Writing Poems, Studying Insects
When reading Peter Drucker's The Practice of Management, I stumbled upon the following passage:
“In its own interest, management should encourage serious outside interests on the part of its executives. […] To be known as a minor poet (as was the late Field Marshal Lord Wavell) is an asset rather than a liability in that otherwise unpoetic institution, the British Army. To be known as an ardent and scholarly student of insects (or of Roman coins) is a definite recommendation in a Catholic priest. It is high time that the large business, too, realize that the man who ‘lives for the company’ is a danger to himself and to the enterprise, and likely to remain a ‘perennial boy scout.’” (Peter Drucker: The Practice of Management, p. 240)
This quote, orginally published in 1954, seems so strikingly fallen out of our time. Firstly, I believe large businesses did not come around Drucker’s insight as of yet. Secondly, and even more striking to me: Take a moment to think of the actual examples Drucker gives. A minor poet in the British Army and, even better, an “ardent and scholarly student of insects” within the Catholic church. There was a time when people had interests like these and I am not sure if these could be called hobbies or whether that immediately misses parts of the seriousness with which people followed them. Progress within science and technology was based to a large degree on people passionately following those interests for many centuries.
I feel that I do know, however, what caused the shift that largely upended following those interests: Electronic mass-media, first in the form of the television, then followed by the internet and especially social media and the like. Sadly, this is a quite culturally pessimistic take, expressed ironically – how else could it be – in an online blog. I do not like to find myself in this conservative position, but lately I increasingly do so. For it becomes clearer and clearer to me how addicted I am to cheap dopamine in the form of doomscrolling through various webpages and apps, a stupid, lifeless, soulless way of wasting one’s own time on this planet, as all the other seriously addicted. Because before I could muster to ardently study insects, I would have put my phone back into my hand, or re-opened my laptop, maybe firstly to read some interesting article about insects only to find myself doomscrolling an hour later. In this way, we arrive at the classic criticism of media as separating us from the world by means of mediation. It is quite sad to find myself within that position of a very boring critique, even more sad to realize myself to be seriously addicted to something I deem to be a complete, utter waste of time. There has to be done something about this, but not now.
Now I want to return to the bright side, to being mesmerized by a world in which field marshals spent their free time writing poetry and priests studying insects. What makes these images so attractive?
First, connecting to the lamenting before, they seem to transport a calm, immersed and somewhat joyful seriousness. I immediately had to think of this beautiful quote by Annie Dillard, that I couldn’t stop reading out loud for a few days when I first stumbled upon it:
“I bloom indoors in the winter like a forced forsythia; I come in to come out. At night I read and write, and things I have never understood become clear; I reap the harvest of the rest of the year’s planting.” (Annie Dillard: Pilgrim at Tinker Creek, p. 41)
“At night I read and write, and things I have never understood become clear” – I imagine the young Annie Dillard in her late 20s sitting in a cabin in the frozen woods reading, and writing sentences of such striking clarity. Again, imagine her just taking up her phone and checking social media, but let us not go there again. There is a slowness and deliberateness about this quote, about sitting at night in the forest and reading, about studying insects besides being a catholic priest. These are practices of a certain contemplative type that seems to me to closely connect seeking knowledge and wisdom. The wisdom part suggests itself to me because of the very personal level these endeavors seem to have. Opening up a close connection to the world is therefore linked to furthering a connection with or knowledge about oneself. These are clearly character molding activities. In addition, while they happen in close connection with the world, they obviously seem to be ends in themselves rather than means. The British army poet does not write his poems to advance his career.
When talking to a friend about this, he immediately recalled a story about a friend of a friend who had died on some exploration, having been fully absorbed for years with very seriously trying to find Atlantis. This led me to think that conspiracy theories are a niche in which these serious side-quests and investigations are still carried out. Knowledge nowadays is so readily available that studying insects in our own leisure-time seems to be senseless – unlike in the, say, 60’s, where you would’ve at least had to borrow or buy a book on the subject etc. Conspiracy theorists, on the other hand, have every reason to believe that the readily and easily available information is wrong or even deceptive. This hence opens up the realm to investigate on their own, so to speak. At least, that is my hypothesis that I currently like a lot.
What also makes British army poet and cleric entomologist so fascinating to me is the contrast and width these pictures convey. I just love the idea of combining different interests that are each taken seriously. (David Epstein’s Range wonderfully captures the advantages and magic of these unusual combinations). Next to width, I also, secondly, associate depth with these kinds of interests. I immediately had to think of a few retired professors from within the humanities or sociology that I listened to over the years at academic conferences: I was always struck by how widely read and knowledgeable they were, how intimate e.g., with ancient Greek writings. I feel that while there obviously still are extremely smart and well-read people within academia, this width and depth have been lost to a high degree. And it is especially this combination of width and depth that I associate with these experiences which comes, I believe, not only from reading a lot, but also reading extremely seriously, focused, slowly.
To be able to seriously take up interests that have not much in common with one’s main vocation seems to me to convey curiosity, openness, flexibility, intensity, playfulness and admirable depth. I thought two contemporary examples came to my mind, but I wonder if the first one actually counts: Josh Waitzkin, who transitioned from chess prodigy to world-champion in Tai Chi, now focusing on different sports but also having written a book etc. For while he clearly has a wide bandwidth, the main source of his contrasts stem from single big transitions rather than simultaneously diverging interests. I feel this was my take at trying to reach contrasts so far.
The contemporary person that seems to fit best is Alex Karp, CEO of Palantir. He actually fits the bill in both ways: He first completed a Ph.D. in philosophy before getting into Venture-Capital and then founding one of the weirdest, most controversialand highly successful software and security companies in the world; yet besides his job he practices cross-country skiing, Tai-Chi, and shooting very seriously. Actually, especially what I read about how he practices cross-country skiing sounded more than just “very seriously” but rather borderline obsessive.
It also seems no coincidence that the best contemporary example I can think of is a guy who seems to hold the weirdest, most unorthodox and contrasting opinions that I know. For Karp does not seem to fit into any standard set of character types, political believes (having focused his dissertation at Goethe Universität Frankfurt on Critical Theory, referring to himself as a "socialist" while being very close with libertarian Peter Thiel and leading a company that openly endorses violence and potentially war to defend Western values and geopolitcal interests) or ways to live one’s life. I don’t know whether his strong side-interests are the source or result of his idiosyncrasy. In any case, I am fascinated. It seems a bit odd to explicitly state and sort of plan this, but I would really like to develop my own (borderline obsessive?) side-interests – for this seems to offer a rare chance to add both, intensity and playfulness into one’s life.