In this discussion, Zena Hitz, author and tutor at St. John's College, advocates for learning as a delightful pursuit in itself rather than just a means to an end. She delves into the unique Great Books curriculum that fosters a rich inner life, and stresses the significance of intellectual leisure in today's fast-paced, work-driven culture. Hitz emphasizes the joy found in genuine conversation and the importance of carving out time for contemplation, urging listeners to seek communities that value deep thinking and personal growth.
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question_answer ANECDOTE
Zena's Journey to St. John's
Zena Hitz initially disliked St. John's College's curriculum, finding it boring.
After attending a summer program, she became captivated by its unique approach and enrolled.
insights INSIGHT
Hidden Pleasures
The intellectual life's pleasures are hidden because they're often useless and inward-focused.
Learning for its own sake lacks the outward impact of other pursuits, residing in one's inner life.
volunteer_activism ADVICE
Finding Your Ends
Recognize that life shouldn't be solely about work and achieving goals.
Identify activities that bring personal fulfillment and treat them as ends in themselves.
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When we typically think about learning, we tend to think about being in a structured school, and doing it for some reason -- to get a grade, to get a degree, to get a certain job. But my guest today says that if we want to live a truly flourishing life, we ought to make time for study and thought long after we leave formal education behind, and embrace learning as something wonderfully useless.
Her name is Zena Hitz and she's the author of Lost in Thought: The Hidden Pleasures of an Intellectual Life. We begin our conversation with how the unique Great Books curriculum at St. John's College works, and how Zena got her undergraduate degree there and then went on to pursue a more traditional academic path, only to discover the downsides of the modern university system and be drawn back to St. John's, where she now teaches. From there we turn to what Zena argues are the hidden pleasures of the intellectual life, which include learning for its own sake as opposed to doing it to advance some goal, developing a rich inner life, and embracing the idea of true leisure. We then discuss how thinking and studying for its own sake is different from watching TV or playing video games, and how it can create a resilience-building, inner-directed refuge from an externally-driven world. We end our conversation with how you can carve out space for contemplation amidst the overload and noise of modern life, the importance of finding a community that wants the same thing, and how to get started with deeper study and reflection by reading the Great Books.
The Art of Manliness 
