Podcasts about great man theory

Jonah Goldberg has realized that, if you name drop Leo Strauss enough, you're eventually going to have to explain who you're talking about. As the benevolent educator of The Remnant masses, Jonah has conspired with Steven Smith, a Straussian expert and professor of political science and philosophy at Yale University, to deliver this deep dive on the life and work of Leo Strauss. Jonah and Steven dig into the fundamentals of Strauss' work, the debate between the East Coast and West Coast Straussians, the value and potential in fusionism, and Harry Jaffa's various quirks. Plus: the flaws with the Great Man Theory and some gossip on the heavy hitting intellectuals of the 20th century. Show Notes:—Steven Smith: Reading Leo Strauss: Politics, Philosophy, Judaism—The Liberties Journal: “What is a Statesman?”—Take Steven's Yale University course on political philosophy from your couch!—Irving Kristol's 1952 review of Strauss' Persecution and the Art of Writing in Commentary Magazine The Remnant is a production of The Dispatch, a digital media company covering politics, policy, and culture from a non-partisan, conservative perspective. To access all of The Dispatch's offerings—including Jonah's G-File newsletter, regular livestreams, and other members-only content—click here. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Merasa tantangan kepemimpinan di era ini semakin kompleks dan sulit diprediksi? Dulu, kita mungkin berpikir pemimpin hebat dilahirkan dengan bakat istimewa. Tapi, tahukah Anda bahwa pemikiran tentang leadership telah berevolusi jauh melampaui itu? Mari kita telaah perjalanan menarik ini, dari keyakinan kuno hingga model-model kepemimpinan yang paling relevan dengan dinamika zaman sekarang. Siap untuk membuka wawasan baru tentang bagaimana kita memimpin? Perjalanan kita dimulai dari Great Man Theory yang memuja pemimpin layaknya pahlawan super dengan kualitas bawaan luar biasa. Kemudian, Trait Theory mencoba mengurai sifat-sifat ajaib yang konon dimiliki para pemimpin sukses. Namun, apakah kepemimpinan hanya soal "DNA" atau sekadar daftar sifat ideal? Bersiaplah, karena pandangan kita akan segera bergeser! Angin perubahan bertiup dengan munculnya Behavioral Theories yang fokus pada apa yang dilakukan pemimpin, bukan hanya siapa mereka. Ini membuka mata kita pada berbagai gaya kepemimpinan dan dampaknya. Tak berhenti di situ, Contingency Theories hadir untuk mengingatkan bahwa konteks sangatlah penting – tak ada satu gaya yang cocok untuk semua situasi! Semakin menarik, bukan? Puncak evolusi membawa kita pada Transformational Leadership yang menginspirasi perubahan dan Adaptive Leadership yang tangguh menghadapi kompleksitas zaman. Bagaimana para pemimpin di lingkungan pemerintah Indonesia dapat menerapkan prinsip-prinsip ini untuk menakhodai perubahan dan melayani bangsa dengan lebih efektif? Temukan jawabannya dalam narasi lengkap yang akan mengubah cara Anda memandang kepemimpinan! Simak Podcast INIKOPER untuk mendengarkan! #Kepemimpinan #EvolusiKepemimpinan #AdaptiveLeadership #GreatManTheory #PemerintahanIndonesia #PodcastLeadership

I vårt minst individualistiska avsnitt hittills slår vi sönder Great Man Theory, vilket är vårt sätt att förklara att individens vikt för krig och historia är pyttig. Öppen dörr? Kanske. Kul babbel? Måhända. Finns en twist? Ja!Mattis kör de breda dragen den här gången och går igenom själva ”teorin”, vad som talar för den, vad som talar emot den samt introducerar även en undanryckning av mattan som är det här avsnittets twist. Per är mer specifik och beskriver två individer – Mao Zedong och Elon Musk – som kanske skulle gå att foga in i teorin, men som knappast kunde stå på egna ben. P.g.a. urvalet förväntar vi oss vrede från maoister och Teslaägare.Dessutom: rena personangrepp, The Onion som verklighet, Julius Caesar som shaman, alla var Alexander den store, Maos rövighet, a very stable genius, HJÄLTAR och mycket mer!Fira vinsten i Guldpodden med oss! Köp din biljett till pubhänget här: https://secure.tickster.com/sv/42j6uhvcet3wgc1/products  Get bonus content on Patreon Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Have you ever felt challenged or questioned because of your race? In this episode of Everyday Conversations on Race, Simma Lieberman welcomes Shari Dunn, author of Qualified: How Competency Checking and Race Collide at Work.    Explore how race affects perceptions of competence and the real-world impacts of systemic racism in the workplace. You'll understand how racist competency checks can impede merit-based hiring. With personal anecdotes and historical insights, Shari Dunn sheds light on how people of color, especially Black women, face unfair scrutiny and bias in their professional lives. Discover why it's crucial to talk about race, debunk myths of a colorblind society, and take actionable steps toward creating inclusive work cultures. Tune in for a heartfelt and informative cross-race discussion and hear what we can do to unite and bring people together across differences.  Learn more about this important topic and share this episode to help grow the conversation.   00:00 Introduction to the Podcast 00:53 Meet Shari Dunn: Author of 'Qualified' 02:05 Shari Dunn's Varied Career Background 03:19 The Concept of Competency Checking 03:58 The Importance of Discussing Race 04:26 Historical Context and Colorblindness 06:51 Merit-Based Society: Fact or Fiction? 08:39 Personal Experiences and Systemic Barriers 19:40 The Toll of Racism on Health 22:20 Examples of Competency Checking 29:03 The Cost of White Supremacy 30:29 The Exercise: Labels and Leadership 32:13 The Great Man Theory of Leadership 33:56 Imposter Syndrome and Workplace Dynamics 35:13 The Danger of Misplaced Leadership 38:13 White Supremacy's Impact on White People 39:52 Stories of Competency Checking 47:31 The Concept of Whiteness and Blackness 50:51 Actions to Combat Competency Checking 54:14 Conclusion and Contact Information   Get 45% off the Magic Mind bundle or 20% off a one-time purchase with Simma's exclusive link: magicmind.com/SimmaL20  (Support mental health services for the homeless and low-income communities.)    Guests Bio: Shari Dunn is a polymath, an accomplished journalist, and a former attorney, news anchor, CEO, and university professor.  She is an American Leadership Forum Fellow and has been awarded the prestigious Executive of the Year Award in 2018, the 2019 Women of Influence Award (Portland Business Journal), the Associated Press Award for Best Spot News, and the Wisconsin Broadcasting Association Award for Best Morning News Show. Her work has been cited in the Wall Street Journal and quoted in TIME and Fast Company among others. Shari is also a sought-after speaker. She holds a BA in philosophy from Marquette University and a JD from Northwestern Pritzker School of Law.    Click here to DONATE and support our podcast All donations are tax deductible through Fractured Atlas. Simma Lieberman, The Inclusionist, helps leaders create inclusive cultures. She is a consultant, speaker, and facilitator. Simma is the creator and host of the podcast, Everyday Conversations on Race. Contact Simma@SimmaLieberman.com to get more information, book her as a speaker for your next event, help you become a more inclusive leader, or facilitate dialogues across differences. Go to www.simmalieberman.com and www.raceconvo.com for more information Simma is a member of and inspired by the global organization IAC (Inclusion Allies Coalition)    Connect with me: Instagram Facebook YouTube Twitter LinkedIn Tiktok Website    Previous Episodes Can Descendants of the Enslaved Reconcile with the Enslavers? Can Individuals Really End Racism? How Can Art Eliminate Racism? Loved this episode?  Leave us a review and rating

Are Leaders Born or Made? Exploring the Great Man Theory In this episode of Take the Leap Management, we dive into one of the earliest leadership theories—the Great Man Theory. This classic idea suggests that leaders are born, not made, and that certain individuals naturally possess the qualities required for leadership. But is leadership really an inherent trait, or can it be developed over time? We explore the origins of this theory, its influence on leadership thinking, and whether it still holds relevance in today's world. Tune in as we challenge traditional assumptions and uncover what truly makes a great leader.

Join Take the Leap Management for an exciting deep dive into the world of leadership with our new podcast series on Leadership Theories. From classic models like the Great Man Theory and Trait Theory to modern approaches like Transformational Leadership and Servant Leadership, we explore what makes a leader truly effective. Each episode breaks down a key leadership theory, exploring its principles, real-world applications, and how you can use it to refine your own leadership style. Whether you're leading a team, managing projects, or simply looking to grow as a leader, this series will provide the insights, tools, and inspiration you need to lead with confidence, adaptability, and impact. Subscribe now and take the leap into the future of leadership!

01:00 The Big Tech Takeover of American Politics, https://www.newyorker.com/news/fault-lines/the-big-tech-takeover-of-american-politics 11:00 Comedian Adam Carolla Talks About the Los Angeles Wildfires, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R3MEr441LKs 20:00 Last Boys at the Beginning of History - Thymos comes to the capital by Mana Afsari, https://thepointmag.com/politics/last-boys-at-the-beginning-of-history/ 30:40 LAFD: "Design For Disaster" - The Story of the Bel Air Conflagration | 1962, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UxnC1WW95XE 34:00 Ross Douthat: How the liberal cathedral cracked up, https://www.nytimes.com/column/ross-douthat 45:00 NYP: Jerry Springer Show' producer claims he acted as ‘pimp' for iconic host, dismisses new Netflix doc: ‘Whitewash', https://nypost.com/2025/01/22/entertainment/jerry-springer-show-producer-claims-he-acted-as-pimp-for-host/ 55:00 Jerry Springer despoiled my precious Kendra Jade 1:02:30 Vanity Fair on Democratic Party infighting, https://www.vanityfair.com/news/story/inside-the-democratic-partys-epic-hangover 1:05:00 How a Dose of MDMA Transformed a White Supremacist, https://getpocket.com/explore/item/how-a-dose-of-mdma-transformed-a-white-supremacist 1:10:40 How POLITICO suppressed Biden stories, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pm3XiIKD910 1:13:00 Mark Halperin on Trump's First 100 Days,, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S7t_CoA7WqU 1:16:00 Trump's Comeback (full documentary) | FRONTLINE, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8VbdLehKFQY 1:25:00 Rumblings About Barack and Michelle Obama Divorce (and Jennifer Aniston) Getting Louder, w/ Ruthless, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fdge3FAat7o 1:33:00 Kamala Harris & Doug Emhoff having troubles, https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-14306237/kamala-harris-blames-doug-emhoff-political-setbacks-marriage-turmoil.html 1:35:50 MAGA mad at Bank of America for debanking conservatives 1:38:00 Climate change caused our recent disasters in LA fires?, https://lukeford.net/blog/?p=158727 1:40:00 Trump's Anti DEI Blitz, https://lukeford.net/blog/?p=158736 1:44:00 Silicon Valley anecdote about a company crafting a memo for employees on George Floyd https://odysee.com/@LukeFordLive, https://rumble.com/lukeford, https://dlive.tv/lukefordlivestreams Superchat: https://entropystream.live/app/lukefordlive Bitchute: https://www.bitchute.com/channel/lukeford/ Soundcloud MP3s: https://soundcloud.com/luke-ford-666431593 Code of Conduct: https://lukeford.net/blog/?p=125692 http://lukeford.net Email me: lukeisback@gmail.com or DM me on Twitter.com/lukeford, Best videos: https://lukeford.net/blog/?p=143746 Support the show | https://www.streamlabs.com/lukeford, https://patreon.com/lukeford, https://PayPal.Me/lukeisback Facebook: http://facebook.com/lukecford Book an online Alexander Technique lesson with Luke: https://alexander90210.com Feel free to clip my videos. It's nice when you link back to the original.

On this in-between season break special episode of Royally Screwed, we're going to talk about the Great Man Theory. What is it? And why is it incredibly flawed? And what does that mean for the very basis of this show?? Also, stick around for a major announcement about the show at the end of the episode.Subscribe for more episodes as they come.Twitter: @Denim_CreekInstagram: denimcreekproMusic:Intro/Outro: “Life O' the Lavish” - Jules Gaia, “Coffeeshop Stories” - Almost Here, “Zone Out” - Daniel FridellCopyright 2024, Denim Creek Productions

“What experience and history teach is this — that nations and governments have never learned anything from history, or acted upon any lessons they might have drawn from it.” — Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, Lectures on the Philosophy of History   This week, Hocwyn Tipwex returns to join Cyrus Palizban for a dialogue on the nature of historical lessons and the patterns of history's repeated mistakes. From the close of Japan's period of isolation to the effects of China's “One Child Policy”, we explore how nations might better learn from their past to better their future. We delve into different ways of learning history, particularly the 'Great Man Theory' of history and the potential it holds for making historical narratives more relatable, emphasizing using biographies as a more engaging way to study history. Hopefully, this episode inspires you to order a biography online and let it transport you to another time and place… 00:00 Welcome Back, Hocwyn Tipwex! 00:35 Discussing Hegel's Quote on History 01:03 The Repetition of Historical Mistakes 04:36 Leadership and Power Dynamics 11:01 China's Political Landscape 15:56 Cultural Devastation and Preservation 20:40 Japan's Rapid Modernization 22:32 Comparing China and Japan's Historical Choices 33:02 Historical Fiction and Understanding the Past 36:26 Learning Preferences and Effective Study Methods 36:47 The Power of Biographies in Learning 38:23 Personal Experiences with Biographies 40:23 Recommended Biographies and Their Impact 46:18 The Great Man Theory of History 51:58 Skepticism in Historical Narratives 59:57 The Influence of Personal Stories in History 01:08:54 Conclusion and Future Discussions   Follow us on other platforms for more content!   https://smartlink2.metricool.com/public/smartlink/lightning-945   And follow Hocwyn on X!   https://x.com/hocwyn?s=21&t=eRUQXccKX1_bwfJpBXImWg

We encounter the back cover of the Good Doctor's first actual book as we wrap up The Pebble in the Sky with chapters 14 through 22. If you've been around for a while you probably remember our discussions of the "Great Man Theory of History" vs the "Bottom-Up" paradigm. In other words, do remarkable individuals with unique characteristics write history or is it driven by powerful historical forces that generate great leaders when needed? It's a false dichotomy, but a useful one. In the Foundation Universe, the bottom-up theory must dominate otherwise psychohistory could not work the way it does. But Joseph Schwartz is just the right Jewish tailor with a special kind of trick memory who is accidentally thrust to an exact moment in Earth's future. Once there he is brought to the only scientist on Earth doing a particular type of brain research. He then survives a dangerous experiment that gives him an unlikely set of psychic powers which he uses to save the lives of nearly every human in the galaxy. Put those numbers into your Prime Radiant and crunch them! This probably delayed the creation of psychohistory by hundreds of years. "I just don't understand it, Hari, the math says everyone in the galaxy should be dead right now." For additional content check out Of Pebbles and Pulps, exclusively at StarsEndPodcast.com.

Teddy Wayne is the author of the novels The Winner, The Great Man Theory, Apartment, Loner, The Love Song of Jonny Valentine, and Kapitoil. He is the winner of a Whiting Writers' Award and an NEA Creative Writing Fellowship as well as a finalist for the Young Lions Fiction Award, PEN/Bingham Prize, and Dayton Literary Peace Prize. A former columnist for the New York Times and McSweeney'sand a frequent contributor to The New Yorker, he has taught at Columbia University and Washington University in St. Louis. He has developed films and series from his novels with Columbia Pictures, HBO, MGM Television, and others. He lives in Brooklyn with his wife, the writer Kate Greathead, and their children. Teddy joins Barbara DeMarco-Barrett to talk about his path to writing, how to make unlikeable characters empathetic, writing characters who are outsiders, his unusual way of plotting, and much more. For more information on Writers on Writing and extra writing perks, visit our Patreon page. To listen to past interviews, visit our website. Support the show by buying books at our bookstore on bookshop.org. We've stocked it with titles from our guests, as well as some of our personal favorites. You'll support independent bookstores and our show by purchasing through the store. Finally, on Spotify listen to an album's worth of typewriter music like what you hear on the show. Look for the artist, Just My Type. Email the show at writersonwritingpodcast@gmail.com. We love to hear from our listeners. (Recorded on July 12, 2024)  Host: Barbara DeMarco-BarrettHost: Marrie StoneMusic and sound editing: Travis Barrett (Stream his music on Spotify, Apple Music, Etc.)

