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Receive weekly emails designed to help you Navigate this Whackadoodle World of ours. Some will make you think. Others will inform. A few might bring a laugh. All will help you understand.
What kind of emails will you receive?
Every Sunday, you will receive an episode in our ongoing story Navigating a Whackadoodle World, in which our student and her tutor attempt to use the fourteen guideposts for navigating life to, well, navigate life; or as my student and tutor explain it:
"What do we tackle next?" I replied, rapping my knuckles on the table. "I should have thought that would be obvious. We must imitate Ben Franklin's 'bold and arduous project of arriving at moral perfection.'"
"Oh, yeah, right, why wouldn't that be obvious?" she smirked.
Ignoring her, I added, "I am of course referring to Ben Franklin’s ‘13 Virtues’ path to personal perfection, which he explains in his 1791 book, The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin, published in 1791."
"Is that the one where he picked thirteen virtues that he wanted to build into his character; so he focused on one virtue each week until he'd gone through all thirteen, then he'd start the cycle again?"
"Yes," I nodded. "Ben suggested 'giving strict' attention to one virtue at a time, leaving all of the others to 'their ordinary chance.'
"And you want us to imitate Ben Franklin, but instead of thirteen virtues to build your character, you want us to use the fourteen guideposts to sharpen our minds and stay on course."
"Ben called his practice a bold and arduous project of arriving at moral perfection. I suppose you could call mine a bold and arduous project for navigating life."
In addition to the Sunday episodes, I reserve the right to send other articles during the week. I am a tutor after all. I specialize in civics, history, logic, editing, creative writing, theatre, film, improvisation, and test prep. Sometimes, I will be trying to inform. Sometimes, I will just be trying to make you laugh.
I have posted a few examples of our articles below to give you an idea of what to expect. I change these articles from time to time, so be sure to come back. In the meantime, welcome to my Whackadoodle World.
What Does Whackadoodle Mean?
A Whackadoodle discussion in which my student and I examine both the connotative and the denotative meanings of the word Whackadoodle, in order to answer the question, "What does Whackadoodle mean?" Something kind of important if you run a website and newsletter called Navigating a Whackadoodle World.
Navigating a Whackadoodle World: Episode Five
The Power of Strategy: A Whackadoodle lesson about the difference between tactics and strategy, along with some good advice regarding building a strategy, in which my student and I both realize that our homework is to, "Make sure that we are using an accurate map, and not being misguided by our own beliefs?"
Navigating A Whackadoodle World: Episode 16, or How to Wake Someone Out of Their Assumptions
A Whackadoodle lesson in which my student and I tackle her assignment on the Socratic Method, only to discover how appropriate our discussion is for Guidepost Two: The Power of Definition and Belief. In it, we discuss how to use 'elenchus' to 'wake men out of their dogmatic slumbers into genuine intellectual curiosity.'
Why do we instantly bond with some people; while at the same time, some people seem born to irritate us?
In my opinion, this is the only personality test on the Internet worth taking. (Of course I might be bias because I wrote it.) The test not only allows you to determine your personality type in two questions; it also explains how personality tests work. I have been told it is eerily accurate. Be sure to use it to not only discover your own personality type, but to check out the others. It will help you better understand how to approach the various personalities in daily life.
A 'not so new' Whackadoodle Riddle
Our hero is facing two guarded doors. One door leads to his heart’s desire. One door leads to his death. One of the guards will always answer the truth. One of the guards will always answers in a lie. Our hero is allowed one question. What single question will help him to his heart’s desire?
Whackadoodle Civics: Is it a problem of the chicken or the egg?
A Whackadoodle civics discussion in which my student suggests that we are struggling through a chicken or the egg dilemma when it comes to politics, and even discover three possible answers to the question, "Which came first? The chicken or the egg?"
Navigating a Whackadoodle World: Table of Contents
This post lists all of our Navigating a Whackadoodle World episodes in order. It's included here because it's always hard to enter a story mid-story, so if you would like to follow the episodes in order, this is the post for you. New episodes are added every Sunday as my student and I use our fourteen guideposts to navigate the week ahead.