Patrick O'Shaughnessy: preference

Transcript context

…Probably more valuable to your life and career now, right? Again, I never look back on scars with regret because they form things later. I assumed—through stupidity and some arrogance and entitlement—that I would get into the University of Notre Dame where my family has a long, deep history. I didn't, and I also—because I have had that thought—didn't apply to other schools that were safety schools. I applied only to rich schools. I was rejected by each of those schools on the same day. I got six of those college envelopes that no college applicant wants to get all at once. I ended up going to a regional school that had a compatible curriculum with Notre Dame so that it would be easy for me to transfer there. When I went to that smaller school, which was in Minnesota where I'm from originally, I took the opportunity to reverse that course. I studied really hard. I declared as a history major. I was always interested in things. I just hated being told what to read or what to learn. What I found in the first philosophy class I took at that school—the University of St. Thomas in Minnesota—was that philosophy, letting me guide my education in a very distinct and unique way. I just fell instantly in love with it because the professor was basically saying, go read anything you want and make an argument to me. I was like, oh, that's like what I do anyway. That sounds great. When I went to Notre Dame, which at the time had the best—it wasn't by design, it was just luck—philosophy department (arguably in the world) despite being a religious school. It had an unbelievable (I'll call it) secular philosophy department with some incredibly famous philosophers as my professors. That was my education. My education was twice per semester per class—read a ton of stuff on a topic, synthesize it, and write a paper, and that was my schooling. I just loved that way of learning because it was so self-directed. That was the background story in philosophy that reignited or maybe even arguably ignited a love of learning that I still have. I just love the topic. I could talk about it all day. I still read a lot of philosophy. I think it's a great way to build a foundation for how to think. I'm very lucky that the whole story played out the way it did, even though at times, it was pretty rough and stressful as a teenager. Wow. What a great way also to prepare you for the other part of your career now that nobody could have seen coming at that point. I'm going to guess the podcast existed. I remember downloading some to my iPod in college.…

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