I've joined an informal shotokan dojo started by unsu2. I'm going to make notes here about things I learn from it and document where I need to improve ( Read more... )

"As a human being, you have no choice about the fact that you need a philosophy. Your only choice is whether you define your philosophy by a conscious, rational, disciplined process of thought and scrupulously logical deliberation -- or let your subconscious accumulate a junk heap of unwarranted conclusions, false generalizations, undefined ( Read more... )

I want to condense two good points, made by Ben Casnocha and Seth Roberts (via colinmarshall and patrissimo, respectively) into one: that in order to challenge what's established, you have to remain independent of the establishment -- socially, financially, intellectually. It sounds obvious when you put it that way, but there are so many forces trying to lull you into ( Read more... )

Leo Szilard's Ten Commandments (via tdj):
1. Recognize the relationships between things and the laws which govern men's actions, so that you know what you are doing ( Read more... )

( personal reflections, feel free to skip )

The notion of a separate thinker, of an "I" disctinct from the experience, comes from memory and from the rapidity with which thought changes. It is like whirling a burning stick to give the illusion of a continous circle of fire. If you imagine that memory is a direct knowledge of the past rather than a present experience, you get the illusion of ( Read more... )

"The truth is revealed by removing things that stand in its light, an art not unlike sculpting, in which the artist creates, not by building, but by hacking away."
-- Alan Watts, The Wisdom of Insecurity (p. 76 ( Read more... )

"Cowards die many times before their deaths; the valiant never taste death but once."
-- William Shakespeare, Julius Caesar

This article on self-handicapping (via Brad) puts a spotlight on something that's been on the periphery of my awareness for a long time. I think a surprising amount of weird human behavior becomes explicable once you start ( Read more... )

"We cannot think first and act afterward. From the moment of birth we are immersed in action, and can only fitfully guide it by taking thought."
-- Alfred North Whitehead "Religion and Science" (1925)

Colin complains that most people's resolutions are too airy-fairy and don't come with measurable benchmarks. There's something to this, but his ( Read more... )

My resolution last year was to learn more than I did in the previous year. I'm not sure if I accomplished that, but I am sure that what I learned was of greater value. My resolution this year is to carry that further: I want to learn less, but have the few things I learn be very, very important. (Better attention management is at the top of that