Last week, an article by ‘Fast Company' senior writer Ainsley Harris riled up a small but very online part of the tech community. Venture capitalist Marc Andreessen, Elon Musk, Anduril Industries founder Palmer Lucky, Y combinator CEO Garry Tan, and even MrBeast, along with many others, were all reacting to her article, ‘Tech bro podcasts are obsessed with alpha men, and it's dangerous for the rest of us.' We talked to Ainsley and had her explain why so many ‘techno-optimists' fell in love with the Great Man Theory, and how that's problematic. Then, we spoke to Gamefam founder and CEO Joe Ferencz about the rise of Roblox and Fortnite as brand-engagement platforms and how they use these sandbox games to not only create new virtual worlds, but also to advertise different IPs.

Last week, an article by ‘Fast Company' senior writer Ainsley Harris riled up a small but very online part of the tech community. Venture capitalist Marc Andreessen, Elon Musk, Anduril Industries founder Palmer Lucky, Y combinator CEO Garry Tan, and even MrBeast, along with many others, were all reacting to her article, ‘Tech bro podcasts are obsessed with alpha men, and it's dangerous for the rest of us.' We talked to Ainsley and had her explain why so many ‘techno-optimists' fell in love with the Great Man Theory, and how that's problematic. Then, we spoke to Gamefam founder and CEO Joe Ferencz about the rise of Roblox and Fortnite as brand-engagement platforms and how they use these sandbox games to not only create new virtual worlds, but also to advertise different IPs.

Last week, an article by ‘Fast Company' senior writer Ainsley Harris riled up a small but very online part of the tech community. Venture capitalist Marc Andreessen, Elon Musk, Anduril Industries founder Palmer Lucky, Y combinator CEO Garry Tan, and even MrBeast, along with many others, were all reacting to her article, ‘Tech bro podcasts are obsessed with alpha men, and it's dangerous for the rest of us.' We talked to Ainsley and had her explain why so many ‘techno-optimists' fell in love with the Great Man Theory, and how that's problematic. Then, we spoke to Gamefam founder and CEO Joe Ferencz about the rise of Roblox and Fortnite as brand-engagement platforms and how they use these sandbox games to not only create new virtual worlds, but also to advertise different IPs.

Teddy Wayne is the author of the novels The Winner (coming May 2024), The Great Man Theory, Apartment, Loner, The Love Song of Jonny Valentine, and Kapitoil. He is the winner of a Whiting Writers' Award and an NEA Creative Writing Fellowship as well as a finalist for the Young Lions Fiction Award, PEN/Bingham Prize, and Dayton Literary Peace Prize. A former columnist for the New York Times and McSweeney's and a frequent contributor to The New Yorker, he has taught at Columbia University and Washington University in St. Louis. He has developed films and series from his novels with Columbia Pictures, HBO, MGM Television, and others. He lives in Brooklyn with his wife, the writer Kate Greathead, and their children. Subscribe to our newsletter today A note from Lev:I am a high school teacher of history and economics at a public high school in NYC, and began the podcast to help demystify economics for teachers.  The podcast is now within the top 2% of podcasts worldwide in terms of listeners (per Listen Notes) and individual episodes are frequently listed by The Syllabus (the-syllabus.com) as among the 10 best political economy podcasts of a particular week.  The podcast is reaching thousands of listeners each month.  The podcast seeks to provide a substantive alternative to mainstream economics media; to communicate information and ideas that contribute to equitable and peaceful solutions to political and economic issues; and to improve the teaching of high school and university political economy. Best, Lev

WE HAVE ANOTHER FRIEND!! Gretchen and Caroline are joined by guest Nick to discuss "Great Man Theory" in history and as applied to Fire & Blood. This continues to not be a Dune podcast. Questions or comments? Email us at houseoffireandbloodpodcast@gmail.com

Produced for an unusually high budget in the nascent years of the character, the seventeen animated shorts starring Superman marked a significant high water mark in the Golden Age of Animation. Crafted with care and using tech that was on the bleeding edge of film animation, the shorts were highly successful and made a significant impact on both the cartoon medium and the development of Superman as a pop culture institution. Ryan is joined by Sylvan, Sarah, and Carlos for a long discussion about six of these colorful, intense, and expertly-stylized films. Talking points include war propaganda, Great Man Theory, objectivism, 1930's pulp tropes, the concept of the Übermensch, and how Superman gradually shifted from being a quasi-socialist champion of the oppressed to an arbiter of the status quo. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/ryan-valentine3/support

Nach der Folge zu Spionage widmen wir uns heute einem weiteren Genre: der Alternate History bzw. der Historischen Fantasy - und ja, wir reden auch darüber, dass die Übergänge da fließend sind. Es geht um Fixpunkte in der Zeit, die Great Man Theory und darum, was uns am Genre fasziniert. Im Medienthema: Die Marvel-Serie "Echo".

Are great leaders born or built? As a leadership coach and someone who trains high performing teams, I have pondered this topic deeply. What differentiates natural traits from personal growth and development? And what makes an average leader compared to a truly exceptional one? Today I take you on my own journey as we explore these questions and dig deeper into what makes great leadership.We'll start by examining an early theory called the Great Man Theory. It suggests that men - who historically held most leadership positions - are born with inherent traits that make them exceptional leaders. While traits like confidence, resilience and decisiveness are valuable, they don't solely define great leaders. I believe great leaders are built by having a personal commitment to being the best that they can be, and dedicated to a cause or a purpose beyond simply self interest. Next, I dive a little deeper into the power of natural traits. I often see people questioning their ability to have a bigger impact when they don't feel they possess those traditional leadership traits. However, being a great leader requires more than just these natural attributes. I take you through the DISC tool, which identifies four key personality types. While traditionally, most leaders have fallen into the Dominant category, the question lies, are they the only types of leaders we should have? I then talk about the need for adaptability, a skill that I believe everyone needs. We live in an interactive, ever-changing world and the ability to adapt and evolve is more important than ever. To be able to pivot and meet the needs of any given situation is the key to lasting and sustainable results. We also need to be adaptable so that we can engage better with our teams and understand how to get the best from them. This requires a deep level of self-awareness to be constantly building who we are in leadership. Whether you're starting your leadership journey or looking to make a greater impact, this episode will give you practical insights and strategies to help you grow as a leader. Remember, anyone can become a great leader with dedication and the right mindset. I encourage you to take the time and think about one way you could step beyond your comfort zone to lead better in your everyday life and work. LINKS:Book a Free Career Strategy Coaching SessionWebsite:https://www.rebeccabangura.com/LinkedIn:https://www.linkedin.com/in/rebeccabangura/ Instagram:https://www.instagram.com/iamrebeccabangura/ 

When are you taking down your Christmas tree and decorations? Should be in March, right? Should Trump be held accountable or defeated at the ballot? Why pardoning Trump by his GOP challengers would shorten our democracy. Dean Obeidallah - Don't count on the courts to save us from Trump, it's up to you and me. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

In the latest episode of the Psych in Business podcast, Dr. Ernest Wayde, your host, takes us on a reflective journey through the diverse landscape of leadership theories and styles discussed throughout the past year. As the year comes to a close, Dr. Wayde emphasizes the importance of understanding these principles, drawing from his own experience of feeling unprepared when stepping into a leadership role.Dr. Wayde begins by highlighting the significance of tapping into the wealth of research on leadership, suggesting that familiarity with various theories and styles provides a solid foundation for both new and experienced leaders. He stresses that these insights can serve as guiding frameworks, offering direction and structure for individuals embarking on their leadership journeys.The episode delves into key leadership theories and styles, starting with the historical "Great Man Theory." Dr. Wayde dispels the myth that leaders are solely born, emphasizing that leadership skills can indeed be developed and strengthened through research-backed methods. The action-centered leadership approach is explored as one of the earliest models that doesn't view leadership as an inherent trait. Dr. Wayde introduces the concept of servant leadership, exemplified by figures like Gandhi, emphasizing the importance of prioritizing the needs of team members.Listeners gain insights into the seven pillars of servant leadership, which include qualities like integrity, service-driven mindset, and effective communication. The episode then moves through various styles, from situational leadership, where adaptability is key, to transactional leadership, focusing on tasks and structured approaches.Transformational leadership is highlighted as pivotal for navigating change, while authentic leadership underscores the importance of genuineness, self-awareness, and transparency. Dr. Wayde encourages leaders to learn from their life stories to develop an authentic leadership style. In closing, he extends warm holiday wishes, and as the year wraps up, he invites listeners to explore specific theories and styles in greater depth by revisiting past episodes or conducting further research.As the episode concludes, Dr. Ernest Wayde leaves the audience with a sense of empowerment, armed with a comprehensive understanding of leadership theories and styles to guide them into the upcoming year. Wishing everyone a Merry Christmas and happy holidays, he looks forward to welcoming listeners back for more insightful discussions in the future.You can visit his business website at: https://www.waydeconsulting.com/

Welcome to The Nonlinear Library, where we use Text-to-Speech software to convert the best writing from the Rationalist and EA communities into audio. This is: The problem with infohazards as a concept [Linkpost], published by Noosphere89 on December 22, 2023 on LessWrong. This is going to be a linkpost from Beren on some severe problems that come with embracing infohazards as a useful concept. The main problem I see that are relevant to infohazards are that it encourages a "Great Man Theory" of progress in science, which is basically false, and this still holds despite vast disparities in ability, since no one person or small group is able to single handedly solve scientific fields/problems by themselves, and the culture of AI safety already has a bit of a problem with using the "Great Man Theory" too liberally. There are other severe problems that come with infohazards that cripple the AI safety community, but I think the encouragement of Great Man Theories of scientific progress is the most noteworthy problem to me, but that doesn't mean it has the biggest impact on AI safety, compared to the other problems. Part of Beren's post is quoted below: Infohazards assume an incorrect model of scientific progress One issue I have with the culture of AI safety and alignment in general is that it often presupposes too much of a "great man" theory of progress 1 - the idea that there will be a single 'genius' who solves 'The Problem' of alignment and that everything else has a relatively small impact. This is not how scientific fields develop in real life. While there are certainly very large individual differences in performance, and a log-normal distribution of impact, with outliers having vastly more impact than the median, nevertheless in almost all scientific fields progress is highly distributed - single individuals very rarely completely solve entire fields themselves. Solving alignment seems unlikely to be different a-priori, and appears to require a deep and broad understanding of how deep learning and neural networks function and generalize, as well as significant progress in understanding their internal representations, and learned goals. In addition, there must likely be large code infrastructures built up around monitoring and testing of powerful AI systems and an sensible system of multilateral AI regulation between countries. This is not the kind of thing that can be invented by a lone genius from scratch in a cave. This is a problem that requires a large number of very smart people building on each other's ideas and outputs over a long period of time, like any normal science or technological endeavor. This is why having widespread adoption of the ideas and problems of alignment, as well as dissemination of technical work is crucial. This is also why some of the ideas proposed to fix some of the issues caused by infohazard norms fall flat. For instance, to get feedback, it is often proposed to have a group of trusted insiders who have access to all the infohazardous information and can build on it themselves. However, not only is such a group likely to just get overloaded with adjudicating infohazard requests, but we should naturally not expect the vast majority of insights to come from a small recognizable group of people at the beginning of the field. The existing set of 'trusted alignment people' is strongly unlikely to generate all, or even a majority, of the insights required to successfully align superhuman AI systems in the real world. Even Einstein - the archetypal lone genius - who was at the time a random patent clerk in Switzerland far from the center of the action - would not have been able to make any discoveries if all theoretical physics research of the time was held to be 'infohazardous' and only circulated privately among the physics professors of a few elite universities at the time. Indeed, it is highly unlikely that in such a scenario much theoretical physics would have been done at all. Similarly,...

Link to original articleWelcome to The Nonlinear Library, where we use Text-to-Speech software to convert the best writing from the Rationalist and EA communities into audio. This is: The problem with infohazards as a concept [Linkpost], published by Noosphere89 on December 22, 2023 on LessWrong. This is going to be a linkpost from Beren on some severe problems that come with embracing infohazards as a useful concept. The main problem I see that are relevant to infohazards are that it encourages a "Great Man Theory" of progress in science, which is basically false, and this still holds despite vast disparities in ability, since no one person or small group is able to single handedly solve scientific fields/problems by themselves, and the culture of AI safety already has a bit of a problem with using the "Great Man Theory" too liberally. There are other severe problems that come with infohazards that cripple the AI safety community, but I think the encouragement of Great Man Theories of scientific progress is the most noteworthy problem to me, but that doesn't mean it has the biggest impact on AI safety, compared to the other problems. Part of Beren's post is quoted below: Infohazards assume an incorrect model of scientific progress One issue I have with the culture of AI safety and alignment in general is that it often presupposes too much of a "great man" theory of progress 1 - the idea that there will be a single 'genius' who solves 'The Problem' of alignment and that everything else has a relatively small impact. This is not how scientific fields develop in real life. While there are certainly very large individual differences in performance, and a log-normal distribution of impact, with outliers having vastly more impact than the median, nevertheless in almost all scientific fields progress is highly distributed - single individuals very rarely completely solve entire fields themselves. Solving alignment seems unlikely to be different a-priori, and appears to require a deep and broad understanding of how deep learning and neural networks function and generalize, as well as significant progress in understanding their internal representations, and learned goals. In addition, there must likely be large code infrastructures built up around monitoring and testing of powerful AI systems and an sensible system of multilateral AI regulation between countries. This is not the kind of thing that can be invented by a lone genius from scratch in a cave. This is a problem that requires a large number of very smart people building on each other's ideas and outputs over a long period of time, like any normal science or technological endeavor. This is why having widespread adoption of the ideas and problems of alignment, as well as dissemination of technical work is crucial. This is also why some of the ideas proposed to fix some of the issues caused by infohazard norms fall flat. For instance, to get feedback, it is often proposed to have a group of trusted insiders who have access to all the infohazardous information and can build on it themselves. However, not only is such a group likely to just get overloaded with adjudicating infohazard requests, but we should naturally not expect the vast majority of insights to come from a small recognizable group of people at the beginning of the field. The existing set of 'trusted alignment people' is strongly unlikely to generate all, or even a majority, of the insights required to successfully align superhuman AI systems in the real world. Even Einstein - the archetypal lone genius - who was at the time a random patent clerk in Switzerland far from the center of the action - would not have been able to make any discoveries if all theoretical physics research of the time was held to be 'infohazardous' and only circulated privately among the physics professors of a few elite universities at the time. Indeed, it is highly unlikely that in such a scenario much theoretical physics would have been done at all. Similarly,...

Have you ever heard of the Great Human Theory?  Well, that theory has been tossed around for a couple of hundred years. So, just who is or can be a “great person”…and in whose eyes is that measured? And what is it measured by? Do you believe that you or your spouse or your neighbor can be acknowledged by God for greatness, perhaps even on the order of Abraham? Join Kevin as we dive into the Great Human Theory...especially acknowledging God's revealed take as to what He's gifted us with! // Download this episode's Application & Action questions and PDF transcript at whitestone.org.

Martini (2 1/2 ounces gin, 1 ounce dry vermouth, 4 olives)Award winning author and recipient of the Bronze Star, Silver Star and Purple Heart, Elliot reveals a secret handshake to counter program the famous Trump handshake-yank, shares his thoughts on the Great Man Theory of history and what he'd do about a young Hitler, how he and Adm. James Stavridis have worked together on novel writing, and gives his opinion of the best war movie ever made (you won't see this one coming).

