Derek Parfit (1942–2017) is the most famous philosopher most people have never heard of. Widely regarded as one of the greatest moral thinkers of the past hundred years, Parfit was anything but a public intellectual. Yet his ideas have shaped the way philosophers think about things that affect us all: equality, altruism, what we owe to future generations, and even what it means to be a person. In Parfit, David Edmonds presents the first biography of an intriguing, obsessive, and eccentric genius
Believing that we should be less concerned with ourselves and more with the common good, Parfit dedicated himself to the pursuit of philosophical progress to an extraordinary degree. He always wore gray trousers and a white shirt so as not to lose precious time picking out clothes, he varied his diet as little as possible, and he had only one serious non-philosophical interest: taking photos of Oxford, Venice, and St. Petersburg. In the latter half of his life, he single-mindedly devoted himself to a desperate attempt to rescue secular morality—morality without God—by arguing that it has an objective, rational basis. For Parfit, the stakes could scarcely have been higher. If he couldn’t demonstrate that there are objective facts about right and wrong, he believed his life was futile, and all our lives were meaningless.
Connecting Parfit’s work and life and offering a clear introduction to his profound and challenging ideas, Parfit is a powerful portrait of an extraordinary thinker who continues to have a remarkable influence on the world of ideas.

Derek

Ryan Holiday is an American author, marketer, media strategist, and entrepreneur. He is the author of several bestselling books, including his most recent, Perennial Seller, as well as popular titles such as The Obstacle Is the Way, Ego Is the Enemy, Conspiracy, and Growth Hacker Marketing. Holiday has written for the New York Times, Forbes, the Wall Street Journal, and other publications. He has also been featured in Time, The New Yorker, and The Washington Post.
Holiday is the founder of Brass Check, a creative consulting agency that specializes in marketing, media strategy, and creative consulting. He has worked with some of the world’s most successful authors, entrepreneurs, and public figures, including Tony Robbins, Tim Ferriss, Robert Greene, and Tucker Max. His clients also include media companies such as VICE, MTV, and Complex. He has also served as a consultant to brands such as American Apparel, Google, and Gillette.
As an author, Holiday has written nine books, three of which have become New York Times bestsellers. His books focus on topics such as personal and professional development, marketing, and media strategy. His most recent book, Perennial Seller, is a guide to creating and sustaining success in business, publishing, and life.
As a media strategist and consultant, Holiday has helped launch and reinvigorate several brands and campaigns. His work spans from creating marketing campaigns for startups and Fortune 500 companies to working as a creative consultant for media companies and major brands.
Holiday's work has been featured in major publications, including the New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Fast Company, and The Washington Post. He has also appeared on television shows such as the Colbert Report, Late Night with Jimmy Fallon, The Today Show, and podcasts such as the Tim Ferriss Show and the Joe Rogan Experience.&nbsp;
In addition to his work as an author, media strategist, and consultant, Holiday is a frequent public speaker. He has been a keynote speaker at events such as SXSW, the World Business Forum, and the Inc. 5000 Conference. He also teaches marketing and media strategy classes at the University of California, Berkeley.
Holiday is passionate about helping others achieve their goals and dreams. He has created several online courses and resources to help entrepreneurs, creatives, and marketers better understand the media landscape, marketing, and creative strategies. He also serves as the Managing Director of the media startup, Contently and is an adviser to several startups and companies. He is also a mentor to many aspiring entrepreneurs and creators.

Ryan

Marcus Valerius Martialis, known in English as Martial, was a Latin poet from present-day Spain, best known for his twelve books of Epigrams, published in Rome between 86 and 103 C.E. Martial is considered the father of the modern epigram; his short, witty poems—1,561 in all—provide a brief, vivid, and often extraordinarily humorous portrait of members of the Roman populace.&nbsp;
Martial wrote a number of epigrams for emperors, generals, and heroes, among others, but what perhaps marks him as the most innovative epigrammatist in ancient history is that he also frequently took ordinary people as his subjects. Martial wrote epigrams on slaves and senators alike, and his work surveys and satirizes every level of the Roman social strata.&nbsp;
Martial's epigrams, with their brevity and wit, have often fared better in translation and over the centuries than the dense epics and lyrics of his fellow ancient Romans. He remains one of the most enduringly popular of all Latin poets, and he is credited, to this day, as one of the most influential satirical poets of all time.

