Flowers for Algernon

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🚀 The Book in 3 Sentences

Сколько раз читано и перечитано “Собачье сердце”, ровно столько же раз игнорированы “Цветы для Алджернона”. Удивительно трогательная история американского Шарика. Его зовут Чарли, и он дурак, умственно отсталый, идиот, даун, чудак, над которым весело издеваться и который ничего не сделает в ответ. Но однажды история Чарли приняла неожиданный поворот.

Есть книги, которые оставляют приятное послевкусие; есть те, после прочтения которых, сколько руки ни мой, все равно чувствуешь себя грязным. А есть такие, как эта: после нее с лица не сходит улыбка, и хочется плакать. В ней нет смерти, разлуки и тоски, нет чрезмерной жесткости и психологического насилия. Только интеллектуальное взросление отдельного взятого человека. Эволюция от нуля до бесконечности и обратно. Печально тут еще и то, что нас всех это ждет. Хотим мы этого или нет, старость, утрата остроты ума и забвение. Кто бы что ни говорил о Навале, может, мы и не мартышки на летящем камушке, но то, что мы будем забыты, – это абсолютно точно. После нас может остаться только наша работа, достижения и память. От кого-то хорошая, от других – плохая.

Чарли одинаково остро переживает время, когда он был дурачком, и то, когда стал гением. Интеллект – это и дар, и проклятие; неподготовленный человек не может вынести это бремя. Оно очень похоже на власть: не всякий, испив из чаши силы, сможет отпустить ее.

Отличная, острая, пронзительная книга.

🎨 Impressions

Cried like a baby at the end. One of the most moving books in the past several years.

How I Discovered It

Read once, during teenage years. Completely different perceptions, just read my notes, from it.

Who Should Read It?

☘️ How the Book Changed Me

How my life / behaviour / thoughts / ideas have changed as a result of reading the book.

✍️ My Top 3 Quotes

There is no greater joy, than the burst of solution to a problem.

📒 Ideas

The best reason to get yourself to University

Now I understand one of the important reasons for going to college and getting an education is to learn that the things you’ve believed in all your life aren’t true, and that nothing is what it appears to be.

Лучшая причина учиться, вести картотеку

• The best reason to go to university, what is it?
  • Obviously, to improve oneself, to become educated.
  • But what is the rationale for all the effort?
  • What benefits will you gain if you choose to go?
  • Actually, it’s not only about university, it’s about school.
  • My children in school often question the necessity of attending, or they do it because mom said so.
    • I used to be like this, and only when I graduated from university did I grasp some understanding of why I’d been attending for the past five years.
• It is to learn that the things you’ve believed all your life are not what they appear to be.
  • Everything is an illusion and a mystery. Solve it! Become a rational being.
    • What is rationality

Connect disconnected ideas

• Interestingly, even here, knowledge management haunts me.
  • Charlie, at one point, when his intelligence improved enough, reflects that things apparently separated are interconnected.
  • We have to look carefully to see the link, but it’s there, like fruit at the top of a tree.

Backlash of being intelligent

• To be intelligent is a curse.
  • The smarter you are, the farther you are from other people. You have to demonstrate self-restraint.
  • Do not fall into the trap of self-centeredness and selfishness.
  • No matter how smart you are, be kind and respectful. This is exactly what Charlie failed to achieve in the beginning.

Hive mind of humanity

• Not long ago, my friend and partner in the book club asked me about the hive mind. What do I think about it and will we be able to achieve it?
  • The answer to this question is simple if you know where to look.
  • We are already a semblance of a hive mind. Maybe it’s not functioning as it has been described in various sci-fi novels.
    • We are not connected to intricate machines, and our consciousness doesn’t roam digital space.
    • We are not a blob of energy floating in a great nothing.
  • But actually, we are. I have a note that could be used in the context of a hive mind.
  • А что после we begin our work on a problem for real only after it has been solved.
  • After Einstein presented the theory of relativity, Planck continued with quantum theory, and before him, Newton worked with thermodynamics, and after him, Feynman with quantum electrodynamics.
  • The work of science is a succession of one theory after another, built on the shoulders of the previous one.
    • Deutsch speculated at length about this in ^4f697c, though I hadn’t connected the dots back then. Now it is more obvious and visible to the naked eye. There is still much to ponder, but it’s a good starting point.
• There is nothing new in science. What counts is what each person contributes to the sum of human knowledge.

Intelligence must be tempered

• Untempered, raw intelligence is a dangerous thing.
  • A highly intellectual person can and will harm himself if the might of the mind hasn’t been harnessed.
  • An educated mind, without compassion, isn’t worth much and should be nurtured with caution.

Looking at the world through a window, or a screen

• It’s a rather profound statement, even though the book was written in 1959, it still strikes a chord.
  • Charlie associated a window with a TV screen.
  • In modern days, we can substitute TV with social networks and programs with accounts that showcase the glamorous lives of their owners.
  • This is not necessarily true, but still, we are attracted to it and look at synthetic life through the screen of a smartphone,
  • Gazing at the beauty of the girls, the whiteness of the sand on a beach.
• Экран VS жизнь we live our lives as if they are drafts of a manuscript that could later be corrected and edited at will and printed for everyone to enjoy.
  • Which is obviously not the case. Цветы для Алджернона