Things Not Seen

<p data-pm-context="[]"></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-X9JQqX3KhtI/X0bYmx7EdzI/AAAAAAABOgI/aVsjakQlFiE89Ft2SMMFLwhltPw9jnkoACLcBGAsYHQ/s1162/Luca%2BGiordano%2B-%2BPsyche%2BServed%2Bby%2BInvisible%2BSpirits.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="950" data-original-width="1162" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-X9JQqX3KhtI/X0bYmx7EdzI/AAAAAAABOgI/aVsjakQlFiE89Ft2SMMFLwhltPw9jnkoACLcBGAsYHQ/s640/Luca%2BGiordano%2B-%2BPsyche%2BServed%2Bby%2BInvisible%2BSpirits.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><em style="text-align: left;"><a href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Luca_Giordano_-_Psyche_Served_by_Invisible_Spirits_-_WGA09017.jpg" target="_blank">Psyche Served by Invisible Spirits</a></em><span style="text-align: left;"> by Luca Giordano, c. 1696 (public domain - Wikimedia Commons)</span></span><br /></td></tr></tbody></table><p data-pm-context="[]"><br /></p><div><hr /></div><p><em><strong></strong></em></p><div style="text-align: center;"><em><strong><em><strong><br /></strong></em></strong></em></div><div style="text-align: center;"><em><strong><em><strong>"What is essential is invisible to the eye."</strong>  </em></strong></em></div><p></p><p></p><div style="text-align: right;"><em>— Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, 1943</em></div><em><br /></em><p></p><div><hr /></div><p><br /></p><p>We're surrounded by the invisible every day — things both wondrous and terrifying, sometimes simultaneously. Consider all of the things that we can't see: atoms, air, viruses, time, space… I could go on, but those are already some heady issues.</p><p>Did you know only <a href="https://science.nasa.gov/astrophysics/focus-areas/what-is-dark-energy/">5 percent of the universe</a> is observable matter? That's a powerful reminder of this simple fact: just because something isn't observed, that doesn't mean it doesn't exist.</p><p>Ancient astronomers inferred the existence of stars and planets without directly seeing them; they observed how other heavenly bodies moved around them. The absence of something can be just as meaningful as the presence of it.</p><p><br /></p><div><hr /></div><p><em><strong><br /></strong></em></p><div style="text-align: center;"><em><strong><em><strong>“Is there any point to which you would wish to draw my attention?”</strong></em></strong></em></div><div style="text-align: center;"><em><strong><em><strong>“To the curious incident of the dog in the nighttime.”</strong></em></strong></em></div><div style="text-align: center;"><em><strong><em><strong>“The dog did nothing in the night-time.”</strong></em></strong></em></div><div style="text-align: center;"><em><strong><em><strong>“That was the curious incident,” remarked Sherlock Holmes.</strong> </em></strong></em></div><p></p><p style="text-align: right;"><em>— Arthur Conan Doyle, 1892</em></p><div><hr /></div><p><br />It's a matter of where we put our attention.</p><p>That Sherlock Holmes quote is from the story called "Silver Blaze," about a racehorse that went missing. Holmes knew that it was an inside job because the dog at the stable didn't react to whomever took the horse. It was his attention to the details — no one told him they heard a dog barking — that allowed him to make the conclusion he did.</p><p>In that same story, he found evidence of a candle that had been lit out in the pasture:</p><blockquote><p><em>“I cannot think how I came to overlook it,” said the Inspector, with an expression of annoyance.<br /><br />“It was invisible, buried in the mud. I only saw it because I was looking for it.”</em></p></blockquote><p></p><p><br />We see what we train ourselves to see. Our senses are heightened when we want to be aware of something; otherwise, it's easy to walk around oblivious to what's happening around us.</p><p>Take the concept of <strong>emotional intelligence</strong> (EQ). A significant part of EQ involves self-awareness, or being able to step back and take an objective look at your behavior, emotions, and reactions, and to learn from it. It takes reflection.</p><p>If you were asked to reflect on your values, could you do it? I dare say you could. But can you <em>see</em> your values—those things that are deeply held in your heart and mind?</p><p>Probably not, but the way you lead your team or live your life should be a natural expression of those values. The words you choose and the actions you take over the course of days, weeks and years paint a portrait of who you are and what you stand for.</p><p>Whether you're an executive or a parent, your actions alone aren't enough for people to understand your motives and values. You need to <em>talk</em> about the things you believe in and share with your team or your kids <em>why</em> you do what you do. It's only through bringing those invisible elements to the surface that we can better understand who we are.</p><div><hr /></div><p style="text-align: center;"><em><strong><br />“Anything that’s human is mentionable, and anything that is mentionable can be more manageable. When we can talk about our feelings, they become less overwhelming, less upsetting, and less scary. The people we trust with that important talk can help us know that we are not alone.”</strong> </em></p><p style="text-align: right;"><em>— Fred Rogers<br /><br /></em></p><div><hr /></div><p>At the same time, we can use our emotional intelligence to discern when we need to remain silent versus when we need to speak up. Two anecdotes related to this bring a smile to my face.