Marcus Valerius

Nassim Nicholas Taleb is a Lebanese-American essayist, scholar, statistician, and former trader and risk analyst whose work focuses on problems of randomness, probability, and uncertainty. He is the author of several books, including "The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable," which was published in 2007 and became a bestseller.
Taleb is a former trader and risk analyst and has worked as a professor of risk engineering at New York University's Tandon School of Engineering. He has a background in mathematics, statistics, and computer science and has published numerous papers in academic journals on topics related to randomness and uncertainty.
Taleb's main area of research is the study of "black swans," which he defines as rare events that have a large impact and are typically not predictable. He argues that traditional risk assessment methods, such as using historical data to predict future events, are inadequate because they fail to consider the possibility of black swan events.
Taleb is also known for his criticism of the concept of "normalcy" in statistics and his skepticism of the use of mathematical models in finance and economics. He has argued that the assumptions made in these models are often unrealistic and can lead to dangerous oversimplifications.
In addition to his work in academia, Taleb is also a public intellectual and has written several books for a general audience. His books have been widely discussed and debated in the media and have been translated into multiple languages.
Taleb is a strong advocate for antifragility, a concept he has developed and popularized in his books. Antifragility is the property of a system or entity that improves when subjected to volatility, shocks, stressors, or disorder and doesn't just remain indifferent to them.
Taleb's writing style is often characterized as provocative and contrarian, and he is known for his strong opinions on a wide range of topics. His work has been influential in the fields of economics, finance, and risk management and has also been discussed in the broader cultural and intellectual conversation.

Nassim Nicholas

Steven Pinker is an internationally renowned experimental psychologist, cognitive scientist, and popular science writer. He is a professor at Harvard University, where he has taught since 2003. He is the author of several books, including The Language Instinct, How the Mind Works, and The Better Angels of Our Nature: Why Violence Has Declined.
Pinker's research focuses on language and cognition, and he is the chair of the Usage Panel of the American Heritage Dictionary. He is also a contributing editor for The New Republic, and he is a frequent commentator on popular science topics in newspapers and magazines.
Pinker was born in Montreal, Canada, in 1954. He received his B.A. from McGill University in 1976 and his Ph.D. in psychology from Harvard University in 1979. He has received numerous awards and honors, including the Pulitzer Prize for General Non-Fiction in 2018 for his book, The Better Angels of Our Nature: Why Violence Has Declined.
Pinker's research has been highly influential in the fields of linguistics, cognitive science, and evolutionary psychology. He has written extensively on the evolution of language, the nature of the mind, and the power of reason. He has also written on the topics of human intelligence, morality, beauty, and violence.
Pinker has argued that evolutionary forces largely shape human intelligence and that the human mind is a complex set of mental modules. He has also argued that reason can be used to solve moral dilemmas and that violence has declined over time due to the spread of reason.
Pinker's work has been widely praised by academics and intellectuals, and he has been described as one of the leading public intellectuals of our time. His books have been translated into dozens of languages, and they have sold millions of copies. He has appeared on numerous television shows and has been the subject of multiple documentaries.
In addition to his academic and popular writing, Pinker is also an active public speaker. He frequently lectures on scientific topics and has appeared as a guest on talk shows and news programs. He has been featured in numerous films, including the documentary film The Edge of Reason, which was nominated for an Academy Award in 2016.
Pinker is a member of the National Academy of Sciences and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He is also a fellow of the Royal Society of Canada and the American Philosophical Society. He has been awarded numerous honorary degrees, including doctorates from the Universities of Toronto, Harvard, and Oxford.

