Book Ponder

• Emerson: The Mind on Fire by Robert D. Richardson Jr.
• Published: January 1, 1995
• Pages: 684
• Rating: 5/5 Stars |Quake Book|
• Read: 8/24/2023 – 7/29/2024

Richardson Jr. brings us the gold standard in Ralph Waldo Emerson biographies.  The book is easy to read and goes in-depth on the more important aspects of Emerson’s life.  Emerson is looked back fondly as one of the greatest intellectuals in history and is remembered for his speeches, essays, and books. Any aspiring writer, thinker, or pursuer of knowledge should study Emerson and apply many of his practices as their own. 

The Lessons Learned series is different than normal book reviews.  There are hundreds of great book reviews for Emerson: The Mind on Fire and I feel like I would be wasting your time creating another one.  Instead, I strive to give you the lessons I was able to extract from the book to improve my life and perhaps yours. 

Prioritize Good Habits

Prioritizing good habits is a good starting point for any life well lived.  A common theme among great people in history is that they prioritize what is important to them, even at a young age.  Emerson was no different in this regard.

“His extracurricular reading was at least three times as extensive as his reading for courses, and he was already in the habit of getting up at 4:30 or 5 in the morning to tend his correspondence and write in his journals.”

(Richardson, 1995)

The earlier the better, but regardless of your age, prioritizing the actions that you know will move you closer to your goals is essential.  This is easier if you have clarity and are very specific on what you want.

The Power of the Commonplace Book

The most common theme from all the histories and biographies I’ve read is the importance of writing things down.  Even though the commonplace book today may look much different than it did in Emerson’s day, it still brings the same value.  Our brain is arguably the most powerful tool in the world, don’t waste its resources on menial tasks like memorization.  That’s what tools are for.  You should always carry something with you to jot down ideas, things to remember, or your thoughts. 

Emerson began to use a commonplace book in 1819 at 16 years old and credits it as one of the staples to his success.   By 1822 he was filling up almost a notebook a month.  This is a great insight on how reading was one of the most common leisure activities of the time and it has slowly dwindled over the years as technology advances.  Now the value of reading is more prevalent than ever since fewer, and fewer people do it.

The key to a functional commonplace book is to not overthink what goes in it.  Emerson used it as a jack of all trades for writing things down.

“Emerson’s organized, persistent, purposeful journal keeping is one of the most striking aspects of his early intellectual life. He wrote constantly, he wrote about everything, he covered hundreds of pages. When he had nothing to say, he wrote about having nothing to say. He read and indexed and reread what he had written. He copied letters into his journals and prose from his journals into his letters.”

(Richardson, 1995)

As the years went along Emerson’s notebook collection continued to grow and it evolved as a great writing tool while also giving peace to a mind that was on fire.  Emerson never let an idea go to waste and was one of the few people that I believe exhausted all his creative resources by the end of his life.  In his own words, he said by the end of his life, his creative moments came at longer intervals and that is also displayed in his journal entries when they went from daily entries to almost an entire year without any entry.   View the commonplace book as the ultimate tool to allow your brain to create ideas, not merely remember them.

For Emerson, the commonplace book was a lifelong companion that stood by his side as he accumulated knowledge throughout his life.  By the end, Emerson’s notebooks surpassed 200 volumes and assisted him in his lectures and writing.  With today’s technology, there is no reason we shouldn’t have our own knowledge database like Emerson.  One of his biggest fears was losing all his hard work and he almost did when his home caught on fire on July 24, 1872.  It shows you how important the notebooks were to Emerson that while the home was still accessible, he began to throw his notebooks out the window so they wouldn’t burn.  With the ability to digitize our notes and back them up, our chances of losing our notebooks are slim to none. 

Originally Emerson had a journal-style notebook in which he would write about his day, and separate notebooks for his reading and lecture writing.  Eventually, he switched to an all-purpose commonplace book that would hold any idea that came to him on any subject.  Later, he would distill these notebooks and organize them, realizing that all his thoughts were ready when it was time to write. 

This shows how ahead of his time Emerson was because that’s one of the foundations of current-day note-taking.  Capture anything that resonates with you now, distill it, and organize it later.  This commonplace book idea is reiterated by his friend Elizabeth Peabody when she was advised by Emerson to start her own commonplace book.

