The Junto

Yale's quiet, gentle scholarly atmosphere stirred up a real passion for reading and learning.

So outside of class, we got in touch with a dozen or so Yale PhDs and talked with them every day over dinner and after dinner, with no limits on field — spanning quantum computing, AI, philosophy, Latin American literature, political science, theology, mysticism, behavioral economics, macroeconomics and more. For several nights in a row, we talked and debated in classrooms, in the hotel, in restaurants… from six until past ten, four hours of nonstop input and output, and yet it still felt like we had only scratched the surface and wanted more. We want to keep this reading group going, and we gave it a wonderful name — the Junto reading group. The word comes from "juntar" in Spanish and Latin, meaning "to join" or "to gather." It's a tribute to Benjamin Franklin. In 1727, he founded a small reading and discussion group in Philadelphia whose official name was the Junto. Through regular meetings, exchanges of ideas and social activities, the group explored all kinds of questions about life, business, politics and morality. Its purpose was to help members cultivate themselves, deepen their friendships, and together come up with ideas for the development of their community. Junto members came from different professional backgrounds — craftsmen, merchants, doctors, lawyers and so on. Its ideas had a wide influence among American intellectual circles, and it is considered one of the prototypes of the "homegrown academic club." On different nights, we discussed the philosophical questions of AI, the impact of the Great Famine on the rejuvenation of companies, subsidy policies for electric vehicles, theology in Southeast Asia, quantum computing and cryptography, Buddhism, tarot, the multiverse and Borges… Looking back now, what fun those evenings were.