Steven

Stewart Brand is an American writer best known as the editor of the Whole Earth Catalog. He founded several organizations, including The WELL, the Global Business Network, and the Long Now Foundation. He is the author of several books, most recently Whole Earth Discipline: An Ecopragmatist Manifesto.
Brand was born in Rockford, Illinois, and attended Phillips Exeter Academy in New Hampshire. He studied biology at Stanford University, graduating in 1960. As a soldier in the U.S. Army, he was a parachutist and taught infantry skills; he later expressed that his military experience had fostered his competence in organizing. A civilian again in 1962, he studied design at San Francisco Art Institute, photography at San Francisco State College, and participated in a legitimate scientific study of then-legal LSD in Menlo Park, California. In 1966, he married mathematician Lois Jennings, an Ottawa Native American.
Brand has lived in California since the 1960s. He and his second wife live on Mirene, a 64-foot (20 m)-long working tugboat. Built-in 1912, the boat is moored in a former shipyard in Sausalito, California. In addition, he works in Mary Heartline, a grounded fishing boat about 100 yards (90 meters) away. One of his favorite items is a table on which Otis Redding is said to have written "(Sittin' On) The Dock of the Bay." (Brand acquired it from an antique dealer in Sausalito.)
By the mid-1960s, Brand became associated with New York multimedia group USCO and Bay Area author Ken Kesey and his "Merry Pranksters." Brand co-produced the Trips Festival, an early effort involving rock music and light shows, in San Francisco with Kesey and Ramón Sender Barayón. This was one of the first venues at which the Grateful Dead performed in San Francisco. About 10,000 hippies attended, and Haight-Ashbury soon emerged as a community. Tom Wolfe describes Brand in his 1968 book, The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test.
The Whole Earth Catalog implied an ideal of human progress that depended on decentralized, personal, and liberating technological development—so‑called "soft technology." However, in 2005 he criticized aspects of the international environmental ideology he had helped to develop. He wrote an article called "Environmental Heresies" in the May 2005 issue of the MIT Technology Review, in which he describes what he considers necessary changes to environmentalism. He suggested, among other things, that environmentalists embrace nuclear power and genetically modified organisms as technologies with more promise than risk.
Brand later developed these ideas into a book and published the Whole Earth Discipline: An Ecopragmatist Manifesto in 2009. The book examines how urbanization, nuclear power, genetic engineering, geoengineering, and wildlife restoration can be powerful tools in humanity's ongoing fight against global warming. In a 2019 interview, Brand described his perspective as "post-libertarian," indicating that when the Whole Earth Catalog was being written, he did not fully understand the significance of the government's role in developing technology and engineering. In his environmental position, he self-describes as an "Eco-pragmatist."

Stewart

Ernst Angel (11 August 1894, Vienna, Austria – 10 January 1986, Newark, New Jersey) was an Austrian-born poet, theatre and film critic, screenplay author, film director, and publisher who later became a psychologist. He was Jewish. For a period of time, he worked with Rollo May, co-authoring a book. He died in Newark Airport.
Rollo May, Ernest Angel &amp; Henry F. Ellenberger (Hg.): Existence: A new dimension in Psychiatry and Psychology. New York: Basic Book, 1958. New edition 1994 with Jason Aronson Publishers, Lanham, MD (the USA); ISBN 1-56821-271-2.
Ernest Angel, Ph.D., was vice president of the National Psychological Association for Psychoanalysis ( NPAP) for many years. He escaped the Nazi concentration camps, but many of his family members died. He told one of his students in supervision that he witnessed a prisoner in the camp being shot in the head directly in front of him. He confided that he would pretend to be invisible as a defense mechanism against the horrible conditions around him. After the war, he became a book editor in Berlin. After reading the works of Binswanger and Boss dealing with existential issues, he went to his supervisor and said that they should publish a book on existentialism.&nbsp;
His publisher told him to find an authority who had written something on the subject. He went through " Dissertation Abstracts" and noticed that Rollo May wrote a dissertation on anxiety. He contacted him, and he told his student how Rollo May became the " pope of existentialism." Ernest was more comfortable remaining a Freudian. Dr. Angel was always concerned with the world around him and especially the threat of nuclear buildups.&nbsp;
He said that the younger generations introject these threats and lose their sense of having a destiny and live only for the moment. With this in mind, he started the " Union for Concerned Psychologists and Psychoanalysts," which later merged with an international medical union. Always a snappy dresser, he was a man of style. In 1984, he encouraged his student, Philip Ingenito. to write and produce the video " How To Choose a Therapist." The video took a red ribbon at the American Film Awards and was voted "top 25" films by the American Library Association in 1985.