</p><p>The first is from Art Mandirola, an elderly figure from my childhood. My parents were friends with Art and his wife Anne; they were of my grandparents' generation, and in many ways were like surrogate parents to my parents.</p><p>One Saturday afternoon following four o'clock mass (the favorite mass of the elderly set—gotta get to the restaurants early!), as we were standing and chatting with the Mandirolas, I put a question to Art.</p><p>As a preface, I should note that my mom has a habit of pronouncing certain words as contractions. She says p'lice (police), b'loons (balloons), and g'rage (garage). After a bit of good natured ribbing, I decided to let Art be our King Solomon. And boy, did he deliver.</p><blockquote><p>"Mr. Mandirola?" I asked. "Do you say "cement" or "c'ment"?<br />Without hesitating for even one instant, he replied, "I say concrete."</p></blockquote><p>It was the ultimate lesson in diplomacy: that it's possible to say volumes without saying much at all—in particular by avoiding hurting anyone's feelings.<br /><br /></p><p>The other anecdote is from Christopher Morley's introduction to the 1930 edition of <em>The Complete Sherlock Holmes</em>. [You may recall <strong><a href="https://scottmonty.substack.com/p/the-gift">this essay</a></strong> about Morley's prefaces in a recent essay, titled “The Gift.”]</p><p>Morley wanted people to understand the values of the man who brought us Sherlock Holmes:</p><blockquote><p>"Doyle himself must have been a singularly lovable man. There is an anecdote in his <em>Memories and Adventures</em> that reveals very clearly the fine instinct of delicacy in his massive personality. He was visiting George Meredith in the latter's old age, and they were walking up a steep path to the little summer house Meredith used for writing. In Doyle's own words:</p><blockquote><p><em>'The nervous complaint from which he suffered caused him to fall down occasionally. As we walked up the narrow path I heard him fall behind me, but judged from the sound that it was a mere slither and could not have hurt him. Therefore I walked on as if I had heard nothing. He was a fiercely proud old man, and my instincts told me that his humiliation in being helped up would be far greater than any relief I could give him.'</em></p></blockquote><p>"I can think of no truer revelation of a gentleman than that."</p></blockquote><p></p><p><br /></p><p>The actions we don't take speak just as loudly as the ones we do take. But in order to make a decision as Doyle did, to preserve a man's dignity, it took empathy—something <strong><a href="https://scottmonty.substack.com/p/looking-through-anothers-eyes">we've been talking about here recently</a></strong>.</p><p>This is a part of emotional intelligence as well: the ability not only to understand your own emotions, but to understand the feelings of people around you. It can be difficult when feelings aren't expressed, and even more difficult when you're <strong><a href="https://scottmonty.substack.com/p/the-emptiness-of-indifference">indifferent</a></strong>.</p><p>That quote above from The Little Prince? It's a quote many people are familiar with. But they often don't use the entire quote. Here's the whole thing in context:</p><p><em></em></p><blockquote><em><strong>"Here is my secret. It is very simple: It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye."</strong></em></blockquote><p></p><p>With the heart.</p><p>That's how empathy and emotional intelligence work. We need to think and see with our heart as well as with our eyes and our mind.</p><p>If we're looking for the right things, we can see what others might not. Things about presidents like historian David McCullough wrote about in <em><strong><a href="https://amzn.to/32zuIFR">The American Spirit: Who We Are and What We Stand For</a></strong></em>.</p><blockquote><p><em>"It has to do with aspects of individual personality for which there are no ready measurements—the integrity of Washington, Lincoln's depth of soul…the charm of Kennedy at a press conference, or Ronald Reagan in front of a television camera in almost any circumstance."</em></p></blockquote><p>According to McCullough, Truman didn't see himself as the chief spokesman but as someone who had to make some of the most difficult and far-reaching decisions of any president. "If not brilliant or eloquent, he was courageous and principled. The <em>invisible something</em> he brought to the office was character." [Emphasis mine]</p><p>Sometimes, that's what we need from our leaders. A feeling that they're driven by something bigger than themselves and are in service to it and to others.</p><p>Many things we can't see are essential. That doesn't mean they're unable to be seen.</p><p>The question is where put your focus.</p><p></p><p><br /></p><div><hr /></div><div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"><i><br /></i></div><div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"><i>This originally appeared in the August 26 issue of the <a href="https://scottmonty.substack.com/" style="color: #280170; font-weight: bold; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">Timeless & Timely</a> newsletter. Paying subscribers get this and an additional essay with three timely links, three timeless stories and a recommended book and podcast each week. You can choose the option that suits you best:</i></div><div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; text-align: center;"><iframe frameborder="0" height="320" scrolling="no" src="https://scottmonty.substack.com/embed" style="max-height: 450px; max-width: 100%;" width="480"></iframe></div>

