My post today concerns the experience of breaking through and “getting” a hard-to-read text. One of my grad school mentors, who happens to be a philosopher, once described the experience like dancing. You step on a thinker’s toes a whole lot before you can dance with them reasonably well, eventually anticipating their moves. There are few things more satisfying than working on a tough text for a long time, until, after a while, you find yourself asking a question like “If A is so, then what about B?” only to discover “B” on the next page. Read more