Ernest

Christopher Hitchens (13 April 1949 – 15 December 2011) was a British-American author, journalist, and literary critic. He was a contributing editor to Vanity Fair, a columnist for Slate, and a visiting professor of liberal studies at the New School. His books, essays, and journalistic career spanned more than four decades. He was a vocal critic of what he called "fascist" ideologies, including communism and religious fundamentalism, and was known for his criticism of Mother Teresa and Henry Kissinger. He wrote extensively about politics, literature, and religion and was a frequent guest on various news programs and talk shows.
Hitchens was born in Portsmouth, England, and attended Balliol College, Oxford. He began his career as a journalist in the 1970s, working for various newspapers and magazines in Britain and the United States. He rose to prominence in the 1980s and 1990s with his coverage of the Iran-Contra affair, his criticism of Mother Teresa, and his coverage of the Bill Clinton impeachment.
Hitchens was a controversial figure known for his sharp wit and his willingness to take on controversial subjects. He was a vocal critic of religion, particularly organized religion and the influence of religious institutions on politics. He was also a vocal critic of US foreign policy, particularly the US invasion of Iraq in 2003. His book "God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything" was a best-seller and made him a prominent figure in the "New Atheism" movement.
Hitchens was also a vocal critic of totalitarianism, particularly of the Soviet Union and its satellite states. He wrote extensively about the dangers of totalitarianism, and his book "The Trial of Henry Kissinger" was a critique of the former US Secretary of State's actions during the Nixon Administration.
Hitchens was diagnosed with esophageal cancer in 2010 and died on December 15, 2011, at the age of 62. He was widely mourned by friends, colleagues, and fans, and his death was widely covered in the media.
"God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything" (2007) was a best-seller and made Hitchens a prominent figure in the "New Atheism" movement. In it, he argues that religion is harmful to society and that it is responsible for many of the world's problems. He also critiques specific religions and religious texts, including the Bible and the Quran.
"The Portable Atheist: Essential Readings for the Nonbeliever" (2007) is a collection of essays and writings from various authors, compiled and edited by Hitchens. It includes works from famous skeptics and critics of religion, such as Mark Twain, George Orwell, and Bertrand Russell.
In "The Trial of Henry Kissinger" (2001), Hitchens accuses former US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, of war crimes and crimes against humanity, specifically in relation to his actions during the Nixon Administration. He argues that Kissinger was responsible for many deaths and human rights abuses in Southeast Asia and Latin America.
"Letters to a Young Contrarian" (2001) is a collection of letters written by Hitchens to a fictional young person. He gives advice on how to be a contrarian and think independently. He covers topics such as politics, culture, and the importance of free speech. In "Why Orwell Matters" (2002), Hitchens reflects on the life and work of George Orwell and argues that Orwell's writing is still relevant today. He covers Orwell's views on totalitarianism, censorship, and the dangers of propaganda.
"Hitch-22: A Memoir" (2010) is Hitchens's autobiography, in which he reflects on his life and career. He covers his childhood, his time at Oxford, his career as a journalist, and his experiences as a public intellectual.
These are just a few examples of the many books written by Christopher Hitchens. He also wrote several essays and articles and contributed to many publications during his career. His work continues to be widely read and discussed, and his books are considered to be important contributions to the fields of politics, literature, and religion.

Christopher

Jocko Willink is an American retired Navy Seal officer, author, podcaster, and public speaker. He is best known for his involvement in the Battle of Ramadi, his success in the Navy SEALs, and his leadership philosophy, which is based on discipline, hard work, and respect for others.
Willink was born in Easton, Pennsylvania, on September 8, 1971. He joined the Navy in 1990 and, after graduating from Basic Underwater Demolition/SEAL (BUD/S) training, was assigned to SEAL Team 3. During his service in the Navy, Willink completed multiple deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan and was eventually assigned to Task Unit Bruiser, the most decorated special operations unit of the Iraq War. During the Battle of Ramadi, Willink and his team helped to clear the city of insurgent forces, and their exemplary performance earned them the Navy Cross.
Willink retired from the Navy in 2010 and soon after began to share his leadership philosophy. He has authored several books, including Extreme Ownership, Leadership Strategy and Tactics, and Way of the Warrior Kid, as well as co-hosting the popular podcast Jocko Podcast.
Willink is also a respected public speaker, giving talks all over the world on topics such as leadership, discipline, and team building. He is a sought-after keynote speaker for both corporate and military events.
Willink is an advocate for physical and mental fitness, often speaking about the importance of proper nutrition and exercise. He also encourages people to push themselves and strive to become the best versions of themselves.
Willink is a highly respected figure in the military and business worlds, and his words have been an inspiration to many. His leadership philosophy is one that emphasizes discipline, hard work, and respect for others, and these values are ones that have served him well throughout his career.

