the pilgrimage...................

 

     These spiritual masters understood that a spirituality that begins in the acceptance that one is not "in control" necessarily involves a flexible attitude, which requires a mistrust of the rigidities of certainty.  If life is "unmanageable"—and, of course, at time it is—there will necessarily be sudden surprises, unexpected twists and turns, unforeseen detours.  In recognizing spirituality's—life's—open-endedness, we learn to be flexible and adaptable, thus protecting ourselves from the tendency to want to fix things "once and for all."  Hold fast to the "now" means "hang on and enjoy the ride," for we never know (and we can't control) where the vicissitudes of the pilgrimage that is spirituality will take us.

     The modern mind—so enthralled by technique, so oriented to efficient production and "bottom-line" results, so obsessed with comfort and predictability—approaches the concept of pilgrimage with wariness and puzzlement.  Why backtrack and sidestep when you can march straight ahead?  The word vicissitudes, with its promise of ups and downs, its suggestion of successes and failures, its reminder that we cannot "march straight ahead," is unsettling and disorienting for those who equate progress with perfection.

-Kurtz and Ketcham, The Spirituality of Imperfection: Storytelling and the Search for Meaning

Sorting out.............................

 

................................new realities.

Tanmay Vora...............................

 

............................goes with the flow.

working overtime..................

  more fun here

Message...................................

“There is a hidden message in every waterfall. It says, if you are flexible, falling will not hurt you!” 

-Mehmet Murat ildan

While flying into Heathrow.....................

A few years back I was attending the World Humanities Conference, which had Members of Parliament, and Ruth Carter Stapleton, and all kinds of impressive people.  I was on the program, and I was to be met by dignitaries.

Except that I didn't get through customs.

I wasn't carrying anything, but I was on a list that said that I was "not conducive to the well-being of the United Kingdom," mainly because of my affiliation with Timothy Leary.  So I was detained, and then I was thrown out of the country.

Now, I had planned to arrive and be welcomed and be taken to a hotel, and instead I found myself sitting in this green room with guys guarding the doors.  I was sitting there with Pakistanis, and South Africans, and all these people who were also not conducive to the well-being of the United Kingdom.  We were a great group and we had a wonderful day.  It took me a few minutes to go from "What?" to "Wow! This is a much more interesting day than I expected to spend."

It's always a question of how long it takes you to let go.

-Ram Dass, Changing Lenses:  Essential Teaching Stories from Ram Dass

The antifragility of capitalism..............

We come here to the great paradox and tentative explanation about why the networked public, so destructive of the status quo, has tolerated and to some extent embraced the standing economic system. . . .  In the current environment, as I understand it, businesses have proved no wiser, more far-seeing, or successful than other institutional actors.  But capitalism, as a whole, has made more productive use of the failure of its parts than most institutions under assault by the public.  To borrow Taleb's terminology, capitalism appears to be "antifragile": it "regenerates itself continuously by using, rather than suffering from, random events, unpredictable shocks, stressors, and volatility."  This has allowed the system to prosper despite the horrors of 2008, while, not unrelatedly, bestowing on the consumer a multitude of new technologies and products.

-Martin Gurri,  Revolt of the Public

The power of myths..................

Yet the truly unique feature of our language is not its ability to transmit information about men and lions.  Rather, it's the ability to transmit information about things that do not exist at all.  As far as we know, only Sapiens can talk about entire kinds of entities that they have never seen, touched, or smelled.
     Legends, myths, gods, and religions appeared for the first time with the Cognitive Revolution.  Many animals and human species could previously say, "Careful!  A lion!"  Thanks to the Cognitive Revolution, Homo Sapiens acquired the ability to say, "The lion is the guardian spirit of our tribe."  This ability to speak about fictions is the most unique feature of Sapiens language. ...
     But fiction has enabled us not merely to imagine things, but to do so collectively.  We can weave common myths such as the biblical creation story, the Dreamtime myths of Aboriginal Australians, and the nationalist myths of modern states.  Such myths give Sapiens the unprecedented ability to cooperate flexibly in large numbers.  Ants and bees can also work together in large numbers, but they do so in a very rigid manner and only with close relatives.  Wolves and chimpanzees cooperate far more flexibly than ants, but they can do so only with small numbers of other individuals that they know intimately.  Sapiens can cooperate in extremely flexible ways with countless numbers of strangers.  That's why Sapiens rule the world whereas ants eat our leftovers and chimps are locked up in zoos and research laboratories.

-Yuval Noah Harari,  Sapiens:  A Brief History of Humankind

Makes sense...................

But you must also have the ability to adapt to changing circumstances to avoid mistakes both big and small. I like the idea of having strong opinions, weakly held. The whole point of a mental model framework is not to be so rigid that you always do things the same way.

Having a diverse skill set can help make sense of a world that doesn’t make sense most of the time.

-Ben Carlson, as culled from here

This hurts, just watching.........................

.................but I watched it anyway.   Sweetie, where's the Advil?

Remember......................................

"It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change."
-Charles Darwin

As advice goes.................................

............................this is pretty good:


My best advice to you is this: learn, grow, be flexible, and be willing to work in ways that you never imagined.  The clock will not be turned back on technology, which is the main factor affecting employment.  You must be your own defender, because the factors affecting employment are bigger than that which governments can control.  Finally, as an aside, don’t trust the politicians (from any party) who say they will improve your economic prospects.  Aside from reducing what the government does, they haven’t succeeded in the past; they will not succeed in the present.


-David Merkel,  as excerpted from here

A necessary precondition.......

I cherish a good wasting of time as a necessary precondition for creativity.  More important, I believe the conflation of play and work, of thinking hard and thinking playfully, is one of the greatest things this new invention has done. ... This new mode of being - surfing the waves, diving down, rushing up, flitting from bit to bit, tweeting and twittering, ceaselessly dipping into newness with ease, daydreaming, questioning each and every fact - is not a bug.  It is a feature.  It is a proper response to the ocean of data, news, and facts flooding us.  We need to be fluid and agile, flowing from idea to idea, because that fluidity reflects the turbulent informational environment surrounding us.  This mode is neither a lazy failure nor an indulgent luxury.  It is a necessity in order to thrive.

-Kevin Kelly,  The Inevitable:  Understanding The 12 Technological Forces That Will Shape Our Future

Uh-oh..................................

"Mortal danger is an effective antidote for fixed ideas."
-Erwin Rommel

... what is going on...........................

I've found the ideology is an investor's biggest enemy, since it brings bias and inflexibility to the table when open-mindedness, flexibility, and creativity are needed to try and figure out what is going on.
-Gary Carmell,  The Philosophical Investor:  Transforming Wisdom into Wealth

The sweetness of flexibility.................

In these later years I’ve become more flexible in spirit rather than bone. I add a bit more or a bit less, or leave it in the oven for a few more minutes than the prescribed time. Maybe I add a touch more sweetness or bite. Or even a fingersnip more of salt. Maybe something doesn’t work. And that’s ok – there’s always the opportunity to make it again. There can be a bit of forgiveness in cooking and baking – even the small failures can be overlooked when you share a meal that was made with your own hand.

And nothing tastes sweeter, lasts longer, or is enjoyed more.

-Jeff Kopito

Welcome to my world.................

"It’s getting harder to succeed simply by following the conventional high-achiever path and doing what you are told, even on Wall Street. The careers of the future will be a much bumpier ride, but they will also be more exciting."
-Walter Russell Mead

full post, titled MBA's Ditching Wall Street, is here

Admiring things I will never be doing................

thanks jonathan