All you need to know about Alain de Botton is that he's a self-help guru. What I like about his writings is that they elucidate a position which you realize is either completely obvious or probably nonsense, and there you have a jumping off point to figure things out for yourself.
Alain de Botton on existential maturity and what emotional intelligence means
21–30 of 147 posts
Re: Alain de Botton on existential maturity and what emotional intelligence means
#22Alain de Botton's School of life is... honestly weird. It's really confident and tries to give good advice; but so much of that advice is quite bad, and the channel might overall do more harm than good (for more people than fewer). YouTuber Big Joel has done two breakdowns of it that are worth watching: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JlkJJygIoVU and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4VZ30qL7j3Q .
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Re: Alain de Botton on existential maturity and what emotional intelligence means
#23Alain de Botton's School of life is... honestly weird. It's really confident and tries to give good advice; but so much of that advice is quite bad, and the channel might overall do more harm than good (for more people than fewer). YouTuber Big Joel has done two breakdowns of it that are worth watching: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JlkJJygIoVU and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4VZ30qL7j3Q .
There is a lot of advice on there and it seems like Big Joel homed in on some of the more recent stuff which is more direct and preachy. For example, there is an interesting video on School of Life that goes into detail regarding the life and philosophy of Baruch Spinoza who among other things claimed it made no sense to pray to God for desirable life outcomes because life and prayer don't work that way. And now because prickly YouTube reviewers who like details more than the big picture are on the scene I should admit that understanding Baruch Spinoza claims prayer has no utility is weird and overconfident life advice that I should be suspicious of? Honestly I think you both missed the point of pondering ideas about life.
Re: Alain de Botton on existential maturity and what emotional intelligence means
#24Earlier quoted context omitted.
Your comment drips with conspiracy, but is hard to trifle with.
Actually, it's sort of a proven conspiracy. Edward Bernays (Freud's nephew and student) went to America and basically invented modern advertisement. His system of propaganda found its way back to the likes of Goebbels and other unsavory types. "The conscious and intelligent manipulation of the organized habits and opinions of the masses is an important element in democratic society. Those who manipulate this unseen m…
Who molded kings and queens and powerful people before Bernay to want material/status things?
Re: Alain de Botton on existential maturity and what emotional intelligence means
#25Alain de Botton's School of life is... honestly weird. It's really confident and tries to give good advice; but so much of that advice is quite bad, and the channel might overall do more harm than good (for more people than fewer). YouTuber Big Joel has done two breakdowns of it that are worth watching: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JlkJJygIoVU and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4VZ30qL7j3Q .
I'm a few minutes into Big Joel's takedown and ... it's pretty unimpressive. He's moreso complaining that psychology isn't a hard science, and that it's hard to make objectively proven statements about things like attachment theory as it relates early childhood development to later relationships. Well, yes, and this is more or less where we're at with Psychology (as I understand it, I'm definitely a lay person): it's…
> The kind of takedown that Joel makes ("reductive nonsense") is unsophisticated and frankly immature, and certainly not worthy of any more investment of my time.
This is what immediately struck me when I started watching the video.
It could be possible that everything Joel is saying is true, and yet, his presentation style comes from a place that feels like the opposite of good faith. His attitude is not one that seems to involve seeking truth/understanding, and he comes across as snarky, bitter, and with an undercurrent of some underlying agenda.
It's a style that I dislike generally, but it seems especially problematic given the subject matter - a topic that requires at least an inkling of intellectual curiosity to explore.
Re: Alain de Botton on existential maturity and what emotional intelligence means
#26> exponential progress in the material and technological fields combined with perplexing stasis in the psychological one. That's not an accident. Nor a failing in the many timeless tools of emotional education - literature, drama and other arts. It's deliberate and systematic. Ever since Edward Bernays the power of Wall Street has been directed at stripping our emotional centres of everything but blind selfish desire…
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Re: Alain de Botton on existential maturity and what emotional intelligence means
#27Alain de Botton's School of life is... honestly weird. It's really confident and tries to give good advice; but so much of that advice is quite bad, and the channel might overall do more harm than good (for more people than fewer). YouTuber Big Joel has done two breakdowns of it that are worth watching: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JlkJJygIoVU and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4VZ30qL7j3Q .
> YouTuber Big Joel has done two breakdowns of it that are worth watching Honest question: why is "YouTuber Big Joel" someone I should spend an hour listening to?
He does a lot of media analysis, especially of other YouTube channels. His views are definitely not unbiased, but in this case he provides a counterpoint that people interested in The School of Life might benefit from hearing.
If you're not interested in The School of Life, then it's not worth an hour of your time.
Re: Alain de Botton on existential maturity and what emotional intelligence means
#28Alain de Botton's School of life is... honestly weird. It's really confident and tries to give good advice; but so much of that advice is quite bad, and the channel might overall do more harm than good (for more people than fewer). YouTuber Big Joel has done two breakdowns of it that are worth watching: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JlkJJygIoVU and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4VZ30qL7j3Q .
Alluded in the article: his stuff is categorized as “self-help”. As a social phenomenon, “self-help” is believers-only. Since de Botton’s academically inclined, it’s probably the best of a horrid torrid bunch?
It's certainly not the worst, but I take issue with how overconfident de Botton is, and consequently, how convincing his work can seem to many viewers who take it at face-value without more critical thinking. He's academically inclined but largely self-taught, and his hypotheses are not always as well thought-out as one might expect from an "academic".
Re: Alain de Botton on existential maturity and what emotional intelligence means
#29I am a bit older and have worked in IT now for almost 2 decades. (44 years old)
I honestly think the general premise here holds true and perhaps applies to many of us here in computed related occupations.
It seems many of us focused on STEM STEM STEM or COMPUTERS COMPUTERS COMPUTERS in education but perhaps are emotionally infantile to an extent.
How many of us write programs, support infrastructure, design gadgets … for what? What is important ? Our job… buying gadgets… traveling..
I don’t have any answer but it’s worth pondering. How many of us work countless hours for companies whose missions we don’t perhaps even agree with… how many of us ponder what is important to us and why we act the way we do?
Just My two cent
Re: Alain de Botton on existential maturity and what emotional intelligence means
#30Alain de Botton's School of life is... honestly weird. It's really confident and tries to give good advice; but so much of that advice is quite bad, and the channel might overall do more harm than good (for more people than fewer). YouTuber Big Joel has done two breakdowns of it that are worth watching: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JlkJJygIoVU and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4VZ30qL7j3Q .
I'm a few minutes into Big Joel's takedown and ... it's pretty unimpressive. He's moreso complaining that psychology isn't a hard science, and that it's hard to make objectively proven statements about things like attachment theory as it relates early childhood development to later relationships. Well, yes, and this is more or less where we're at with Psychology (as I understand it, I'm definitely a lay person): it's…
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