Free Talks & Stuff for Dangerous Minds

You have to keep learning to enrich your life. When all crap hits the fan (and I don’t know whether I have a lot of it or just a tiny fan, but it seems to hit quite often), you only have one thing to rely on, and that’s a dynamic brain that can adjust to the circumstances and amuse itself simultaneously. I’m not advocating putting a bookshelf on your wedding cake, and at the end of a hard day, the best thing is still a friend and a beer, but if your friend has some interesting things to say, some learned advice to give, and a bunch of ideas to boot, you might be in for a quicker recovery.

But learning as a way of enrichment is also a way of life. Rather than just a flippant semi-annual, self-congratulatory, symbolic gesture, it means being actively interested, reading the news all the time, listening to what other people do for a living, picking topical books that aren’t just a repetition of the last paper you wrote in college, talking to people who aren’t exactly like you and asking them where they get their information, etc. Look, I know Pfieffer said this more convincingly during her leather jacketed stint in Dangerous Minds, but seriously, you chose to get on that bus!

Talks and lectures help supplement the effort of being engaged. Since, New York is a brainy place, I was not surprised to find that a quick search of free classes pulled up a tasty trough of interesting lectures and conferences covering issues ranging from Med, Poli Sci, Econ, Law, led by experts from well known agencies. Always be sure to do some research on the speaker and sponsors beforehand to ensure value, after all, even if the event itself is free, time is invariably costly. Here is a sample of a few talks coming up next week provided by Club Free Time, a guide that provides information on a lot of free things to do in New York.

Cities Respond to Climate Change: Locating Leadership in an Uncertain World, 6 '“ 8pm, Monday April 12th, FREE, Must RSVP

A New (dis)Order?: The Promises and Pitfalls of Financial Market Reform, 6:00 – 7:30pm, April 12th, FREE, Must RSVP

Intellectual Property in the Age of Digital Reproduction, April 14th, 6:30pm, FREE, Must RSVP

The Entrepreneurs: Four Short Talks, April 14th, 6:30pm, 6$, Must RSVP

Find what you like, or even what you don’t, and go learn more about it!