http://artofmanliness.com/2012/03/11/the-cabinet-of-invisible-counselors/
Quote
Have you ever had a discussion with someone who posed this question: "If you could invite any five people, living or dead, to dinner, who would they be?"
It's an interesting question to consider, but one that doesn't have to remain strictly a hypothetical. Now, of course you can't drag the bones of history's greatest corpses to your table ("Oh dear, Teddy's hand just fell off into his soup. Awkward."). But you can enjoy a form of ongoing conversation with history's most eminent men, and it can continue far past the dessert course.
I believe that every man should create his own personal "Cabinet of Invisible Counselors"–a sort of imaginary team of mentors whom he can consult for advice and inspiration throughout his life.
Loved this article...and since PD can be considered as a mastermind group, I was curious as to what might some of your Invisible Counselors be and what you think of this technique.
Quote from: Bu☆ns on April 02, 2012, 06:20:40 PM
http://artofmanliness.com/2012/03/11/the-cabinet-of-invisible-counselors/
Quote
life.
Love
/-/A..
Heh, that works too :)
Lord Buckley
Nina Simone
Will Rogers
Mike Royko
Hank Williams, Sr
Holy shit I just read up about Mike Royko. That guy seems pretty awesome and I'm surprised I've never heard of him considering I'm 20 minutes from his old stomping grounds.
Quote from: Bu☆ns on April 02, 2012, 06:59:16 PM
Holy shit I just read up about Mike Royko. That guy seems pretty awesome and I'm surprised I've never heard of him considering I'm 20 minutes from his old stomping grounds.
I used to get the Chicago Tribune, just to read his & Bob Greene's columns.
Quote from: Doktor Howl on April 02, 2012, 07:01:32 PM
Quote from: Bu☆ns on April 02, 2012, 06:59:16 PM
Holy shit I just read up about Mike Royko. That guy seems pretty awesome and I'm surprised I've never heard of him considering I'm 20 minutes from his old stomping grounds.
I used to get the Chicago Tribune, just to read his & Bob Greene's columns.
So, from what I gather, he pretty much took on Mayor Daley #1 and like politicians in a similar way that HST took on Nixon?
Quote from: Bu☆ns on April 02, 2012, 07:19:56 PM
Quote from: Doktor Howl on April 02, 2012, 07:01:32 PM
Quote from: Bu☆ns on April 02, 2012, 06:59:16 PM
Holy shit I just read up about Mike Royko. That guy seems pretty awesome and I'm surprised I've never heard of him considering I'm 20 minutes from his old stomping grounds.
I used to get the Chicago Tribune, just to read his & Bob Greene's columns.
So, from what I gather, he pretty much took on Mayor Daley #1 and like politicians in a similar way that HST took on Nixon?
Royko took on EVERYONE. He used to make Henry Hyde go into fits of apoplexy.
Quote from: Doktor Howl on April 02, 2012, 07:29:29 PM
Quote from: Bu☆ns on April 02, 2012, 07:19:56 PM
Quote from: Doktor Howl on April 02, 2012, 07:01:32 PM
Quote from: Bu☆ns on April 02, 2012, 06:59:16 PM
Holy shit I just read up about Mike Royko. That guy seems pretty awesome and I'm surprised I've never heard of him considering I'm 20 minutes from his old stomping grounds.
I used to get the Chicago Tribune, just to read his & Bob Greene's columns.
So, from what I gather, he pretty much took on Mayor Daley #1 and like politicians in a similar way that HST took on Nixon?
Royko took on EVERYONE. He used to make Henry Hyde go into fits of apoplexy.
:lulz: Well that's some damn good journalism!
It may be a good idea to limit the invisible council to the dead. I spent many years resorting to thinking "what would Ted Nelson do" -- but now that I've met the guy and have to regularly guess the contents of his head, I've discovered that I'm very inaccurate (not that the decisions I make when thinking that way are bad, but it's a little demotivating to have someone in your council who then ends up being obviously different from your mental model... with the dead, you can use an illusory model of the thought processes of the great without fear of contradiction from the source).
Quote from: Phosphatidylserine on April 03, 2012, 09:51:30 PM
It may be a good idea to limit the invisible council to the dead. I spent many years resorting to thinking "what would Ted Nelson do" -- but now that I've met the guy and have to regularly guess the contents of his head, I've discovered that I'm very inaccurate (not that the decisions I make when thinking that way are bad, but it's a little demotivating to have someone in your council who then ends up being obviously different from your mental model... with the dead, you can use an illusory model of the thought processes of the great without fear of contradiction from the source).
I can see that, and yeah their ideas are sort of their "distilled essence" anyway. I'd even suggest a good fictional character might even be useful depending on the purpose. I honestly still have NO idea who to put in my cabinet, though.
That's a pretty good one.