Things Not Seen

Psyche Served by Invisible Spirits  by Luca Giordano, c. 1696 (public domain - Wikimedia Commons) "What is essential is invisible to th...

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Looking Through Another's Eyes

<p></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-5KTx9wVu6x0/Xz1wh_My7rI/AAAAAAABOcY/IE-k8i9k_tYOcwwBIbnyN-C37EHIyO2NwCLcBGAsYHQ/s956/John%2BWilliam%2BWaterhouse%2B-%2BThe%2Bfavourites%2Bof%2Bthe%2BEmperor%2BHonorius%2B1883.png" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="551" data-original-width="956" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-5KTx9wVu6x0/Xz1wh_My7rI/AAAAAAABOcY/IE-k8i9k_tYOcwwBIbnyN-C37EHIyO2NwCLcBGAsYHQ/s640/John%2BWilliam%2BWaterhouse%2B-%2BThe%2Bfavourites%2Bof%2Bthe%2BEmperor%2BHonorius%2B1883.png" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"><em style="font-weight: 700; text-align: left;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Favourites_of_the_Emperor_Honorius">The Favorites of the Emperor Honorius</a></em><span style="font-weight: 700; text-align: left;"> by John William Waterhouse, 1883 (public domain - Wikipedia)</span></span></td></tr></tbody></table> <p></p><h6 data-pm-context="[]"><br /></h6><div><hr /></div><p><em><strong><br /></strong></em></p><div style="text-align: center;"><em><strong><em><strong>"Could a greater miracle take place than for us to look through each other's eye for an instant?"</strong></em></strong></em></div><p></p><p></p><div style="text-align: right;"><em>— Henry David Thoreau, 1854</em></div><em><br /></em><p></p><div><hr /></div><p>Empathy seems to be in short supply these days. The ability to say "I see you and understand what you're going through," and the willingness to attempt think like others seems like a lost art.</p><p>Why do you suppose that is?</p><p>I have a theory myself, but before I share that with you, let's take a quick look at what empathy is how it's different from sympathy, and why it's a fundamental of good leadership.</p><p>The words empathy and sympathy both derive from the Greek root <em>pathos</em>, meaning "suffering" or "experience," and is a technique in rhetoric (along with <em>ethos</em> and <em>logos</em>) as a way of evoking emotion. The origin of sympathy goes back about 450 years, from the Latin <em>sympathīa</em>. Empathy came along in the early 1900s via psychology researchers and the Greek word <em>empátheia</em>, meaning "affection."</p><p><strong>Empathy</strong> is the ability to <em>experience</em> the feelings of another person. It goes beyond <strong>sympathy</strong>, which is caring and understanding for the suffering of others. Both words are used similarly and often interchangeably (incorrectly so).</p><p>As I was thinking about this, struggling to put into words what the difference is, an apt scenario presented itself. Upstairs, my six year-old daughter was running in the hallway when she tripped and hit her head. I immediately rushed to her side, showing her that I felt badly for her (sympathy). As I comforted her, I told her I knew how much it hurt, because I've hit my head before (empathy).</p><p>The feeling of sympathy arises when we recognize another person's suffering, as opposed to empathy, where the other person's pain or suffering is <em>felt</em>. You express sympathy but you share empathy.</p><p>Because of the shared feeling, empathy is deeper. That's not to say that sympathy can't be just as heartfelt. But empathy has the power to create a deeper and more meaningful connection, serving as a bridge for greater communication between individuals or between a leader and their team.<br /><br /></p><div><hr /></div><p style="text-align: center;"><em><strong>"Leadership is not so much about technique and methods as it is about opening the heart."</strong> </em></p><p style="text-align: right;"><em>— Lance Secretan, 1998</em></p><div><hr /></div><p><br />The ability to create a deeper relationship with people is an essential element of leadership. After all, leaders aren't creating <em>things</em>; they're managing <em>people</em>. They're helping create the next generation of leaders.</p><p>You've likely seen the command-and-control boss (spoiler alert: they're not leaders).</p><p>A boss thinks in terms of "<strong>me</strong>," while a leader thinks of "<strong>we</strong>."</p><p>A boss will <strong>take credit</strong> or <strong>blame</strong> others, while a leader will <strong>give credit</strong> and shoulder the blame.</p><p>A boss issues <strong>commands</strong>, while a leader <strong>asks</strong> and <strong>listens</strong>.</p><p>A boss depends on the <strong>authority</strong> of the job title, while a leader leans on the entire team and builds mutual <strong>accountability</strong> and <strong>trust</strong>.</p><p>If a leader is doing her job effectively, she's able to bring people along with her, leading from the front, rather than pushing from behind. This is not only done by rolling up your sleeves, but by demonstrating to your people that you understand their challenges because you've been in their position yourself.<br /><br /></p><div><hr /></div><p><em><strong><br /></strong></em></p><div style="text-align: center;"><em><strong><em><strong>"If you wish to persuade me, you must think my thoughts, feel my feelings, and speak my words." </strong></em></strong></em></div><p></p><p style="text-align: right;"><em>— Cicero, c. 60 B.C.</em></p><div><hr /></div><p><br />Empathy is a cornerstone of emotional intelligence, or EQ, which is the ability to identify, evaluate, control, and express emotions. It's not only for leaders, but good leaders are emotionally intelligent. They're self-aware, reflective, and understand how others feel.</p><p>The psychologist C. Daniel Batson has studied empathy and discerned <a href="https://psycnet.apa.org/record/2009-02253-001">eight distinct concepts</a> that are related to it:</p><ol><li><p>Knowing another’s thoughts and feelings;</p></li><li><p>Imagining another’s thoughts and feelings;</p></li><li><p>Adopting the posture of another;</p></li><li><p>Actually feeling as another does;</p></li><li><p>Imagining how one would feel or think in another’s place;</p></li><li><p>Feeling distress at another’s suffering;</p></li><li><p>Feeling for another’s suffering (sometimes called pity or compassion);</p></li><li><p>Projecting oneself into another’s situation.</p></li></ol><p>Each of those elements, if properly expressed, leads to deeper trust, better communication, and deeper relationships.</p><p><br /></p><div><hr /></div><p><em><strong><br /></strong></em></p><div style="text-align: center;"><em><strong><em><strong>“Acquire the habit of attending carefully to what is being said by another, and of entering, so far as possible, into the mind of the speaker.”