“He advised me,” she recalled, to keep a manuscript book—and to write down every train of thought which arose on any interesting subject with the imagery in which it first came into my mind. This manuscript was to be perfectly informal and allow of skipping from one subject to another with only a black line between. After it was written I could run a heading of subjects over the top—and when I wanted to make up an article—there were all my thoughts ready.”

(Richardson, 1995)

Once Emerson’s notebooks began to be filled with thoughts and ideas from all walks of life, connections began to be formed.  Things he read connected with thoughts he wrote down.  Conversations with friends connected with prompts for lectures.  Getting everything out of your brain onto the page and revisiting it when some time has passed allows us to make connections from a variety of different sources. 

The commonplace book became so powerful for Emerson that he would passionately encourage his friends to start one.  This was part of his great mentorship as Henry David Thoreau would later recall,

“Shortly after graduation late in summer of 1837, about the time he began a short-lived teaching job with the Concord public schools, Thoreau also began a journal, evidently at Emerson’s urging.”

(Richardson, 1995)

This is how we ended up with Walden.  Thoreau wasn’t the only one who benefited from Emerson’s encouragement of the commonplace book.  Elizabeth Peabody, Margaret Fuller, and Edward Channing all spoke of Emerson’s encouragement to start a commonplace book or to continue using one.

If you feel encouraged to start your own commonplace book, don’t overthink it, just start.  It doesn’t have to be pretty or perfect, it only needs to be a tool to put your thoughts and ideas on paper.  Don’t worry about how unorganized or haphazard it is, that’s why we distill it later and extract the most important parts.  This is a practice that Emerson also went on to implement in his own notebooks.

“Finding that this plan did not work, he shifted to another, whereby he used the journals to record his thoughts and impressions as they first struck him, and he assigned the thoughts to categories later on.”

(Richardson, 1995)

Whether it’s the notes app on your phone, a notepad, journal, or notebook, start your commonplace book today to never lose another great idea while freeing up resources for your brain to create ideas.

What Kind of Reader Are You?

One of the foundations of an advanced reader is to shift your levels of reading according to what you are reading.  Let’s get the myth out of your system that you must read everything from cover to cover.  There’s too much bad (and good) writing out there and life is too short to be spent on bad writing.  The first level of reading is one we don’t want to spend too much time in, in this elementary level of reading, we have only learned how to read and don’t extract anything from what we read. Shifting to the second level, we understand and remember what we read, but it’s not something important, and usually read for enjoyment.  This can be any kind of fiction we are reading for entertainment.  Moving on to the third level, a level where we skim through the book and only stop and read sections that are relevant to us.  This is useful for books that contain the information we need in certain sections of the book, and we do not need to read it from cover to cover.  The highest level of reading comes from quake books that can be read cover to cover, always producing valuable wisdom.  These books can be read and re-read always providing us with new insights.  As we master the art of reading, we can shift in and out of these levels of reading, slowing down, and re-reading when needed to gain the most value possible.

Emerson had a similar style, he characterized it as different kinds of readers.

“Coleridge notes that there are four kinds of readers: the hourglass, the sponge, the jelly bag, and the Golconda. In the first everything that runs in runs right out again. The sponge gives out all it took in, only a little dirtier. The jelly bag keeps only the refuse. The Golconda runs everything through a sieve and keeps only the diamonds. Emerson was not a systematic reader, but he had a genius for skimming and a comprehensive system for taking notes. Most of the time he was the pure Golconda, what miners call a high-grader, working his way rapidly through vast mines of material and pocketing the richest bits. He read rapidly, looking for what he could use. Certain books, among them Plutarch and Montaigne, were particularly rich for him and could bear endless rereading.”

(Richardson, 1995)

Which type of reader will you be?

At some point, you must distinguish reading for entertainment and reading for knowledge.  Reading for knowledge can be reading to gain advancement in your career, reading for self-improvement, reading for ideas, and much more.  Emerson was a great writer and lecturer; he attributed a large part of his success to his voracious reading habit throughout his life.  Yet the author clarifies that just reading wasn’t enough and it’s how we read that matters.

“Anyone can amass an impressive amount of reading. But the active filtration and the tight focus of constant intention which convert that reading into real life experience and then into adequate expression, these are the exclusive properties of the great writer.”

