Our "book" clubs
About once a month-ish, we do a live “book” club on Zoom for paid subscribers, typically exploring one of the topics of a recent post.
It’s just an hour long (though folk often stay after), and it’s always held on Saturdays at 3pm Eastern / 12pm Pacific.
The meetings are fast-paced conversations where we swap experiences, seek out disagreement, and then puzzle through our positions.
Which is to say: they’re a lot of fun! People typically leave with a combination of “challenged” and “inspired”. It seems to be becoming a gathering place of an extremely-committed part of the Egan community.
Next book clubs
HISTORY
Saturday, May 4
Big Q: What would the greatest history curriculum EVER look like?
3pm Eastern Daylight / 12pm Pacific Daylight
Readings: Big History°, Spiral History°, and (optionally) a paper I presented on Big Spiral History
NATURE
Saturday, June 1
Big Q: What role should nature play in education?
3pm Eastern Daylight / 12pm Pacific Daylight
Readings: Know a Tree°, Know a Place°
EDUCATION WORKING
Saturday, June 22
Big Q: CAN education work?
3pm Eastern Daylight / 12pm Pacific Daylight
Readings: Brandon’s draft essay, “But COULD education work?”, “A Theoretical Case Against Education” by Scott Alexander
MEMORY
Saturday, July something-th
Big Q: How should we lock in what students learn?
3pm Eastern Daylight / 12pm Pacific Daylight
Readings: Gary Wolf’s classic article “Want to Remember Everything You’ll Ever Learn? Surrender to this Algorithm”, followed by TanagraBeast’s classic “Seven Years of Spaced Repetition in the Classroom”
Questions and answers
Imaginary Interlocutor: Why the scare quotes around “book”?
We hardly ever read actual books! (I have too many bad memories of ambitious book clubs where no one read the books.) Instead, we usually focus on articles or essays. (Since they’re short, you are expected to do the reading before you come.)
I. I.: Is this on Zoom?
It is! You’re encouraged to have your camera on.
I. I.: Will people drone on and on?
I hate when people do that; we have a special method to keep conversations quick-moving.
I. I.: Ack, I have to miss it — are they recorded?
It is. The recording will just have my face, but you’ll be able to hear everyone’s voice. (I’ll edit each “hey, it’s a book club!” post with the link right afterwards, again, for paid subscribers only.)
I. I.: How private is this?
To preserve some anonymity, we refer to each other verbally with secret code names — when you come into the Zoom room, change your name to A place you’ve lived + A kind of plant: e.g. “New Zealand Moss”, “Montana Fern”, or “Albuquerque Marigold”. You can include your real name after that, if you’d like.