In our last post, we covered the big-picture view of “why learn how to learn?” and a bit on principles you can follow to do so. We also introduced a basic note-taking system, making use of “Bib Cards. I had originally intended to give a quick-start guide to the full analog Zettelkasten approach in that post, but it was a tale that grew in the telling, and for reasons of space, I’ve pulled it out and reworked it a bit into this post. As mentioned in that post, if you want to go all the way with the Zettelkasten approach, I recommend Scott Scheper’s Antinet Zettelkasten. Basic Starter Guide to…
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It may seem a bit odd to take a detour into learning as a subject on a site dedicated to rhetoric, but I believe I can justify it to you in two ways. First, more obviously, while I’m sharing what I can on our subject matter here, the very nature of the medium is that if you want to get the most of it, you’re going to have to and put in some work on your own. I won’t be standing there to answer questions, point out errors, or direct you to the next stepping stone (though, by all means, if I can help with any of that less directly,…
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In the last post, we took the first steps in exploring what “value” is, why it’s important, and how to translate it into practical ethics through the vehicle of a set of virtues. But why put so much emphasis on ethics if our goal is learn and practice rhetoric, the art of persuasion through spoken and written communication? The Link Between Values and Power What Is Power? The reason we are concerned with ethics in the context of rhetoric is because rhetoric is a tool to give us more power, and any time you use power, you run the risk of harming yourself or others, and so there is an…
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What is Value Finding a Grounding for Value is Hard – But Important The first, and in some ways, most difficult step in living according to our values is to get at least somewhat clear on just what we mean by value. We talk equally comfortably about the value of a piece of jewelry as about the value of putting in a hard day’s work, or even the values you were raised with. Obviously, there’s something in common between these usages, but when you try to rigorously break it down, you might run into problems. Is the “value” of a financial asset really the same thing as the “value” of…