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Charcon Notes
                      Scott Crosby         © 2018, 2019, 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024

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Charcon 2024 - November 8-10
The Rise of Production and Trade and the Decline of Looting

The Rise of Production and Trade and the Decline of Looting
  presented by Scott Crosby on Sunday, 10 November 2024, Time 4:30-5:15 p.m.

  Available for download as a PDF file:
PowerPoint Slides   —   displayed on-screen during class.

References



Medieval Cities:  Their Origins and the Revival of Trade
and here, Henri Pirenne, 1929



What Went Right?  An Objectivist Theory of History
, Robert Tracinski, 2022

Recommended Reading

Hannibal's Witch
, (and, here) Robin Craig, 2019,2023   (interview with Robin Craig)


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Charcon 2023 - November 11-12
The American Colonists: What Made Them So Unique?

The American Colonists: What Made Them So Unique?
  presented by Scott Crosby, 5:30-6:15 p.m. on Sunday, 12 November 2023.

Available for download as PDF files:
*PowerPoint Slides   —   displayed on-screen during class.
*Complete Notes    —   download for class   Note:  highlighted areas are main areas covered in presentation.

See also my newspaper article in the July issue of the Simpsonville Sentinel, celebrating Independence Day:
This Land is My Land, this Land is Your Land by Scott Crosby, July 2023.
  Copies of the July issue are available for free on the tables near the front door.

Copies of my book, Fom Savagery to Greatness are also available for $15 on the tables near the front door.

For a more in-depth review of what freedom requires, see also my webpage, The Foundations of Freedom.

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Charcon 2022 - November 12-13
Climate, Chaos, and Politics

Climate, Chaos, and Politics
    presented by Scott Crosby, 4:00-4:45 p.m. on Sunday, 13 November 2022.

Available for download as PDF files:   PowerPoint Slides,   Outline,   and   Complete Notes


Additional Details and Information are available at:
Climate Information,   Seven-Day Weather Forecast,   and   External Weather and Climate Sources.

For those interested in understanding the weather from a pilot's perspective, download the PDF file Flying in Weather.
  This was the handout for a presentation given at the Triple Tree Aerodrome's Annual Fly-in on 24 September 2022.

Also available for download is the PDF file Making Sense of the Weather, which is more technical.
  This was the handout for a presentation given at the Triple Tree Aerodrome's Annual Fly-in on 25 September 2021.

These links are to the reading material for Marsha Enright's presentation:
Principles of Discussion for a Great Connections Seminar Conversation,  aka Socratic Seminar.
Causality vs. Duty,  by Ayn Rand, 1974.

This link is to a newspaper article in the Simpsonville Sentinel, about the digitally-restored version of the movie We the Living, based on Duncan Scott's presentation at CharCon 2022:
Banned! Censored! by Scott Crosby, January 2023.

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Charcon 2021 - November 6-7
Three Heroes – Archimedes, Hypatia, and Boethius

Three Heroes – Archimedes, Hypatia, Boethius
    presented by Scott Crosby, 9:00 a.m., 6 November 2021.

Available for download:   PowerPoint Slides   and   Notes

Also available for download:   What Can One Do?,  by Ayn Rand.

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Charcon 2019 - November 16-17
From Savagery to Greatness

Buy the book From Savagery to Greatness - Stairsteps to Humanity - available in softcover or Kindle.

From Savagery to Greatness - Charcon 2019 Class Handout
        Copies will be handed out at the start of class.

From Savagery to Greatness - Charcon 2019 Class Presentation Slides

From Savagery to Greatness - Charcon 2019 Class Outline

The climate has had a huge and even pivotal impact on Humanity's evolution and progress.
For more detailed information, visit our Climate Change webpage.

        Buy the book here                                                                 Buy the Kindle version here        


Also available for download:
        Art and Sense of Life, by Ayn Rand

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Charcon 2018 - May 26-27
Applied Epistemology

Applied Epistemology class handout
        Copies will be handed out at the start of class.

Applied Epistemology class presentation notes

Political Activism Panel presentation notes

For Charcon 2018 attendees - the 2018 Brookgreen Gardens calendar, by Scott Crosby
        Also, feel free to check out the sets of photos from both our 2006 and 2008 visits to Brookgreen Gardens here.

