Hi friends,

Greetings from Columbia, Missouri!

We're making moves at Write of Passage, and I have a couple updates to share with you this week.

First, we’ve partnered with Solace, a healthcare solutions company, to help them hire a Chief Evangelist. Successful applicants will be able to take Write of Passage for free and will be placed on Solace's short-list for the role. If you love writing and want to revolutionize the US healthcare system, this is a great opportunity. Apply before March 10th to be considered.

Also, I'm excited to announce our new College Essay Workshop. The college admissions process is changing. Over 80% of US college applications no longer require test scores, which makes the essay more important than ever. Whenever I talked to high schoolers, one thing is clear: they’re stressed and overwhelmed about their essays. That’s why Write of Passage is launching the College Essay Workshop. Through conversations and exercises, students will plan and write the college essay that only they can write. If you know someone gunning for their dream school, send them our way.

Today's Finds

Wisdom of the Enneagram: I've been using the Enneagram to better understand myself and the people I work with. It takes a psycho-spiritual approach to understanding the mind. One of my favorite things about the Enneagram the way it demonstrates the relationship between our gifts and blindspots. Being talented in one area usually comes at the cost of being delusional in another. This book by Russ Hudson and Don Richard Riso is the best place to begin if you're looking for a book-length explanation of the idea. For a quick introduction, I recommend the Enneagram Institute website, the lectures by Richard Rohr, or this podcast with Russ Hudson.

​Manufacturing Intellect: This is the best place I’ve found to discover old interviews. While the rest of the Internet is focused on the here and now, this YouTube channel offers a chance to disconnect from the never-ending now and explore the wisdom of brilliant but oft-forgotten figures like Joan Didion and Susan Sontag.

​The Lost Tools of Learning: A talk from poet Dorothy Sayers, given at Oxford University in 1947. In it, she argues that education began to lose its way in the Middle Ages. By bringing back the three lost tools of learning — grammar, logic, and rhetoric — we can foster self-directed learners instead of sleepwalking automatons.

J.D. Unwin: As a historian, Unwin studied 86 societies and civilizations to see if there was a relationship between sexual morality and human flourishing. He found a direct relationship between promiscuity and cultural decline. Cultures where people remained virgins until marriage were much more likely to be an “advanced civilization.” Combined with rationality, that prenuptial chastity sets the conditions for a successful society. I’m skeptical of big history claims like this, but after reading this summary of his book, I’m looking forward to a deeper exploration of his work.

​Learn Numbers to Leave Numbers: It’s easy to hate on rote learning because it’s boring, but here, Josh Waitzkin presents an argument for the utility of it. Learning can be fun. There’s no doubt about it. But mastering the boring basics is the price you pay to eventually move onto higher-order creative tasks. The potential for mastery begins when technical information has been studied and practiced so deeply that it comes to feel like natural intelligence. Once you’ve mastered a subject, you should hand the keys over to your intuition. Waitzkin gives the example of chess. Beginners learn that each piece has a point total. Pawns are worth one point, bishops and knights are worth three, a rook is worth five, and a queen is worth nine. Novices should count these point totals in their head. But once you’re an expert, the point totals disappear and become more fluid. He writes: “The pieces will achieve a more flowing and integrated value system. They will move across the board as fields of force. What was once seen mathematically is now felt intuitively.” Start with rote learning so you can transcend it.