(Leadership theories are being developed by white men and researched on those from white backgrounds). “I think the biggest risk is how subtly permeated this exists within our definitions of leadership, of the leadership that we value and trust…" In Episode 37 of Why Care?, I speak to Jenny Vazquez-Newsum, Founder and CEO of Untapped Leadership. We discuss her book, Untapped Leadership, and we explore the concepts of contextual agility, stealth-clean up and the zone of untapped leadership. We also touch on topics such as the race penalty, imposter syndrome, and how we can redefine and redesign leadership so it is representative and inclusive of all. Jenny's passion for DEI is evident in her roles as a leadership facilitator, educator, consultant, and author. Her work in DEI has spanned over two decades, and she has worked with over 500 leaders from more than 200 organisations. Her goal is to address the limitations of current leadership rhetoric... Jenny speaks on her motivations in writing Untapped Leadership, which came from her reflections that white men typically created the management courses she attended and books she read. She clarifies that although her book was written from a racialised lens, there is an aspect of everyone that may be marginalised and so her book applies to underrepresentation more broadly... Jenny breaks down the key concepts in her book: - Roots of Leadership – Jenny gives an example of the ‘Great Man Theory', where leadership was defined by the characteristics and behaviour of great men. However, by looking at the Fortune 500 senior leaders, it is evident that this theory is still in action. As she explains, if different leadership perspectives were being valued, we shouldn't be seeing only this type of leader... - Stepping stones to leadership (Redesigning Leadership) – Most organisational structures are triangular, not very representative, and result in a lot of people being left behind... What she advises is contextual agility; a leadership that is grounded in context and being agile in that context. - Systemic vs Individual (Stealth-clean up) – Jenny explains a frequent phenomenon whereby leaders from marginalised ethnic groups are given an almost impossible task to ‘clean up' an organisation's mess. However, they have limited support, people are less forgiving, and their missteps are more consequential. When organisations go through ‘epic failures', they place the onus on the individual at the very top, when it is in fact systemic. To create a more sustainable system, she advises that organisations think about the structural elements, the systems in place, and how to fix this so that the person leading has all the support they need to succeed.  - The race penalty – Jenny identifies through her connections with leaders of colour, that there is a ‘mental calculus' of how to engage, i.e., they take extra thought and consideration on their actions, knowing that they might not be able to speak or show emotion the same way as somebody else in their organisation. This reality in itself, is something that they are often made aware of in their daily interactions. - Reframing Imposter Syndrome – Jenny references her own experiences of how she would not engage in class because she felt that she didn't belong. She explains that this narrative of imposter syndrome is deceiving because it is a deficit in the system, not the individual. Imposter syndrome needs to be reframed - what is needed here is a system that is supportive, robust, diverse, and representative to all... - Zone of Untapped Leadership – Jenny describes the ‘zone of untapped leadership' as the intersection between the way you leverage your power and privilege and the way you leverage your marginalised perspectives...   Links: Jenny can be found on: -       LinkedIn -       Instagram -       Book For more from Untapped Leaders, you can visit their website at: https://www.untappedleaders.com/

The job of scientists is a tough one - to take complex, multifaceted, messy concepts, and do their best to simplify them in a way that is understandable and digestible to the general public. However, today's guest, Dr. Lisa Feldman Barrett,  warns that if something is too simple, we probably shouldn't believe it.  Especially when it comes to human behavior and emotions, there's nothing simple about it - because variation is the norm - not averages.  And in today's episode, Dr. Barrett explains exactly why that is and how it should change the way we view and approach our interactions. Dr. Barrett is among the top 1% most cited scientists in the world for her revolutionary research in psychology and neuroscience. She is a University Distinguished Professor of Psychology at Northeastern University, and she holds appointments at Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital, where she serves as Chief Science Officer for the Center of Law, Brain and Behavior. In addition to the books 7 ½ Lessons About the Brain and How Emotions Are Made, Dr. Barrett has published over 260 peer reviewed scientific papers. Not only do we dive into the scientific research that disproves the way many of us have been led to view emotions, Dr. Barrett also does a phenomenal job of speaking to these concepts in a way that helps us apply it to our daily lives. Specifically, we address “The Great Man Theory” - why there is no one-size fits all approach to emotions and what they mean How understanding emotional constructs on a deeper level can make people more adept at navigating social situations The physiological and psychological processes of how we give meaning to our emotions Specific instances where knowing this information can directly influence life outcomes for you and those you impact daily Referenced Resources: Website: Lisafeldmanbarrett.com Book: How Emotions Are Made Book:  7 ½ Lessons About the Brain  TED Talk: You Aren't At the Mercy of Your Emotions Research Article: Knowing what you're feeling and knowing what to do about it We are long time fans of Dr. Barrett's work at AoC.  One of the main places we use her research is in our approach to our speaking engagements and live events.  If you'd like to learn how you can do the same, and get live practice and feedback doing so, check out our upcoming Speaker School - our last live event of the year - held on November 4th & 5th in Phoenix, AZ.  This live 2 day experience not only gives you the knowledge you need to understand your audience and speak to them in a way they understand, but provides you with a safe environment to fail, one filled with people who want you to succeed, and are there to give you the feedback and encouragement you need to take steps forward.  There are only a few spots left, so secure your spot today! Today's episode is brought to you by AG1: Are you looking to take your first step to living a healthier lifestyle?  AG1 has you covered from all aspects of nutrition.  Packed with 75 high quality vitamins, minerals, whole foods, sourced superfoods, probiotics and adaptogens. All of which support gut health, your nervous system, your immune system, recovery, and focus.  Go to drinkAG1.com/coach for a free one year supply of immune supporting vitamin D and five free travel packs with your first purchase.

In this episode of the Psych in Business podcast, your host, Dr. Ernest Wayde dives into the intricate world of leadership development theories, unpacking the timeless but controversial concept of the Great Man Theory.In this episode, Dr. Wayde takes us on a historical journey, exploring how the Great Man Theory, originating in 1840, posited that leaders are born, not made. He sheds light on the theory's limitations, especially its exclusion of women from leadership roles, and contrasts it with contemporary research that emphasizes the learnable nature of leadership skills.Drawing from his extensive expertise, Dr. Wayde discusses the diverse array of skills that contribute to effective leadership, including communication, active listening, self-confidence, empathy, problem-solving, decision-making, and vision. He emphasizes the importance of understanding one's unique leadership style and adapting skills to suit specific contexts.The heart of this episode lies in the fundamental concept of trust. Dr. Wayde argues that trust forms the bedrock of effective leadership. He challenges listeners to introspect and ask themselves: Do the people you lead trust you? Do they believe in your abilities, your intentions, and your dedication to their success?Throughout this insightful conversation, Dr. Wayde encourages listeners to reflect on their leadership qualities, acknowledging both their strengths and areas for growth. He leaves you with a powerful question: How can you become a more effective leader in your specific setting?Tune in and explore the essence of leadership in this thought-provoking episode. Reflect on your own leadership journey, assess the level of trust you inspire, and embark on the path toward becoming an exceptional leader.You can visit his business website at: https://www.waydeconsulting.com/

Historian Ian Hartman is an Associate Professor and Department Chair at the University of Alaska Anchorage. He teaches history from the bottom up, meaning he looks for how regular, working class people have been agents of change throughout history. This is the opposite of how so much of history has been recorded, which has looked at it through the perspective of The Great Man Theory. The Great Man Theory, as it relates to history, looks at leaders and other perceived great men as heroes and the sole agents of change. Ian points to the Civil Rights movement and the general cultural upheavals of the 1960s and 1970s for shifting our understanding of history. Ian is also a public historian known, most recently, for his work on the history of the Alaska Railroad and a book he co-authored with Alaska public historian David Reamer about the history of the black experience in Alaska. The book, Black Lives in Alaska: A History of African Americans in the Far Northwest, details how Black men and women have participated in Alaska's politics and culture since before statehood. How Black history in Alaska is almost by default a history of the bottom up. It's a history that involves racial discrimination, but also involves people mobilizing themselves in the face of that discrimination. How they were, and are, agents who are capable of forging social movements and solidarity. They rose up and involved themselves in the workings of the state.  His work on the Alaska Railroad will soon be on display — along with the work of other experts — at an Anchorage Museum exhibition titled All Aboard: The Alaska Railroad Centennial. The exhibition highlights crucial moments, technological innovations and human stories connected to the railroad and its operations in Alaska. An interesting fact about the people who originally worked on the Alaska Railroad is that the majority of them came from Alaska. They were already in the state working the Klondike Gold Rush and, when that ended, workers — who were generally young, single men — found more work helping to construct the railroad.

Historian Ian Hartman is an Associate Professor and Department Chair at the University of Alaska Anchorage. He teaches history from the bottom up, meaning he looks for how regular, working class people have been agents of change throughout history. This is the opposite of how so much of history has been recorded, which has looked at it through the perspective of The Great Man Theory. The Great Man Theory, as it relates to history, looks at leaders and other perceived great men as heroes and the sole agents of change. Ian points to the Civil Rights movement and the general cultural upheavals of the 1960s and 1970s for shifting our understanding of history. Ian is also a public historian known, most recently, for his work on the history of the Alaska Railroad and a book he co-authored with Alaska public historian David Reamer about the history of the black experience in Alaska. The book, Black Lives in Alaska: A History of African Americans in the Far Northwest, details how Black men and women have participated in Alaska's politics and culture since before statehood. How Black history in Alaska is almost by default a history of the bottom up. It's a history that involves racial discrimination, but also involves people mobilizing themselves in the face of that discrimination. How they were, and are, agents who are capable of forging social movements and solidarity. They rose up and involved themselves in the workings of the state.  His work on the Alaska Railroad will soon be on display — along with the work of other experts — at an Anchorage Museum exhibition titled All Aboard: The Alaska Railroad Centennial. The exhibition highlights crucial moments, technological innovations and human stories connected to the railroad and its operations in Alaska. An interesting fact about the people who originally worked on the Alaska Railroad is that the majority of them came from Alaska. They were already in the state working the Klondike Gold Rush and, when that ended, workers — who were generally young, single men — found more work helping to construct the railroad.

In this episode, we discuss the latest news on the ban of TikTok and the potential arrest of former US President Donald Trump. We also explore the fascinating topic of why people tend to follow dictators and strong men. Using the lens of the "Great Man Theory," we examine the psychological, philosophical, social, and political factors that make authoritarian leaders so appealing to the masses. Join us as we dive deep into these timely and important issues that are shaping our world today.Follow us on Twitter:https://twitter.com/Crucem_sanctamhttps://twitter.com/HumanRedacted

India is run in a top-down way with a Northern bias -- and this is a problem. Nilakantan RS joins Amit Varma in episode 320 of The Seen and the Unseen to discuss how and why our Southern states perform so much better -- and are punished for it. Also discussed: virtue ethics, the charms of Madras and the dangers of storytelling. (FOR FULL LINKED SHOW NOTES, GO TO SEENUNSEEN.IN.) Also check out:1. Nilakantan RS on Twitter, YouTube and Instagram. 2. South vs North: India's Great Divide -- Nilakantan RS. 3. Chandrahas Choudhury's Country of Literature — Episode 288 of The Seen and the Unseen. 4. Lessons in Investing (and Life) — Episode 208 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Deepak Shenoy). 5. Crossing Over With Deepak Shenoy -- Episode 271 of The Seen and the Unseen. 6. Amitava Kumar Finds the Breath of Life — Episode 265 of The Seen and the Unseen. 7. Aadha Gaon — Rahi Masoom Raza.. 8. From Cairo to Delhi With Max Rodenbeck — Episode 281 of The Seen and the Unseen. 9. Phineas Gage. 10. The Great Man Theory of History. 11. Pandemonium in India's Banks — Episode 212 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Tamal Bandyopadhyay). 12. Rukmini Sees India's Multitudes — Episode 261 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Rukmini S). 13. On Bullshit — Harry Frankfurt. 14. The Facts Do Not Matter — Amit Varma. 15. Facts Don't Matter. Stories do -- Amit Varma. 16. It is immoral to have children. Here's why -- Amit Varma. 17. Better Never to Have Been -- David Benator. 18. Wanting — Luke Burgis. 19. René Girard on Amazon and Wikipedia. 20. The Life and Times of Shanta Gokhale — Episode 311 of The Seen and the Unseen. 21. The Gentle Wisdom of Pratap Bhanu Mehta — Episode 300 of The Seen and the Unseen. 22. Beyond Words: Philosophy, Fiction, and the Unsayable -- Timothy Cleveland. 23. Consider the Hamiltonian. 24. The Life and Times of Jerry Pinto — Episode 314 of The Seen and the Unseen. 25. Murder in Mahim — Jerry Pinto. 26. Mallikarjun Mansur and Bhimsen Joshi on Spotify. 26. Paul Krugman on the internet in 1998. 27. The naked man with an egg -- Amit Varma's prompt and ChatGPT's reply. 28. The Liberal Nationalism of Nitin Pai -- Episode 318 of The Seen and the Unseen. 29. The Rooted Cosmopolitanism of Sugata Srinivasaraju — Episode 277 of The Seen and the Unseen. 30. Adam Gopnik, Michel Martin, Paul Harding and Timothy Gowers. 31. Tinkers -- Paul Harding. 32. Eraserhead -- David Lynch. 33. There's a Name for the Blah You're Feeling: It's Called Languishing -- Adam Grant. 34. The variants on Chess.com. 35. A Summons to Memphis -- Peter Taylor. 36. Virtue Ethics on Wikipedia, Britannica and Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. 37. VP Menon: The Unsung Architect of Modern India — Narayani Basu. 38. India's Greatest Civil Servant — Episode 167 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Narayani Basu). 39. A Venture Capitalist Looks at the World — Episode 213 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Sajith Pai). 40. The Indus Valley Playbook — Sajith Pai. 41. Fixing Indian Education — Episode 185 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Karthik Muralidharan). 42. Understanding Indian Healthcare — Episode 225 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Karthik Muralidharan). 43. Karthik Muralidharan Examines the Indian State — Episode 290 of The Seen and the Unseen. 44.  Our Unlucky Children (2008) — Amit Varma. 45.  Fund Schooling, Not Schools (2007) — Amit Varma. 46. Elite Imitation in Public Policy — Episode 180 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Shruti Rajagopalan and Alex Tabarrok). 47. Centrally Sponsored Government Schemes — Episode 17 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Pranay Kotasthane). 48. Population Is Not a Problem, but Our Greatest Strength — Amit Varma. 49. Arrow's Impossibility Theorem. 50. Athenian Democracy and Socrates. 51. Plato (or Why Philosophy Matters) -- Episode 109 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Rebecca Goldstein). 52. Our Parliament and Our Democracy — Episode 253 of The Seen and the Unseen (w MR Madhavan). 53. The Anti-Defection Law — Episode 13 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Barun Mitra).. 54. Urban Governance in India — Episode 31 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Shruti Rajagopalan). 55. Gopal Krishna Gokhale, Mahadev Govind Ranade and Gopal Ganesh Agarkar. 56. Episodes of The Seen and the Unseen on the creator ecosystem with Roshan Abbas, Varun Duggirala, Neelesh Misra, Snehal Pradhan, Chuck Gopal, Nishant Jain, Deepak Shenoy, Abhijit Bhaduri and Gaurav Chintamani. 57. The Walk -- Robert Walser. 58. So Long, See You Tomorrow -- William Maxwell. 59. All Aunt Hagar's Children -- Edward P Jones. 60. The Known World -- Edward P Jones. 61. Slow Man -- JM Coetzee. 62. The Changeling -- Kenzaburo Oe. 63. Earthlings -- Sayaka Murata. 64. Birth of a Theorem -- Cedric Villani. 65. Gilead -- Marilynne Robinson. 66. If I Survive You -- Jonathan Escoffery. 67. Donnie Darko -- Richard Kelly. Check out Amit's online course, The Art of Clear Writing. And subscribe to The India Uncut Newsletter. It's free! Episode art: ‘Conflict' by Simahina.

