Stephen Stout (H2008 and A2009)
Stephen Stout spent nearly thirty years as a professional actor and director before starting to teach five years ago. He has started a theatre company, performed his one man show at the bottom of a mine shaft, acted on Broadway, Off-Broadway, TV and film. Now he is delighted to be teaching at a small independent school in CT, and showing young people the joy and power of being on a stage, winning and keeping an audiences’ attention. Introduced to Phil and the gang through wife Kendall Crolius, a devoted member of the group.
Proverbs
Phil sees customer councils everywhere he looks and Frank sees heaven and hell. We all read into the bible what we need, right? Very interesting. $275 an hour, please.
I was thinking about what phil said about Proverbs mentioning the help of advisors. There’s a lot of advice to go around in this book. Don’t lie, deceive, cheat, steal; be humble, charitable, listen carefully.
Proverbs’ central theme is clear: wisdom begins and ends with fear of and submission to god’s will (“A king’s heart is a stream of water in the hand of the Lord; he turns it wherever he will.” 21.1)
But didn’t Job show us it’s impossible to understand god’s will?
Little is said in Proverbs about the necessary role of experience in gaining wisdom. Isn’t that where we learn how to read context, feel our way through situations to what’s right?
I like this fragment: “To show partiality is not good—-yet for a piece of bread a person may do wrong.” (28.21)
(btw, Does anyone else feel like Proverbs must have been written for use in teaching children?)
Bruce
Ruth Coleman (SW)
Ruth Coleman currently serves as Director of California State Parks.
She was appointed Chief Deputy for California State Parks in January 2002, after having joined the department in December 1999 as Deputy Director for Legislation.
Before coming to State Parks, Ms. Coleman worked as Policy Director for Assemblywoman Helen Thomson for one year, responsible for legislative issues relating to water, agriculture and land use. Prior to that she was Legislative Director for State Senator Mike Thompson, coordinating his legislative agenda and providing staff leadership on major environmental legislation such as a park bond, salmon and steelhead restoration; and the protection of the Headwaters Forest.
Ms. Coleman also has worked for the Air Resources Board in the electric vehicle program and the Office of the Legislative Analyst, focusing on fiscal and policy issues in the natural resources area, particularly the Department of Parks and Recreation and the Department of Fish and Game. Prior to her work in Sacramento, she spent three years teaching mathematics as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Swaziland, South Africa.
Ms. Coleman received her Master in Public Administration from Harvard University, and a B.A. in Economics from Occidental College.
Psalms
I had 2 related thoughts/observations to share. I find it interesting that Sheol, the Pit is frequently mentioned as something from which people want to be protected and which seems to approximate modern concept of hell, but that there is no heaven or paradise alluded to. It seems that the reward is a painufree earthly existence, which is guaranteed if you fear and praise God. I wonder where the concept of heaven originates. On a related note, in Psalm 106.28, the people are reprimanded for making sacrifices to the dead as part of a Baal worship ritual. I wonder if the fear of Sheol/death is meant to repudiate veneration of the dead and, hence, Baal worship.
Anyway, just something to kick around.
Frank
Marc Segan (H2008)
Marc Segan is an inventor who has created hundreds of toys and commercial products, from Hallmark’s first-ever musical greeting card to Fisher Price’s Triple Arcade game table. Mr. Segan holds more than 40 patents covering such creations as the first computer-controlled animation sericel and, recently, a new method of deploying animated characters on the internet. Mr. Segan is a co-founder of Quadlogic Controls Corporation, designer and manufacturer of leading-edge digital electricity metering systems. He is a graduate of Princeton University with a major in Philosophy and was composer and musical director for Princeton’s Triangle Club, where he now serves as a trustee. Mr. Segan is President of the Board of New York Stage & Film Company, producers of the annual Powerhouse theater festival at Vassar College.
Seeking Wisdom reading group first call
The first call of the Seeking Wisdom reading group is coming up on:
Tuesday, February 12
12 – 1pm NY time (9 – 10am California time)
1-800-615-2900
1-661-705-2005 itl
code: 11215
*This call will be recorded
This call will cover Parts One and Two (pages 1 – 114). A list of discussion questions is below.
—- Consider these questions —-1. Thinking habits
In the introduction, Peter Bevelin argues that a key lesson from Darwin’s life is that “even people who aren’t geniuses can outthink the rest of mankind if they develop certain thinking habits.” (p. ii).
I am running this reading group because I believe that honing our thinking habits is one of the critical roles of the Councils. Improving how we think should help us ask better questions of each other and help us provide better answers to each other – all in hopes that we can use the Councils to succeed in realizing our greatest ambitions.
The roles of the Councils are as I see them are encourage the development of the following habits:
– habit of building trust and asking for help
– habit of developing thinking (including reading and learning from the best minds)
– habit of persistently seeking our ambitions and hopes
Do you think we can develop “our thinking”? Do you agree that the Councils should encourage the above habits? How do *you* think about thinking?