Jocko

Ludwig Josef Johann Wittgenstein (Ph.D., Trinity College, Cambridge University, 1929) was an Austrian-British philosopher who worked primarily on logic, the philosophy of mathematics, the philosophy of mind, and the philosophy of language.
Described by Bertrand Russell as "the most perfect example I have ever known of genius as traditionally conceived, passionate, profound, intense, and dominating," he helped inspire two of the twentieth century's principal philosophical movements: the Vienna Circle and Oxford ordinary language philosophy.&nbsp;
According to an end-of-the-century poll, professional philosophers in Canada and the U.S. rank both his Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus and Philosophical Investigations among the top five most important books in twentieth-century philosophy, the latter standing out as "...the one crossover masterpiece in twentieth-century philosophy, appealing across diverse specializations and philosophical orientations".&nbsp;
Wittgenstein's influence has been felt in nearly every field of the humanities and social sciences, yet there are widely diverging interpretations of his thought.

Ludwig

Kevin Kelly is a writer, editor, and speaker who has had a diverse career exploring the intersection of technology, culture, and business.
In the early days of the internet, Kelly co-founded Wired magazine in 1993 and served as its Executive Editor until 1999. He helped to shape the magazine's coverage of technology and digital culture, and his writing and editing helped to establish Wired as a leading voice in the field.
After leaving Wired, Kelly continued to write and speak about technology and its impact on society. He has written several books, including "Out of Control: The New Biology of Machines, Social Systems, &amp; the Economic World" and "What Technology Wants," which explore how technology shapes our world and our future.
In recent years, Kelly has been a sought-after speaker and advisor on technology and its impact on society. He has spoken at conferences and events worldwide and advised companies and organizations on navigating the rapidly changing technological landscape. Kelly is also a co-founder of the All Species Foundation, a non-profit organization dedicated to cataloging and identifying every living species on earth. The Long Now Foundation focuses on long-term thinking and responsibility.
Overall, Kelly's career has been dedicated to understanding how technology shapes our world and helping others understand and navigate those changes.

Kevin

Miyamoto Musashi, also known as Shinmen Takezō, Miyamoto Bennosuke, or, by his Buddhist name, Niten Dōraku, was an expert Japanese swordsman and rōnin. Musashi, as he was often simply known, became renowned through stories of his excellent and unique double-bladed swordsmanship and undefeated record in his 60 duels. He was the founder of the Hyōhō Niten Ichi-ryū or Niten-ryū style of swordsmanship and, in his final years, authored The Book of Five Rings (五輪の書 Go Rin No Sho), a book on strategy, tactics, and philosophy that is still studied today.&nbsp;