</strong> </em></strong></em></div><p></p><p></p><div style="text-align: right;"><em>— Marcus Aurelius, c. 180</em></div><em><br /></em><p></p><div><hr /></div><p>We often hear of companies that say they're "customer-centric." They go out of their way to convince us that they "put the customer at the center of everything [they] do." And yet, when dealing with such companies, how often have you run into a scenario where it's pretty clear that the customer is not at the center?</p><p>I've often seen a disconnect between executives and customers. This is one reason (once upon a time) I was excited about social media as a business intelligence tool: it allows executives, who might be otherwise outside of the typical customer interaction, to hear from the people who experience their products. It gives them a chance to <em>listen</em> with empathy.</p><p>It's human nature to be so engrossed in our own activities, our own points of view, that we simply march forward, intent on making ourselves heard rather than truly hearing and understanding what other people are going through.<br /><br /></p><div><hr /></div><p style="text-align: center;"><em><strong><br />"If there is any one secret of success, it lies in the ability to get the other person's point of view and see things from his angle as well as your own." </strong></em></p><p style="text-align: right;"><em>— Henry Ford</em></p><div><br /><hr /></div><p>Everyone you meet and interact with has a backstory. They have things going on in their lives that are complicated and unseen, things that color their disposition and interactions. How often are we aware of these?</p><p>The Cleveland Clinic brought this concept to life in <a href="https://youtu.be/cDDWvj_q-o8">a video about empathy</a>:</p><div style="text-align: center;"><iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/cDDWvj_q-o8" width="560"></iframe></div><p>The theory I mentioned above, as to why we're at a low ebb in empathy? I think it's because of a rise in technology. Screens have put distance between us, making our avatars into stand-ins on the great stage of life, mouthing disembodied invectives and threats, as we become less personable on impersonal platforms.</p><p>Medicine is the perfect industry to illustrate what we need right now—a caring human touch, equally applied to everyone.</p><div><hr /></div><p><em><strong><br /></strong></em></p><div style="text-align: center;"><em><strong><em><strong>"Technological progress allows for innovation and better treatment—from antibiotics to bypass surgery—but good medicine continues to require, preferably in equal measure, psychological awareness, intuition, sensitivity, and empathy."</strong></em></strong></em></div><p></p><p></p><div style="text-align: right;"><em>— Noga Arikha, 2009</em></div><em><br /></em><p></p><div><hr /></div><p>As a society (at least here in America), we seem to be stuck on individualism and selfishness, rather than a feeling of collective good. The prevailing attitude is no longer <em>E pluribus unum</em>, but</p><p>"You're not the boss of me." It's what seems to drive the anti-maskers, who are <a href="https://scottmonty.substack.com/p/individualism-has-no-place-in-a-pandemic-915">determined to do what they want</a>, science and consequences to others be damned.</p><p class="button-wrapper" data-attrs="{"url":"https://scottmonty.substack.com/p/individualism-has-no-place-in-a-pandemic-915","text":"Individualism Has No Place in a Pandemic","class":null}"><br /></p><p>When we lose our ability to think of others first, we lose our humanity. Regardless of your religious inclination, Jesus had some sound advice when asked what the most important Commandment was. After paraphrasing the Torah and reminding people to first love their god, he followed up with a second one that he indicated was equally as important: "Love thy neighbor as thyself."</p><p>It shouldn't be that difficult.<br /><br /></p><p>The Democratic National Convention in the past two nights has focused on empathy and leadership. Touching and powerful videos have shown how Joe Biden has empathy for people he meets. His personal story involves losing a wife and 15 month-old daughter in a tragic automobile accident weeks after his first election to the Senate, and him continuing to go to work, befriending people on the train as he made his way between Delaware and Washington, insistent that he be home every night for his two young sons.</p><p>It should be no surprise then, to see an image of a memo that Vice President Biden shared with his staff regarding their commitment to their jobs versus to their families:</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-jCv5onbOtCo/Xz1w7dtqpQI/AAAAAAABOcg/0WzCfuh_gM0kt6DbwkfVhZua84_yLDLPgCLcBGAsYHQ/s710/Empathy.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="710" data-original-width="684" height="640" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-jCv5onbOtCo/Xz1w7dtqpQI/AAAAAAABOcg/0WzCfuh_gM0kt6DbwkfVhZua84_yLDLPgCLcBGAsYHQ/s640/Empathy.png" /></a></div><p><br /></p><p>This is what an emotionally intelligent leader looks like.</p><p>Ultimately, empathy only goes so far; what we do with it is what makes leaders great. Give your people something tangible and actionable.</p><p>The first step, however, is a willingness to perform the miracle of looking through another's eye.<br /><br /></p><div><hr /></div><p></p><div style="text-align: center;"><em><strong><br />"John Lewis said 'When you see something that is not right, you must say something. You must do something.' That is the truest form of empathy: not just feeling, but doing; not just for ourselves or our kids, but for everyone, for all our kids." <br /><br /></strong></em></div><em><div style="text-align: right;"><em>— Michelle Obama, 2020<br /><br /></em></div></em><p></p><div><hr /></div><p><em><br /></em></p><div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"><i>This originally appeared in the August 19 issue of the <a href="https://scottmonty.substack.com/" style="color: #280170; font-weight: bold; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">Timeless & Timely</a> newsletter. What are you missing? To see this issue in its entirety, with entertaining and thoughtful links, recommendations, and more, <a href="https://scottmonty.substack.com/p/looking-through-anothers-eyes" style="color: #280170; font-weight: bold; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">please click here</a></i>. </div><div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"><br /></div><div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; text-align: center;">Don't miss a single issue:</div><div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; text-align: center;"><iframe frameborder="0" height="320" scrolling="no" src="https://scottmonty.substack.com/embed" style="max-height: 450px; max-width: 100%;" width="480"></iframe></div>

