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For Your Consideration: The Collected Essays of Jonathan Cue
While attending a lecture given by Wil-Sannu of Babylon, Jonathan Cue received an seek out and report on how to correct the problems observed in the great city. He found the problems were many, and since they were caused by a lack of wisdom, no solution would keep them from arising again. When the Achaemenid Empire fell, he watched history repeat itself as the same problems came back to haunt the next generation of kings and commoners both. Could it not be that if people were wiser, so many of these problems could be resolved altogether? It is through this epiphany that Cue decided a lack of wisdom periled all things, and thus this collection of lessons and insights alike was assembled, in the hope that through the cultivation of wisdom, we may not only solve the problems of the past, but might yet avoid the problems of the future...
Penned from lessons learned through experience and observation, Cue shares his personal insights in this profound nonfiction masterpiece, comprehensive in its reach and digestible in its content. With prose that’s equal parts biting, humorous, thoughtful, and contemplatively philosophical, this collection of 22 essays seeks to remedy humanity's greatest curse by making all beings a little wiser and all woes a little lighter.
Penned from lessons learned through experience and observation, Cue shares his personal insights in this profound nonfiction masterpiece, comprehensive in its reach and digestible in its content. With prose that’s equal parts biting, humorous, thoughtful, and contemplatively philosophical, this collection of 22 essays seeks to remedy humanity's greatest curse by making all beings a little wiser and all woes a little lighter.
296 pages, Paperback
Published May 8, 2023
3 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
May 23, 2023
I was lucky enough to receive advanced copies of When I Needed It Most, On The Collapse of Societies, The West and The Rest, On Love and Romance, and Musings in exchange for a review. I have not received the full work or any monetary compensation. This review is entirely my own opinions.
To start off with the conclusion, in this collection of essays Jonathan Cue delivers a taste of his charming personality and unmistakeable writing style, along with what I consider to be some real nuggets of wisdom. I don’t share all of his convictions but I thoroughly enjoyed the essays I was provided, and would be glad to have this collection in my personal shelf.
Based on these works (which I picked myself, e.g. no cherry-picking for me) I would give the whole thing a 5/5. Definitely worth getting, and I am planning on acquiring a printed copy of my own!
Now, if you want my thoughts on the essays in greater detail, read on!
# When I Needed It Most
I’ll be honest, this was the essay I was most excited for. Not due to any morbid curiosity or such, but because I had understood it to be a very personal and soul-bearing piece of writing. I wasn’t mistaken.
Depending on their disposition, the sensitive reader may want to be careful with this one.
It is an essay with some quite grim stops along the way, but also one which takes this grimness and transforms it into a very sober, but in my mind incredibly hopeful conclusion. All in all a top piece of reflection and reasoning from personal experience.
5/5 (I quote this sometimes)
# On The Collapse of Societies
In this essay Cue takes us through a historical journey exploring the often corrupt incentive structures we humans create for ourselves. Though I think the starting assumptions of the argument fails to include the meaningful capacity for altruism that I believe all of us have, it is a nice short read on how we, as societies, don’t quite seem capable of handling existential risks, which I think comes at quite an appropriate time.
4/5
# The West and The Rest
The last few pages of this essay, as well as it’s conclusion, are heart-warming, and really what saves it. The rest… well let’s just say I believed the conclusion would be more or less the opposite of what it was.
As you might expect, this essay contains opinions on culture which is likely to be controversial no matter what you write. A lot of the body focuses, as may be gleaned from the title, on the differences between western and non-western cultures. Cue does make attempts to intonate the differences within western (and other) cultures, but on the whole it gives off a vibe of rose-tinted glasses. While I agree with the argument being made, namely that the focus of many people in developed countries often can be on silly non-problems, I don’t much like the presentation and tone of this essay. But as earlier mentioned, all's well that ends well.
3/5
# On Love and Romance
Here Cue presents a love which is refreshingly sober and sustainable, and asks you to love yourself first and foremost. In cheerful and relaxed language and maintaining good momentum we get a lecture in what a lot of us miss when looking for that special someone, and often also when we have them.
5/5
# Musings
This piece of text is a bit different than the others, as it is a collection of short snippets of text as opposed to longer form arguments and stories. The contents of Musings remind me of the moments where I myself have the visceral feeling of “being near wisdom” and have the urge to get it on paper. 100 thoughts to make you think.
4/5
To start off with the conclusion, in this collection of essays Jonathan Cue delivers a taste of his charming personality and unmistakeable writing style, along with what I consider to be some real nuggets of wisdom. I don’t share all of his convictions but I thoroughly enjoyed the essays I was provided, and would be glad to have this collection in my personal shelf.