Lord Byron
Jack Kerouac
Teddy Roosevelt
Siddhārtha Gautama
Miles Davis
I think that combination had just enough diversity that assembling them in any manner would cause ridiculous things to occur.
I wanted to put Iggy Pop in there, but he's (technically, for now...) alive.
Heh, I did wonder about Gautama...but then I figured I'd just get either 1. The runaround or 2. The Thunderous Silence. That is an interesting combo though....mile davis? lol
I was going to say Miles Davis too. Here's why:
During an interview, after growing aggravated about questions on the subject of race.
QuoteIf somebody told me I only had an hour to live, I'd spend it choking a white man. I'd do it nice and slow.
Gotta think about the rest.
Putting some work into this, I came up with this list:
QuoteCharles Babbage
Ben Franklin
Herbert Marshal McLuhan
Kurt Godel
Nikola Tesla
John Von Neumann
Uncle Al Crowley
Teilhard de Chardin
I've noticed a couple disturbing trends in that list, though. I have two famously unsuccessful businessmen, two catholic mystics, and at least one guy who went nuts and killed himself after spending too long contemplating infinity. I'm not convinced that there are enough successful businessmen, pragmatic non-catholics, or non-suicidal non-mathematicians to balance things out.
However, Crowley and Franklin are both so evenly balanced that they make everyone else look like nutters.
Quote from: Alty on April 04, 2012, 06:02:20 AM
I was going to say Miles Davis too. Here's why:
During an interview, after growing aggravated about questions on the subject of race.
QuoteIf somebody told me I only had an hour to live, I'd spend it choking a white man. I'd do it nice and slow.
Gotta think about the rest.
Holy shit, that's the exact quote I was thinking of when I put down Miles Davis.
I tip my internet-hat to you, sir.
Quote from: Bu☆ns on April 04, 2012, 05:51:45 AM
Heh, I did wonder about Gautama...but then I figured I'd just get either 1. The runaround or 2. The Thunderous Silence. That is an interesting combo though....mile davis? lol
Yeah, I like the guy. He was fairly brilliant, assuming he actually existed.
Also, Gautama plus Byron could only equal hilarity.
Charles Darwin (Chair; Secretary of inquiry and Decorum)
Thich Nhat Hahn (Secretary of Human Ethics)
Homer the Blind (Secretary of Epics)
Barbara McClintock (Secretary of Mystic Naturalism)
Carl Sagan (Secretary of High Truths)
Richard Feynman (Secretary of True Explanation)
Aldo Leopold (Secretary of Deep Ecology)
Tom Montag (Secretary of Plain Seeing)
ETA: ++
Steven Covey & David Allen (Joint Secretaries of Productivity and Efficiency)
Eliezer Yudowsky (Secretary of Rationality)
Parmenides
Pythagoras
Socrates
Aristotle
Heidegger
Limited in scope but good for general banter?
Since starting this yesterday, I have been getting a LOT of advice from Homer. Maybe too much. And Nhat Hahn and him have been arguing like something out of Shinji and Warhammer 40K. Somehow I knew that would happen. :lulz:
Machiavelli
Quirrell from HPMoR
Nietzsche
Kierkegaard
IOZ
Voltaire
Hannibal
Mostly, this leads me to doing things which make me giggle inappropriately when I think about them.
Voltaire and Machiavelli...good choices.
I'm thinking Douglas Adams (I figure he'd be really nice company) and yeah maybe Feynmann too.
That said, I recently watched a talk by Adams (something about endangered species, yet very entertaining) and in my head popped up the strange thought that maybe it's a good thing he passed since I read in The Salmon of Doubt he considered Richard Dawkins to be a personal friend (fixing his computer etc). Since Dawkins kind of went off the loopy end, I worried about how Adams would have handled that and whether he'd pick his side out of sheer atheism or said "Hey Rich you're going too far with that bollocks about muslim women". I don't like thinking "maybe it was a good thing" at all, but it just popped into my head and kind of weirded me out, not sure what to make of it.
Okay so far I think I'm going with ...
Thich Nhat Hahn -- Thanks Kai, I think he was sort of "in there" anyway...so he might as well get recognized.
Ben Franklin -- Thanks, Phosphatidylserine, Although I have to read more of his stuff...I mean I've been meaning to read the Poor Richard's Almanac for quite some time now. Like, um, the sixth grade?
Machiavelli -- Thanks, Cain, would balance out TNH quite well I think.
Lao Tse
Mark Twain
I'm considering Zig Ziglar, Dale Carnegie, Tony Robbins...i mean they all sort of echo each other, right?
Hasn't been set in stone yet...i wanna do this technique right
lol@Trip
Also, Cain, Who/What is IOZ?
ITT I learn I need to read more. A lot more.
Starting with The Prince, apparently.
