Reddit AMA… or, perhaps, AYA: Answer You Anything. ;-)

THE LIFE OF THE MIND, MISC.

One reply to two quotations in succession: (1) "If you enjoy reading intellectual books, great. But to posture it as something better than being social and physically active? I used to believe it, but now I think, "No, that's not true." (2) "He can frame it how he wants, like he's some badass we should all aspire to be like. But if he enjoys it, great. Yet, he frames it as some type of moral duty almost. And if he doesn't enjoy it, why is he doing it? […] He is like an "intellectual bodybuilder". Muscle mass and fitness are important, but you don't need to be a bodybuilder to achieve what's important."

I don't regard myself as having been "an intellectual bodybuilder" at any stage of my life: I am neither flattered nor insulted by this statement, I think you're in the position of being intellectually exhausted —and you presume that what I'm doing is far more intellectually exhausting still, when you peer across the chasm between us.

If you're doing humanitarian work in Laos, do you want to throw yourself into learning the Lao language? Not everyone does: there were people doing those jobs who had zero engagement with the language, history or politics. They earned their paycheck, got a pat on the back for trying to make the world a better place, and they got on an airplane when they'd had enough of the experience.

Without false humility, I'd say that the level of effort I made in learning Laotian should be regarded as the bare minimum requirement for someone who chooses to put themselves in that situation. When I slept under a mosquito net, I read the collected works of John Dryden with a flashlight (i.e., there was no electricity). I was also studying Pali and several different periods of history. That's what I did for fun, in my spare time, when other people were drinking alcohol and… worse.

I did have friends in Vientiane, but we spoke amongst ourselves in English —sometimes French, sometimes German. John Dryden, also, I read in English —not Lao. And when I was in the room, we would talk about history and politics. Most of those friends I met spontaneously, at coffee shops.

I owned a bicycle. I did long distance cycling (circa 115 km per run). I had other hobbies and interests. I had a gym membership for most of the time that I was in Vientiane, too.

Yes, there were people there who looked at how I was spending my time and wondered, intellectually, how I could possibly do any more; but from my perspective, I would ask how I could possibly do less.

So, I return to the quotation: "But to posture it as something better than being social and physically active?"

You reach a point of diminishing returns with "being socially and physically active" fairly quickly: how many hours per week do you want to be scheduled for exercise? How many hours per week do you want to spend socializing? The number is not zero in either case; however, if you really challenge yourself to put a specific number to it… it is going to be finite.

The repetition of these activities (social and physical) benefits you very little, and with more hours, past a point of diminishing returns, it benefits you less and less.

What I learned in researching and writing No More Manifestos really does accumulate: there's a sort of "intellectual benefit" (from that active research leading to an informed opinion) that will endure for the rest of my life —whereas spending twice as much time doing pushups (during those same months in which I wrote the book) would not have benefitted me in any way at all —or, at least, not in a way that would accumulate and still endure years later / right now.

Re: "[He talks about himself as if] he's some badass we should all aspire to be like."

I do not think "you all" should aspire to be like me, but I have known many (MANY) people who directly asked me for advice as to how they could be more like me. Really. Even long before I had a youtube channel. Young and old. Some people want to be more intellectual than they already are. Some people want to be sober. Some people want to be vegan. Some people want to be able to record a three hour livestream on Aristotle (or a bunch of other random topics from the history of political science) with zero notes, zero preparation, etc., in the way that I could (and I did).

You may think they're eccentric, and you may think I'm eccentric, but, in my experience, including many face-to-face conversations, there are always some people around who want advice as to how they can live the life of the mind as I define it. This can include very specific questions about reading and research —about how Melissa and I would read books together, for example. It can include specific questions about political protests, creative projects, etc.; so if you think I'm eccentric, you will have to imagine how eccentric these other people are who are asking for advice as to how they can imitate me in eccentricity.

The comparison to bodybuilding here is apt in one limited sense: not everyone wants to be a bodybuilder. However, those who do want to may well seek out advice from someone else they see bodybuilding, etc.

However, I don't see it that way: instead, a great deal of conflict arises from my perception of the issue in terms of "bare minimum requirements" and moral obligations. It would create less tension with colleagues around me if I had this kind of ("narcissistic") delusion that I was some extraordinary specimen pushing at the limits of what's humanly possible —if I considered myself to be an intellectual bodybuilder who could show off for the crowd. If I regarded myself as extraordinary, it would make others feel more comfortable about being ordinary.

Instead, I regard my contemporaries as falling short bare of minimum requirements —and at some point that becomes a moral problem, not just an intellectual one. When you're looking at a university professor who has not done the bare minimum reading required to teach a subject, that's not just a matter of individual laziness: it entails a moral problem and a predictable conflict with someone like myself.

I learned a lot in a short time, in those years in Laos. And I was surrounded by people who'd been there for many more years than I who never did any of the "bare minimum requirement" work that I did. But yes, I also had a very active life socially and physically: there were enough hours in the day for all that and more.