(Richardson, 1995)

This is why our reading needs to be focused and with intention.  Emerson advises to gain a better understanding while reading history and biographies.  He says to put yourself in the person’s shoes and feel what they would be feeling if you were living in that moment.  It’s difficult for us to associate with things from the past when we are comparing them to the way life is today. 

“The past cannot be ignored. Emerson read as much history as anyone. But the past can be understood only if we imagine each moment of it as present, with ourselves as the actors in it. Not knowledge of the past but sympathy with it is what matters. “

(Richardson, 1995)

Next time you pick up a history book read it as if you are experiencing it.

Journey Over Destination

The best part about biographies is the journey of how the person got to where they are, usually, it’s filled with trials and tribulations which make them stronger.  Like Arnold Schwarzenegger’s escape from Austria to join a bodybuilding competition as a teenager, Ulysses Grant being dirt poor with no hope in sight, and Abraham Lincoln reading trial records while taking notes on trees because he couldn’t afford law books or notebooks.  The journey is the best part and the most relatable if that’s the part of your journey you are on.  If you’re in the middle of the struggle you don’t want to read about someone’s life once they made it, you want to read about the struggles they faced and how they overcame them.

Emerson had a list of mentors that he looked up to for inspiration.  They could be colleagues or famous authors, but he always focused on how the great figures did their work.  This is what he could apply to his own life.

“Emerson was as much interested in the achievers as the achievements. He was most interested at the moment in how the great figures had done their work. “

(Richardson, 1995)

Make your own list of mentors or heroes and use the experiences from their journeys to inspire and guide you.

Build Your System

As I mentioned earlier with technology there is no excuse to not have a commonplace book that you can back up digitally.  The same goes for building your system for your life.  There are thousands of apps and programs with powerful computing that take care of every aspect of your life from calendars, to-do apps, and note-taking apps there is no excuse to not have a system working for you, freeing you up to do the real work. 

From a young age, Emerson began to keep journals in notebooks, as they grew, he built indexes on indexes to keep track of his notes.  He could have stopped here but as his notebook collection continued to grow, he was always finding ways to improve his system. By 1843 his index grew into a 400-page notebook which allowed him to locate any piece of information he required.  Notetaking apps today save us all that time by allowing us to search for anything we need.  This is why you need to build your own system that allows you to save and create ideas and not allow your hard work to go to waste.  A popular system today is called “The Second Brain” which means having another brain usually on a note-taking program that works side by side with your real brain to manage memorization, organization, and storage, to allow your real brain to work at full capacity.  It’s satisfying to see how ahead of his time Emerson was by implementing similar systems before they were mainstream.  Richardson Jr. describes it best when he speaks of Emerson’s “external memory”.

“His own memory was excellent. He was able when pressed to call up all of Milton’s “Lycidas.” He knew a great deal of Wordsworth by heart; he recited poetry to his children on their walks. Yet he set no great store on memory, and his work habits did not require much use of memory. His vast system of notebooks and indexes functioned as an external equivalent—a replacement really—of memory.”

(Richardson, 1995)

The biggest downfall today with systems is that people spend too much time trying to perfect them rather than using them as a tool to improve their productivity.  Find the tool that has the least amount of friction, and you are most comfortable with and just go. 

Stop Waiting for the Perfect Time, Act Now

Emerson had a good head on his shoulders from an early start.  In college, he was already a voracious reader who would avoid parties and stay away from any activities that didn’t move him closer to his goals.  From the start, he realized that you would never have time to do the things you wanted to accomplish unless you made the time.  If you wait until you’re done with all your responsibilities before you do the “thing”, then you will never get around to it.  There will always be something else that needs to be done. After the truly important responsibilities are done, do the thing and urgency will allow you to finish the rest later.  A common one is people saying they don’t have enough time to read.  That’s because they leave it as something they do if time allows it, instead, schedule and prioritize it into your day. 

If You’re Going to Do Something, Do It All the Way

If you’re going to do something, do it all the way, or don’t do it at all.  Those resources are better spent elsewhere, rather than doing something at half effort.  Emerson wrote, “The one good in life is concentration; the one evil is dissipation.”  The most precious resource that money can’t buy back is time, squandering it is a disrespect to all who have come before us to give us the life we have today.  Pick something…anything…and do it all the way.

