A fanrastic read. The only part I take issue with is how recently Hoffman says knowledge became effectively free. I think that pre-dates ChatGPT by years, but the access crept upward on a continuum until AI kicked a hole in universities’ business model like a populist Kool-Aid Man.

I’ve been buying lecture series from The Great Courses since they were The Teaching Company. I’ve used youtube for everything from changing a headlight (shut up, it was screwed in weird) to reading Phenomenology of Spirit (still don’t get it, unconvinced anyone does).

Udemy has courses of varying quality for 14 bucks each. Amazon sells public domain ebooks for 99 cents (I got Lovecraft’s entire works for that much). A lot of old books are free PDFs, and used book stores will sell you a hard copy on any topic for what you’d pay for 1-2 Starbucks drinks.

The world is your oyster if you’re willing to get off the gorram’d couch and pry it open.