2. Evolutionary biology and the challenge of learning how to think
The author presents the growing consensus in evolutionary biology and psychology that says that how we evolved to think and behave is out of step with the complex world we have created. In other words, 4 – 7 million years of evolution produced a species that does well in small hunter gatherer groups but – ironically – may not have the right instincts for the modern complex world that that species itself has created.
“…humans have spent more than 99% of their evolutionary history in the hunter gatherer environment.” (p. 19)
One implication of this history is that “our brain is wired to perceive before it thinks…” (p. 27)
What other implications does Bevelin outline? What case does he make for what influences our thinking?
What’s the structure of his argument though the first three chapters? What struck you as most interesting, provocative?
3. Psychology of misjudgement
Bevelin outlines 28 common misjudgments that we humans make.
Which of these misjudgments have you made? Are you willing to share examples of misjudgments you have made and how you may have learned from them?
Are any misjudgments missing? What’s your *favorite* misjudgment – i.e. the one you think has had the most impact on you, your family, your company, our society?
On page 112 he quotes from some “final advice from Charlie Munger”, including that the goal is not to eliminate all mistakes but to simply make fewer of them. Do you think that is possible?
He then concludes on pages 113 and 114 by pointing out how our “fast intuitions and quick reactions” can be twisted and quotes Lao-Tsu. The implications of these first chapters seem to challenge the popular book “Blink” – by pointing out that while our wiring has helped us for millions of years and still helps today, it can also take us off track.
Do you agree that this challenges “Blink”? Do you find this helpful in thinking about your own life, your own mistakes and how to move forward in realizing your ambitions?
Elisabeth Butolo (H2008)
Elisabeth Butolo is SVP of IT for The Economist Group, a global media company which produces intelligent media brands for the high-end audience. This role encompasses both the provision of technology for the revenue generating web sites and the front and back office technology used by the Group for other products and internal services.
Elisabeth has been with the Economist group for 9 years, and before that was 8 years with Associated Newspapers in London.
She started her IT career in Zimbabwe and also worked in South Africa, Slovenia and England before joining The Economist Group in the London office. She spent just over a year in the Hong Kong office before moving to the New York office in January 2005.
Book 7 Thucydides – audio recording
Here’s the audio recording for the Thucydides January 2008 book 7call. Listen online or download the mp3 file and listen to it as apodcast on your ipod.
Plato on stage
Hello reading group,
an NYC theater company called target margin is doing an adaption in January of plato’s symposium. It’s called The Dinner Party. I met the director, David Herskovits, at a dinner party and he’s a very bright, sensitive guy who has staged the classics many times at target margin and loved the idea of our book group. I cannot go to any of the performances but I thought I would pass this along to the group.
bruce upbin
PLEASE JOIN US FOR
AS YET THOU ART YOUNG AND RASH
based on Euripides’ Suppliants
THE ARGUMENT
&
DINNER PARTY
based on Plato’s Symposium and Aristotle’s Poetics
Target Margin Theater offers a one-week only revival of our acclaimed work on Greek tragedy and philosophy. As the company extends our work into the Greek canon this season, we want also to give our audiences a chance to review the breadth of our investigation with this challenging, entertaining, and vividly relevant repertory.
David Herskovits, working collaboratively with a very strong cast of five, has created a universal meditation on loss… a poetic tissue of image and allusion. – New York Times
David Herskovits’s Target Margin Theater, which has been working through some of the obscurer corners of tragedy in its season dedicated to Greek thought, has now reached a transcendent finale by putting onstage two of the most familiar specimens of Athenian philosophy, Aristotle’s Poetics and Plato’s Symposium. – The Village Voice
JANUARY 11 – 14 2008
THEATER THREE
311 West 43rd Street, 3rd floor
Wednesday January 9th 5:00pm Open Rehearsal & Reception
Friday January 11th 3:00pm THE ARGUMENT & DINNER PARTY
6:00pm Reception
7:00pm AS YET THOU ART YOUNG AND RASH
Saturday January 12th 3:00pm AS YET THOU ART YOUNG AND RASH
7:00pm THE ARGUMENT & DINNER PARTY
Sunday January 13th 3:00pm THE ARGUMENT & DINNER PARTY
7:00pm AS YET THOU ART YOUNG AND RASH
Monday January 14th 3:00pm AS YET THOU ART YOUNG AND RASH
6:00pm Reception
7:00pm THE ARGUMENT & DINNER PARTY
If you would like to join us for the rehearsal on the 9th or any performance please call (718) 398-3095.
Fear of God theme continued
I saw this post a while back and thought it was another angle on our fear of God thread last night.
It got me thinking… why were they preaching so much about fearing God and not as much about fearing Satan? Why not use God to represent love and compassion, but if you do not do good, you align yourself with evil Satan who will bring death and destruction to your life. Maybe they didn’t want Satan to be that powerful. Let God have all the power. Reduce the seductiveness of the dark side…
I’m sure there’s many scholars that have commented on this, but it’s seems more fun to let it swirl around my head for the moment.
This post is about how many people God killed in the Bible vs. how many Satan killed.
http://www.rationalresponders.com/forum/rook_hawkins/biblical_errancy/3582