Looking Through Another's Eyes

The Favorites of the Emperor Honorius  by John William Waterhouse, 1883 (public domain - Wikipedia)   "Could a greater miracle take pla...

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Words Matter

<p> <table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Tv0gkh4amXo/XzQLiujMFnI/AAAAAAABOZA/PMJa3DHJQ-M9HxAy4OJwjClOUCASRFGCQCLcBGAsYHQ/s1255/Bookworm%2B-%2Bsq.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1253" data-original-width="1255" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Tv0gkh4amXo/XzQLiujMFnI/AAAAAAABOZA/PMJa3DHJQ-M9HxAy4OJwjClOUCASRFGCQCLcBGAsYHQ/s640/Bookworm%2B-%2Bsq.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"><em style="font-weight: 700; text-align: left;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Bookworm_(painting)#/media/File:Carl_Spitzweg_021.jpg" target="_blank">The Bookworm</a></em><span style="font-weight: 700; text-align: left;"> by Carl Spitzweg, c. 1850 (public domain - Wikipedia)</span></span><br /></td></tr></tbody></table><br /></p><div><hr /></div><p><em><strong><br /></strong></em></p><div style="text-align: center;"><em><strong><em><strong>"When you reread a classic, you do not see more in the book than you did before; you see more in you than there was before."</strong> </em></strong></em></div><div style="text-align: right;"><em><em>— Clifton Fadiman</em></em></div><em><br /></em><p></p><div><hr /></div><p>Academics are still on my mind this week, after discussing <a href="https://scottmonty.substack.com/p/oh-the-humanities">the humanities</a> with you last week (and our <a href="https://scottmonty.substack.com/p/the-covid-scholar">childhood reveries versus adult realities</a> that was sent to paying subscribers).</p><p>This is more than an academic discussion (pun intended). <strong>Lifelong learning</strong> and <strong>curiosity</strong> are two of the hallmarks of great leaders―individuals who are constantly consuming information in a variety of formats, who then take what they've learned and weave it into a tapestry of other formats that complement their teams' styles.</p><p>But you may have noticed that the preferred medium of communication in the last few months has skewed toward video, as we sit in front of webcams and partake of meeting after meeting on Zoom. Video is powerful because it involves so many of our senses, but it's also the most exhausting precisely <em>because</em> it involves so many of our senses. <strong>Zoom fatigue</strong> is real―and it has <a href="https://www.vox.com/recode/21314793/zoom-fatigue-video-chat-facebook-google-meet-microsoft-teams">a long history</a>.</p><p>Writing is still the most powerful medium that we have, and the best leaders are also good writers; arguably, communication is probably the most essential skill a leader can have. Everything else―strategic planning, hiring, creating a vision, motivating your team, and even financial planning―involves communication, which is simply defined as a process for exchanging information.</p><p><br /></p><div><hr /></div><p></p><div style="text-align: center;"><em><strong><br />"What magnifies a voice is the force of mind and the power of expression, which is why Shakespeare’s plays still draw a crowd in Central Park, and why we find the present in the past, the past in the present, in voices that have survived the wreck of empires and the accidents of fortune."</strong> </em></div><em><div style="text-align: right;"><em>— Lewis H. Lapham, 2008</em></div><br /></em><p></p><div><hr /></div><p><br /></p><p>Good communication makes all the difference in how your audience receives your information. Whether it's relayed in a story or a set of bullet points, leaders need to present their ideas in ways that inspire, motivate or emphasize, and you can't do that without spending time laying it all out in your mind. The historian David McCullough wrote, “<em>Writing is thinking. To write well is to think clearly. That's why it's so hard</em>."</p><p>Perhaps this is why exhaustion is setting in from our video calls. Because just sitting down in front of a camera and talking doesn't require planning. Set up the shot, hit "Join Call" and start talking. Compare that to a planned video shoot, where you're blocking every shot and have a script to follow. A script? Why, that's writing!</p><p>So even for video (<em>good</em> video, that is), writing is necessary. It's also the secret to giving a good presentation―writing out what you plan to present helps frame the idea and the persuasiveness before they come flowing from your mouth.</p><p><br /></p><div><hr /></div><p></p><div style="text-align: center;"><em><strong><br />"Vox audita perit, littera scripta manet." ("The spoken word vanishes; the written word remains.")</strong> </em></div><em><div style="text-align: right;"><em>― Latin proverb</em></div><br /></em><p></p><div><hr /></div><p>With live presentations, our interactions are ephemeral. They remain in our memories, but are inconveniently inaccessible. Think of all of the great actors of the past who were heaped with praise by critics: Edwin Booth, David Garrick, Richard Burbage and more. Yet there's no one alive who can convey what the experience was like, the nuances of the craft, or how it made them feel.</p><p>With video, thanks to YouTube, that second largest search engine on the internet, we have the ability to scan, search, and find material that is buried in our memory. But it can be hit or miss. The written word, not so much.</p><p>We have a record of great acting and great speeches from the last century that have been captured on film or audio, but there have been great speeches throughout history worthy of remembering. How do we know? They were written down. One of the reasons we still have the <em>Iliad</em> and the <em>Odyssey</em> with us today is because they transitioned from the oral tradition to the written record.</p><p>It's not enough to simply write things down; after all, we can still read the graffiti on the walls of Pompeii and Herculaneum. Words and ideas will remain with us if we're appropriately inspired—that is, if they're crafted in a way to make us sit up and pay attention.</p><p><br /></p><div><hr /></div><p></p><div style="text-align: center;"><em><strong><br />"There is nothing so intolerable as dull writing."</strong> </em></div><em><div style="text-align: right;"><em>― Charles Honce<br /><br /></em></div></em><p></p><div><hr /></div><p><br /></p><p>If you want to become a great leader, you first need to become a good writer. What's the secret to good writing? I'll share a secret about good writing with you. Yes, it's a matter of practicing your writing on a regular basis, but there's something more fundamental:</p><p>If you want to be a good <strong>writer</strong>, first you need to be a <strong>reader</strong>.</p><p><br /></p><div><hr /></div><p><em><strong><br /></strong></em></p><div style="text-align: center;"><em><strong><em><strong>"The greatest part of a writer's time is spent in reading, in order to write: a man will turn over half a library to make one book."