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Who are you? Who am I? | Week 3

January | Wisdom | Week 3 | 1/22/2023
Cinema and Literature: What are the best movies, television and books you've consumed? 

Growing up in a family of cinephiles, it was a regular occurrence on Friday or Saturday night, to get the family together and watch a movie. Hailing from a half-Italian background, my family was big on mob movies. My favorite was Goodfellas, but I've seen them all: Godfather, Raging Bull, Casino, A Bronx Tale. As I grew older, my favorite movies quickly became anything and everything done by Christopher Nolan: Inception, Interstellar, the Dark Knight Trilogy. But one movie that radically changed my thinking and tested my cognitive development was Ex Machina; the story of a programmer who is sent to conduct a Turing Test (or what he believes is a Turing Test) on a supposedly sentient Artificial Intelligence system. Without spoiling the movie, you find yourself captivated, confused, and on edge as you conduct the Turing Test right alongside the protagonist. The real question of the movie is focused on the meaning of love and its place in sentience. Magnificent.  

On the nights we weren't watching movies as a family, we were watching any one of 100 television shows. Wednesdays were Survivor, Thursdays were The Office. Both of which I re-watched numerous times as an adult and were equally and distinctly captivating once again. But when I was 17, we started watching a show that had a profound impact on my life - Fringe. The premise of the show is focused on a scientist who investigates a series of fringe science (i.e.: the multiverse, telepathy, reverse senescence) related crimes being committed in a manner consistent with the work he'd done secretly in the 70's and 80's for the US government. Over the course of 5 seasons, the plot thickens with layer upon layer of connections to past and present being made. The real theme of the show is the importance of family and the lengths we'll go as humans to protect it. This show came into my life at a time when I needed it. It was the year I took upper level biology class, and had just finished chemistry and physics. It was the year I was hospitalized for 21 days. It was the year I discovered mind altering substances. Needless to say, my mind was primed and ready to receive a fascinating, intellectually stimulating, forward thinking, and profound show such as this one. And it changed me forever. 

When I was growing up, it was rare to find a kid who didn't love reading fiction books: Harry Potter, Magic Treehouse, Series of Unfortunate Events. But as I grew older, in High School and College, most of my time spent reading was for school, not pleasure. We had a wonderful curriculum in the AICE program including 1984, Sense and Sensibility, and the Shakespeare canon. But it wasn't until late in college and really after college, that I rediscovered my love for non-fiction. I recalled the countless afternoons I spent alone on the floor of my room as a kid reading books about historical figures, wars, scientific discoveries and astronomy. At 27 years old I've now cultivated a small library in my apartment, but one book I read recently really struck me as profound - The Algebra of Happiness by Scott Galloway. Scott is a professor at NYU Stern Business School and is a political centrist with a hot take on everything. His book Adrift: America in 100 Charts is a wonderful take on the phrase "show rather than tell". But this book The Algebra of Happiness, is a profound, concise, and honest dialogue on the things that matter - love, happiness, family, career, etc. The format with which he presents his thoughts and reflections is brilliant; short heuristics. One such formula "Sweat > more than you watch others sweat", is something I've considered true all my life but never took the time to encode into a catchy formula for widespread distribution. I've read some great books in recent years by authors ranging from Mark Manson to Jordan Peterson to Sam Harris to Peter Thiel, but this book made me excited night after night to continue reading, a feeling I'd only known as a child reading a fiction series. It is the only book I've ever read, that's made me shed tears. If you don't believe me, read the chapter about his Mom (I have an obvious soft spot apparently). 


*Special mentions for movies: The Matrix, Her, Dune
*Special mentions for shows: Halt and Catch Fire, Mad Men, Game of Thrones
*Special mentions for books: Lying, Zero to One, 12 Rules for Life





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