Book Review | Lost in Thought: The Hidden Pleasures of Intellectual Life

Amitesh Jasrotia

Nov 13

Rating: 3.5 out of 4.

Publisher: Princeton University Press (Hardcover)
Year: 2020
Pages: 226
Author: Zena Hitz

Lost in Thought: The Hidden Pleasures of Intellectual Life has been on my reading list for quite some time. A few years back, I read Alan Jacobs' marvelous literary adventure Breaking Bread with the Dead. His references to Zena Hitz and Lost in Thought were so compelling that I immediately added it to my reading list.

The central theme of Hitz's book is the love of learning for the sake of it. She argues that learning has inherent value and is worth pursuing even if it does not result in greater riches and measurable wealth.

A Ph.D. from Princeton University, Zena Hitz teaches liberal arts at St. John's College in Annapolis. As an academician, she found tremendous success in her early days, attracting both status and wealth. However, in her own words, she grew disenchanted with all the glitz after a point.

That awakening took her in a different direction. She joined a religious community in Ontario, Canada where she stayed for three years. In due course, she started to yearn for the challenges of the academic world again. That landed her at St. John's College where her journey into the world of 'learning for its own sake' began.

She declares that intellectual activity is key to happiness. It can happen anywhere, in pursuit of any field. Our education system keeps us enslaved inside certain boxes, but true fulfillment comes from wading into uncharted territories.

This reminded me of Mark Kurlansky's unique studies in books like Cod: A Biography of the Fish That Changed the World and Salt. Or, for that matter, Umberto Eco's ruminations about Ugliness. There is also JA Baker's The Peregrine (Hitz mentions Baker in a later chapter) - an intense, incredible story about a guy's obsession with peregrines. Despite his myopic vision, formal training in ornithology, and lack of resources, Baker studied peregrines for ten long years, often chasing them on foot or on his bicycle.

Hitz gives a peculiar example herself. She writes that even a mafia boss engaged in studying the chemistry of body decomposition would count as an intellectual endeavor, albeit for a nefarious purpose. Her point is that the love of learning can be exercised in any activity, provided you do it with thoughtful reflection.

She suggests we pursue the highest good - something to which we'd stay committed no matter what. The highest good is something you gravitate to, even when you have plenty of money, competition, status, and other worldly distractions.

The book, overall, has 4 chapters and runs to 226 pages including a bibliography. The prologue itself is a solid 25 pages, and the rest of the chapters are pretty lengthy as well. Below, I'll give you a rundown of each chapter and throw in some of my thoughts along the way.

Chapter 1 - A Refuge from the World

Zena Hitz declares that in order to live an intellectual life, you ought to make the attainment of knowledge and wisdom your only end goal.

To make her argument more compelling, she cites the 2009 French movie Le Hérisson (The Hedgehog). Check it out if reading is your passion. In this movie, the character Renée Michel works a thankless job as an apartment complex concierge. But her inner life is not as dull. She has a secret passion for literature which nobody knows about. This love for books is what keeps her going, helping preserve her sanity.

Josiane Balasko as Renée Michel in The Hedgehog

Hitz also recounts examples of Archimedes and Socrates. It is said that Archimedes was so busy solving a mathematical theorem that when a soldier barged into his house and asked him to accompany him, Archimedes refused insisting he had to finish his work on the problem.

The author also emphasizes the importance of solitude for intellectual growth. Like Einstein, who developed groundbreaking theories in the quiet of a patent office basement. Similarly, Malcolm X discovered his passion for learning in the solitude of prison, away from external distractions and societal pressures.

"Intellectual life is a sort of asceticism, a turning away from things within ourselves. It is also a place of salutary distance, a place to set aside our agendas to consider things as they really are."

Zena Hitz

The French mathematician Andre Weil worked on the Riemann hypothesis for curves over finite fields while in jail. His endeavor came to be known as the famous Weil conjectures. These examples prove how solitude can be a fertile ground for profound intellectual discovery and personal transformation.

My major takeaway from this chapter is that we should aim for detachment from money and status, rather than deprivation.

"In a way, it's lucky to have a turbulent life. When everything is too easy, sometimes people lose their love of life, they lose enthusiasm."

Irina Ratushinskaya

Chapter 2 - Learning Lost and Found

In this chapter, Zena Hitz says that a lot of people would give up a genuinely thoughtful and intellectual life if they're tempted by the more immediate comforts like money, a cushy lifestyle, or just looking good in the eyes of others. It's like choosing the easy, flashy stuff over the deeper, more meaningful pursuit of knowledge and understanding.

How many of your friends enrolled in a degree program purely out of passion for the subject? A few, perhaps. But let's be honest - most people pursue education mainly for its material benefits.

A girl studying at her desk is lost in though

We're often more focused on the practical value of a degree for ourselves and our children. This is where we miss the mark, according to Hitz. Working for the sake of money becomes a major antithesis to our love for learning and intellectual development.

"We work for the sake of money, which supports our continued work. We work even harder, for even more money which we have even less time to spend on anything but supporting our work."

Zena Hitz

Chapter 3 - The Uses of Uselessness

Hitz examines the modern world's obsession with the spectacle - you know, seeking empty thrills and making a peacock of themselves on social media while pretending they are experts in a particular field. Social media platforms like Instagram and TikTok bear testimony to this.

Pic of a generation engrossed in their smartphones.

The problem with fixation on spectacle, as per Zena Hitz is that it hinders a deep understanding of relevant issues. She uses the example of poverty to illustrate how the perception of it by the rich and middle class differs from the actual experience of those who are poor. Influencers and other armchair experts exacerbate this surface-level engagement without any lived experience.

She discusses how we are indoctrinated to maintain the status quo, a task often carried out by our education system. This creates an echo chamber effect where our thoughts and beliefs are limited by what everyone else around us thinks. Hitz stresses that we must get out of this comfort zone even if it means grappling with uncomfortable ideas.

"It is evident that our human core - our inner resources for thought, reflection, and contemplation - cannot be nurtured by mass education, whether that be online learning or large lecture halls. It must be nurtured person to person or it will largely disappear."

Zena Hitz

Towards the end, she critiques the academic and education system too. She notes that ideally, these systems should focus on one-on-one teaching, like in research, piano, or martial arts training.

I found myself in disagreement with Hitz here. While I am an advocate of one-to-one teaching myself, however, it may not be possible in many settings. Consider business education, which emphasizes group activities and case studies. Besides the practical challenge of increasing the teacher-to-student ratio, there are specific issues in addressing groups that are unique to a business school environment.

Final Word

Lost in Thought is a detailed meditation on the importance of the intellectual life. It is Zena Hitz's inquiry into what intellectual life is and what role it plays in a happy human life.

Hitz's cogent arguments in favor of learning for its own sake make you contemplate. That said, this is not an easy book to read. Some of the text is really high-level and needs the reader's rapt attention. If you are on board with that, the book is a delightful read.

Throughout the book, she keeps coming back to the idea that chasing wisdom can lead us to pretty unexpected places. She advocates that our passions and the knowledge we gather as we go along should determine our life's path. We should worry the least about whether chasing knowledge will lead to wealth and status.

If I have to distill the essence of Zena Hitz's Lost in Thought, it's this: The love of learning for its own sake is a profound gift that yields rich dividends if pursued with unwavering dedication and focus.