</strong> </em></strong></em></div><div style="text-align: right;"><em><em>― Samuel Johnson, 1775</em></em></div><em><br /></em><p></p><div><hr /></div><p><br /></p><p>For me, the most intense and rewarding part of writing this newsletter isn't the writing. Nor is it the feedback (although I do appreciate hearing from you!). It's the research. I usually put five times the time and effort into reading and research that I do into the writing of my newsletter.</p><p>How are you preparing for what you write?</p><p><br /></p><div><hr /></div><p><em><strong><br /></strong></em></p><div style="text-align: center;"><em><strong><em><strong>"It is what you read when you don't have to that determines what you will be when you can't help it."</strong> </em></strong></em></div><div style="text-align: right;"><em><em>― Rev. D.F. Potter, 1927</em></em></div><em><br /></em><p></p><div><hr /></div><p>Certainly you should be educating yourself with analyst reports, memos, and industry news, but there are sources outside of your vertical that will give you <strong>inspiration </strong>and <strong>insights</strong> where you least expect them.</p><p>For example, I was recently reading Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's "<a href="https://www.hwlongfellow.org/poems_poem.php?pid=275">Morituri Salutamus</a>," a poem he composed for the 50th anniversary of Bowdoin College's class of 1825. [Incidentally, the title of the poem is taken from the old Latin phrase "<em>Nos morituri te salutamus</em>," translated as "We who are about to die salute you." This is the apocryphal phrase that gladiators uttered to the emperor before battle.]</p><p>In it, Longfellow laments the inexorable march of time, but indicates that we can use age to our advantage—for with age, we gain insights that are simply unachievable in youth. </p><blockquote><p><em>The scholar and the world!  The endless strife,<br />The discord in the harmonies of life!<br />The love of learning, the sequestered nooks,<br />And all the sweet serenity of books;<br />The market-place, the eager love of gain,<br />Whose aim is vanity, and whose end is pain!</em></p><p><em>But why, you ask me, should this tale be told<br />To men grown old, or who are growing old?<br />It is too late!  Ah, nothing is too late<br />Till the tired heart shall cease to palpitate.<br />Cato learned Greek at eighty; Sophocles<br />Wrote his grand Oedipus, and Simonides<br />Bore off the prize of verse from his compeers,<br />When each had numbered more than fourscore years,<br />And Theophrastus, at fourscore and ten,<br />Had but begun his ?Characters of Men.?<br />Chaucer, at Woodstock with the nightingales,<br />At sixty wrote the Canterbury Tales;<br />Goethe at Weimar, toiling to the last,<br />Completed Faust when eighty years were past.<br />These are indeed exceptions; but they show<br />How far the gulf-stream of our youth may flow<br />Into the arctic regions of our lives.<br />Where little else than life itself survives.</em></p></blockquote><p>There are two points here for business leaders that are worth reflection. The first is that we ought to give more consideration to hiring older employees, who will have more experience and insight to apply to our business challenges, rather than relying on cheaper labor that will make mistakes that the more experienced workers could have avoided.</p><p>The bean-counters will push us to hire in ways that will immediately protect the bottom line, but in certain cases, these decisions will have longer-lasting impacts if we fall into the same traps we once did (see above: "we find the present in the past, the past in the present"). Concurrently, the median tenure of employees at companies is <a href="https://www.bls.gov/news.release/pdf/tenure.pdf">4.2 years</a> (Bureau of Labor Statistics, January 2018), meaning that in addition to being prone to hiring workers with less work experience, we're victims to a shrinking institutional memory as well.</p><p>The second breadcrumb that Longfellow leaves us is to continue to read—and reread—long after we've left school. That Fadiman quote at the beginning of the essay is a reminder that what we get out of books is almost mathematical in its precision: as we grow, so does our understanding and interpretation of what we read.</p><p>In <strong><a href="https://www.laphamsquarterly.org/states-war/gulf-time">the very first essay for </a></strong><em><strong><a href="https://www.laphamsquarterly.org/states-war/gulf-time">Lapham's Quarterly</a></strong></em> in 2008, Lewis H. Lapham noted this phenomenon:</p><blockquote><p><em>"As a college student, I acquired the habit of reading with a pencil in my hand, and, in books that I’ve encountered more than once, I discover marginalia ten or forty years out of date, most of it amended or revised to match a change in attitude or plan."</em></p></blockquote><p>How much do our attitudes or plans change over time? Are we even willing to admit it?</p><p>This kind of flexibility speaks to our fallibility―something certain leaders seem to be afraid to admit. But those with emotional intelligence are naturally open to listening to others, taking in new information, and applying it to their decisions. With age, experience, and observance of our inevitable errors, we find how necessary reflection is.</p><p>Reflection can come in a variety of forms, whether it's through meditation, journaling, or even reading. But rarely (if ever) does it happen during a string of video calls.</p><p>Read more. You'll discover a world within you and around you taking on a whole new meaning ― and you can share it with those who matter to you.</p><p><br /></p><div><hr /><br /></div><p></p><div style="text-align: center;"><em><strong>"When you sell a man a book, you don't sell him 12 inches of ink and glue―you sell him a whole new life."</strong> </em></div><em><div style="text-align: right;"><em>― Christopher Morley<br /><br /></em></div></em><p></p><div><hr /></div><br /><div><div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"><i>This originally appeared in the August 12 issue of the <a href="https://scottmonty.substack.com/" style="color: #280170; font-weight: bold; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">Timeless & Timely</a> newsletter. What are you missing? To see this issue in its entirety, with entertaining and thoughtful links, recommendations, and more, <a href="https://scottmonty.substack.com/p/words-matter" style="color: #280170; font-weight: bold; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">please click here</a></i>. </div><div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"><br /></div><div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; text-align: center;">Don't miss a single issue:</div><div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; text-align: center;"><iframe frameborder="0" height="320" scrolling="no" src="https://scottmonty.substack.com/embed" style="max-height: 450px; max-width: 100%;" width="480"></iframe></div></div>