Buy the book here           Get the book on which the Applied Epistemology class is based           Buy the Kindle version here



Additional notes related to Techniques for the Operation of the Mind, and to Applied Epistemology.

15 July 2018

Organizing thoughts
Putting your thoughts in order is a good idea.   Enumerating each one and elaborating on it, and then organizing its relationships to other thoughts broadens your explicit choices for the best way to proceed with additional thoughts and with specific choices of action.

Multi-tasking
While multi-tasking is not always a good idea - particularly in situations where safety is a concern - we do it a lot more than we think.   Driving a car is definitely multi-tasking:   maneuvering the vehicle, navigating, judging the actions of the cars around us, looking for openings in traffic to turn or to pass, using turn signals, or other details of the operation of the car, etc.   Multi-tasking is like any skill - you can work on it and improve your capability to do it.

Inflections when speaking
Inflections and tone of voice are very difficult to translate into writing; hence the difficulties due to misunderstandings when texting, etc.   When writing or texting, one's concentration must include communicating by the phrasing and ordering of the text so as to project the intended meaning that would have been heard in the spoken word.   Failing to do so causes miscommunication, and the blame lies squarely with the writer.

Timid, Timidity, Apologetic, Shyness
These are not good character traits.   Work to overcome them.   After taking speech classes in tenth grade and in my freshman year in college, I realized that this business of speaking in front of an audience was not going away.   As the years went by, the presentations in front of a group of managers, instructing groups of fellow employees, teaching college classes, and entry into politics all became a part of life.   Learn from those speech classes what it takes to do well when speaking, and then jump into it with both feet.   Make it fun.

Backcast and Premortem
Backcasting is to imagine you have met a goal, and then work your way backwards to see how you got there.   Backcasting helps you to add additional necessary steps in the processes which make up your plan.   Premortem is to imagine you have failed to meet your goal, and then imagine all the places where things went wrong and how each should have been done differently.   The premortem forces you to pinpoint areas where you neeed to improve your plans, your process, and your contingency efforts to successfully handle the inevitable stumble.

Phrasing and Inflection
Phrase / inflect a statement or question so as to be in positive, not negative innuendo.   Positive innuendo is constructive; negative innuendo is destructive.

Make sure there is gas in the tank before dissassembling the carburetor
Assure that the simplest, easiest, and cheapest causes are evaluated and resolved before going on to the complicated, difficult, and expensive problem resolutions.

There is an assumed epistemology implicit behind every thought and action
Behind every statement, every bit of science, every technology, and every piece of knowledge (right or wrong) in humanity's total repertoire is an epistemological assumption.   Understanding what that epistemology is will help you understand the particular fact, will help you understand the person who holds that datum as being valid and real, and will increase your ability to communicate and work with them.
There is an implicit epistemology behind everything everyone thinks, says, and does.

A method increases the ability to understand by orders of magnitude beyond vague understandings.
Don't skimp on the development of your methods.   Clarity and precision are tools that increase your available food for thought.

In third-world countries, Quality is not Job One.   That is why they are third-world countries.
"Quality" includes both the political and economic environment, as well as productivity at both the personal and business levels.   All of these issues are intertwined, and interrelated.

Focus
"Put your mind to it."

Paddle the boat in the right direction.
Leadership's goal is to get everyone to agree on the direction their paddling should be taking them.

Consciously decide upon the specific epistemology you will make yours.
With a conscious decision to keep your thinking aligned with a specific epistemology, you can filter out the invalid epistemologies implicit in statements made by others, and preserve just the nuggets of reality which are included in those statements, minus the haze and confusion, anxiety, and doubt - or plain misunderstanding - held by the other person.

"Flavor-of-the-month" vs. Discovering the best and continuous improvment
Flavor-of-the-month approaches don't solve anything.   Identifying best processes and the continuous improvement of those processes, methods, actions, etc., are the means to improve.

To "Work smarter, not harder", you have to "Think smarter, not harder."
To work smarter, you have to figure out a better way to do the work.   Improvement requires innovative thought.   Innovation requires new ideas.   New ideas require you to analyze, and to use the results to improve your methods.
For more depth, read my book, Techniques for the Operation of the Mind.


When it comes to thinking, I wrote the book.
--   Scott Crosby

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