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Adventurism in Rhetoric

I’m venturing in to an experiment in discipline and perhaps torture. I’ve ventured to follow a UC Berkeley Rhetoric 10 class. Specifically, it is a class taught by Daniel Coffeen from Spring 2008. Rhetoric is one of the oldest disciplines of Western Education (see Aristotelean Rhetoric).

Through some quick googling, I found the UC Berkeley webcast of the course, plus the accompanying blog (with syllabus) and the course reader (See links below).

Rhetoric has been something I find readily applicable when trying to shift to the current landscape of media (production and consumption) and as someone in the field of Marketing. When I attended the Strategic Decision Marking & Risk Management courses at Stanford, we did a lot of framing and seeing situation not in trying to find “the truth” or coldly ambivalent, but rather multi-bivalent. Indeed, for me, this very well relates to Rhetoric.

As far as what is Rhetoric, I will take from Coffeen’s description of the course as the definition:

.
I’ve listened to the first two classes and while I’m very much a visual learner, Coffean’s energy and style translates well to a mere, simply podcast. There are 30 podcast (~1hr in length), so it means I should be able to “complete” the class in 2-3 months, reading and essay writing aside.

References:

• UC Berkeley Rhetoric 10 Blog:
  http://arhetorslife.blogspot.com/2008/01/introduction-to-class.html
• Rhetoric 10 Reader via CopyCentral:
  http://www.copycentralreaders.com/shopping/pgm-more_information.php?id=1159&=SID#MOREINFO
• iTunes University Berekely Webcast for Rhetoric 10:
  http://webcast.berkeley.edu/course_details.php?seriesid=1906978535

2009 New Year’s Resolution: Draft 01

It is said that people who write down their New Year’s Resolution do better at achieving them than those that don’t. Let’s hope that typing them in a computer works just as well as writing it on paper.

Enforce Discipline & Process
Discipline is first and foremost. Needless to say, planning is nothing without execution. To help aide this, I need to implement a process of doing a biweekly (once every two weeks) review of my immediate goals and reminding myself of my long term goals.

Writing: Blogging, Self-Reflection, Commentary
Emergence-Media has been a great way to better my writing skills, yet I need to diversify the type of writing I do. Marketing is one thing – commentary, self-reflection, analysis and review are another. Thus, I see a need to diversify the type of writing I do.

Implement Project Streamlining
I had plan as far as five months ago to do at least 6-7 projects in one month.. Of course, I’ve done absolutely nil. I need to forsake my ambition to do them all concurrently and do them one by one.

Create an Information Filter
My Promethean lust for infinite knowledge – such as constant reading of everything from Roubini’s blogs to New York Time’s columns every day – is self-defeating and delusional. I need to go on an information diet and only pursue my “information lust “ hobby on the weekends.

Read a Book a Month
Going along with the “Information Filter”, I need to replace my constant blog reading with actual substantial reading: novels, non-fiction, instructional, classics etc. I’ve got a ten page plus long reading list, which I should focus on rather than constantly refreshing Digg for tid-bits to read.

Less Drinking and More Donations
I’ve always been a sturdy drinker – be it hanging out at the Slav Dom at Stanford, at the Pub at SFSU before class, or livin’ up the “Agency Lifestyle” after work. But honestly, I don’t really need to drink that much or that expensively. So, I’d do four less drinks a month. The cash for those four drinks – say $40 since I mostly do cocktails – will be saved for either an Iraqi charity or for Iraq War veterans.