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KEW Curiosity Interview Series 8: Bernhard Kitzler
The Neurodivergent Professor
English - May 14, 2021 09:00 - 2 hours - 83.7 MBMental Health Health & Fitness Society & Culture Philosophy life learning curiosity self-help mental health personal growth stories philosophy Homepage Download Google Podcasts Overcast Castro Pocket Casts RSS feed
It is my pleasure to introduce you to Bernhard Kutzler (www.bernhardkutzler/en/). After a lifelong career in mathematics, Bernhard went off the grid in a very huge way. He spent nearly 3.5 years in total isolation: away from his phone, tv, people, and all interactions. He forced himself to face his mind in an effort to ask the 'big questions' about being human.
Who am I? Why are we here? What is consciousness? Why do I do the things I do?
Everyone reading this has wrestled with one or all of these questions, or similar questions about the meaning of life. Well, Bernhard is just like you. Except he spent THREE AND A HALF YEARS thinking about nothing BUT questions like these.
So, the man has my admiration. That's freaking devotion. That's giving it your all.
And it makes me exceptionally CURIOUS about what he figured out.
Fortunately, he gave me almost two hours of his time to explain all that. As you can imagine, even two hours is not enough time to answer all of life's question, but we hit on many of the biggest elements.
Also fortunately, Bernhard has written three books about his experience that you can find links to on his website.
Curiosity: The Mental Hunger of Humans
Consciousness: Its Nature, Purpose, and How to Use it
Being Free: Get Out of the Box. The Method with 99 Exercises
He also has a blog on his website and a video series on YouTube. The first place to start is with Bernhard's explanation of the Chicken Problem: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3XMZa_8lAVQ&t=334s
Seriously. Click that link.
I hope you take the time to work your way through that video, this interview, and more of Bernhard's work. You might not agree with it all, but then again you didn't spend 3.5 years in isolation thinking about it:)