Of the top of my head...
Zarathustra (Good thoughts, good words, good deeds)
Johnny Cash (No explanation needed)
Oscar Wilde (For Irishness and pretty ways to tell you to go fuck yourself)
Jesus of Nazareth (for uncharacteristic fits of rage)
Richard Nixon (for colorful language and environmental concern)
Made up character: Toki Wartooth (because I'm a softy)
+1:
Quasim Cassam (b/c I would totally have him on retainer, anyways)
Fictional:
Nikolai Ztavrogin (why not?)
Quote from: Bu☆ns on April 06, 2012, 03:37:04 AM
Also, Cain, Who/What is IOZ?
http://whoisioz.blogspot.com
:lulz: well i guess that explains it
Kurt Vonnegut's humanist ghost
Scott Morlock
Gilda Radner
Jimmy Cauty
Mark Twain
William H. Taft (my fave president evar)
W. C. Fields
Debbie Gibson holding a wooden bat
George Carlin holding a poop scoop
Roald Dahl <3
Eric Carle <3 <3
Bill Hicks
Richard Pryor
Dante Alighieri
Genghis Khan
Dimebag Darrell
Between them I'm pretty sure I've got everything covered.
Hmm. I will have to consider this.
Quote from: Cain on April 05, 2012, 08:01:07 PM
Machiavelli
Quirrell from HPMoR
Nietzsche
Kierkegaard
IOZ
Voltaire
Hannibal
Mostly, this leads me to doing things which make me giggle inappropriately when I think about them.
IOZ almost made it onto my cabinet. Probably the reason he didn't is because he's so damn inscrutable at times.
I have been considering putting CokeTalk on there as well, but it's interesting enough having Homer on there...he's kinda like cross between a college frat philosophy student and a blind blues pianist.
Quote from: ZL 'Kai' Burington, M.S. on April 06, 2012, 10:24:49 PM
Quote from: Cain on April 05, 2012, 08:01:07 PM
Machiavelli
Quirrell from HPMoR
Nietzsche
Kierkegaard
IOZ
Voltaire
Hannibal
Mostly, this leads me to doing things which make me giggle inappropriately when I think about them.
IOZ almost made it onto my cabinet. Probably the reason he didn't is because he's so damn inscrutable at times.
I have been considering putting CokeTalk on there as well, but it's interesting enough having Homer on there...he's kinda like cross between a college frat philosophy student and a blind blues pianist.
I love Coquette. Love.
Virgil... Because Homer can also be a bore and someone had the gall to mention Dante.
Why not Dante? When considering punishments or rewards you need someone around who can get creative.
^ Fair point.
I mean, he put the pope in Hell.
Quote from: Junkenstein on April 07, 2012, 12:54:43 AM
Why not Dante? When considering punishments or rewards you need someone around who can get creative.
Not to counter your lead, it was just a matter of precedence I was considering for the passage of things down here. Of course, I don't believe the company is really worth complaining about?
I'll admit I'm not going to get any points for creative thinking with Dante, but the company is exceptional. Khan and Dante make a formidable pair of bastards when they're angry at someone.
And it's more like 6 popes IIRC. The "Inferno" is pretty much a poetic list of fuckers who should be tortured indefinitely for these wrongs.
Quote from: Junkenstein on April 07, 2012, 07:30:33 PM
I'll admit I'm not going to get any points for creative thinking with Dante, but the company is exceptional. Khan and Dante make a formidable pair of bastards when they're angry at someone.
And it's more like 6 popes IIRC. The "Inferno" is pretty much a poetic list of fuckers who should be tortured indefinitely for these wrongs.
I never finished it. It was way too hard.
Quote from: Oysters Rockefeller on April 07, 2012, 07:40:16 PM
Quote from: Junkenstein on April 07, 2012, 07:30:33 PM
I'll admit I'm not going to get any points for creative thinking with Dante, but the company is exceptional. Khan and Dante make a formidable pair of bastards when they're angry at someone.
And it's more like 6 popes IIRC. The "Inferno" is pretty much a poetic list of fuckers who should be tortured indefinitely for these wrongs.
I never finished it. It was way too hard.
I may have also focused a little too much on the Inferno.... Oh, well... :lulz:
Quote from: Bu☆ns on April 06, 2012, 03:37:04 AM
Ben Franklin -- Thanks, Phosphatidylserine, Although I have to read more of his stuff...I mean I've been meaning to read the Poor Richard's Almanac for quite some time now. Like, um, the sixth grade?
Be careful what you wish for. The project to edit these and provide footnotes has been going on since the early 50s, and they are projected to finish in about ten years. Franklin also kept all of his shopping lists (which are not being edited, thankfully, though some are referenced in footnotes when applicable) (http://www.franklinpapers.org/franklin/)
OOhhh Thanks, mate!