Syllabus for Distance Learning - Day 1
March 16, 2020

     It is raining as I write this morning.  It's a steady rain, neither gentle nor forceful.  Present rain.

    It is strange, perhaps, to be making book recommendations as a global pandemic unfolds. But for those of us lucky or disciplined or dumbfounded enough to take the "down time" that this situation appears to be affording (imposing?) on us, perhaps curling up with a few books is just the thing we need right now, particularly if the books we choose help us think both broadly and deeply about where we find ourselves at this strange moment in history.  This is a good time to take wisdom where we can find it, so I offer these very brief synopses, in the hope that the tendrils of wisdom available in these books will curl their way into the crevices of your mind and out again into the world.

    Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman (2011): 

   Kahneman, a Nobel-prize winning psychologist, summarizes the insights of his lifetime of work into the default settings of our brains, shedding light on the mismatch between those settings and the assumptions of rationality built into the West's economic and political systems.  Kahneman conducted much of the research condensed in this book in partnership with his long-time intellectual collaborator, Amos Tversky, and the two of them have been called the fathers of Behavioral Economics.  When I first read the book, I thought it could easily have been titled (or subtitled) "How to Avoid Being Manipulated" – or, more cynically, "A Handbook for Social Manipulators."

    Capital in the Twenty-First Century by Thomas Piketty (2014):

    r > g.  Translation: As a matter of historical fact, Piketty argues, the rate of return on investment (r) exceeds the rate of growth (g).  He then painstakingly supports the argument from an astonishing review of European records over the last 500 years or so.  This is not light reading (or listening). It might require one or two primer economics courses before diving in (you could look for offerings in the Great Courses on Audible or perhaps some free alternatives elsewher).  But the upshot, in Piketty's estimation, is this:  the basic inequality, r > g, means that capital (wealth, as distinguished from mere income) accumulates and concentrates itself over time in the hands of those who have it, a class whom he calls "the rentier" (those entitled to receive "rents" – a term that Piketty uses as shorthand for returns on investment of all kinds).  The pattern becomes untenable over the long term, i.e., tending toward the inability of those without capital to pay the rent they owe to the rentier, without some mechanism for mitigating the pattern.  Piketty examines progressive taxation and wealth taxation in detail.  

      Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson (2011): 

   Walter Isaacson applies his generous powers of historical analysis and biographical insight to the enigmatic man who changed all of our lives, first by putting computers in our homes and then by migrating them to our pockets.  Isaacson does not shy away from or sugar coat Jobs's legendary assholery (yes, it is a word), but he does it in a way that had me weeping in spite of myself at Jobs's death.  This is a valuable examination of a person whose vision of the future was strong enough to bend the world to itself, often to the detriment of his relationships with family and collaborators.  The biography invites serious reflection on the extent to which the sacrifice of interpersonal niceties is a necessary feature of making profound positive change in the world.

    Thomas Jefferson: The Art of Power by Jon Meacham (2012): 

   With both grace and his customary eye toward elevation of the public discourse, Jon Meacham gives us a rendering of Jefferson that is as nuanced as the man himself.  And that is Meacham's point: as visionary as Jefferson was, his basic pragmatism and personal shortcomings simultaneously limited him and suited him to craft ready solutions to the problems that faced a fledgling republic.  This biography grapples, albeit somewhat indirectly, with questions about what limitations on moral leadership exist or arise for persons gifted with great intellect and willing to shoulder the burden of public trust.  A worthy read for anyone interested in public service at any level, whether in an elected capacity or otherwise.