The 'Great Man' view of History is a 19th-century approach to the study of history according to which history can be largely explained by the impact of great men, or heroes: highly influential and unique individuals who, due to their natural attributes, such as superior intellect, heroic courage, extraordinary leadership abilities or divine inspiration, have a decisive historical effect. Check out the YouTube version of this episode at https://youtu.be/R7tx8dqKNM0 which has accompanying visuals including maps, charts, timelines, photos, illustrations, and diagrams. Douglas Murray books available at https://amzn.to/3K4gkxz Support this channel by enjoying a wide-range of useful & FUN Gadgets at https://twitter.com/GadgetzGuy Go follow our YouTube page to enjoy additional Bonus content including original short 60 second capsules at https://bit.ly/3eprMpO Get exclusive access to Bonus episodes, Ad-Free content, and Extra materials when joining our growing community on Patreon at https://patreon.com/markvinet and receive an eBook welcome GIFT or Donate on PayPal at https://bit.ly/3cx9OOL and also receive an eBook welcome GIFT. Mark Vinet's TIMELINE video channel at https://youtube.com/c/TIMELINE_MarkVinet Denary Historical Novels by Mark Vinet are available at https://amzn.to/33evMUj Website: https://markvinet.com/podcast Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/denarynovels Twitter: https://twitter.com/TIMELINEchannel Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/mark.vinet.9 YouTube Podcast Playlist: https://www.bit.ly/34tBizu Podcast: https://anchor.fm/mark-vinet TikTok: https://tiktok.com/@historyofnorthamerica Linktree: https://linktr.ee/WadeOrganization Credit: Uncancelled History podcast with Douglas Murray (The Conclusion episode). Audio excerpts reproduced under the Fair Use (Fair Dealings) Legal Doctrine for purposes such as criticism, comment, teaching, education, scholarship, research and news reporting.

How far can a single leader alter the course of history? Thomas Carlyle, who promoted the Great Man Theory, says that talented leaders are the primary – if not the sole – cause of change. This view has been challenged by social scientists who understand that leaders are not only constrained by their societies, but merely products of them. Whatever this interplay between a personality and his society, it raises the question of whether dictators are as unconstrained as they seem, and if so, how do they attain that power?Today's guest is Ian Kershaw, author of Personality and Power. We look at an array of case-studies of twentieth-century European leaders – some dictators, some democrats – and explore what was it about these leaders, and the times in which they lived, that allowed them such untrammelled and murderous power, and what factors brought that era in Europe to an end?

Society cannot be designed in a top-down way. Central planning was a historic blunder that harmed India -- even though it was conceived by great men with good intentions. Nikhil Menon joins Amit Varma in episode 306 of The Seen and the Unseen to talk about the flawed genius PC Mahalanobis, the planning commission, and his own life as a scholar. (For full linked show notes, go to SeenUnseen.in.) Also check out: 1. Nikhil Menon on Amazon and University of Notre Dame. 2. Planning Democracy: How A Professor, An Institute, And An Idea Shaped India -- Nikhil Menon. 3. The Evolution of Everything -- Episode 96 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Matt Ridley). 4.  The Use of Knowledge in Society — Friedrich Hayek. 5. Sherlock Holmes, Ramayana and Mahabharata. 6. The Rooted Cosmopolitanism of Sugata Srinivasaraju — Episode 277 of The Seen and the Unseen. 7. Religion and Ideology in Indian Society — Episode 124 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Suyash Rai). 8. Political Ideology in India — Episode 131 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Rahul Verma). 9. The Decline of the Congress -- Episode 248 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Rahul Verma). 10. The Intellectual Foundations of Hindutva — Episode 115 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Aakar Patel). 11. Aakar Patel Is Full of Hope — Episode 270 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Aakar Patel). 12. The Gita Press and Hindu Nationalism — Episode 139 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Akshaya Mukul). 13. The Discovery of India -- Jawaharlal Nehru. 14. The Collected Writings and Speeches of Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar. 15. Caste, Capitalism and Chandra Bhan Prasad -- Episode 296 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Chandra Bhan Prasad). 16. John Locke on Wikipedia, Britannica and Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. 17. John Dewey on Wikipedia, Britannica and Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. 18. The Ideas of Our Constitution — Episode 164 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Madhav Khosla). 19. Friedrich Hayek on Wikipedia, Britannica, Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy and Econlib. 20. The Fatal Conceit: The Errors of Socialism -- Friedrich Hayek..  21. ये लिबरल आख़िर है कौन? — Episode 37 of Puliyabaazi (w Amit Varma, on Hayek). 22. The Importance of the 1991 Reforms — Episode 237 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Shruti Rajagopalan and Ajay Shah). 23. India's Lost Decade — Episode 116 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Puja Mehra). 24. The Forgotten Greatness of PV Narasimha Rao — Episode 283 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Vinay Sitapati). 25. The Life and Times of Montek Singh Ahluwalia -- Episode 285 of The Seen and the Unseen. 26. The Gentle Wisdom of Pratap Bhanu Mehta -- Episode 300 of The Seen and the Unseen. 27. On Exactitude in Science (Wikipedia) — Jorge Luis Borges. 28. What is Libertarianism? — Episode 117 of The Seen and the Unseen (w David Boaz). 29. India's Greatest Civil Servant — Episode 167 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Narayani Basu, on VP Menon). 30. Angus Deaton, John von Neumann, Albert Einstein and Howard Aiken. 31. The Life and Times of Vir Sanghvi — Episode 236 of The Seen and the Unseen. 32. Les Misérables -- Victor Hugo. 33. Hardy Boys on Amazon. 34. One Hundred Years of Solitude -- Gabriel Garcia Marquez. 35. Love in the Time of Cholera -- Gabriel Garcia Marquez. 36. Midnight's Children -- Salman Rushdie. 37. Fixing Indian Education — Episode 185 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Karthik Muralidharan). 38. Shahid Amin and Sunil Kumar. 39. 300 Ramayanas -- AK Ramanujan. 40. Nehru's Debates — Episode 262 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Tripurdaman Singh and Adeel Hussain.) 41. Whatever happened To Ehsan Jafri on February 28, 2002? — Harsh Mander. 42. Who Broke Our Republic? — Episode 163 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Kapil Komireddi). 43. John McPhee on Amazon. 44. Mumbai Fables -- Gyan Prakash. 45. Emergency Chronicles — Gyan Prakash. 46. Gyan Prakash on the Emergency — Episode 103 of The Seen and the Unseen. 47. Delhi Reborn: Partition and Nation Building in India's Capital -- Rotem Geva. 48. A People's Constitution — Rohit De. 49. Jugalbandi: The BJP Before Modi — Vinay Sitapati. 50. The BJP Before Modi — Episode 202 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Vinay Sitapati). 51. India After Gandhi: The History of the World's Largest Democracy -- Ramachandra Guha. 52. Roam Research. 53. Zettelkasten on Wikipedia. 54. Linda Colley on Amazon and Princeton. 55. Gandhi as Mahatma -- Shahid Amin. 56. Tanika Sarkar, Neeladri Bhattacharya and Janaki Nair. 57. The Great Man Theory of History. 58. Pramit Bhattacharya Believes in Just One Ism — Episode 256 of The Seen and the Unseen. 59. Demystifying GDP — Episode 130 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Rajeswari Sengupta). 60. Milton Friedman on Amazon, Wikipedia, Britannica and Econlib. 61. The Man of System — Adam Smith (excerpted from The Theory of Moral Sentiments). 62. The Idea of India — Sunil Khilnani. 63. The Rocking-Horse Winner -- DH Lawrence. 64. Taylor Sherman and Niraja Gopal Jayal. 65. Kamyab Hum Karke Rahenge -- Lata Mangeshkar and Mohammed Rafi on central planning. 66. Naya Daur -- BR Chopra. 67. Chhodo Kal Ki Baatein -- Song from Hum Hindustani. 68. Char Dil Char Raahein -- KA Abbas. 69. Jhootha Sach (Hindi) (English) -- Yashpal. 70. Marxvaad Aur Ram Rajya — Karpatri Maharaj. 71. Narendra Modi takes a Great Leap Backwards — Amit Varma. 72. The Importance of Data Journalism — Episode 196 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Rukmini S). 73. Rukmini Sees India's Multitudes — Episode 261 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Rukmini S). 74. Circe -- Madeline Miller. 75. The Song of Achilles -- Madeline Miller. 76. The Thursday Murder Club -- Richard Osman. 77. Only Murders in the Building. Check out Amit's online course, The Art of Clear Writing. And subscribe to The India Uncut Newsletter. It's free! Episode art: ‘Central Planning' by Simahina.

Is it possible for an individual leader to change the course of history? This question is as important today as it was in the past century, when “charismatic” rulers made an enormous impact, often with catastrophic consequences. In this episode, historian Ian Kershaw talks about how certain political leaders obtained and exercised power in 20th century Europe, in an effort to solve the question of the role of individual decision-makers in determining historical change. As Kershaw writes in his new book, “Personality and Power: Builders and Destroyers of Modern Europe,” “the character traits of twentieth century authoritarian leaders and the structures that underpinned their rule… can perhaps at times be glimpsed in the rule of their twenty-first-century counterparts.” This is not "Great Man Theory." Rather it is a timely conversation about the interplay between human agency and impersonal forces, the conditions and contexts that allow certain individuals -- democrats and dictators -- to play a decisive role, and the constraints holding them back.

How do we create dialogue when there are such huge power differences in the room? How do we make sure we have different voices at the table and still work together?  Today we sit down with Imran Rehman, CEO of Kokoro, a web based company striving to effect change by building better environments for teams to thrive in.  Imran reaches to his childhood in London's East End and his upbringing of many communities joining together to inform his work.   We're Exploring   The aspect of Imran's childhood that helped form who he is now Recognizing what is the other side of praise and how it is detrimental to progress Using language of encouragement and learning to ask questions in place of praise What education really is The differences between a challenge, a problem, and a crisis, and how belonging is the key to all three Imran's simple starting point for psychological safety in the workplace  The importance of community and holding space Why temporal comparison is best way to help humans grow and improve The “Great Man Theory” and why we need to turn away from individual greatness Learn more about Imran Rehman:  https://bekokoro.com/, https://www.linkedin.com/in/imranrehman/, https://twitter.com/ImsRehman,  https://www.instagram.com/bekokoronow/    If you'd like to support us in continuing this work, we'd be honored if you'd consider donating here: https://www.patreon.com/thehumanizepodcast    Let's talk about it! Connect with us to continue the conversation:   Instagram: https://instagram.com/thehumanizepodcast Facebook: https://facebook.com/thehumanizepodcast  Email: info@thehumanizepodcast.com

Teddy Wayne is the author of the novel The Great Man Theory, available from Bloomsbury. Wayne's other novels include Apartment, Loner, The Love Song of Jonny Valentine, and Kapitoil. He is the winner of a Whiting Writers' Award and an NEA Creative Writing Fellowship as well as a finalist for the Young Lions Fiction Award, PEN/Bingham Prize, and Dayton Literary Peace Prize. A former columnist for the New York Times and McSweeney's and a frequent contributor to The New Yorker, he has taught at Columbia University and Washington University in St. Louis. He has developed films and series from his novels with HBO, MGM Television, and Mad Dog Films. He lives in Brooklyn with his wife, the writer Kate Greathead, and their children. *** Otherppl with Brad Listi is a weekly literary podcast featuring in-depth interviews with today's leading writers. Launched in 2011. Books. Literature. Writing. Publishing. Authors. Screenwriters. Etc. Available where podcasts are available: Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, iHeart Radio, etc. Subscribe to Brad Listi's email newsletter. Support the show on Patreon Merch @otherppl Instagram  YouTube Email the show: letters [at] otherppl [dot] com The podcast is a proud affiliate partner of Bookshop, working to support local, independent bookstores. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Teddy Wayne is the author of the novels The Great Man Theory (July 12, 2022), Apartment, Loner, The Love Song of Jonny Valentine, and Kapitoil. He is the winner of a Whiting Writers' Award and an NEA Creative Writing Fellowship as well as a finalist for the Young Lions Fiction Award, PEN/Bingham Prize, and Dayton Literary Peace Prize. A former columnist for the New York Times and McSweeney's and a frequent contributor to The New Yorker, he has taught at Columbia University and Washington University in St. Louis. He has developed films and series from his novels with HBO, MGM Television, and Mad Dog Films. He lives in Brooklyn with his wife, the writer Kate Greathead, and their children. Buy the bookA note from Lev:I am a high school teacher of history and economics at a public high school in NYC, and began the podcast to help demystify economics for teachers.  The podcast is now within the top 2.5% of podcasts worldwide in terms of listeners (per Listen Notes) and individual episodes are frequently listed by The Syllabus (the-syllabus.com) as among the 10 best political economy podcasts of a particular week.  The podcast is reaching thousands of listeners each month.  The podcast seeks to provide a substantive alternative to mainstream economics media; to communicate information and ideas that contribute to equitable and peaceful solutions to political and economic issues; and to improve the teaching of high school and university political economy. I am looking to be able to raise money in order to improve the technical quality of the podcast and website and to further expand the audience through professionally designed social media outreach. I am also hoping to hire an editor. Best, LevDONATE TODAY

In this week's Lions of Liberty, Marc welcomes in the Mises Institute's Tho Bishop to discuss the Libertarian Party Mises Caucus "Takeover" of the LP aka the "Reno Reset", Justin Amash's speech to the LP, Paleolibertarianism, his work in the Bay County GOP, and how he views Ron DeSantis through the lens of Napoleon and Great Man Theory. If you are or know of a bright young inquisitive mind (age 16-24), check out the Reason and Power Summer Summit! Get access to livestreams, behind-the-scenes segments and more for as little as $5 per month by joining the Lions of Liberty Pride on Patreon OR support us on Locals!  Get 20% off your selection of the AMAZING CBDproducts over at PalomaVerdeCBD.com and use discount code "ROAR" at checkout! Check out the other Lions-hosted podcasts: Second Print Comics podcast with Marc Clair and Remso Martinez The BOHRing podcast with Brian, Odie, Howie and Rico.

In this week's Lions of Liberty, Marc welcomes in the Mises Institute's Tho Bishop to discuss the Libertarian Party Mises Caucus "Takeover" of the LP aka the "Reno Reset", Justin Amash's speech to the LP, Paleolibertarianism, his work in the Bay County GOP, and how he views Ron DeSantis through the lens of Napoleon and Great Man Theory.