Words Matter

  The Bookworm  by Carl Spitzweg, c. 1850 (public domain - Wikipedia) "When you reread a classic, you do not see more in the book than ...

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Oh, the Humanities

<h6 data-pm-context="[]"><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ctYl3zqIJ9M/Xyp5f0tUysI/AAAAAAABOPo/Lrn2veefEiwzxTwcnBp94CMkhgM5BAMYgCLcBGAsYHQ/s1240/Pierre-Auguste%2BRenoir%2B-%2BReading%2B%2528La%2BLecture%2529.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1024" data-original-width="1240" height="529" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ctYl3zqIJ9M/Xyp5f0tUysI/AAAAAAABOPo/Lrn2veefEiwzxTwcnBp94CMkhgM5BAMYgCLcBGAsYHQ/w640-h529/Pierre-Auguste%2BRenoir%2B-%2BReading%2B%2528La%2BLecture%2529.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><em style="font-size: 10.72px; font-weight: 700; text-align: left;"><a href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Pierre-Auguste_Renoir_-_Reading_(La_Lecture)_-_BF107_-_Barnes_Foundation.jpg" target="_blank">Reading (La Lecture)</a></em><span style="font-size: 10.72px; font-weight: 700; text-align: left;"> by Pierre-Auguste Renoir, 1891 (public domain - Wikimedia Commons)</span><br /></td></tr></tbody></table><br /></h6><div><hr /></div><p><em><strong><br /></strong></em></p><div style="text-align: center;"><em><strong><em><strong>“Science is organized knowledge. Wisdom is organized life.”</strong></em><strong> </strong></strong></em></div><div style="text-align: right;"><em>— Will Durant, 1926</em></div><em><br /></em><p></p><div><hr /></div><p><br />There's so much happening in the news every day, it's difficult to keep up. It feels as if we're caught in a current and are fighting it with every swipe of the phone, swimming against a digital riptide while powered only with thumbs to propel us through the water.<br /><br /> It's exhausting.<br /><br /> There's a temptation to undertake a digital detox, but sometimes, it's just not an option. Leaders are expected to make sense of it all—to parse through all of the facts flying at them, and to do so, they need to put the pieces together using <a href="https://scottmonty.substack.com/p/too-much-information.html">perception and imagination to create insights and informed decisions</a>.<br /><br /> Perception, imagination and insights come from years of experience on the job, but they also come from being widely read and learning how to think critically. These are attributes that are a consequence of an education in the humanities.<br /><br /> In the age of the rise of STEM education, philosophizing about the humanities might seem a counterintuitive. As with all of my essays, I have a point—one that will be explained by way of some of the great thinkers of the past (and present).</p><h3><br /></h3><h2 style="text-align: left;"><b>A Virginia Vision</b></h2><p>When Thomas Jefferson envisioned the University of Virginia in 1818, he set out with some guiding principles in his <em><a href="https://www.laphamsquarterly.org/ways-learning/thomas-jefferson-opens-school">Report of the Commissioners for the University of Virginia</a></em>. He stressed ideals bound by <a href="https://www.scottmonty.com/2020/06/honor-and-duty.html">honor and duty</a>, of enlightenment, and the greater good.<br /><br /> These included:</p><ul><li><p>To give to every citizen the information he needs for the transaction of his own business.</p></li><li><p>To enable him to calculate for himself, and to express and preserve his ideas, his contracts, and accounts in writing.</p></li><li><p>To improve, by reading, his morals and faculties.</p></li><li><p>To understand his duties to his neighbors and country, and to discharge with competence the functions confided to him by either.</p></li><li><p>And, in general, to observe with intelligence and faithfulness all the social relations under which he shall be placed.</p></li></ul><p>He went on to prescribe various branches of higher education, such as government and civics, agriculture, mathematics, manufacturing, the arts, and more. In summing up, Jefferson advocated that education should advance "the prosperity, the power, and the happiness of a nation."</p><p>If you read the full excerpt of the Report, there's a subtle shift from those ideals related to morals and enlightenment and those that are more practical in nature. As a classically-educated man of his time, he understood the importance of the care and feeding of the mind, but it was no less important that the care and feeding of one's own family—something that results from "transaction of his own business" and with any luck, ends in "prosperity."</p><p>As America developed from an awkward agrarian youth to a full adult of the Industrial Age, the caretakers of education evolved from the bookish types to industrialists and men of a practical nature, who knew how to measure output and productivity. And before we knew it, higher education became not only practical, but essential for upward mobility.</p><p><br /></p><div><hr /></div><p></p><div style="text-align: center;"><em><strong>"Students don’t go to school to acquire the wisdom of Solomon. They go to school to acquire a cash value and improve their lot, to pick up the keys to the kingdom stocked with the treasures to be found in a BMW showroom or an Arizona golf resort."</strong> </em></div><em><div style="text-align: right;"><em>— Lewis H. Lapham, 2008</em></div></em><p></p><div><hr /></div><p><br />That's not to say that business and education are separate concepts; they sail on the same ocean that is the almighty dollar. Indeed, <a href="https://www.profgalloway.com/post-corona-higher-ed-part-deux">the business of higher education is struggling</a>, as the tempest of COVID-19 is rocking already precarious ecosystem, ready to dash its ships upon the shoals.</p><p>When students venture into the "real world," as it's so often called from the halls of the academy, they often leave behind what they've gained from university settings. Degrees in hand after a sunny spring commencement ceremony, they accept job offers and plunge headlong into a new environment, eagerly learning a trade—a trade, odds are, that their liberal arts institutions or humanities degrees have not prepared them.</p><p>Or have they?<br /></p><p><br /></p><h2 style="text-align: left;"><strong>Dust Off Your Shakespeare</strong></h2><p>At first blush, Plato doesn't seem to be of much use in computer programming; Hannibal may have crossed the Alps on elephants, but he can't navigate an algorithm for an autonomous vehicle; and Abraham Lincoln thought that the world would little note nor long remember what he said, but can he help write ad copy?</p><p>Ralph Waldo Emerson bridged the theoretical and the practical in "<a href="http://digitalemerson.wsulibs.wsu.edu/exhibits/show/text/the-american-scholar">The American Scholar</a>," a speech he gave to Harvard's Phi Beta Kappa in 1837, in which he discerned the difference between the "Man Thinking" and the bookworm:</p><blockquote><p>"<em>Meek young men grow up in libraries, believing it their duty to accept the views which Cicero, which Locke, which Bacon, have given; forgetful that Cicero, Locke and Bacon were only young men in libraries when they wrote these books…Hence the book-learned class, who value books, as such; not as related to nature and the human constitution</em>."