

Bread is requisite, but Maslow was wrong. It is not a hierarchy of needs that drives us but a plane of possibility. Humans do need bread but they need good books and good ideas too - all at the same time.

And it's the mission of the Reading Odyssey to bring the possibility of thinking about ideas and reading good books to busy adults.

We accomplish our mission by making it easy.

People can start by listening to a lecture.

Here's how the lectures work:

1. Phone/web-based

Our lectures are done via web or teleconference, giving listeners an  opportunity to sit in their offices or living rooms and directly hear from and ask questions of the leading thinkers of our day.

2. Varied times

We vary the times of the lectures - sometimes in the evening, sometimes at the lunch hour.

3. Always interactive

Every lecture is interactive. Listeners can e-mail questions and get direct responses from leading academics, scientists or writers.

4. Free

The lectures are free. 

The reading groups require more commitment - primarily to read the text and talk about it. But, even with the reading groups, we've made them easy.

Here's how the reading groups work:

1. Phone-based

We run the reading groups over the phone, which means the readers can be anywhere - at home, at work or in the park.

2. A chapter a month

We read slowly - about a chapter a month.

3. Short sessions 

We don't meet for long. We meet once a month for an hour to discuss that month's chapter.

4. Trained moderators

We have trained moderators who lead the discussions in the Socratic style.

5. Top academics 

We often have top academics join us for Q&A. 

6. Free for first-timers

Reading groups are free for first-timers; veterans help cover the costs. There are only 15 free spots available in each group and 15 veteran spots.

I love the experience of reading good books with a community of adults. We readers in the Reading Odyssey have become friends. We have explored this plane of possibility together and we have all seen each other grow in our ability to think, ponder, imagine and create. And we bring our greater capacity to think and to innovate to our jobs, our families, our communities.

Join us.

Sign-up for an upcoming free phone lecture:

- Behind the scenes at the American Museum of Natural History

http://virtualtour.eventbrite.com

- Conversation with the author of "Seeking Wisdom":

http://seekingwisdom.eventbrite.com

Or join our Facebook Darwin project:

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=53320310123 

Or register for an upcoming reading group:

- Homer's Odyssey starts in the fall of 2009*

http://homer2009.eventbrite.com

- Landmark Xenophon starts January 2010*

http://xenophon2010.eventbrite.com

And now a question for *you*:

What do you think about our mission to encourage more adults to read good books and attend lectures - to help expand their ways of thinking and seeing? Does it matter?

Respond here on this blog.

I look forward to seeing you somewhere on this plane of possibility.

Best,

Phil

P.S. And e-mail me if you want to volunteer (want to help us build a better website?) or pledge a donation good for when we get official nonprofit status.

Phil Terry

Founder, Reading Odyssey