In this week's Lions of Liberty, Marc welcomes in the Mises Institute's Tho Bishop to discuss the Libertarian Party Mises Caucus "Takeover" of the LP aka the "Reno Reset", Justin Amash's speech to the LP, Paleolibertarianism, his work in the Bay County GOP, and how he views Ron DeSantis through the lens of Napoleon and Great Man Theory. If you are or know of a bright young inquisitive mind (age 16-24), check out the Reason and Power Summer Summit! Get access to livestreams, behind-the-scenes segments and more for as little as $5 per month by joining the Lions of Liberty Pride on Patreon OR support us on Locals!  Get 20% off your selection of the AMAZING CBDproducts over at PalomaVerdeCBD.com and use discount code "ROAR" at checkout! Check out the other Lions-hosted podcasts: Second Print Comics podcast with Marc Clair and Remso Martinez The BOHRing podcast with Brian, Odie, Howie and Rico. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

https://dgutspodcast.comhttps://dgutsapparel.comiTunes: Don't Give Up The Ship Podcasthttps://soundcloud.com/usailorwillishttps://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/dont-give-up-the-ship-podcast/Spotify:IG: @dgutspodcast / @dgutsapparelFB: Don't Give Up The Ship PodcastDon't Give Up The Ship Apparel Substack: https://dguts.substack.comReddit: u/dgutspodcastReddit: Sub: r/dgutspodcastDiscord: @dgutspodcastYoutube: https://www.youtube.com/DontGiveUpTheShipPodcast/?sub_confirmation=1 Get full access to The DGUTS ThoughtLab at dguts.substack.com/subscribe

Consequently, The Great Man Theory of History should have been recast as The Great White Man Theory of History. But since everybody already took for granted that the only history worth telling would have white men as the central characters, being explicit about it was not only unnecessary, it was redundant. So, when white people complain during February every year that there's no “White History Month,” and I say, “Oh yes there is; it's called ‘the rest of the calendar,'” I'm not just being a smart-aleck, I'm being painfully literal. Subscribe to us on iTunes! Sermon text: web | doc

Not only do a lot of NFT's within the same series looks the same, but across series as well!In Episode #266 of 'Meanderings' Juan and I discuss: Juan's ridiculous NFT purchases, why Juan is delusional about his love for artistic NFT's (they're all the same), how I propose to strengthen my meme muscle, whether the Great Men of history theory is legit, who will be first on Mars, the joy of wandering around and finding new places in your city, why cityscapes are better than pure nature, a hypothetical about doing less exercise, boosterrrrrrrr and why Hitler was a hypocrite.As always, we hope you enjoy. Mere Mortals out!Timeline:(0:00) - Juan's a degenerate(2:05) - Does Juan like art?(6:02) - NFT's look the same(11:41) - Good & shitty wallets(13:27) - NFT's not on Ethereum(14:31) - Meme generation(17:04) - Meme training(20:58) - The Great Man Theory(30:32) - Man or woman 1st on Mars?(31:51) - Discovering new areas(37:50) - Prepaid plan FTW & hiking vs cityscapes(45:42) - Rating workouts(52:21) - Boost bait jingles(55:34) - Hitler was shooting up animal fatConnect with Mere Mortals:Website: https://www.meremortalspodcast.com/Discord: https://discord.gg/jjfq9eGReUInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/meremortalspodcast/

Sau khi đã tìm được một mentor như ý ở tập trước, chúng ta sẽ bàn luận tiếp về một kỹ năng chưa bao giờ hết “nóng” dù ở bất kỳ cấp bậc, giai đoạn nào trong sự nghiệp: kỹ năng lãnh đạo. Thuyết về người lãnh đạo vĩ đại (The Great Man Theory) tin rằng khả năng lãnh đạo là bẩm sinh.  Thế nhưng kinh nghiệm và sự trau dồi cũng là nhân tố không thể thiếu để tạo nên một nhà lãnh đạo giỏi.Ngoài học hỏi bằng việc quan sát người sếp của mình mỗi ngày, còn cách nào khác để trau dồi khả năng lãnh đạo nữa? Mời các bạn theo dõi tập Bít Tất Ngành lần này cùng 2 khách mời là Linh Phượng (Po), Podcaster tại The Blue Expat founder và Thắng Nguyễn, Managing Director tại Nutifood Sweden nhé. Cảm ơn Đại học RMIT Vietnam đã đồng hành cùng Vietcetera trong tập Bít Tất này.#RMITPostgrad #RMITAlumni

 How False Worship Takes RootThe book of Judges gives us insight into the struggles of Israel as they moved into the promised land. The central theme of Judges is confusion, and failure to fulfill the mandate of YHWH to move into the territory and drive out the present inhabitants [Canaanites]. We mostly learn about what went on in those days through the exploits of the judges and deliverers, Samson, Jephthah, Gideon etc. [the Great Man Theory of history].But at the end of the book... starting with chapter 17... you'll find a series of episodes that give a glimpse into the spiritual and moral condition of the people in the towns and villages. Today we are going to read through the first of these episodes, which is found in chapters 17 and 18. The account of Micah, Jonathan, and the warriors of Dan.I want to focus on: how false worship takes root. I'll itemize these as a series of “lessons”Read on our blog 👉 https://ucgraleigh.blogspot.com/2021/12/how-false-worship-takes-root-idols-and.htmlKeep Reading »

This is the first half of our conversation on Brian Jacques' Redwall series. We talk about Great Man Theory, self reinforcing hierarchy, stranger-kings, and the importance of dreams. Follow the show on twitter @SwordsNSocPod, Darius @Himbo_Anarchist, Ketho @StupidPuma69, and our special guest Nicole @gi66le_titsEmail the show at SwordsAndSocialismPod@protonmail.com 

Great Man Theory of History (Wikipedia)‘The smartest person in any room anywhere': in defence of Elon Musk, by Douglas Coupland (Guardian)The Ministry for the Future, Kim Stanley Robinson (Amazon)Kim Stanley Robinson: a climate plan for a world in flames (Financial Times)Why Go to Space? To Save Humanity … and Our Earth, by Wilson da Silva (Medium)The Mars Society (Website)Want to help me make these shows? Please consider becoming a patron!

We're asking big questions about love, sex, and identity as we consider "The Host"!Writer, podcaster, and YouTuber Matt Baume joins the show this week to discuss an episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation that presents a personal and ethical dilemma for Beverly. Doctor Crusher has fallen in love with visiting diplomat Odan. But when Odan is revealed to be a symbiotic creature and is implanted into Riker, Beverly will have to decide if her new relationship is worth the cost of one of her oldest friendships!The liberal future of Star Trek was created in our idealistic but often short-sighted present and many times even our favorite utopia isn't as progressive as we'd like it to be. In "The Host", Beverly is presented with an almost unbearable burden: to remain in love with someone who not only swaps bodies but identities and genders as well. It's presented as an unsolvable sci-fi problem, but in reality, people coming out or transitioning is something we don't need space aliens to write stories about. All too often, the protectors of "Gene's legacy" stood in the way of real representation on Trek and making Gene's true dream, the dream of infinite diversity, something inconvenient and undesirable. On this episode, we talk about how the Trill stand in for LGBTQ representation, how Trek has lagged behind, why it's important to see queer people on TV, loving who you want, getting "trapped" in your well-intentioned metaphor, what it is that we love when we love, the way that Trek presents sex, and being "limited in ability to love".We also discuss the fight for marriage equality, being a positive critic, the "gatekeepers" of Trek, media being a Queer 101, "Where's the bisexuals?", the Enterprise salon, the "Great Man Theory of TNG", Odan is party Trill, debasing the Library of Congress, the Book of Telepathic Consent, Cool Riker, locking the holodeck door, and Nurse Ogawa!Oh, you kids!Follow Matt on Twitter and watch his videos on YouTube!https://twitter.com/mattbaumehttp://www.youtube.com/mattbaumehttp://www.mattbaume.comWatch Matt's video about Garak and Bashir!https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j5_g1DY1FLgLearn the story behind your favorite Trek episodes with BackTrekking!http://www.twitter.com/backtrekkingJoin with us on Facebook and Twitter and the Just Enough Trope Discord!http://www.facebook.com/eistpodhttp://www.twitter.com/eistpodhttps://discord.gg/ATMBeUDBuy us astringent on Patreon and Ko-Fi!http://www.patreon.com/eistpodhttps://ko-fi.com/E1E01M2UASubscribe to the show on iTunes!https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/enterprising-individuals/id1113165661?mt=2

Dr. Robin Gaster, President of Incumetrics, Inc., a data and program evaluation consultancy, and author of Behemoth, Amazon Rising: Power and Seduction in the Age of Amazon share his take on innovation at Amazon and beyond.More about our guest:Robin Gaster, PhD is a visiting scholar at George Washington University Institute for Public Policy and the President of Incumetrics, Inc., a data and program evaluation consultancy that serves clients seeking to understand the intersection of technology, innovation, economics, and politics. From 2004-2014, Dr. Gaster was the lead researcher and principal writer on a 13-volume series of reports published by the National Academies of Science and Engineering on the U.S. government's premier innovation program for small businesses, as well as for a major report on the Manufacturing Extension Partnership.------------------------------------------------------------Episode Guide:1:58 - What Is Innovation  2:25- Invention vs Innovation4:13 - Working with the government and Small Business Innovation Awards4:57 - Problem of getting into the market5:55 - Inventive people and being linear9:38 - Great Man Theory and the multibillion founders of modern culture11:12 - Is there regression in Amazon?12:51 - Amazon, Innovation, Consumer-centric14:20 - AWS, innovation and internet giant17:30 - AWS and Amazon16:5 - Amazon and digital privacy21:36 - Secrecy of corporations21:55 - Regulating Amazon? Understanding websites23:13 - Antitrust and court-proceedings25:12 - Protecting consumers from predatory retailers26:08 - Sunlight and Dogmatic traditions26:54 - Book: Amazon Rising28:57 - Judo and Amazon business decisions29:52 - Amazon Prime's 2-day free shipping30:40 - Customer-centric: Caring or obsession?  31:45 - Flywheel approach33:02 - Going into advertising35:06 - Groceries, Healthcare, Alexa, and Opportunities36:34 - Amazon's Ring and working with police departments37:21 - Collateral Damage and pervasiveness39:58 - One goal focus41:17 - 150 years of change from the 'race to the bottom'  42:12 - A proposed reset with corporate overloads42:40 - Information access and new sets of standards43:05 - Advice to innovators--------------------------OUTLAST Consulting offers professional development and strategic advisory services in the areas of innovation and diversity management.

With the instant classic collab album “Most Wanted” by AMO & DayVision getting some shine on Reddit, the guys react to their newfound stardom! Shout out to r/makinghiphop! The guys also send positive thoughts to everyone adversely affected by the Texas snow fiasco. Wealth disparities are discussed alongside the Great Man Theory. The remainder of the episode sees them tackle religious beliefs, the afterlife, and alien life! Another drunk podcast from your boys at Unboxing Life.

In this episode Jacob and Brandon analyze the Great Man Theory as proposed by Thomas Carlyle.

The Irish for chess is ficheall (wood wisdom).  A gambit is fiontar….  Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it, or so they say. But what do we learn when we learn history? How do we interpret the change in a country like Ireland between two given dates and what to we attribute that change to?  One of the prevailing theories is that the history of the world is ultimately the biographies of great individuals; their remarkable ingredients of character allowed them to become authors of the world's life story. The Reformation hinged on Martin Luther's depth of personality, and the vision unique to Churchill was the decisive factor in an Allied victory in WWII.  This theory - which is robustly contested - informs the historical dramas which critically shape public understandings of historical events. Such dramas have become increasingly popular in the 21st century as more and more TV shows and films have monarchs and presidents as protagonists. Are these contributions welcome? Isn't there a big difference between learning about diplomatic immunity from Lethal Weapon II and learning modern British history from The Crown?  In today's episode, Darach, Peadar and Gearóidín consider these themes with particular reference to Irish history and the speculation on what might have been if certain figures had not been taken from us so young.  --- Support Motherfocloir on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/darach  Get Kirsten Shiel art prints here: https://www.inprnt.com/gallery/kirstenshiel/  --- Contact the show: whatsapp - +353894784713 (https://wa.me/353894784713) twitter - @motherfocloir and @theirishfor email - motherfocloir@headstuff.org (mailto:motherfocloir@headstuff.org) --- Want to record your own podcast? Check out our studios at https://thepodcaststudios.ie

New Episode!

Kathrin gets to sit down with Dr. DJ Kinney, a historian who looks into dangerous chapters in history without flinching, to talk about hope and cynicism in a changing world. DJ Kinney researches, produces and hosts The Cold War Vault podcast, which looks at this secretive period of history and peels back the curtain to reveal the humanity within. There’s a lot going on in the world right now. No matter when you read this, something is going on in the world. Maybe there’s something shaking up your life. Maybe your world has undergone a slow, tectonic shift over several years or a sudden, massive upheaval. Yet however change happens around us, we are left trying to find our way through the history we remember, the present we might not recognize, and a future we can hardly imagine. Yet we keep going on, hoping that we can look back on our lives to understand what has transpired. Here are some links to what we discussed in our conversation:About The Cold War VaultThe three-part series of the Cold War Vault, The Otters of Amchitka: The Otters of Amchitka, Part 1, 2 & 3 Clay Lamps through history at the Milwaukee Public Museum: Oil Lamp Classifications Image of Byzantine slipper lampPliny the Elder & Pompeii: “A Voyage into Catastrophe: Pompeii and the Roman Navy” by Will Mather, Western Australia Museum "The Destruction of Pompeii, 79 AD," EyeWitness to History, www.eyewitnesstohistory.com (1999)The “Great Man Theory” of History “Is There Still Value in ‘Great Man’ History?”, Four articles about the Great Man Theory of history in History Today“The Great Man Theory”, Villanova University History doesn’t repeat itself, but it often rhymes,” Fall 2018 Ohio Wesleyan University Feature by Richard North Patterson Many thanks to Ministering to Ministers, who produce and support this podcast. Please check out the resources available through this fantastic foundation. Ministering to MinistersMinistering to Ministers Wellness RetreatsMinistering to Ministers Resources: Forced TerminationMinistering to Ministers: The ProblemMinistering to Ministers Resources: BooksMusic for this episode has been legally purchased from AudioJungle. License available upon request

On this edition of Parallax Views, sometimes it is necessary to examine the historical past to understand our present. For example, the current moment of rapidly increasing economic inequality that has colored the opening salvo of the 21st century appears to have a great deal in common with the "The Gilded Age" of the 19th and 20th centuries. Pulitzer Prize winning journalist Michael Hiltzik, author of Iron Empires: Robbers Barons, Railroads, and the Making of Modern America, joins us on this edition of Parallax Views to explain how the U.S. railroad pioneers, or robber barons as their critics called them, like Cornelius Vanderbilt, E.H. Harriman, and J.P. Morgan gave birth to America's "Gilded Age" and the ways in which figures like Jeff Bezos and Mark Zuckerberg may be their 21st century equivalents in a "New Gilded Age". In addition to discuss this fascinating topic we also discuss, in the closing ten minutes of the program, Michael's thoughts on the state of journalism today. Among some of the issues covered in this conversation: - What was "The Gilded Age"? How figures like the American novelist Mark Twain criticized power during this era - How railroads were thought of in the 1800s; skepticism towards boosters of the railroad system back then (ie: being seen as a con job or a grift) and how, on the other hand, the railroads were seen as a technological marvel at the time; the Transcontinental railroad and it's significance; the "Golden Spike" - The "scoundrel" Daniel Drew and his role in the early history of the Iron Empires referred to in the title of Michael's book - The Union Pacific's Crédit Mobilier scandal involving railroad money's influencing of politics in D.C. through bribery - The Bradley-Martin Ball and the excesses of the super-wealthy in the late 1800's as society's less fortunate struggled - The role of the railroad barons in the economic crashes throughout the latter 1800s and before the Great Depression of the 1930s - The Great Man Theory of History and whether or not it is applicable in describing the railroad barons - The personality and beliefs of J.P. Morgan - The role that figures like Theodore Roosevelt and Eugene V. Debs had in combating the railroad barons and their excesses - The social changes brought upon by the railroad system including how it changed things for American women This Episode Brought to You By:The War State:The Cold War Origins of the Military-Industrial Complex and the Power Elite, 1945-1963byMichael SwansonofThe Wall Street Window

