It's a new year, a new decade and a new start of fun and interesting conversations.
This will be a chance to welcome new members and talk about the fundamentals: What is this intelligence anyway?
What does it mean to be an intellectual?
Who are your favourite minds and why are they your favourite?
What is it that makes certain thoughts worthy of respect?
What is the intersection between intelligence, knowledge, creativity and wisdom? Are they totally different or interconnected?
Are there different types of intelligence? Are some more important than others?
Is it nature or nurture that is more important in its flourishing?
What does it mean for a culture to be more or less intelligent? How can we make a smarter world?
These questions are simply meant to direct our discussion to an interesting place - we'll simply allow the conversation to flow whenever we can and gently bring it back to the topic when it wanders.
Here are some fun and relevant resources:
* Building a creative society (podcast ~90 minutes): https://radiopublic.com/north-star-podcast-G1VvdE/s1!a83e6
* Do schools kill creativity? (video ~20 minutes): https://www.ted.com/talks/sir_ken_robinson_do_schools_kill_creativity
* Controversy of Intelligence (video ~12 minutes): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9xTz3QjcloI
* Human Nature and the Blank Slate (video ~24 minutes): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CuQHSKLXu2c&t=58s
* What is truth? (video ~10 minutes): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3eEffbjzNwE
* Thoughts of an intellectual (article, short read): https://intellectinterviews.com/2020/01/steven-pinker/