Allow Your Intuition to Guide You

That moment when something clicks, when you get excited about a thing, some may call it the “aha” moment, or the “light bulb” moment.  These are the moments when you need to drop everything and allow whatever is causing this feeling to guide you.  It could be reading a topic that is resonating with you, or creating something that gives you an unmatched feeling of excitement.  These are the tiny moments that bring you closer to finding your passion, they can’t be ignored.  Your mind can almost sense that you’re on the verge of something great. It feels like a higher level than the flow state and usually something great or unique comes from it.

When Emerson returned from Europe, he had a similar feeling where all his ideas and insights came together as one to create something great.  Richardson Jr. describes the moment for Emerson.

 “A whole series of ideas, impressions, insights, convictions, and readings all ran together like a series of streams into a river.  The process was a confluence because it was not so much a change of direction as an augmentation.”

(Richardson, 1995)

Many of these moments are lost to us if we are constantly in a state of distraction.  Great ideas came to people when they were going on walks, waiting in line at the grocery store, or just sitting outside enjoying nature.  Sadly, these moments are far and few between.  At the slightest hint of boredom, you go for your smartphone to give you a dopamine hit, instead of sitting in boredom.  The word boredom has a bad reputation, but it’s a skill that allows us to focus on one thing for long periods.  If you can sit with your thoughts with no distractions for long periods, you will find that you can also focus on a task for long periods, they are the same skill.  Practice allowing yourself to be bored every once in a while.

Emerson’s many moments where he felt reinspired to carry on with his work, came from moments where he was alone with his thoughts for long periods.  He tells of the story of his friend Jones Very who gained encouragement from a train ride.

“In August of 1837, Very was riding a B & M train from Boston to Lowell when he was suddenly struck by a sense of terror at how fast he was moving through the countryside. The terror subsided when he realized that he habitually stood “amid movements far more worthy of alarm yet with perfect safety.” Exalted now by the sense of being in God’s care and by a simultaneous “sense of man’s power and gifts,” he felt himself “borne along by a divine engine and undertaking his life-journey.” The trip “passed on for a while as without time.” When he returned from the trip he felt purged, exhilarated, and encouraged in his seeking.”

(Richardson, 1995)

James Very would never have had this moment of enlightenment if he spent the entire train ride doom scrolling on his phone or watching a movie.  I’m not saying to be bored all the time but give yourself a few moments every day and one longer session once a week.  The benefits will pay off when it’s time to focus on something important.

Richardson Jr. would go on to emphasize that Emerson believed moments not events were the turning points in a life.  Your moment will come, just try not to miss it because you’re distracted by something else.

Set Rules for Yourself

Prioritize yourself so that you are the one person you don’t want to disappoint.  We always worry about what others think and go above and beyond to not disappoint them but what about us?  People have their own lives and priorities; they care about what you are doing much less than you think.  Emerson prioritized what he thought of himself when no one else was around as the leading indicator that he was living the life he wanted to live.  This came to light when he realized that the burdens and responsibilities of others were bringing him down. He resolved to live a simpler life where he prioritized himself.  With this, he proposed a rule he would follow for the rest of his life.

“In a burst of enthusiasm he proposed to himself a rule of life, a sort of answer to Bartleby: ‘I will no longer confer, differ, refer, defer, prefer, or suffer. I renounce the whole tribe of fero. I embrace absolute life.’”

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Make yourself the main priority in your life, and then set rules for yourself.

Do Your Own Research

The term “do your own research” has gotten a bad reputation lately because it’s become associated with conspiracy theories, confirmation bias, and the spreading of misinformation. 

There are positive sides to doing your own research though, Emerson tried his hardest to read everything from the direct source, he was tired of reading books about books.  Every step away from the original source opens the door for someone’s opinion to influence the outcome.  Emerson wanted to make his own opinion on the works he read and that’s a practice we can implement today and not just in books.  Not believing rumors or stories and only taking to heart what we hear directly from the source will help us uncover the truth and not be fooled by lies and gossip. 