Miyamoto

Alison Mary Jaggar (born September 23, 1942) is an American feminist philosopher born in England. She is a College Professor of Distinction in the Philosophy and Women and Gender Studies departments at the University of Colorado, Boulder, and a Distinguished Research Professor at the University of Birmingham in the United Kingdom. She was one of the first people to introduce feminist concerns into philosophy.
Born in Sheffield, England, Jaggar earned a bachelor's degree in philosophy at Bedford College, University of London, in 1964 and a master's degree in philosophy from the University of Edinburgh in 1967. She completed her doctorate in philosophy from the State University of New York (SUNY), Buffalo, in 1970.
During her career, Jaggar has held appointments at SUNY Buffalo, Miami University, the University of Cincinnati, the University of Illinois at Chicago, the University of California, Los Angeles, Rutgers University, Victoria University of Wellington, the University of Oslo, and the University of Birmingham. From 1994–1997, she was director of the Women's Studies department at the University of Colorado at Boulder.&nbsp;
She later served as Graduate Director and Associate Chair of the Philosophy department at the university from 2004–2008. From 2007–2014, she worked as a Research Coordinator at the Centre for the Study of Mind in Nature at the University of Oslo in Norway. A founding member of the Society for Women in Philosophy, she was instrumental in creating the field of feminist studies. She taught what she believes to have been the first feminist philosophy course ever offered.
A co-founder of Hypatia: A Journal of Feminist Philosophy, Jaggar was a member of the editorial board from 1983–2009 and Associate Editor from 2006–2008. She chaired the American Philosophical Association (APA) Committee on the Status of Women from 1986–1991 and served as co-president of the North American Society for Social Philosophy from 1995–1997.
Jaggar has been awarded research fellowships from the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Rockefeller Foundation, the American Association of University Women (AAUW), the University of Edinburgh, the Norwegian Research Council, and the Australian Research Council. She has served on the editorial boards of Against the Current, Hypatia: A Journal of Feminist Philosophy, Radical Philosophy Review, Asian Journal of Women's Studies, Journal of Social Philosophy, Studies in Feminist Philosophy, International Journal of Feminist Bioethics, and Journal of International Critical Thought.
Jaggar was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2017. Jaggar studies gender and globalization using normative, methodological, and epistemological perspectives. She has published several articles identifying "how global institutions and policies interact with local practices to create gendered cycles of vulnerability and exploitation" and its influence on policy. She has helped develop a new poverty measure that evaluates how gender influences and is impacted by poverty.
Her work has been hugely influential, with Rosemarie Tong and Nancy Williams suggesting in the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy that "If ethics is about human beings' liberation, then Alison Jaggar's summary of the fourfold function of feminist ethics cannot be improved upon in any significant way" and Jaggar's texts being considered classics.

Alison

Sam Harris is an American neuroscientist, philosopher, and author. He is the founder and CEO of Project Reason, a non-profit organization that promotes science and secularism. Harris is known for his critiques of religious faith and his promotion of scientific rationality and secular humanism. He has written several books, including "The End of Faith," "Letter to a Christian Nation," "The Moral Landscape," "Free Will," and "Waking Up: A Guide to Spirituality Without Religion." Harris is also a frequent speaker and commentator on neuroscience, philosophy, and religion issues.
Sam Harris hosts a podcast called "Making Sense," produced by his non-profit organization, Project Reason. The podcast features Harris having in-depth conversations with various guests, including scientists, scholars, authors, and other public figures. Topics of discussion on the podcast include science, philosophy, politics, and current events. The podcast is released weekly, and episodes can be found on various platforms such as iTunes, Spotify, and YouTube. The podcast has been running since 2013 and has been well-received by listeners for its in-depth and thought-provoking conversations.
Harris has written extensively on neuroscience and its implications for understanding the nature of consciousness, free will, and morality. In addition, he is known for his work on the neural basis of belief and emotion and his critiques of traditional religious and spiritual beliefs.
Project Reason is a non-profit organization that promotes scientific understanding and critical thinking on issues related to religion, morality, and politics. It provides a forum for open and rational discussion of these topics and works to combat the influence of dogmatism and superstition in public life. Some of the activities of Project Reason include public lectures, debates, discussions with experts in various fields, and the production of multimedia content such as podcasts, videos, and articles. Harris' organization also provides educational resources and materials for educators and students.