I had an excellent conversation with Samo Burja of Bismark Analysis. Samo is one of the most original thinkers I have encountered in the last two years, and it was great to have him share some of his ideas here. You can follow him on Twitter, read his writing, or watch his videos on Youtube. Here is Samo on Botswana and political stability - and how Rome handled the "succession problem". The manuscript of Samo's book is here. You can find us on most podcast platforms as "Ideas Untrapped".TRANSCRIPTTobi: Welcome to Ideas Untrapped and today I am with Samo Burja. Samo is a sociologist and he is the founder and president of Bismarck Analysis, a consulting firm. Samo is also an original thinker who has come up with his own theory of history that he called the Great Founder Theory. Welcome, Samo.Samo: Thank you, Tobi. It's a pleasure to be on the show.Tobi: Briefly please, explain the Great Founder Theory. You call it the Theory of History, can you explain it, in the most simplest form, for us.Samo: Well, everyone has a theory of history. There are some people who believe that history is driven by technology, that technology is the most important thing that changes the world. There are others who think that it is the great people - the generals and individuals and scientists and artists. And still, others think it's driven by economic forces like capitalism and so on. So, everyone has opinions on it. Many historians have arguments on it. Many economists have arguments on it, and political scientists. Great Founders Theory which is my theory proposes that history is driven by the exceptional individuals who make the institutions that we all rely on - the founders of states, the founders of exceptional companies, the founders of religions, the prophets or the statesman or the industrialists of history - and that were you to remove someone from history where there to not be that particular individual, that exceptional and unusual individual, history could have gone very very differently. And also it's not just a way to interpret history it's a way to predict the future because it means that instead of necessarily looking at just the economic fundamentals or just the technological fundamentals of a country, you might actually want to look at: well, is there anyone in the country that might be a founder of new institutions? Because I think that be it a state, a company, or an organised religion, over time as you move away from their founding, these institutions can become corrupt or dysfunctional. So even if a country seems to be doing extremely well, if it doesn't have this type of person around who might rebuild the institutions or build them anew, 50 years from now, 100 years from now, 200 years from now, it will do worse. And a country that at first might not seem promising, might suddenly, like, shift to become the centre of the world if it had enough of such people.Tobi: I found your theory on Great Founders interesting. One is that the conventional wisdom, if I can call it that, on thinking about institutions is not vested in people. There is a common saying that "oh, it's about the institutions and not the people", that's how you build enduring systems that can be fair, that can be just, that can order society. So, now, I think the fear...or in places like Africa where there is a long history of coups and bad leaders, how does [the] Great Founder Theory differ from the Great Man Theory of history?Samo: Yeah, it's an important distinction to make, because not every powerful person is a great founder in this sense. They are often people who appropriate or merely direct institutions and organisations that others created. And then at times, if they tried to create an institution, they might not be very good at it. So the big distinction that I would make is that the individuals who can be exceptional - this kind of, like, far-sighted social engineers, I think they are extremely rare. I think they are not just rare in African history, they were in European history and in Asian history but, over time the fruits of their labour accumulate. An example in SouthEast Asia I think would be Lee Kuan Yew. I think that he was an excellent founder of the city-state of Singapore, which was previously a British colony and developed it extremely well. I think in Africa there are some leaders who are definitely worthy of administration, I think that I wrote an article on Botswana for Palladium Magazine where I examined the origin of Botswanan stability and how the royal family of the country actually made extremely good decisions as to how to approach decolonialisation (sic) and so on. And then Paul... I think Paul Kagame deserves, despite his critics and his critics do have a point that he is very much authoritarian in a way, I think he's done a remarkably good job of both developing Rwanda and healing the deep social wounds that the Rwandan genocide caused in the 1990s. And I can certainly relate to that because the 1990s was also the period where - you know, I'm originally from Slovenia, it's a country in the former Yugoslavia - that country was also torn apart, right? So this kind of, like, tearing apart of societies, I think that can be done by almost anyone. The building together of societies, the re-creation of them, the healing of them, the transformation of them, that is very very rare. So I think that that would be the big distinction.Tobi: Yeah. One issue that you've written extensively about is succession, and...Samo: Uh-hmm.Tobi: This is a very important problem with institutions and leaders and founders as well. Two examples: you talked about Kagame...Samo: Hmm hmm.Tobi: I've always found Kagame interesting because Rwanda seems to be in an equilibrium where Kagame does not really trust anybody as a successor, so that's why he's been in power for so long. Some of his speeches, some of the analysis that comes from...[trails off]. It seems like he sees himself as probably the only credible custodian of that healing process, from that horrible experience; and also in Nigeria here we had a very good example when we transitioned to democracy in 1999 and we had a president who had a particularly good second term in office. There were economic reforms, and there was growth. There was some form of shared prosperity in the society and he wanted a third term because he could not trust anybody, even within a system that he built or that was built around him. So explain to us - how important is the succession problem and how do civilizations and societies that have managed that problem really well, how did they do it?Samo: It's an extremely difficult problem, and I think solving the succession problem probably distinguishes the most successful societies or the most long-lived ones from, like, the ones that struggle. In particular, I think that it has two parts: there is skill succession and there is power succession. Where skills succession means that the next person in a position has comparable skills and knowledge and ability to carry out an office. If say, hypothetically, in ancient times, a wise king is succeeded by a foolish son, right? The song can easily undo what the father had done, they can easily endanger the society. On the other hand, you might have a situation where there is a failure of power succession where, for example, there is a wise ruler but there is another wise individual who could come into power but doesn't really have the resources to reach for that position, even if the formal position still exists, it might be encumbered or disabled. There is such a thing as a powerless president. For example, today in Afghanistan, the president of Afghanistan is best understood as the mayor of Kabul. The power of this government does not extend beyond the capital city itself, with the outline regions still - 19 years after the US invasion, they're still basically governed by the Taliban or are directly governed by, like, basically US military forces. So in that case, the power just is not there to govern the space. Now, with regard to the trust between people, the trust has to be justified on a number of grounds. The very interesting thing here is if you consider [that] it's best to have a loyal competent person work with you and work for you and eventually when you have to go, as all people do, either because of old age or because of term limits or because you want to do something else with the remainder of your life, that person is the best person to hand it off to. It is, ironically, sometimes better to have someone who is loyal but incompetent than to have someone who is disloyal and incompetent, at least when it comes to politics. So, in an interesting way, as you point out, Kagame has difficulty finding someone or trusting someone. He has this fear of political opponents and I think this fear is locally rational but ideally, it would be best for society as a whole to have a higher level of trust. There are societies that have transitioned in history from lower to higher trust setups. One example I like to bring up is in the ancient Roman empire, there was a period of the so-called Five Good Emperors. One of these is Marcus Aurelius who is very famous for his stoic philosophy.Tobi: Yeah.Samo: The Roman empire was in a period of crisis then, so this is not when it was most powerful. This was when it was engaged in civil wars where generals would fight each other and direct their armies against each other to try to win in these wars and become emperor. And the solution was very interesting, perhaps a little bit a matter of happenstance, perhaps a little bit a matter of design. The Romans had this institution of adoption where you can declare someone your son and you adopt them as your son even if the person was already an adult. So there was this interesting political trick that was only possible because everyone so firmly respected [not only] family but simultaneously also this kind of strange idiosyncratic practice of adoption where you spiritually make someone your son even if they are not biologically your son. Not all societies have this, only a few societies practice this in human history. So because adoption was [a] widely spread practice, when a Roman emperor who was old would declare a general his son, the idea of killing your son will just make you so unfit to rule that whoever was adopted as the Emperor's son understood that they were most certainly safe.And on the other hand, they also understood that it's no longer in their interest to undermine the works of the previous emperor or raise themselves in rebellion because all they have to do is support the current emperor and then they get to their turn afterwards. I note for example that Botswana has a very good string of presidents where each president was the vice-president of the previous one and the vice-presidents are carefully selected for this kind of skill and partially also their friendship with the Botswana royal family, so this has helped them to avoid a lot of the troubles of other resource-rich countries. So that would be a different example than the Roman example. And a third example of a way this can be done is the Japanese practice of Moko Yoshi which is the practice of - in Japan, again there is a strong emphasis on family and there is a strong emphasis, however, also on honour and on company performance. And they well understand sometimes that your son might not always be...first of, you might not have a son, but secondly, your son might not always be the most talented at business. So the practice of Moko Yoshi is called son-in-law adoption - it means that for a wealthy industrialist or entrepreneur, they will try to find for their daughter a husband who has business sense and then the daughter marries the man with business sense but the daughter doesn't take her husband's name. Rather the husband takes this prestigious name and some of Japan's biggest companies in their past had made use of this. I think Toyota was an example and I think a few other of their household name companies. This allowed it so that the next CEO of the company, the next head of the company had reason to trust this person because this person is their son-in-law and not only their son-in-law, [but] because the Japanese put so much on to the owner of the family name, this person would be interested in supporting it and supporting the original vision of the company. So this is another way you can produce this kind of trust. These are the three interesting examples - one is through marriage, another one was through adoption, and another one was through this long period of cooperation where you have someone that is your right-hand man, that you work with for 5 or 10 years, you are the president, they are the vice-president, and you sometimes would do interesting things where I think the succession went like this ...I mean I have to possibly check my notes on this but they [Botswana] also had some aspects of this familial bond that can overcome this distrust where, you know, basically president Festus Mogae served as Quett Masire's vice-president but then...Tobi: Yeah.Samo: President Ian Khama who was the son of Seretse Khama who was the first president to try to lead this effort to leave the British empire and achieve independence. So he didn't put Ian Khama directly in charge, no, he rather put Quett Masire and this gave this opportunity that, you know... if Ian was not the best selection, you could have just gone with his vice-president but instead there was still this opportunity to rely on the family connection at the end of the day because someone who was like a close family friend, it would feel difficult for them to move against the son of someone else who was once their close friend and someone who had raised them up to the position of president. So, again, the relationship had to be developed before the country became independent in an interesting way, right? This initial friendship, because then the stakes are lower. So I would say that testing and building close ties before you are in the position of power might actually be the best way to get relationships you can rely on even after you are in power. This was a long answer and relatively involved, but I hope it laid out some of these mechanisms well enough.Tobi: Listening to that bit, I'm wondering does not democratic ideals or what we have come to define as democratic ideal not conflict with these succession strategies that you laid out. I mean I'll give you an example.Samo: Uh-hmm.Tobi: In party politics, for example, in Nigeria, politicians practice some kind of what you would call the "adoption system" but in social discourse, in political discourse, we have labelled it as "God Fatherism" and it is fundamentally perceived as unfair - that whatever comes out of that process does not represent the consensus of the people and so there's an instinctive reaction negatively...Samo: Yes.Tobi: To that. So does democracy conflict with succession in a way, the way you look at history?Samo: I think that democracy is very interesting. I will describe democracy as something that can deeply undermine trust or can deepen trust immensely. And it kind of depends [on] how well-functioning the society is in the first place. So I would say that in a well-functioning democracy, you might have people who compete and in public criticize constructively their opponents and proposed better plans for the good of the country. Yet then, when the president is elected or when the party is elected, the two parties or the two candidates who are rivals still trust the other side to adhere to [the] rule of law and believe that at this point, now that the election is over, the best course for everyone is to work together towards a better country and then you repeat this process every 4 years or 8 years or 10 years...so this is, I think, democracy at its best - where it allows you to express constructive criticism, advancement, the public good on the basis of the social fabric of already well-developed political relations, where there is a sense of shared interest among all the citizens of the country. Now, where it works the worst...I'm going to now reference back the example of the introduction of democracy in my own country Yugoslavia (I was born in Yugoslavia, I was a kid when it broke apart in the 1990s). The best way for Slobodan Milosevic who was a Serbian to win elections was to stoke the sort of resentment and anger of the Serbians that, to be honest... some real problems...there was a real conflict between Albanians and Serbians in the province, of course. But this immediately made it so that Slovenians, Croatians, Albanians, and others felt increasingly uncomfortable, they didn't want to live in a country that was completely dominated by Serbian elites in Belgrade. Before 1980, there was essentially, like, a dictatorial system where Tito was in charge. From 1980 to 1990, there was this tentative federal balance that was non-democratic, so there was this balance of power between the various wings of the Communist party, and then this balance of power was shattered by the introduction of democracy. So what I'll say here is - democracy is extremely powerful...it's a very powerful way to transform the balance of power of a society and put to the test the trust that already exist in a society or does not. So I would say that what is popularly understood as a democratic ideal which is that democracy itself will bring about higher trust, I think this is false. It is however true that high trust, high maturity, and high sense of, like, shared destiny and responsibility among a people, and among the elites of a people of a country, that this can allow democracy to express very very good government. And in fact, if you think about it, in a well-functioning democracy, the selection process should work better than, say, in a monarchy. Again, the hypothetical example of a monarchy that's hereditary, you know... the first son inherits or the kingdom is split between all the sons of the king. These were the two methods of inheritance in the ancient Middle East or Europe in medieval times.Either one of those systems is kind of a throw of the dice. It's sure that the successor will be loyal, at best, if they're good son but they might not be competent, and in a well-functioning democracy and a high trust system, you should, in theory, have this. But I think it's a very delicate machine, I think it relies on [the] rule of law, and it relies on elites that feel that there is [a] common ground. So even though it's a democracy and there is a will of the people, even in democracies some people are more powerful than others. I think this is a fact. If you look at modern... any western country you want to look at, some people are wealthier, some people are more powerful, some people are more influential, some people have more sway over the public's opinions, some people are charismatic - whether it's America or Canada or Germany or any of the Asian democracies such as South Korea or Japan, it works this way. The elites still matter. I think that in this sense, the best way to implement a democratic system is to first create this sense of shared purpose and shared destiny in a people, and to balance the interests of all the groups that live in the country. And I think here I would reference the work of Machiavelli who wrote in one of his books, I think it was on the Discourses on Livy - he said that the constitution of a country, be it a monarchy, a republic or a democracy is always the work of a single man, the single individual. I don't think that's quite true. I think it's usually a small group of people, organised around an individual, like say, America's founding fathers were... but I think it says something very real. I think democracy has difficulty producing the preconditions for its own success.The question is, do you want to be friends and do you support the entrepreneurial young man that doesn't have much money to his name? - SBTobi: That's interesting. That sort of leads me to my next question.Samo: Uh-hmm.Tobi: Are there deep roots element to having a great founder? And here is what I mean: from research in cultural evolution, I think from the works of Joe Henrich and co., societies are classified as either low trust or high trust...Samo: Hmm.Tobi: And we know that high trust societies (they) tend to handle some of these problems like (we've talked about) succession really well. So are there cultural or biologically intrinsic elements to societies that managed to invent credible institutions or produce great founders, at least, more than other rival civilizations?Samo: Well, there is an interesting question of what exactly is producing great founders, right? I don't think I really know the answer to that, I believe that an openness to exceptional skill is very worthwhile. So a society that values the great scientist or the great artist or perhaps be kinder to the great religious and spiritual leader or the wise and thoughtful political leader or the very productive and industrious economic leader, and importantly it will be open to what these people look like before they are successful. Like, everyone wants to be friends with Rockefeller when Rockefeller is already rich. The question is, do you want to be friends and do you support the entrepreneurial young man that doesn't have much money to his name?Tobi: Uh uh.Samo: I think this kindness to what the beginner's stage looks like because if you imagine someone that can go on this trajectory to shape a society - to, like, notably improve it - this person is going to be saying some very strange things when they're young. They are not going to be doing whatever everyone else is doing. His parents might be like "well, you should become a lawyer or a doctor" and instead this person has this seemingly crazy dream that just later on in life turns out not to be crazy. They might still, as part of this dream, receive a lawyer's education. But instead of, say, going to a law firm, they might create either a political party or they might start lobbying for the change of a particular law that enables a particular kind of business or city government or they might run for an office or they might spend 10 years reading books and being a scholar for some reason that's very difficult to explain to others. So there has to be in a society, I think, a desire for excellence, some tolerance for eccentricity or at least the harmless kinds of eccentricity and an encouragement or at least... it cannot be too focused on trying to stamp out creative. Now, ironically, I think some very high trust societies will actually suffer some long-term problems because they have this philosophy where, you know... you hammer the nail that stands out. I think in say modern Denmark or Scandinavia and perhaps also in modern Japan. It's actually extremely difficult to be someone that does something different. Partially because things seem to be working pretty well - there is a healthcare system, the streets are clean, the economy has been stable, everyone's been rich for as long as they can remember - so why are you being a troublemaker and saying you do everything different from everyone else? Who are you to think that you are special or that you know better?So this actually, I think, in the long run, might make Japan, again, and Denmark fragile. And I think this is an advantage to say, some other rich countries such as the US and over time more and more China [which] actually still retain this possibility of being contrarian, not in your words necessarily. It's not respect for necessarily people who are disrespectful to society at large or loud (though certainly such people that can succeed in the United States), it is more [of] a tolerance for a very different way to approach your career and intellectual and economical life. And then I'll add some more components to this - so I had this drive for excellence, this tolerance for eccentricity, the tolerance for the beginner to choose a different life path than other talented young men and women might choose. I think the availability of local traditions of knowledge is immensely important. Where, by traditions of knowledge, I mean the possibility of finding mentors who themselves are exceptionally skilled or exceptionally successful or exceptionally insightful.Historically, there were some universities that played this role and they didn't necessarily play this role through "well, you know, the students and the students are taught by the teachers", it's more as... if you went in medieval, times in England to Oxford, it was just a place where all the smartest scholars of Europe had gathered or say the Cervon in France. And whether or not you were a student of the university, if you could travel there, you could talk to them and you could write with them and you could listen to them. The availability of this knowledge immensely sped up progress and similar things can be said of Florence in the Renaissance. Florence is a city in Italy renowned for its great art. If you were a sculpture or a painter, your craft - your art - will progress much much faster if you could go to Florence and ideally apprentice yourself to someone. But even if you couldn't apprentice yourself, merely walking through the streets of Florence - they had the practice of having these workshops that were open to the street, you could actually just literally see what people are up to and what kind of stuff is produced. And it had this, again, this culture of critique where they would have high standards, so they would examine critically what artists are making and compare it to each other and they were quite direct and open about it much as Italians sometimes are even till today - they are quite disagreeable. So I think this availability of other experts, people who perhaps themselves are not great founders but have quite great mastery in things like rhetoric or law or human organisation or technology or understanding of the country and its issues. The availability of such people can greatly aid great founders. So this perhaps is just kind of the preconditions for this and I'm happy to comment on any specific countries or regions but each of those is like quite involved things... so...Tobi: Let's talk about China. Samo: Perfect. Perfect.Tobi: Interesting article, by the way, yesterday. I read it. Packed with so much insight. And of course, China, in the last decade, has been the most important economic partner to most African economies, so whatever happens in China, the extension of its global power reaches every corner of the African economy.Samo: Uh-hmm.Tobi: You talked about Deng Xiaoping and how he managed to handle the succession problem and Xi who is currently torn between keeping the fire of Marxism burning or watch it die out with modernism and all. How big a threat is the internal political contradictions that China face right now? How big a threat is it globally?Samo: Well, I think that China is facing an immense challenge, I'm very glad that you enjoyed the article. The article in Asia Times outlines my position which is that they did an immensely good job of resolving the contradiction of how to have economic growth with a Marxist ideology. But the problem is they do need the Marxist ideology to keep their political system together. So the succession problem there is driven not just by this difficulty with Marxism where it can always be interpreted in this way that actually shuts down capitalism and economic production - where if the successors of Xi don't take it seriously enough, they have no political principle with which to maintain power and perhaps this could be replaced by something like a democracy but I think that's not trivial at all. It might very easily shatter the country apart as it had numerous times in its long history. China has this long history of dividing into smaller fighting countries and then reuniting. These dynastic cycles have happened several times in the twentieth century. They had terrible civil wars at the start of the 20th century. So it's very risky to undermine the political structure of the country, it's very risky. And then on the other hand, if you take the Marxism too seriously, especially if you take the Maoism too seriously, you might end up destroying this engine of economic growth because then how can you have in a communist society billionaire's, which China obviously does, right, Jack Ma and so on. I think that civil society enables a civilization robustness. Hyper centralised systems can seem very efficient but they can be very fragile. As soon as the centre fails, everything fails. - SBThe succession problem has an even more fundamental issue where while Chinese industry allows for exceptional and strange individuals, like a lot of the billionaires are somewhat eccentric, their academic system does not. Their scientific progress is much slower and the students are very very good students but they don't pursue bold research and a lot of the members of the Chinese Communist Party go through the somewhat academic selection process. And then there is another selection process of "well, which party member advances within the Communist Party of China?" Well, it's the one that doesn't rock the boat. It's the one that's, you know, quiet and agrees with the policy and supports