This practice made Emerson extremely picky about the books he read.  Reading a book is a big commitment of your time and you don’t want to waste it reading garbage.  There are so many great books out there, that it’s a good idea to set rules on what books you will read.  Emerson made three rules for himself when selecting a book.

• Never read a book that is not a year old [because only good books survive].
• Never read any but famed books [same reason].
• Never read any but what you like.

Emerson’s third rule might be the most important one.  Reading is important, but if you read books you don’t like, it’s going to become a chore, and you will find yourself reading less and less.  Follow the advice of the author Naval Ravikant , “Read what you love until you love to read”.

The Power of Walking

As earlier stated, society is slowly losing the ability to be bored.  A great way to force yourself to think and work through your thoughts is to go on walks without any distractions.  This means no music, podcasts, or phone usage.  Going on walks is great for your health and is one of the most powerful tools that many famous thinkers like Thoreau, Charles Dickens, Friedrich Nietzsche, and Albert Einstein credited for coming up with new ideas or solving difficult problems.  

Emerson had his moment of clarity on an October walk near Walden Pond he states, “Amid the many coloured trees I thought what principles I might lay down as the foundation of this course of lectures I shall read to my fellow citizens.”  Richardson Jr. accurately describes this moment for Emerson, “This was what Emerson called elsewhere a ‘casting moment.’ A moment in which he saw with unaccustomed force and clarity the cardinal points of what he recognized as both as his own convictions and ‘perennial philosophy.”

As earlier stated, these moments don’t come around very often, and we can’t miss the opportunity to take advantage of them because we don’t give our brains the ability to allow our thoughts to wander.  If you feel uninspired and without ideas, try implementing undistracted walks into your lifestyle and even if they don’t bring in new ideas, they are a great tool for destressing and improving your health.

Be Generous

Generosity can come in all shapes and forms.  Many individuals blame their inability to be generous because of financial struggles, but generosity isn’t strictly based on money.  We can also be generous with our time.  Helping a friend move, being there for someone who needs a friend.  Next time someone asks for help offer up your time and you will be surprised how useful you can be without spending a penny.  When Emerson and friends started a magazine called “The Dial” he relied heavily on acquaintances he had built throughout the years.  Emerson had a reputation for being generous and always helped write letters of recommendation, setting up authors with publishers, and opening the doors to his home to those in need.  When he was in dire need of contributors for his magazine he relied heavily on these same individuals, and they repaid the favor.  Early issues of The Dial are filled with works from Henry David Thoreau, Margaret Fuller, and many others that Emerson had been generous to throughout the years.

On July 24, 1872, Emerson’s home caught on fire.  His neighbors rallied together to try to save his notebooks, books, and prized possessions.  Late into the night books were being thrown out the second-story window as the firefighters put out the slow-moving fire.  Once it was concluded that the house would have to be rebuilt, the community repaid Emerson’s generosity once again.

“The house would have to be rebuilt. Emerson had inadequate resources; he still debated heavily on lecture fees for living expenses. But thousands of dollars were raised now in Boston, Cambridge, and Concord to help the man and his family who had helped so many others.”

(Richardson, 1995)

Emerson’s lifelong generosity was a part of his character, and he never expected anything in return, that was most likely why it was paid back tenfold in his greatest time of need.

Final Thoughts

Richardson Jr. does an amazing job of giving us an in-depth look at Ralph Waldo Emerson’s life.  It is an inspiring story of a man’s lifelong pursuit to find the connection between humans and nature.  It is inspiring to see his productivity and ambition at a time when the tools we have today were not available.

 I like to ask myself, what would great intellectuals from the past be capable of today with all of the world’s knowledge in the palm of their hands?  Would Lincoln, who had to take notes on trees, spend his days playing games, or reading?  Would Emerson have written more books and lectures with all the books in the world at his fingertips?  Or is too much ease of information a negative thing?  It makes you think that perhaps the work is what makes us better and making things easier would have harmed individuals like Emerson.  That is a battle we fight today whether this advancement in technology has become more of a burden than a tool, and it is our job to be weary of what we consume and do our best to keep moving in the right direction. 

Emerson: The Mind on Fire has become a “Quake” book for me, a book that has shaken me to my core and has made me reconsider how I look at life, knowledge, and writing.  Like all Quake books, I recommended it to everyone, not just someone wanting to become a writer.

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