I'm so glad that you went into Detterman, as the claim always seemed overly strong to me and yet I hadn't had a chance to look deeper. I wish you the best of luck at moving forward in creating the kinds of communities and subcultures that promote flourishing. We all need more of that.
Great essay, Michael. The central importance of human flourishing, and the need to develop more favorable conditions for flourishing through both institutional decentralization and the formation of new subcultures--these points you make align remarkably well with the vision of "abundance at human scale" I outline in my new book. https://www.amazon.com/Permanent-Problem-Uncertain-Transition-Flourishing/dp/0197803962
That twin study about music is so specious! As a twin myself, I can confirm that practice really does improve musicianship.
My twin and I have been hypercompetitive about music our whole lives, but he has always been a more 'classically accomplished' musician because he practiced harder. However, in our mid-20s, we ended up taking wildly divergent paths. I started playing music again after giving it up in High School to focus on sound engineering, and my ear was still just as good as it had ever been.
Instead of trying to compete with my twin in the world of classical music, I started learning folk songs and writing my own stuff. After a few years of working at it with consistent practice, one of my songs made it to international radio and I won an award from my local folk club for 'most improved performer'. Meanwhile, my twin has maintained his focus on classical composition and is capable of incredible feats of orchestration that I would never be able to pull off.
Michael, since nurturing a virtue culture is central to your work, I'm curious which specific virtues you consider of primary importance? Do you use classical virtue frameworks such as Aristotle formulated, modern ones such as those articulated in "Character Strengths and Virtues" by Peterson and Seligman, philosophical ones such as Ayn Rand's, psychologically oriented ones such as Nathaniel Branden's, or your own distillation?
This feels right overall, though I’m not sure “IQ fetish” is the core issue, it feels more like we’re asking intelligence to solve problems it isn’t designed to solve.
Intelligence, human or machine scales execution, not meaning. When we treat it as a proxy for flourishing, we’re mistaking capacity for orientation.
What actually determines outcomes seems to be the cultural and incentive structures intelligence is embedded in: what gets rewarded, modeled, and normalized over time.
Education then isn’t primarily about skill transmission, but about shaping what kinds of actions feel legitimate, admirable, or even imaginable.
Without that layer, higher intelligence mostly just accelerates whatever dysfunction is already present.
Very well put, Michael. As I was reading your article, I kept wondering if you were going to offer a particular solution that seems to align nearly perfectly with your points. If one is looking for ordered character and virtue formation through philosophical deliberation of time-tested transcendentals, all inside a loving, supportive and voluntary community, why not invest oneself in the place & practice devoted to those efforts for the last 2000 years? It comes replete with an original text and a detailed guidebook with layers of meaning discoverable via iterative practice, and directly applies to the challenges and triumphs of daily life, can even reorder dysfunctions and suffering, and prepares you for each phase and for what is ultimately to come.
I'm so glad that you went into Detterman, as the claim always seemed overly strong to me and yet I hadn't had a chance to look deeper. I wish you the best of luck at moving forward in creating the kinds of communities and subcultures that promote flourishing. We all need more of that.
Bravo, Michael! Of all your essays that I've read, this is my favorite! Superbly reasoned and articulated statement of what really matters.
Came here to say this!
Great essay, Michael. The central importance of human flourishing, and the need to develop more favorable conditions for flourishing through both institutional decentralization and the formation of new subcultures--these points you make align remarkably well with the vision of "abundance at human scale" I outline in my new book. https://www.amazon.com/Permanent-Problem-Uncertain-Transition-Flourishing/dp/0197803962
That twin study about music is so specious! As a twin myself, I can confirm that practice really does improve musicianship.
My twin and I have been hypercompetitive about music our whole lives, but he has always been a more 'classically accomplished' musician because he practiced harder. However, in our mid-20s, we ended up taking wildly divergent paths. I started playing music again after giving it up in High School to focus on sound engineering, and my ear was still just as good as it had ever been.
Instead of trying to compete with my twin in the world of classical music, I started learning folk songs and writing my own stuff. After a few years of working at it with consistent practice, one of my songs made it to international radio and I won an award from my local folk club for 'most improved performer'. Meanwhile, my twin has maintained his focus on classical composition and is capable of incredible feats of orchestration that I would never be able to pull off.
Michael, since nurturing a virtue culture is central to your work, I'm curious which specific virtues you consider of primary importance? Do you use classical virtue frameworks such as Aristotle formulated, modern ones such as those articulated in "Character Strengths and Virtues" by Peterson and Seligman, philosophical ones such as Ayn Rand's, psychologically oriented ones such as Nathaniel Branden's, or your own distillation?
https://www.amazon.com/Character-Strengths-Virtues-Handbook-Classification/dp/0195167015
This feels right overall, though I’m not sure “IQ fetish” is the core issue, it feels more like we’re asking intelligence to solve problems it isn’t designed to solve.
Intelligence, human or machine scales execution, not meaning. When we treat it as a proxy for flourishing, we’re mistaking capacity for orientation.
What actually determines outcomes seems to be the cultural and incentive structures intelligence is embedded in: what gets rewarded, modeled, and normalized over time.
Education then isn’t primarily about skill transmission, but about shaping what kinds of actions feel legitimate, admirable, or even imaginable.
Without that layer, higher intelligence mostly just accelerates whatever dysfunction is already present.
Very well put, Michael. As I was reading your article, I kept wondering if you were going to offer a particular solution that seems to align nearly perfectly with your points. If one is looking for ordered character and virtue formation through philosophical deliberation of time-tested transcendentals, all inside a loving, supportive and voluntary community, why not invest oneself in the place & practice devoted to those efforts for the last 2000 years? It comes replete with an original text and a detailed guidebook with layers of meaning discoverable via iterative practice, and directly applies to the challenges and triumphs of daily life, can even reorder dysfunctions and suffering, and prepares you for each phase and for what is ultimately to come.