Cal Newport is an American computer scientist, author, and assistant professor of computer science at Georgetown University. He is best known for his work in the field of digital minimalism and his bestselling books on the topic, including "Digital Minimalism: Choosing a Focused Life in a Noisy World," and "Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World."
Newport received his Bachelor's degree in Computer Science from Dartmouth College and his Ph.D. in Computer Science from MIT. His research focuses on the theory of distributed algorithms and networks, and he has published numerous papers in top-tier computer science journals.
In addition to his work in computer science, Newport has also gained attention for his writing on the topic of digital minimalism, which he defines as a "philosophy of technology use in which you focus your online time on a small number of carefully selected and optimized activities that strongly support things you value, and then happily miss out on everything else." He argues that by embracing this philosophy, people can lead more fulfilling and meaningful lives, free from digital devices' constant distractions and interruptions.
In "Deep Work," Newport argues that the ability to focus on a task for long periods of time without distraction is becoming increasingly valuable in a world where technology is constantly vying for our attention. He suggests that by developing the ability to focus deeply on a task, we can achieve great success in our careers and personal lives.
Newport's books have been praised for their practical advice and clear writing style and have been widely reviewed and covered in the media. He is also a popular speaker and has given talks on digital minimalism and deep work at various conferences and events.
Overall, Cal Newport is a respected computer scientist, author, and educator, known for his work in the fields of digital minimalism and deep work and his bestselling books on these topics. He is a leading voice in the conversation around the impact of technology on our lives and how to use it in a more meaningful and fulfilling way.

Francis George Steiner was a Franco-American literary critic, essayist, philosopher, novelist, and educator. He wrote extensively about the relationship between language, literature, and society and the impact of the Holocaust. An article in The Guardian described Steiner as a "polyglot and polymath." Among his admirers, Steiner is ranked "among the great minds in today's literary world." English novelist A. S. Byatt described him as a "late, late, late Renaissance man ... a European metaphysician with an instinct for the driving ideas of our time".
Harriet Harvey-Wood, a former literature director of the British Council, described him as a "magnificent lecturer – prophetic and doom-laden [who would] turn up with half a page of scribbled notes and never refer to them." Steiner was a Professor of English and Comparative Literature at the University of Geneva (1974–94), Professor of Comparative Literature and Fellow at the University of Oxford (1994–95), Professor of Poetry at Harvard University (2001–02), and an Extraordinary Fellow of Churchill College, Cambridge.
George Steiner was born in 1929 in Paris to Viennese Jewish parents Else (née Franzos) and Frederick Georg Steiner. He had an elder sister, Ruth Lilian, who was born in Vienna in 1922. Else Steiner was a Viennese grande dame. Frederick Steiner had been a senior lawyer at Austria's central bank, the Oesterreichische Nationalbank; he was an investment banker in Paris.
Five years before Steiner's birth, his father had moved his family from Austria to France to escape the growing threat of anti-Semitism. He believed Jews were "endangered guests wherever they went" and taught his children languages. Steiner grew up with three mother tongues: German, English, and French; his mother was multilingual and would often "begin a sentence in one language and end it in another."
When he was six years old, his father, who believed in the importance of classical education, taught him to read the Iliad in original Greek. His mother, for whom "self-pity was nauseating," helped Steiner overcome a handicap he had been born with, a withered right arm. Instead of allowing him to become left-handed, she insisted he uses his right hand as an able-bodied person would. Steiner's first formal education took place at the Lycée Janson-de-Sailly in Paris.&nbsp;
In 1940, during World War II, Steiner's father was in New York City on an economic mission for the French government when the Germans were preparing to invade France. He got permission from his family to travel to New York. Steiner, his mother, and his sister Lilian left by ship from Genoa. Within a month of their move, the Nazis occupied Paris, and of the many Jewish children in Steiner's class at school, he was one of only two who survived the war.
Again, his father's insight saved his family, making Steiner feel like a survivor and profoundly influenced his later writings. "My whole life has been about death, remembering, and the Holocaust." Steiner became a "grateful wanderer," saying, "Trees have roots, and I have legs; I owe my life to that." He spent the rest of his school years at the Lycée Français de New York in Manhattan and became a United States citizen in 1944.
After high school, Steiner went to the University of Chicago after high school, where he studied literature, mathematics, and physics and obtained a BA in 1948. This was followed by an MA degree from Harvard University in 1950. He then attended Balliol College, Oxford, on a Rhodes Scholarship.
After his doctoral thesis at Oxford, a draft of The Death of Tragedy (later published by Faber and Faber), was rejected, Steiner took time off from his studies to teach English at Williams College and to work as the lead writer for the London-based weekly publication The Economist between 1952 and 1956. During this time, he met Zara Shakow, a New Yorker of Lithuanian descent. She had also studied at Harvard, and they met in London at the suggestion of their former professors.&nbsp;
"The professors had had a bet ... that we would get married if we ever met." They married in 1955 when he received his DPhil from Oxford University. They have a son, David Steiner (who served as New York State's Commissioner of Education from 2009 to 2011), and a daughter, Deborah Steiner (Professor of Classics at Columbia University). He last lived in Cambridge, England. Zara Steiner died on 13 February 2020, ten days after her husband.

