Introducing "Thinkers", a Knowledge Lust series

Breaking down the reading lives and self-educations of history's greatest minds

If you want to build a sharp, well-stocked, creative mind, first figure out how the best thinkers went about their own intellectual formation.

How did they read? How did they take notes? What study tactics did they use?

Then, bring those habits into your own self-education and reading life.

That’s the core idea driving my new newsletter series “Thinkers”, which I’m excited to share with you today.

Here’s the gist: I read biographies about history’s great thinkers, from writers like Virgnia Woolf and Jack London to political leaders like Abraham Lincoln and Gandhi to scholars and self-taught geniuses.

I study their lives with one question in mind: how did they become so darn smart? So articulate? So well-read, perceptive, or imaginative?

Then, in biographical essays, I tease out the thinker’s most impactful learning principles and reading habits, which autodidacts can then apply to their own intellectual lives and pursuits in self-education, so they can become someone people rely on for nuanced thinking, original ideas, and careful analysis.

So far, I’ve written a handful of these essays:

• How to Be the Most Persuasive Person in the Room (James Madison’s Self-Study Habit)

• How to Master a Craft in 3 Years (Jack London’s Self-Directed Apprenticeship)

• How to Read and Review a Book Like Virginia Woolf

• Self-Education: The Secret Weapon of the Founding Fathers

I’m happy to say the response to these essays has been positive.

And, most importantly, I enjoy doing them!

Researching and writing them takes a while, but the project satisfies several of my interests at once—autodidactism, history, and the lives of great thinkers, leaders, and writers.

Therefore, I want to turn Thinkers into a monthly series. If it does well, I want to turn it into a podcast!

Because I believe we all can learn to be world-class thinkers. We just need some role models to show us the way.

Please, let me know in the comments: Is there a great thinker or self-taught master you’d like me to study and write about? Next up on my list is a janitor-turned-scientist, but I’m open to suggestions from readers for future essays!

Thanks for reading,

Sam