the policy. And in an important way, of course, you can have someone like Xi who he is very reserved in speech, very obedient, plays by the rules and when they come into power they pursue their bold plans they had all along or they acquire and grow into [the] office and become bolder. But for the most part, this is just going to be "yes men" and Xi is the last member of the generation that saw the possible failure of the Communist system. He saw the failure of it in his youth when his family and he himself were targeted by the Chinese red guards during the so-called Cultural Revolution. For a few years, he spent his childhood exiled in the countryside feeding pigs, and that probably stuck in his memory. He understands how despite, I'm sure Xi is... I’m sure he believes in Marxism but he understands this failure part of it and then later in his life he saw the collapse of the Soviet Union. We have to understand that for the Chinese, the Soviet Union in the 1980s was kind of the elder brother, just as in the 1990s Eastern Europeans might admire the wealth and development of Western Europeans. So in the 1960s and 70s, Chinese communists both admired and envied the global power and the technological development of the Soviet Union. So seeing the Soviet Union collapse was this big shock for the communist part of the world, only a few communist countries stayed communist after the fall of the Soviet Union - North Korea, Vietnam, Cuba, and China and that's basically about it. All of the African and European countries that had experimented with socialism basically abandoned it, it was no longer a viable system. Xi saw this again as a young man, and already on his career...so in a way, he saw both of the failures in [indistinct word].Tobi: Hmm.Samo: He is going to be in power for a while more and I don't think anyone who is of a younger generation has that sort of experiences. All they have is the experience of maneuvering in a Communist Party, ruling an already fairly developed China. So their intuitions and knowledge of what does failure look like for political system or how do unwise decisions come about? it's going to be in a way much impoverished. So I think there is a knowledge transmission problem here. I think power succession works fine because the Communist Party has such control over the country but knowledge succession is a big problem for them and they have a lot of difficulty solving it.Tobi: Somehow I wonder whether these are not (maybe they are, maybe they are not) symptoms of increasing prosperity. One very important point you made in that essay was how much order is necessary to create and maintain a market system. I think a lot of people underestimate that. We all like to believe in this Hayekian vision of an emergent market. So...Samo: Like an idealized market set of rules where people exchange goods and they, sort of, discover what's...together they discover what's the best economic outcomes through the price system and so on.Tobi: Yeah, yeah...I mean, we've been taught to believe that. So when I look at China, people like Ang Yuen Yuen have said that Deng Xiaoping reforms were based on having a decentralized approach to policy and here you have Xi, again, who is so centralised in his approach to economic management. But if you look at cosmopolitan cities like Shenzhen and every other metropolis in China that have seen incredible prosperity in the last 40 to 50 years, isn't the current tension a necessity? That is, when people make more money, when they become more successful, they demand more rights. They become less obedient, they become less conformist, what do you think of that?Samo: I think that there is a strong set of prerequisites in terms of enforcing these relatively strong rules that enable personal liberty in the first place. That you don't have to fear whether or not your store will be expropriated and that you can rely on [the] courts if someone else, say, double-crosses you in a business deal, those are absolute absolutely massive. It just means that people, once those two things become true, then the most rational course of action is to participate in the market and benefit from the market. Until those things are true it's very difficult. And again what is supporting those courts? What's supporting that political order? Well, that's not trivial at all. That took a lot of work in the first place. And I think that this development that we saw in China was that... the aftermath of the Cultural Revolution was a quiet realisation among the remaining members of the Communist Party because they had been purging each other (those internal fight), was that "you know, this got out of hand, I would like more security in my political career. I don't want to be killed on charges, I don't want to be imprisoned, I don't want to be exiled, I'm going to work together with the other people to make sure nothing like this can happen again. And as a side effect of this almost kind of self-interested political aspect, this enables a reformer like Deng Xiaoping to produce something that has not just given political safety to this party officials, but gives economic and political safety to everyone in the society, at least to a much higher degree than was previously available. I'm not ignoring at all the fact of how heavy-handed the Chinese government can be, I'm just pointing out that the mechanic of the change that enabled this broader liberty was partially driven by the people who are already powerful. You can't obviously have this be driven by everyone in [the] existing elite, but I think every reform of society has had one sub-section of the elite interested in change and bringing in new people as allies, who previously were not part of the old elite to become part of the new one. So, there is a change in the ruling coalition... that can happen. And I think often those can be very positive if designed well and can result in what's essentially this higher degree of safety. And I think once the safety is guaranteed, then there's more room for personal expression and this bottom-up order.Tobi: Interesting. Interesting, Samo. So I'm just going to toss out a few theories and framework and I want to hear your reaction to that and weather GFT affirms or refutes that. Acemoglu and Robinson talked about inclusive and extractive institutions, what do you think about that framework?Samo: I think that inclusive or extractive institutions is a good path... it's an interesting frame, right? I think that in the real world, an institution can be both inclusive and extractive. So I think there is some insight there, but I think my perspective on institutions is that they can easily combine many things that seem mutually contradictory. So I'll say it sometimes gives the correct answer but it's basically not as total as it's presented.Tobi: Hmm. In their framework, at least they've extended their theory with their new book, they talked about this narrow corridor where... I don't want to call it perfect, but this balance between the power of the state and the freedom of the civil society as this zone where prosperity sort of exists. Is that...I find that hard to believe somewhat despite all the evidence they marshalled in their book and other research papers...Samo: Uh-hmm, Uh-hmm, Uh-hmm...Tobi: So what role does civil society play in GFT?Samo: In GFT, civil society is the space where new institutions can be designed without the approval of the centre, without the approval of central power because GFT has this self component of high-medium-low...where I think civil society is the space where the middle powers can be built. In other words, to build a great successful company you ideally don't need to have that many government friends. To successfully pursue a new political ideology or new social or ethical ideology, you shouldn't necessarily have to fully wrestle with everyone in society immediately... so, again, another additional aspects of this is I think that the civil society represents this very important redundancy. Redundancy in the positive sense where if you are on an airplane and the electronics of the airplane fails while you are in the air, you really hope that there is a backup electronic system; or if you are in a hospital and you are recovering and the electricity goes out you very much hope that there is a power generator attached to the hospital allowing whatever equipment that is needed for your health to keep on running. I think that civil society enables a civilization robustness. Hyper centralised systems can seem very efficient but they can be very fragile. As soon as the centre fails, everything fails. A strong civil society on the other hand enables not only [a] healthy competition and experimentation which of course should not endanger the centre or should not endanger the coherence and common destiny and stability of the civilization or society, but it enables a backup. So if the centre fails, there is something that is not too far from being able to become the new centre.Tobi: Interesting. Let's talk about technology for a bit, Samo. One of the things that this notion of catch-up growth is built on in economic development is that if you can facilitate technology transfer between a nation that is advanced to a nation that is behind, then you can engineer some form of economic growth. But you also have this concept of social technologies that in my own interpretation do not transfer so easily. What are your thoughts on that?Samo: I think this is very much true. I think that it's very easy to transfer, say, the adoption of a physical technology. It's like not that hard to have the users...you know, everyone has then a smartphone, right? Tobi: Yeah.Samo: It's a little bit harder to have it be sold that the workers and managers exist to run a phone factory, on the other hand, that's a little bit more difficult. And social technologies play a role in this and I think the transfer of social technology is something very interesting and tricky. I feel it is important to note that naively trying to completely copy social technologies from a completely different society can have disastrous or ineffective consequences. Because, in fact, there are already social technologies in whatever society. There is no society without its own ecosystem of highly specialised social technologies. The beautiful balance happens when one is able to learn from other societies and then customise what is introduced. I'm going to use the example here of 19th century Japan. Nineteenth-century Japan, sort of, forcibly opened to trade by Admiral Perry, basically, they are behind on military technology. They understand very well in the aftermath of the Meiji restoration that it's not just the adoption of Western science nor is it the adoption whole-scale of just Western culture and views, but they are very selective. What they do is they send their most talented students to Germany and the United States with specific missions; some of are tasked by the Japanese government as representatives to learn everything they can about how the officer system work in Germany, for example, in 19th century in Germany, 19th century Prussia? How do the ranks work? What kind of discipline and training do the soldiers go through? And they return changing the Japanese army from this relatively archaic system that's feudal, that has samurai because if you arm the samurai with the machine guns and whatever, they're not actually using the artillery, the equipment well nor are they fighting coherently or employing the correct tactics. So the army would in effect be terrible. But they copied the Western system of ranks and training - everything up from the military academies to the organisation of the provisions. They go and observe it. They participate in those armies and then they return to the country, and with the full political backing produced this transformation. And then for the ones that go to the United States, they observed the organisation of railway companies and how American companies operated internally. And note this, of course, was a very different America. This was an America that was still at the frontier - the transcontinental railroad was barely built, so there were definitely people there that knew how to build a completely new railroad system, how to finance it, how to even deal with security issues - and then that transfer goes back to Japan. And then there are people who are in London just working for several years as basically shipwrights that return and then oversee the construction of the first ship. So these are not just technical skills, all them are learning some technical skills but they are also learning things like what does a relationship look like between a soldier and a commanding officer? What does the internal organisation of a shipyard look like? How do shipyards connect with funding and with resources? And how do they select skilled labour vs unskilled labour? How do they enforce workplace discipline? What do you do if the shipwrights come drunk to the shipyard, how do you respond to that? These all seem very trivial everyday problems, but for the most part, we rely on our social understanding, our cultural, our social technology to see what is acceptable and what are the expectations that should be set and should be respected and how to resolve various kinds of conflict and how to reach various kinds of decisions - these are all things that have to be patented. Yet, despite all these expeditions to do this learning, they intentionally combined this and pursue this strategy where they picked and choose which of these practices were compatible with Japanese society. So Japan stayed Japan and successfully industrialized… and it was unsuccessful during World War II obviously, but even after WWII, Japanese society remains distinct and actually in some ways functions better than Western societies. Like, if you go to their high-speed transit, it's maintained at a higher level than you see any western country. So they combine this with some of these strengths that they have... this very broad attention to aesthetics [and] this high level of politeness that they had inherited from that particular kind of feudal society. So yeah, you have to live in a new society, I think. You have to observe it happening, and then not only do you have to live there, you have to return; and not only do you have to return, you mustn't change everything. You must change just something very narrow that works on the strengths of the other social technologies available rather than trying to wholesale imitate something that ultimately has its own flaws.Tobi: Economist Gareth Jones has this concept of hive minds where he says national IQ matters more than the IQ of an individual person and these are correlated with how successful and prosperous a society is. I'm not even going to ask how true or false that is but are higher IQ societies more likely to have great founders than not?Samo: It's a very interesting question. I mean IQ is one of those things that it might not be a good measurement, it might be a good measurement in some circumstance. I think that... yeah, I think there is whatever (I won't measure it with IQ)...Tobi: Okay.Samo: But I do think societies with intelligent people or with greater respect for intelligence or with greater ability to produce intelligent people, I think they do have an advantage here, yeah. You require also other things because as I noted, you might have extremely intelligent people that are however doing exactly the same thing that everyone else is doing. If you imagine a classroom of very very diligent student that mostly to just do the same thing that all the other diligent students...like, that might result in like, say, some well-run things. It might like result in trains that go on time or on factories that can rely on a high level of skill of their workers but the problem is those same students would never have built the train system in the first place or would never have pushed for its creation nor would they have ever pushed for the creation of the factory. So there are additional factors here. I remember reading some articles about Gareth Jones's book, I will say where he's very very right is that if you have a higher culture of intelligence in a society, it becomes easy to not have to worry about things. You don't have to worry whether trivial everyday things are taken care of, you can focus on the truly difficult parts. Again, you can rely on the train that takes you to your class to be there on time, for example. That's like easier, it's not just a matter of organisations, [it's] also a matter of, like, the competence of the rail workers and so on... and these small everyday differences, if you imagine them just through the lifetime of a potential great founder, they make a massive difference.I'm not sure I think that you need to have absolutely all of society be like this, I think it's actually sufficient to have a city that's intelligent in this way. Like I give the example of medieval Europe and the city of Oxford. I think it was quite sufficient to just have Oxford where there were a bunch of smart people around. I think it didn't much matter whether the rest of England at the time was very intelligent or not.Tobi: Hmm. That's interesting. You also talked about Life Players in your book which I greatly enjoy and for the audience, I'm going to put up a link to the publicly available manuscript for the Great Founder Theory book. How can one recognise Life Players in society or in an institution?Samo: I think Life Players are going to the people that have succeeded at very very different tasks. So they are going to be these individuals that have, perhaps, either changed careers (two or three completely different careers) and have been successful at all of them; or completely changed their interpersonal style and were as successful when they were strict as when they were jovial, when they were easy-going or people who have done intellectually completely different things. So what you're looking for is not only a very high skill in an area - again, it's very possible to be extremely skilled in an area and ultimately not be that well-adapted - what you're looking for is the combination of both skill and execution, intentionally observing their environment and success at transitioning. So (a) success at transitioning to completely new strategies and this might look like an entrepreneur that has built a successful company in one industry that [they] then specialise in a different industry and very quickly build a successful company there too. Elon Musk might be a good example where he both has created this business that's a car factory that makes electric cars - Tesla - and has also succeeded in aerospace with his company SpaceX which recently brought American astronauts to space again for the first time ever on a privately built rocket rather than a rocket built by NASA.Tobi: Uh uh.Samo: A different example of a Life Player and I have to emphasise here when I say Life Player, I don't mean I agree with everything the person does. I'm just observing that they have the skill and adaptability. I think Vladimir Putin has showed over the last twenty years in Russia an extreme adaptability where Russia pursued many different strategies to try to maintain its position in the world, and Russia right now punches above its weight. For example, the annexation of Crimea was completely inspired. Nothing like that had happened in Europe before...Tobi: Uh uhSamo: And it was done with, like, killing almost no people, I think something like three or four people died. It was incredible how they orchestrated the mere surrender of the Ukrainian army because the Ukrainian army was so confused and honestly scared with the appearance of these Russian soldiers that, note, were even not officially Russian soldiers. They were wearing no official flags or patches, so they wouldn't give any answers as to who they were. They could plausibly say that they were Ukrainian because Ukrainians and Russians (they) look similar, they speak very similar language, there's a Russian minority in Ukraine and...you know, Crimea declares independence, and then immediately after declaring independence asks to join Russia and Russia says "yes". It's kind of amazing how that can happen. Not saying it was good for Ukraine, definitely, it was good for Russia, I think. And this results in this very creative process because there is no way in the world that Putin ever planned for there to be a civil war in Ukraine, but having the fact of the civil war happen, he and his team very quickly moved tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands of people and carried out a military operation that had never been performed before by the Russian army. The Russian army has a long history, many centuries ago but believe me they've never engaged and subtle stuff. They usually had this very overt, very heavy-handed interventions in other countries. If you think about it like this intervention in Hungary in the 1950s, in Czechoslovakia in the '60s, they just roll in the tanks and, like, assert authority. And here? No no no. Much more flexible, very subtle. And because the conditions were so unpredictable, this is how we can know that this was not planned a decade in advance. This was a quick adaptation over the course of, possibly, as little as six months to a completely changed situation. So I think that even if you were within the same industry, if this company, if this government, if this organisation, if this institution adapts quickly to massive changes, that's a strong sign that a Life Player he is at the helms. Because no automated system continues working when the operating conditions changed. It stops working if it's the preconditions are not met.Tobi: Hmm. One of your ideas [that] I've also found very interesting is the concept of Intellectual Dark Matter. How can a society benefit maximally from its intellectual dark matter - the tacit knowledge that's around?Samo: Intellectual Dark Matter refers to this concept that makes the analogy to physical dark matter because currently when the physicists and the astronomers look at our galaxy and they count all the stars and put together all the mass, they realise that there must be much more mass there than only what's visible...Tobi: Yeah.Samo: Because, otherwise, the gravity wouldn't be strong enough to keep this spinning galaxy that we find ourselves in and other galaxies together. So they don't yet know what this missing mass is but they are investigating it. And with Intellectual Dark Matter, I think if we put together all the books, all the stuff that's on the internet, all the stuff that's recorded, I think we still find that there is missing knowledge. There is knowledge and skill that we have not explicitly, formally recorded - written down or put into words that deeply matters. And once you start thinking about that, it's very easy to come up with examples of stuff that is very difficult to put into words or put into writing. The skill of a heart surgeon that saves the patient's life. Like, that's a remarkable set of skills but how do you put into words how to perform a heart surgery? Very very difficult, right? Takes a lot of words. I have an article titled "How YouTube is Revolutionising Knowledge Transfer" and I point out that...Tobi: Yeah, I read that.Samo: I point out that for a good enough camera, recording the hand movements in these very skills, and it doesn't have to be just heart surgery, it can be as trivial as cooking or perhaps the way you treat complex machinery... recording the video and others watching this video might be much much better way to convey such knowledge. I also think that we in society, in general, like seeing the results - we like seeing the finished essay or the finished theory by a Thinker. So if I go back to the world of abstractions to either philosophy or science or whatever, we like seeing the finished theory.What we don't see is all of the crazy or stupid ideas that this very intelligent person came up with before they got the right idea. They usually do that on their own or with a close circle of friends. So, one might be tempted to think and look at an extremely successful thinker and assume that they were always very polished, that they were always very eloquent, often this is not the case. Often they are immensely long learning period. Now, I admit I might be a little biased here because I did spend most of the last decade pursuing this kind of, like, thinking, reading, investigating and for most of this time period, people were not immediately interested in my ideas.Tobi: Hmm.Samo: But about two to three years ago, the material not only clicked together but I found the words to express what I, to myself, felt I had understood for several years before, I just could not really find the way to relate it and show to others in a short period of time how in fact this is useful to them. So I think all of these things form part of Intellectual Dark Matter and there is much more. There is, for example, we might not know what the exact process is that allows you...that allows Elon's team at SpaceX, engineers at SpaceX to make that rocket, and we might not even have that available anywhere because it might be classified. There are probably rules, I actually know that there are laws in the US that prevent SpaceX from simply explaining how they're making this vehicle to a company based in a foreign country. They don't want to teach all the countries how to make rockets for obvious reasons, and more importantly, SpaceX probably doesn't want to share its rocket designs with Boeing - their competitor.Tobi: Uh uh.Samo: So there is also an element of proprietary knowledge and trade secrets for stuff that is understood explicitly, stuff that can be put into words, can be put in a document but the person who has this knowledge wants to keep a competitive advantage; sometimes for very good reasons or the organisation that possesses this knowledge doesn't want to share it. So, that also forms a type of intellectual dark matter - it's knowledge we can't directly examine.Tobi: Interesting you talked about YouTube. The global pandemic has seen an increase in virtualisation, are we going to see a reform in education away from the classroom and a reduction in direct instruction? Samo: I think that we will see an increase in autodidacts - so people who know how to learn on their own. I think, however, that most people will return to the classrooms once the pandemic has died down. I don't think there will be permanent remote instructions and I think the reason for this is that the performance seems to be much worse. It seems to actually be the case that unless you are inherently interested in the material. If you're just a kid who's going to school or taking online classes because you have to take online classes or because you have to go to school, it seems your performance is going to be worse. You're going to learn less than if you physically go there. And I think that for autodidacts, there is going to be an abundance of resources - everything from recorded lectures to tests made. So it's going to improve those chances of those who are seeking knowledge out of curiosity primarily, or out of self-development and professional development; but for the majority of people learning, I think this transition is going to be temporary. I don't think it will be a permanent shift.Tobi: So, Samo, it's kind of a tradition on the show to ask this final question. What's the one big idea that you want to see spread globally? Samo: That's a great question. I think if there is one idea that I would like to put in everyone's minds or everyone's hands, it's this realisation that...I think that the surest sign of good knowledge is the ability to act on this knowledge. So I think that there is some deep confusion as to when knowing things and when doing things - how do these two relate to each other? And I think if only we understood that there are many things that have the appearance of knowledge, such as eloquent speech or perhaps particularly good writing that don't carry the substance of it. We should always observe the practice of the individuals and organisations claiming to have knowledge. For example, the WHO...I'm sure it's made of many excellent experts - they individually know many things about the coronavirus but the organisation as a whole despite claiming to know, in its public communication seems incapable of relaying that knowledge. So I think the result should be "well we should take them less seriously on the coronavirus". And if this map between who is believed to have knowledge and who actually has knowledge, if we improve that map, as a species, I think that our ability as human beings and our societies would really rise. It will be a remarkable thing to see and I think the societies that went through golden ages, I think they basically had these happy periods where the two coincided. You know, times like the Renaissance or whatever.Tobi: That's a great idea. We're sure to help you spread it over here at least.Samo: Thank you so much for having me on the show.Tobi: Yeah. Thank you so much, Samo. This is a public episode. Get access to private episodes at www.ideasuntrapped.com/subscribe