George

Bernard

In the mid-twentieth century, the philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein famously asserted that games are indefinable; there are no common threads that link them all. “Nonsense,” said the sensible Bernard Suits: “playing a game is a voluntary attempt to overcome unnecessary obstacles. ”
&nbsp;The short book Suits wrote demonstrates precisely that is as playful as it is insightful, as stimulating as it is delightful. Through the jocular voice of Aesop's Grasshopper, a “shiftless but thoughtful practitioner of applied entomology,” Suits not only argues that games can be meaningfully defined; he also suggests that playing games is a central part of the ideal of human existence, and so games belong at the heart of any vision of Utopia.&nbsp;
This new edition of The Grasshopper includes illustrations from Frank Newfeld created for the book’s original publication, as well as an introduction by Thomas Hurka and a new appendix on the meaning of ‘play. ’&nbsp;

Jane McGonigal is a world-renowned game designer, researcher, public speaker, and author. She is the founder and CEO of SuperBetter, an online game that helps people build resilience and achieve their goals. She is also the author of the best-selling books Reality Is Broken: Why Games Make Us Better and How They Can Change the World, SuperBetter: A Revolutionary Approach to Getting Stronger, Happier, Braver and More Resilient—Powered by the Science of Games, and her most recent book, SuperBetter At Work: The Revolutionary Science Behind How Games Make Us More Productive, Creative, and Resilient.
McGonigal has a long history of creating and researching games. She received her Ph.D. in Performance Studies from the University of California at Berkeley and has since worked at the Institute for the Future, where she was the Games Research and Development Lab director. She has also consulted for companies, organizations, and governments around the world, including the White House, the World Bank, and the United Nations.
McGonigal's work focuses on the positive power that games can have on our lives. She argues that video games can help us to be more productive, creative, and resilient than ever before. She believes that games can help us to tackle real-world challenges, and her research has been cited in several books and articles, including the New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and The Economist.
McGonigal is a passionate advocate for games and their potential to change the world. She is a sought-after speaker and has featured her talks at TED, SXSW, and the Aspen Ideas Festival. She also serves on the advisory boards of several organizations, including the Games for Change Festival, the Serious Games Initiative, and the National Endowment for the Humanities.
In addition to her work in the world of games, McGonigal is also a prolific author. She has written several books, including The Art of Immersion: How the Digital Generation is Remaking Hollywood, Madison Avenue, and the Way We Tell Stories and SuperBetter: A Revolutionary Approach to Getting Stronger, Happier, Braver and More Resilient—Powered by the Science of Games. She has also written several articles and essays for publications such as The New York Times, The Atlantic, and Wired.
McGonigal is a passionate advocate for the power of games and their potential to bring about positive change in the world. Her life's work is dedicated to helping people understand the power of games and use them to improve our lives.

Jane

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In The Grasshopper, Bernard Suits explores the idea of games and their importance in our lives. He suggests that games are a form of voluntary obstacles that we choose to overcome, providing us with a sense of achievement and satisfaction. This book will make you see games in a whole new light.

Understanding the Concept of Games

Suits digs into the philosophy of leisure, arguing that it's not just about doing nothing. Instead, he sees it as a state of being where we engage in activities for the sheer joy of them, not because we have to. This book will make you rethink your free time.

Exploring the Philosophy of Leisure

The Grasshopper presents a utopian world where life is a game. In this world, everyone is a player, and the goal is to play the game well. This unique perspective will make you question what it means to live a good life.

The Utopian World of Games

Suits takes a look at the role of rules in games. He argues that rules aren't just restrictions, but they actually create the game. Without rules, there would be no game. This book will make you appreciate the rules in your own life.

The Role of Rules in Games

The Grasshopper is not just a book about games. It's also a book about wisdom. Through the character of the Grasshopper, Suits shares profound insights about life, happiness, and the human condition. This book will make you see the world in a different way.

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