</p></blockquote><p>He of course meant not that these are two separate states of being (humans are almost never entirely one thing or another—we're complex that way), but that if we apply what we've come to learn on the printed page to our own experiences, we can create new and better opportunities for ourselves. </p><p>In fact, Emerson plainly stated the interplay between our work lives and our education: "When the mind is braced by labor and invention, the page of whatever book we read become luminous with manifold allusion."<br /><br /></p><div><hr /></div><p></p><div style="text-align: center;"><em><strong>"Education never ends, Watson. It is a series of lessons with the greatest for the last."</strong> </em></div><em><div style="text-align: right;"><em>— Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, 1911</em></div></em><p></p><p><em><br /></em></p><div><hr /></div><h3><strong><br /></strong></h3><h2 style="text-align: left;"><strong>The Spacious Country of the Mind</strong></h2><p>As I select a topic to write about each week (my labor and invention), I find myself inspired as I read various sources—books, articles, newsletters, etc. Current events are filtered through this topical lens, and everything takes more meaning.<br /><br /> I've made no secret that one of my regular resources is <em><a href="https://www.laphamsquarterly.org/">Lapham's Quarterly</a></em>, a publication that in each issue captures a wealth of history and knowledge, which Will and Ariel Durant called "a celestial city, a spacious country of the mind, wherein a thousand saints, statesmen, inventors, scientists, poets, artists, musicians, lovers, and philosophers still live and speak, teach and carve and sing." (<em><strong><a href="https://amzn.to/3ia4OiR">The Lessons of History</a></strong></em>)<br /></p><p>But what can such figures of the past teach us about digital communications, leadership in the age of a COVID-19, or the security concerns of an enterprise SaaS purchase? What good are history, literature and philosophy when engineers are trying to complete their code?<br /></p><p>Just over a decade ago, Lewis Lapham noted that he regularly came across academic journals and alumni magazines with "articles that might as well be entitled '<a href="https://www.laphamsquarterly.org/ways-learning/playing-fire">What In God's Name Are the Humanities, and Why Are They of Any Use to Us Here in the Bright Blue Technological Wonder of the Twenty-First Century?</a>'"<br /><br /> Technology has advanced well beyond its capabilities in Mr. Lapham's observation in 2008. But the need for humanities has not. Since then, we've seen the fine-tuning of artificial intelligence, the creation of the gig economy, and the rise of Facebook's power. As a result, we've seen unconscious built-in biases in A.I., a feudal class system made up of taxi-driving serfs, and a global communications platform that puts the very idea of democracy at risk led by a CEO who has all the power of a dictator.<br /><br /></p><div><hr /></div><p><em><br /></em></p><div style="font-weight: bold; text-align: center;"><em><em><strong>"Like the sorcerer's apprentice, our technologists produce continuously improved means toward increasingly ill-defined ends; we have acquired a great many new weapons and information systems, but we don't know at what or at whom to point the digital enhancements." </strong></em></em></div><div style="text-align: right;"><em><em>— Lewis H. Lapham, 2008</em></em></div><em><br /></em><p></p><div><hr /></div><p><br /></p><p>When you develop a business primarily through the lens of engineering, algorithms and technology, and fail to properly account for human behavior as discernible by historic events and trends, this is what happens.<br /><br /> Enjoy those computer science degrees while you have them, Mark Cuban says. Because with the rise of A.I., the ability to program will be quickly assumed by machines. Longer term, <a href="https://www.vox.com/recode/2019/5/29/18644652/mark-cuban-ai-computer-science-coding-liberal-arts-kara-swisher-steve-case-decode-podcast-interview">creativity, collaboration, and communication skills will be more valued</a> because these are things that are bound by emotions and empathy. He even thinks that in 10 years, <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/amp/2018/02/20/mark-cuban-philosophy-degree-will-be-worth-more-than-computer-science.html?__twitter_impression=true">a philosophy degree will be worth more than a computer science degree</a>.</p><p>The humanities give us an opportunity to apply perspective and ethics to the field of technology. To not only game out the potential scenarios, but to ask and answer the hows and whys before those scenarios even exist.<br /></p><p>Voltaire once asked, "Is there any one so wise as to learn by the experience of others?" While no one has lived exactly as any one of us will, we can turn to the stories from those statesmen, inventors, scientists, poets, artists, musicians, lovers, and philosophers from history and go from bookworms to Humans Thinking.<br /><br /> Our heritage is the key to our humanity.</p><p><br /></p><div class="post-body entry-content" id="post-body-2361544305652948199" itemprop="" style="color: #333333; font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 1.6em; margin: 0px 0px 0.75em;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><div><hr /><br /></div><div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif;"><i>This originally appeared in the August 5 issue of the <a href="https://scottmonty.substack.com/" style="color: #280170; font-weight: bold; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">Timeless & Timely</a> newsletter. What are you missing? To see this issue in its entirety, with entertaining and thoughtful links, recommendations, and more, <a href="https://scottmonty.substack.com/p/oh-the-humanities" style="color: #280170; font-weight: bold; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">please click here</a></i>. </div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif;"><br /></div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif; text-align: center;">Don't miss a single issue:</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif; text-align: center;"><iframe frameborder="0" height="320" scrolling="no" src="https://scottmonty.substack.com/embed" style="max-height: 450px; max-width: 100%;" width="480"></iframe></div></div></div><div style="clear: both;"></div></div><p><span class="datex show" face="" style="background-color: #2e2e2e; color: white; display: block; font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; left: 15px; padding: 3px 0px; position: absolute; text-align: center; top: 0px; transition: all 0.4s ease-in-out 0s; z-index: 0;"><strong style="display: block; font-size: 21px; padding: 0px 2px;">29</strong><span style="display: block; font-size: 9px; height: 12px; line-height: 12px; padding: 0px 2px;">Jul</span><small style="display: block; font-size: 9px; height: 12px; line-height: 12px; padding: 0px 2px;">2020</small></span></p><div class="post-footer" style="background-color: #fafafa; border-top: 1px solid rgb(211, 211, 211); color: #333333; font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; margin: 0px -10px -10px; padding: 8px;"><div class="post-footer-line post-footer-line-1"><div class="post-author vcard" style="margin: 0px;">Posted by <span class="fn"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/profile/17710406470860389078" rel="author" style="color: #280170; font-weight: bold; text-decoration-line: none;" title="author profile">Scott Monty</a></span></div></div></div>

Oh, the Humanities

Reading (La Lecture)  by Pierre-Auguste Renoir, 1891 (public domain - Wikimedia Commons) “Science is organized knowledge. Wisdom is organize...

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