Based on these works (which I picked myself, e.g. no cherry-picking for me) I would give the whole thing a 5/5. Definitely worth getting, and I am planning on acquiring a printed copy of my own!
Now, if you want my thoughts on the essays in greater detail, read on!
# When I Needed It Most
I’ll be honest, this was the essay I was most excited for. Not due to any morbid curiosity or such, but because I had understood it to be a very personal and soul-bearing piece of writing. I wasn’t mistaken.
Depending on their disposition, the sensitive reader may want to be careful with this one.
It is an essay with some quite grim stops along the way, but also one which takes this grimness and transforms it into a very sober, but in my mind incredibly hopeful conclusion. All in all a top piece of reflection and reasoning from personal experience.
5/5 (I quote this sometimes)
# On The Collapse of Societies
In this essay Cue takes us through a historical journey exploring the often corrupt incentive structures we humans create for ourselves. Though I think the starting assumptions of the argument fails to include the meaningful capacity for altruism that I believe all of us have, it is a nice short read on how we, as societies, don’t quite seem capable of handling existential risks, which I think comes at quite an appropriate time.
4/5
# The West and The Rest
The last few pages of this essay, as well as it’s conclusion, are heart-warming, and really what saves it. The rest… well let’s just say I believed the conclusion would be more or less the opposite of what it was.
As you might expect, this essay contains opinions on culture which is likely to be controversial no matter what you write. A lot of the body focuses, as may be gleaned from the title, on the differences between western and non-western cultures. Cue does make attempts to intonate the differences within western (and other) cultures, but on the whole it gives off a vibe of rose-tinted glasses. While I agree with the argument being made, namely that the focus of many people in developed countries often can be on silly non-problems, I don’t much like the presentation and tone of this essay. But as earlier mentioned, all's well that ends well.
3/5
# On Love and Romance
Here Cue presents a love which is refreshingly sober and sustainable, and asks you to love yourself first and foremost. In cheerful and relaxed language and maintaining good momentum we get a lecture in what a lot of us miss when looking for that special someone, and often also when we have them.
5/5
# Musings
This piece of text is a bit different than the others, as it is a collection of short snippets of text as opposed to longer form arguments and stories. The contents of Musings remind me of the moments where I myself have the visceral feeling of “being near wisdom” and have the urge to get it on paper. 100 thoughts to make you think.
4/5
May 10, 2023
Understanding essay (review)
I've been given a pre-release version of the "understanding" essay to give a review from my perspective, and these are my thoughts on it.
Within this essay there are several points I agree with, several points I had to re-read, but very few points I disagree with.
Like me, it seems that the person who wrote this essay grasps how difficult "understanding" really is.
Not exactly the "difficulty" of understanding, but all of the nuanced complications that we run into when attempting to understand anyone outside of ourselves in this current day and age.
That being one of the most reasonable points anyone can hope to make on the topic of understanding, that WE all seem to be blocking our understanding with our oun suffering or even our oun "happy ignorance".
The way that they have described the view on our biased nature when approaching understanding, is not limited to the "subjects" of this topic, they also hold themselves accountable for providing a (mostly) simple rationalization of the basic principles of how to understand eachother.
I found this essay confounding in that, I have shared many of these thoughts and views, as much as I have left some of these thoughts/topics to the deeper depths of my brain. This writer, having pulled my unconscious thoughts on understanding closer to my grasp, I have to say that I recommend reading this particular essay if you feel adrift in the rough sea of interpersonal understanding.
I've been given a pre-release version of the "understanding" essay to give a review from my perspective, and these are my thoughts on it.
Within this essay there are several points I agree with, several points I had to re-read, but very few points I disagree with.
Like me, it seems that the person who wrote this essay grasps how difficult "understanding" really is.
Not exactly the "difficulty" of understanding, but all of the nuanced complications that we run into when attempting to understand anyone outside of ourselves in this current day and age.
That being one of the most reasonable points anyone can hope to make on the topic of understanding, that WE all seem to be blocking our understanding with our oun suffering or even our oun "happy ignorance".
The way that they have described the view on our biased nature when approaching understanding, is not limited to the "subjects" of this topic, they also hold themselves accountable for providing a (mostly) simple rationalization of the basic principles of how to understand eachother.
I found this essay confounding in that, I have shared many of these thoughts and views, as much as I have left some of these thoughts/topics to the deeper depths of my brain. This writer, having pulled my unconscious thoughts on understanding closer to my grasp, I have to say that I recommend reading this particular essay if you feel adrift in the rough sea of interpersonal understanding.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews