Since Mark was very clear in the entry clip that “reading is required”, I think that applies to Mark’s work too! Even though he was referencing other people’s important writings, I think he would agree with me THAT IT PERTAINS TO HIS WORK TOO!!!
This is why I transcribe his audiovisual material on to substack. Another value is this: it makes it easy to find specific quotes later!
When thinking about this post, I remembered that Mark said somewhere that “reading is required”. I initially thought it was probably in the Streetwise presentation.
But it only took about 30 seconds to realize I was wrong. I used the “substack transcript word search” feature to quickly figure out that those words appear NOWHERE in that presentation.
Then next, I seemed to recall that it might be in the natural law seminar. And indeed, I found it pretty much instantly!
Good luck trying to easily find specific quotes any other way. I would NOT re-watch both presentations, about 9 hours each, just to find a quote. With life's distractions & responsibilities, it would probably take a week, assuming I was dedicated & determined enough to find it.
An aside:
Morgue clip on vacuous distractions (…the modern equivalent of book burning & censorship…) and the importance of reading!
End of aside
With my transcription work already done on these two seminars, it only took about 1 minute to find the pertinent quote, where Mark emphasized the importance of reading.
So, no more criticisms please that I’m wasting time/effort, and I don’t want to hear that I’m simply duplicating Mark’s work. I’m adding extra value by:
turning it into searchable reading material
adding clickable Table of Contents
providing links that jump right to specific text spots
creating video timestamp jump points to forward the video to those precise spots
fleshing out Mark’s material by adding extra videos & audios & pdfs of others saying similar and related things
IMHO, thinkers are stinkers, until they become leaders who are readers!
And if you still disagree with my assessment here, I’ll again attempt to put on my best Mark Passio voice and say, “Go fuck yourself!”
Bonus Mark Passio video below:
More from Mark Passio on the importance of reading, proper education, conscious parenting, the trivium method to learn HOW to think, false claims of “authority” over others, so-called education (…brainwashing…), the responsibility of mature adults to un-fuck themselves, etc…
Now, let’s talk about one of my favorite authors, Howdie Mickoski.
I respect Howdie Mickoski’s opinion regarding reading, so I added some of his spoken words to the end of the entry video. I got it from his locals community, of which I am a member.
I recommend seekers of truth to check Howdie out.
To give my readers a little bit better of an idea about the man, below are some posts that I’ve done about Howdie’s work, on my other substack.
The below post is NOT specifically a “Howdie” post, but Howdie Mickoski read this woman’s work and had much to say about her book. So, the post was “inspired” by Howdie, at least.
Nuf intro. Specifically, in the entry video clip, Howdie refers to the below article.
Note 1: original archive at https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/2026/08/reading-crisis-postliterate-age/687618/
Note 2: For more on the article’s destruction of Alexandrian library, click HERE
As a test, I listened to the article first, as it has an embedded audio. My mind wandered at times, more distracted with other thoughts, etc…
Then I read it, without audio.
I definitely had a different focus, and more attention. If I got distracted, I was distracted more with ideas in the writing. I would stop & think & contemplate more about what I had just read.
Definitely a different experience!
So, I think what Howdie says in the entry video is very valid. If my readers disagree, I suggest don’t think about it more. Instead, go read about the concept more!!!
