a repeat advice post

This may be the right moment to transition into an advice post, though it will merely be the sorts of things I’ve already said before.

At a young age, it can be extremely helpful to have good models. It’s best if you have some sort of personal contact with them, even if they are not your immediate supervisors. They should be working at a level somewhat above your current level. If they are somewhat intimidating to you at the moment, don’t worry about that, because they probably weren’t at that level yet when they were your own age.

I’ve been very fortunate to know two older figures who, by friendliness and by their own examples, helped push me to a much higher level intellectually and in terms of sheer self-discipline than before I met them.

The first was Alphonso Lingis, whom I had as a professor while doing my M.A. He is one of the most productive writers I have ever met, and still the most talented literary stylist I have ever met. What I learned from Lingis is how to have the act of writing permeate an entire day while still having a life filled with rich experiences. Lingis is constantly writing, yet somehow it never seems like it. Between his own work and his gorgeous, delicious letters (the best I have ever seen, including among historically prominent figures) he is one of the most productive people you were ever meet, without being a sort of tense “workaholic” type. Furthermore, Lingis reads widely in many disciplines, which everyone should do. And finally, Lingis was a great model for travel. Though I’m still not at his level in that category and perhaps never will be, he was certainly the one who showed me to what good use a good mind can put travel experiences. When I first him I had only been to the USA, Canada, and 7 or 8 Western European countries, whereas he’s been practically everywhere.

The other was Bruno Latour, who was never my teacher in an official sense– in fact, I already had my Ph.D. when I first met him. Latour is 14 years younger than Lingis, but with his more settled personality and lifestyle actually seems older. Latour was another great model in terms of productivity, and especially in his unparalleled “interdisciplinary” mastery: Latour’s body of written work is practically its own disciple, and it all fits together perfectly even though you could put him in any of 10 different bookstore shelves and 10 university departments. Latour also provided a good example of how to integrate humor into a tightly-woven argument. Another of his many remarkable skills is the ability to listen to people and take them very seriously without losing a sense of his own intellectual center. (Many people have to shut themselves off form outside influence in order to remain what they are. Latour is very centered.)

These were two who really helped me. Everyone should try to find one or two older people they deeply respect and like, and again, I think that some sort of personal contact is important. We can always find plenty of “hero authors” as models for writing. But in terms of knowing how to weld work and life together in ways mutually beneficial to both, it’s best to see that up close to some extent.

Anger and bitterness are such universally available affects for all humans that, unless you put the greatest effort into following positive models and developing positive ideas, there is a real risk for each and every one of us of spiralling into denunciations and sabotage and self-sabotage. It is very important that you not spend time with people who may reinforce this tendency in yourself, because the train of the tendency is there in everyone (though more dominant in some than in others).