The School of Life

LITERATURE - Samuel Beckett

The School of Life

Show Notes

Samuel Beckett is perhaps the greatest playwright of the 20th century, and the author of the masterpiece, Waiting for Godot. It’s hard to understand the modern world without his perspective. Uploaded 12-05-17Enjoying our Youtube videos? Get full access to all our audio content, videos, and thousands of thought-provoking articles, conversation cards and more with The School of Life Subscription: https://t.ly/Ym-gnBe more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/RPnWHFURTHER READINGYou can read more on this and other subjects here: https://goo.gl/IUf5UEMORE SCHOOL OF LIFEWatch more films on LITERATURE in our playlist: http://bit.ly/TSOLliteratureSOCIAL MEDIAFeel free to follow us at the links below:Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/theschooloflifelondon/ X: https://twitter.com/TheSchoolOfLife Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theschooloflifelondon/ CREDITSWritten by:Professor Ronan McDonaldhttps://hal.arts.unsw.edu.au/about-us/people/ronan-mcdonald/Produced by:Mike Boothhttps://www.youtube.com/user/somegreybloke #TheSchoolOfLife Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Oct 25, 2026

They are hugely useful of course but in many ways, we buy the advantages our phones give us at a subtly high price we don’t entirely recognise. Some reflections on how to live well around phones. Uploaded 12-09-17Enjoying our Youtube videos? Get full access to all our audio content, videos, and thousands of thought-provoking articles, conversation cards and more with The School of Life Subscription: https://t.ly/PKZuqBe more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/ZyQJmFURTHER READING“The dark truth is that it’s become very hard to find anyone (and certainly anything) more interesting than one’s smartphone. This perplexing and troubling realisation has for most of us had huge consequences for our love stories, family lives, work, leisure time and health. There is almost no relationship in which the presence of the phone has not had a profound impact. The genuine beauty and interest of our phones wouldn’t be a matter of such concern if we didn’t suspect, somewhere in our minds, that this machine has both opened some doors and is in danger of grievously closing others. This essay knows we love our phones and would never want us to give them up, but it is also gently aware that these delightful gadgets bear a hidden cost. This is a text that aims to bring a little sanity to our closest, most intense and possibly most danger-laden technological relationship…”You can read more on this and other subjects here: https://goo.gl/PukLgZMORE SCHOOL OF LIFEWatch more films on SELF in our playlist: http://bit.ly/TSOLselfSOCIAL MEDIAFeel free to follow us at the links below:Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/theschooloflifelondon/ X: https://twitter.com/TheSchoolOfLife Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theschooloflifelondon/ CREDITSProduced in collaboration with: Tom Kemphttps://vimeo.com/user26596912 #TheSchoolOfLife Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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We’re used to thinking of envy in very negative terms. But it’s an emotion we should learn to accept and – in a calculated way – learn from.

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We're often encouraged to be dismissive of the idea of self-help books, but reading in order to grow emotionally is one of the most serious and important of all literary tasks. Uploaded 04-01-18Enjoying our Youtube videos? Get full access to all our audio content, videos, and thousands of thought-provoking articles, conversation cards and more with The School of Life Subscription: https://t.ly/9tnij Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/KS8EiFURTHER READING“There is no more ridiculed genre than the self-help book. Intellectually-minded people universally scorn the idea of them. Self-help books don’t appear on reading lists at any prestigious university, they’re not reviewed by highbrow journals and it’s inconceivable that a major literary prize could ever be awarded to one of their authors. This concerted attack on the entire genre of self help is a symptom of a Romantic prejudice against the idea of Emotional Education. Offering explicit Emotional Education is regarded as beneath the dignity of any serious writer. We should – if we are at all intelligent – know how to live already…”You can read more on this and other subjects here: https://goo.gl/5NhGkWMORE SCHOOL OF LIFEWatch more films on SELF in our playlist: http://bit.ly/TSOLselfSOCIAL MEDIAFeel free to follow us at the links below:Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/theschooloflifelondon/ X: https://twitter.com/TheSchoolOfLife Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theschooloflifelondon/ CREDITSProduced in collaboration with: Nina Cosfordhttp://www.ninacosford.com/Animation by Ali Graham http://www.grarg.com #TheSchoolOfLife Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Enjoying our Youtube videos? Get full access to all our audio content, videos, and thousands of thought-provoking articles, conversation cards and more with The School of Life Subscription: https://www.theschooloflife.com/the-school-of-life-youtube/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=description&utm_campaign=Why%20it%20can%20take%20us%20so%20long%20to%20understand%20how%20unwell%20we%20are

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