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This is Kelly Orchard’s Apple A Day. Sixty Seconds on wisdom, success and personal growth.   When I was studying organizational leadership I learned many different ‘theories’ on leadership. I was intrigued by how many theories there can be! There is the “Great Man Theory”, “Trait Theory”, “Behavioral Theory”, “Contingency Theory”, “Transactional”, “Transformational”, then there is “Top Down”, or “Bottom Up”, or “Walking Around”. But one of the most important theories of all for great leadership is to lead by commitment! That is something that will never change or go out of style.  There is nothing more worthy of following a leader when they are committed to the path. Great leaders stay committed to their mission, their team, their cause and remain grounded in their purpose.  Rules and regulations may change, but a leader is always committed to the relationship they have with those who follow them.  Remain committed wherever and whomever you may lead! This has been Kelly Orchard’s Apple A Day… Now, go out and be fruitful! Kelly Orchard's Apple A Day is also available in print. Click here for more!

We discuss the Great Man Theory of History and the lasting impact of the Holy Man Gregori Rasputin --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/theoddpast/support

For this episode, the hosts explain the history behind the Great Man Theory of history and discuss how it has marginalized and completely left out women, people of color, and other disenfranchised communities from in our retellings of history. Historian of science Marilyn Ogilvie joins in to talk about her long career in recovering voices and scientific work of women who had been lost to history. For show notes and further reading visit ladyscience.com/podcast/episode7-greatmantheory

This episode dives deep into the greatest challenges facing entrepreneurs and the nation today with a great discussion on the principles of leadership. David Burkus, leadership expert and author of the new book Under New Management: How Leading Organizations Are Upending Business As Usual. Forbes. David Burkus is a best-selling author, an award-winning podcaster, and management professor. In 2015, he was named one of the emerging thought leaders most likely to shape the future of business by Thinkers50, the world’s premier ranking of management thinkers. David was recently named one of the “Top 40 Under 40 Professors Who Inspire.” His work has been featured in Fast Company, Inc, the Financial Times, Bloomberg BusinessWeek, and CBS This Morning.   Podcast Highlights Who is David Burkus? In terms of priority, David is a husband and father first. Authors like Malcolm Gladwell and Daniel Pink were the model David used to build his career as a professor and an author. In many ways, David stumbled into his career as a professor but he’s enjoying the ride and making the most of it. Entrepreneurs probably always knew they wanted to be entrepreneurs, they just didn’t know their business model at the time. Which work of Malcolm Gladwell and Daniel Pink resonates with you? Malcolm Gladwell’s Outliers made the biggest impact on David and inspired him to look deeper into the 10,000 hour rule and how people achieve peak performance. Daniel Pink’s Drive explored the Self Motivation Theory which made a major impact on David’s life and perspective. What is the business model of a writer? The business model of a nonfiction writer is similar to that of a recording artist. The majority of the cash flow comes from the tours and speeches after the book is published, not from the royalties from the book sales. The book is a means to get the opportunities that come afterwards. Why leadership? Don’t write what you know. You should write about what you are hugely interested in and what you are curious about. The writing part of the book is the hard work, the research is where the fun is. The area of leadership is still largely unexplored and we’re still learning about it. The new discoveries and strange things David has learned in the process is what keeps him fascinated in the subject. What are the misconceptions about leadership? By exploring the Great Man Theory of history, we discovered that there were common shared traits of notable leaders like charisma, intelligence, and being well spoken. It was a number of decades before we started studying the interaction between leaders and followers. Many authors writing about leadership talk about how leaders “cast a vision” in order to get buy in, but this is not the case with real leaders. In actuality, we see that leaders are able to put to words and describe what their followers already feel. What about the entrepreneurs that have come up with something new? No one buys your product so that you will make money. Customers will buy your product for what they want out of it. If you help people get what they want, they will help you get what they want. Why does it feel like their are no leaders today? There is no shortage of people trying to lead today. You become a leader when you find yourself in the center of a community that is looking to you for guidance. We see a lot of social movements spread much quicker now because of improved communication technology. Once you can pull away from focusing on yourself, you can scale your movement or business much faster. What does it take for the average person to be

It is the last day of the month, which means, as always, it’s mailbag time! Today David looks at the Great Man Theory vs. the Cultural View of investing, whether to invest a little bit at a time or in big lump sums, and why the market’s P/E ratio shouldn’t guide your investing decisions. Plus, another misattributed quote and quite possibly a dirty joke! Get $25 off your first purchase at bombfell.com/fool

Gordon White This week I talk to Gordon White, former "weird kid", proprietor of the popular Rune Soup podcast and blog. Gordon is also a documentarian, world traveler, digital strategist and practicing magician. He's the author of three books that came out in the last year or so: Star.Ships, which we discuss in this podcast; The Chaos Protocols, which takes a heterodox view of how to handle the post-financial crash economy; and Pieces of Eight, a personal history of the Chaos Magic movement.       This interview has a twin over on Gordon's podcast, where he interviews me about the Bruno books.You can listen to that over on Rune Soup or on iTunes.     Episode Outline, Notes and Links     Being part of a traveling family, returning home to Australia "You don't go to London for the snorkeling." "A lot of people recycling Seth Godin's slides at conferences." Why podcasting is the new blogging: "It's a return to the real." Why "Were you a weird kid?" is a great first interview question. Being weird is the only way to break even in the global monoculture. Star.Ships discusses the prehistory of magical/religious/astronomical thought The Flood myth as a reflection of Southeast Asian post-ice age cultures How did they build Nan Madol on Pohnpei without modern technology? Materialism vs. Idealism Ancient aliens as a cultural mistake Gobekli Tepe as a "stone guitar" and early star temple Is it fair to compare modern animist hunter-gatherers to prehistoric ones? Yes, if prehistoric people were not stupid, which they weren't. "Everything in a hunter-gatherer culture is valuable; they don't accumulate junk." Great Man Theory vs. Steam Engine Time Kenneth Ruthven, Critical Assumptions, on influence: Our understanding of literary ‘influence’ is obstructed by the grammar of our language, which puts things back to front in obliging us to speak in passive terms of the one who is the active partner in the relationship: to say that Keats influenced Wilde is not only to credit Keats with an activity of which he was innocent, but also to misrepresent Wilde by suggesting he merely submitted to something he obviously went out of his way to acquire. In matters of influence, it is the receptor who takes the initiative, not the emitter. When we say that Keats had a strong influence on Wilde, what we really mean is that Wilde was an assiduous reader of Keats, an inquisitive reader in the service of an acquisitive writer. Rupert Sheldrake's morphic resonance theory Gordon's website Gordon on Twitter   Michael Witzel's The Origin of the World's Mythologies  Graham Hancock Fingerprints of the Gods  Alien megastructures (or just a dimming star) Kardasheff II civilization signal (or just a local one?)

Back to Iraq, analyzing Putin and the Great Man Theory?, Nobel Prize for Mathematics to who?, and myco filtration. ShambhaLOVETrack List:Kline - Sleepy Slug (Soundcloud)Goopsteppa - Sascid (Soundcloud)Moontricks - Bishop (Ignition EP)EMOG - The Master (Single)The Funk Hunters - Keep On Moving (Midtempo Revolution)Neighbour - Red or Black (& Spiltmilk)Skii Tour - Senior Mafia (Single Soundcloud)Cure & Hxdb feat. ThinkTank - Sound the Alarm (Ethos and Sullust)DEEP - Close to Me (Close to Me EP)KR$CHN & Beats By C Myles - Party Girls (Nanpa Noir Remix)Solange - Losing You (Cyril Hahn Remix)

Part 2 in the survey series, A Renegade History Course. This is the second discussion with historian Thaddeus Russell, the author of A Renegade History of the United States. Discussed Today: -Brett's Problems with Macklemore -Are gay people being encouraged to embrace and celebrate conformity? -Thaddeus discusses his appearance on the Sean Hannity Show -The Progressive Lineage of Macklemore’s And Lorde’s Attacks On the Pleasures of the Poor, by Thaddeus Russell -Daniel Bell and cultural contradictions of capitalism -The Puritan work ethic of Girls Gone Wild -Truth by consensus -Hegel -History through a cultural lens -Would Karl Marx have changed the world if he had been a union organizer? -Doris Kearns Goodwin and the Great Man theory -Full audio of Thad on Hannity Bumper Music: "Thrift Shop" Macklemore "Air" La Femme D'Argent "Lose It" Eminem Look Closer: Thaddeus Russell's Site - www.thaddeusrussell.com Thaddeus On Stossel - http://youtu.be/xpelVE7trK0 The Progressive Lineage of Macklemore’s And Lorde’s Attacks On the Pleasures of the Poor, by Thaddeus Russell - http://reason.com/archives/2014/02/01/that-kind-of-luxe-just-aint-for-us-the-p Daniel Bell: The Cultural Contradictions of Capitalism - http://stevewatson.info/readings/politics_perspectives/Bell-CulturalContradictions.pdf Great Man Theory - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_man_theory