Escape from Freedom[1]! the meat of Fromm's thesis is that modern societies have attained a lot of "negative freedom" (i.e. freedom from necessities and/or authorities), but the corresponding growth in "positive freedom" (freedom to express oneself authentically and genuinely) has been lackluster. the result is
that we become "burdened" by the responsibilities of freedom, unable to handle it without feeling overwhelmed. instead, we resort to escape mechanisms: e.g. by seeking refuge in authoritarian leaders, or by conforming to societal standards and expectations. both are detrimental, Fromm says, as they undermine individual freedom. Fromm urges that we should pay more attention to our thoughts and actions, and to be more wary of them, as they may or may not be genuine expressions of our inner selves.
im reading the wealth of nations right now, using gpt on the side to help clarify long passages and decode archaic terms. it's been tremendously helpful. some actual use cases:
- summarising entire chapters (summarise chapter 8 of book 1)
- asking to verify my own summaries (in summary, smith writes that ... am i correct?)
- explaining certain passages in ever more detail (explain ...; explain in simpler terms; im still confused, explain in more details;)
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One very interesting case is when GPT produced an error, and I had it go through the error with me. In the end GPT managed to spot its own error and correct itself. Here's an excerpt, edited for brevity:
* gpt: [...] When the demand is too low, it encourages growth; when the demand is too high, it restrains growth. [...]
* me: "When the demand is too low, it encourages growth; when the demand is too high, it restrains growth." is this correct?
* g: Apologies for the confusion in my previous response. The correct statement should be:
When the demand for labor is too low (slow), it encourages higher wages and population growth; when the demand for labor is too high (fast), it restrains population growth by adjusting wages to find the equilibrium between demand and supply.
(GPT still giving the wrong answer.)
* m: i am still confused. can you explain in more detail
* g: [...] Smith argues that the demand for labor regulates population growth by influencing wages. If wages are too low, fewer children will be born, and the population growth will be slow. If wages are too high, more children will be born, and the population growth will be fast. [...]
(At this point GPT was able to give me the correct response.)
* m: so when the demand for labour is low, wages decrease and population growth slows down. when the demand is high, wages increase and population growth speeds up. correct?
* g: Yes, that's correct. [...]
(I pointed out that this was in contradiction with the earlier response.)
* m: did you not contradict yourself? "When the demand is too low, it encourages growth; when the demand is too high, it restrains growth."
* g: Apologies for the confusion in my previous response. I misunderstood your question. Let me clarify:
When the demand for labor is too low, it restrains growth; when the demand is too high, it encourages growth.
So, when the demand for labor is low, wages decrease, and population growth slows down. Conversely, when the demand for labor is high, wages increase, and population growth speeds up. I hope this clears up any confusion.
(I then inserted the original erroneous response as a prompt, and gpt was able to "remember" that it generated the response earlier.)
* m: "When the demand is too low, it encourages growth; when the demand is too high, it restrains growth." what is wrong with this passage?
* g: I apologize for the confusion earlier. There is an error in the passage you provided. It should be:
This demand for labor operates like the demand for any other commodity, regulating the production and growth of the population. When the demand is too low, it restrains growth; when the demand is too high, it encourages growth. This dynamic determines the rate of population growth in different countries, such as rapid growth in North America, slow and gradual growth in Europe, and a stationary population in China.
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i should mention that i am using the paid version (GPT-4). i tried the free model, but the quality was significantly worse. you can recorrect it multiple times consecutively and every time it would say that it was wrong the last time, and recorrect itself again and again.
im currently spending my time off work reading and understanding Jung (im a software engineer). here's what i did that helped:
- identify the names of the basic concepts that the author uses throughout his/her work. no need to grasp their precise definitions, the goal here is to get a sense of the author's vocabulary of key words. this is easier to achieve for certain authors, especially if they use sensible names that are not too abstract nor too "far" from the concepts they represent. introductory texts, wikipedia pages, youtube videos are very helpful in this regard.
- understand the key words more precisely. once you've identified the key concepts, the next step is to understand their definitions, and how they are used by the author. focus on the context in which they are used. the trick here is to use the key words as pivots for understanding the sentences in which they appear. as you read more, you will see the same words reappearing in contexts that are similar. secondary/complementary texts, primary texts+study guides can come in very handy in this step.
- deep dive. at this point, if youve done your work, you should be able to see the key words and understand them without having to consciously recall what they mean or represent. for most people this is good enough, but if you want to know more (to be able to synthesise new thoughts or relate them to existing ideas in your head), you can go further and start diving into primary texts written by the author.
more general tips:
- study every day if you can, this helps with retention
- take notes, pen and paper if possible (i find that concepts retain better when i write them down, for me personally at least)
- focus, sometimes i find myself scanning through sentences without actually reading them (this is usually a sign of fatigue, you might want to take a break when this happens)
- if you are learning something practical, make sure to practise applying them
I see a lot of answers that revolve around the question of "how to make the most effective use of the limited time I have". A very rationalistic point of view (no surprise since it's HN).
I'll give a different perspective: trust your gut feelings! In Emotional Intelligence, the author Daniel Goleman[1] writes
> [Some of life's big decisions] cannot be made well through sheer rationality; they require gut feeling, and the emotional wisdom garnered through past experiences. Formal logic alone can never work as the basis for deciding whom to marry or trust or even what job to take; these are realms where reason without feeling is blind.
It seems like you are already aware that you don't have enough time to learn everything, there's just too much options to choose from! Perhaps a better approach is to rely on your experience, trust that you will make a good enough decision, and learn how to be comfortable with making choices that are not necessarily optimal, but close. There's a reason for the saying: perfect is the enemy of good!
You can't escape sadness. Life is fundamentally about suffering. Even when you're having a good time, you will still feel sad because you know the good times always end, eventually. I think people seek these stories because it helps them deal with their own sadness. What better way to reassure yourself about your own miseries than to hear the miserable stories of others?
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Escape_from_Freedom